March 8th – There’s a phrase that’s crept into the language
of late and it perfectly covers one’s meaning. No, it’s not, “What a cock”, it’s
that one; “it/they are a ‘Marmite’ thing”, that’s the one I mean.
Now I happen to like Marmite. I can think of few things better than getting back after a long
walk in the winter…the sort of walk when you get home and it takes twenty
minutes hugging of the Aga before you turn white…and then sitting down to a mug
of hot, strong, leaf tea and two slices (from an uncut, wholewheat loaf) of
toast with a thick layer of English butter (spread on while the toast is still
hot so it melts) and a thin layer of Marmite; it’s even one of the illicit
pleasures I get up to when I get home at 3 or 4 in the morning after a long
get-out from the theatre. Just something about it… Winnie the Pooh got it right
when he said that one of the reasons he liked visiting Wol was because he used
phrases like, “hot buttered toast” in his conversation and, well, Winnie the
Pooh, the oracle of comfort food for me.
Well, the ‘Marmite’ argument is the
one that seems to come to mind most often when the words, ‘Jefferson Airplane’
enter any discussion on pop/rock music. Members of this band have come up
before the jury that is these burblings of mine before (25th Jan) but let’s put
that parental blip of theirs to one side and look a little deeper.
Here’s a band that was at the
forefront of the hippie generations’ grasp on the crank-handle of social
change. Can you name any two of the four iconic rock festivals of the 60’s…?...
Jefferson Airplane appeared at all four of them…all four FFS. Their album,
‘Surrealistic Pillow’ was considered the epitome of the love-in demographic and
two, TWO of that album’s tracks have made it onto the Rolling Stone list of the
500 ‘Greatest Singles of all Time’…they had Grace Slick of The Great Society,
no less, as their vocalist. I mean…Grace Slick, a woman that brings a whole new
meaning to the word, ‘woman’. If you’re a chap and you've not heard her sing,
‘White Rabbit’ yet, you need to get on it; you’ll never be the same again. All
that going for them, a band that can’t go wrong, you’d think.
Well that was until they released the
single ‘We Built This City’ in 1985. With its release they were damned if they
did and damned if they didn't and, from then on, everything Jefferson Airplane did
was shite… Branded as the worst single ever, ‘We Built This City’, although it
purported to be about the destruction of rock ‘n’ roll, was instead branded as
the nuts and bolts of corporate rock, of big business buying and selling talent
like stocks and shares (forgive me but has it ever been thus?) Things went from
bad to worse when, in 1990 on this day, Rolling Stone Magazine who, it will be
remembered, waxed lyrical about Jefferson Airplane’s first album, dubbed their
1989 album release, ‘The Most Unwanted Comeback of the Year.’
Now, I’d take issue with that.
Those of you who know me (and to
those of you who don’t, I do hereby serve notice) Jimi Hendrix is THE man. In
my eyes and ears he can do no wrong. He’s the man who has given me my most
precious musical moments and memories and introduced me to my most precious
friend, a friend I’d be honoured to die alongside, so it takes a lot for me to
say that the posthumous release (escape?) of Mr. Hendrix’s ‘Crash Landing’
album (supposedly recorded by Mr. Hendrix but in fact completed and released by
a gang of fuck-overs and money men) was THE worst EVER album: now THAT was the
‘Most Unwanted Comeback of the Year’, and that takes some saying from me.
No differentiation in the Marmite
stakes with this one; anyone with half an ear and no brain would recognise the
smell of money and the sound of back-slapping musos and fuck-wit, money
grubbing executives that emanates from out this pile of stinking offal
pretending to represent the greatest guitarist and philosopher of the rock
generation, James Marshall Hendrix. Welcome back Jefferson Airplane, the spotlight
shines on you once more…
No comments:
Post a Comment