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Leamington Letters #108: The other side of this life

30/1/2016

10 Comments

 
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Even before the Dead, there was the Airplane. For three or four years, it was not Bob, nor Jerry, who captured the zeitgeist; it was Kantner (always Kantner, never Paul).
 
In ’67, Surrealistic Pillow was the soundtrack to the summer of love; After Bathing at Baxter’s  and Crown of Creation in ’68 captured psychedelia as effectively and weirdly as Aoxamoxoa. By ’69, things had turned ugly, and Volunteers was the album for that moment: a strident, overtly political album which even Jerry’s beautiful pedal steel guitar could not mellow. A response to Ohio and Chicago and a contribution to the increasingly bitter and angry anti-war campaign, it was right out there, right from the start.
 
“We are all outlaws in the eyes of America,” it boasts. “We are obscene, lawless, hideous, dangerous, dirty, violent, and young, but we should be together.”
 
Right on.
 
And then it changed again. In 1970, Kantner created Blows Against the Empire: “You got to let go, you know”. Nominated for the Hugo Science Fiction (literary!) award, this is the album I’ve been playing most since I woke yesterday to the news that Kantner’s heart attack had proved fatal. The starship is full of stars – Jerry, Crosby, Graham Nash, Micky Hart, Bill Kreutzmann and Grace is superb. But this is Kantner at his most brilliant.
 
To be honest, the last time I saw Kantner, here in Leamington Spa five years or so ago, he didn’t look well, but he turned in a characteristically passionate and powerful performance, delivering a magnificent rendition of Bob’s Chimes of Freedom, which he introduced as his favourite song ever, as well as a poignant China and also a Diana > Volunteers: “Sing a song for the children who are gone”.
 
Several have gone recently: Bowie of course, which leaves me saddened but not bereft - I never embraced his various personae in the way that so many did; Glenn Frey also, which touches me as a human being but, as a music lover, leaves me unmoved.
 
But Kantner was seminal.  At an important time of my life, he was responsible for creating the music which perfectly articulated my sense of what was happening. He didn’t push or stretch me like the Dead; he didn’t confuse or contradict like Bob. He just said it – powerfully, passionately, profoundly.
 
As Jorma wrote on the morning he died: “Paul was the catalyst that made the alchemy happen. He held our feet to the flame. He could be argumentative and contentious … he could be loving and kind… his dedication to the Airplane’s destiny as he saw it was undeniable.”
 
As is his greatness. RIP Paul Kantner.

10 Comments
Steve
30/1/2016 11:32:27

Amen to that. Fitting tribute.

Reply
Jason
30/1/2016 12:31:13

One of the greats. Norma's tribute is wonderful. As is Balin's, given their history. Also this piece, which sums up almost exactly how I feel too. Thanks.

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Allan
30/1/2016 14:45:41

The politics were simplistic slogans. But they were right on and the music was sensational. One of the great bands for a great era. Good post - thanks.

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Ellie
30/1/2016 15:49:11

Spot on. And, listening again to all those albums, it's amazing how well they stand up. Still fresh, still grounded. And the songs bear repetition in a non-Greatest Hits fashion. The Starship tours showed how relevant they are, how important to Kantner and to us.

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Matt
30/1/2016 16:06:37

I think this is absolutely right. The Airplane/Starship collective was a band of its times. All its times. It reflected what was going on in a literal way, rather than driving us forward or responding with metaphor or pretension. Kantner was by turns dreamy, stoned, angry. And we loved him for it. Thanks for the tribute.

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DaveW
30/1/2016 17:45:13

I felt the same! Or I realise now that I did. Such a great band. Great memories.

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Chris
31/1/2016 09:01:31

Best piece I've read on Kantner and his importance in the movement at the time. Thanks Max.

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Baron von Tollbooth
1/2/2016 08:57:38

Many years ago, in the days of Spiral Light, I put in a request for a copy of Baron von Tollbooth & The Chrome Nun which didn't have clicks at the beginning of Your Mind Has left Your Body. A guy called Max Smith sent me a perfect cassette tape, revealing a man who 1. had excellent taste and 2. looked after his vinyl! I guess it was you. Thanks for that. And thanks for this.

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Geoff
1/2/2016 09:54:59

"which perfectly articulated my sense of what was happening". Read this three times now. It perfectly articulates my sense of our loss.

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Dom
1/2/2016 14:50:14

One thing you don't mention, although it is implicit, is Kantner's resistance to commercialism. He fell out with Grace over shit like built this city, and he kept on playing and touring to small crowds of ageing groomers like me and you. The music mattered to hi. The legacy mattered to him. We mattered to him.

He mattered to us as you express well.

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    Max Smith

    European writer, radical, restaurateur and Red Sox fan. 70-something husband, father, step-father, grandfather and son. Resident in Warwick, England.

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