Jefferson Airplane- Volunteers
(Numbered 180g 45rpm Vinyl 2LP)
Traack List
1. We Can Be Together
2. Good Shepherd
3. The Farm
4. Hey Frederick
5. Turn My Life Down
6. Wooden Ships
7. Eskimo Blue Day
8. A Song for All Seasons
9. Meadowlands
10. Volunteers
Jefferson AirplaneVolunteerson Numbered Edition 180g 45RPM 2LP from Mobile Fidelity
Seminal 1969 Album Steeped in Revolution, Vitality, Protest: The Aural Equivalent of a Demonstration March, Jefferson Airplane's UncompromisingVolunteersRooted in Belief Music Can Change World
Mastered from the Original Master Tapes: Wider, Deeper Grooves on 180g 45RPM 2LP Set Yield Superior Transparency, Rich Nuances, and Engaging Dynamics on Set Ranked #370 onRolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time
Defiant, Assured, Cohesive Songs Filled With Driving Psychedelia, Rustic Country, and Crunchy Acid-Rock: Guest Musicians Include Jerry Garcia, Stephen Stills, and David Crosby
Awash in controversy and loaded with revolutionary protest,Jefferson Airplane'sVolunteersstands as the last album made by the group's classic lineup and brings insurgent closure to the peace-and-love era. The potent 1969 record confronts war, politics, greed, and environmental ruin in head-on fashion matched by few peers.Steeped in the belief people and music could transform the world, it steers the band in community-minded and county-rock directions,and features charged playing by guest luminaries such asJerry Garcia, Stephen Stills, David Crosby, and Nicky Hopkins.Volunteersalso benefits from being one of the first 16-track recordings. And now, the historic set can be heard in the fidelity the artists and producers intended.
Mastered from the original master tapes and pressed at RTI, Mobile Fidelity's 180g 45RPM 2LP set ofVolunteersteems with soul-affirming energy, dynamics, immediacy, and standout textures.The wider and deeper grooves translate into finer pacing, enhanced information retrieval, and superior transparency. Soundstages stretch far and extend back, with instrumental separation giving all of the musicians their own place in the mix. As a result, subtle albeit important details –Hopkins' rollicking piano, guitaristJorma Kaukonen's biting tones,Garcia's deft pedal-steel work – emerge in three-dimensional fashion amidst a musical canvas that manages to be both edgy and produced, raw and revealing.Jefferson Airplane has never sounded more vital.
Much had changed in America – and withinJefferson Airplane– in just the two short years since the release of the San Francisco collective's breakthrough smashSurrealistic Pillow. The countercultural movement had darkened, government involvement in Vietnam escalated, and regard for human rights fallen. Retreating from the excessive experimentalism that graced its prior two LPs, the Airplane responded to the social circumstances with defiant, assured, and cohesive songs shot through with driving psychedelia, crunchy acid-rock, and rustic country.From start to finish, it's the aural equivalent of a demonstration march.
Having drawn attention for the inclusion of profanities in multiple tunes, the Top 20 LP also ran up against the nonprofitVolunteers of Americaafter the sextet wanted to title the recordVolunteers of Amerikain order to express further dissatisfaction with the country. WhileGrace Slickand Co. gave into the charity's desires to switch the name, there's nothing compromising aboutVolunteers.Kaukonen's leads cut searing swaths through urgent fare like "Eskimo Blue Day" and anthemic "We Can Be Together," which boldly speaks out against convention and in favor of chaos and anarchy.
Indeed, inorganizing a pseudo summit of many of the counterculture's leading musical figuresto participate onVolunteers, theAirplanetreats the album as an orchestrated stance against the establishment.StillsandCrosbyassist in rocking the boat on a turbulent cover of "Wooden Ships" lined withSlickandMarty Balin's overlapping lead vocals.Hopkinsgooses the call-to-arms title track with frisky boogie-woogie lines.Garcialends "The Farm" a suitable rustic vibe, and on his final appearance with theAirplane, drummerSpencer Drydenhelms the pastoral sing-a-long "A Song for All Seasons."