TMS Muse of the Week: Grace Slick
(Ray Stevenson)
A lot of people have a top favorite female musician they idolize. Joni Mitchell and Stevie Nicks seem to be the most popular of the classic rock godmothers. But for me, it’s always been Grace Slick. Unforgettable frontwoman of psychedelic rock’s Jefferson Airplane and the reformed pop-rock Jefferson Starship, as well as plenty of collaborations and solo work over the years; Grace was an icon to many young women in music, including Stevie. Before Debbie Harry, before Joan Jett and before Courtney Love, Grace and peer, Janis Joplin, were showing the world ladies can rock as much as men. Grace is the most famous member of Airplane and Starship, and it’s not just because she’s the only woman in the bands. She’s also responsible for their most famous songs: ‘White Rabbit’ and ‘Somebody to Love’ off JA’s classic 1967 album ‘Surrealistic Pillow.’
‘White Rabbit’ was written by Grace herself, but ‘Somebody to Love’ was penned by her former brother-in-law and past bandmate Darby Slick. One of many cool things about Grace is that even if she had never been with musician-turned-cinematographer Jerry Slick from 1961-1966, she still would have had an awesome sounding name in her birthname [Grace Wing]. And like original Airplane frontwoman, Signe Anderson, Grace’s powering vocals and dark presence elevated the group’s place in the music scene. She was a big part of Airplane crossing over from folk rock to psychedelia too, as most obvious referring to Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland in the lyrics to the hippie anthem of ‘White Rabbit.’ Before joining her ex-husband’s brief lived band, The Great Society, Grace was—unsurprisingly—a catalog model for I. Magnin. Her beauty and style on top of her natural hipness [i.e. her enthusiastic support for peace, free love and recreational drugs], and genuine skill as a music artist made her an instant star. And if you’ve ever read or watched an interview with Grace from the 1960s-70s to now, you’ll see she has a great sense of humor.
Probably a surprise to no one who personally knew her or longtime fans, Grace completely left the music industry in 1989 at the age of 50; after famously saying old people “look stupid” performing rock & roll on stage. Keeping to her word, she hasn’t played publicly since the announcement over three decades ago. Even with the blunt honesty though, it’s easy to see how disillusioned Grace was with her band and career at the time. By the mid-1980s, Jefferson Starship had been shortened to just Starship, and Grace was the only Airplane member left in the group. The rock legend has never thought much of latter-day Starship’s melodic input despite multiple hits singles, including ‘Sara’ and ‘We Built This City’ from the 1985 LP ‘Knee Deep in Hoopla’ and ‘Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now’ from 1987’s ‘No Protection.’ While I agree with her the lyrics to ‘We Built This City’ are pretty laughable, I have to argue about ‘Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us,’ which is a bona fide epic pop track in all its ‘80s glory. You can’t really go wrong with names like Diane Warren and Albert Hammond on the writing credits either.
(Rowland Scherman)
But the point is that when you think of Grace Slick or Jefferson Airplane, you don’t think of polished pop productions, or even catchy rock tunes like Jefferson Starship’s. You think of her rebellious image, such as getting kicked out of the White House for attempting to spike Pres. Nixon’s tea with acid in 1969. Or causing some controversy for putting too much brown foundation all over her face, neck and chest right before performing with JA on CBS’ “Smothers Brothers’ Comedy Hour” in 1968. And that time she jokingly told a hospital nurse in early 1971 she was naming her newly born daughter “God, but with a lowercase ‘g’,” and then the nurse reported the comment to the press as if it was fact. [Said daughter is actually named China and her father is Grace’s Airplane and Starship bandmate Paul Kantner.] Out of all the drugs Grace experimented with, it was alcohol that ended up her weakness until successfully becoming sober in the 1990s. Yet even with all this risqué publicity to fit her rockstar persona, Grace was an artist first and foremost.
When I’m reminded of Grace, I think of how effortlessly she could sound on any type of song. One of my favorite Jefferson Airplane songs is ‘Rejoyce’ from their 1967 album ‘After Bathing at Baxter’s,’ which was Grace yet again paying homage to classic literature [this time with author James Joyce]. Lovely vocal performance, witty, clever lyrics, some nice piano noodling—Grace’s usual instrument—and a soothing atmosphere. There’s something similar on the track ‘China’ on Paul & Grace’s 1971 LP ‘Sunfighter.’ Yet you can also hear her rock out with the guys on tracks like ‘Watch Her Ride’ on ‘Baxter’s,’ ‘Hey Frederick’ on JA’s 1969 LP ‘Volunteers’ and ‘Ride the Tiger’ on JS’ 1974 album ‘Dragonfly.’
These days Grace is a painter and still happy to chat about her classic rock days and 1960s culture. She and China are on good terms after years of turbulence because of political differences. Interestingly, Grace now considers herself ‘borderline Socialist’ after spending her prime identifying as Libertarian, even though her social opinions haven’t really changed since her youth. Goes to show how much the political parties have evolved in the past century. You may be amazed by Grace, shocked by her, or uninterested in her; but you won’t forget her.
