Sometimes, just a couple of good ideas are enough

 

Bill Knight column for 10-29, 30 or 31, 2020

 Impresario, poet, political radical, jazz writer and rock ’n’ roll manager John Sinclair (one-time White Panther and MC5 manager) once told me, looking over the lineup of the great 1970s band Detroit he’d brought to western Illinois, “We should’ve named this guys ‘FORMERLY’.”

Detroit had Detroit Wheels lead singer Mitch Ryder replaced by Rusty Day, ex-vocalist for the Amboy Dukes and Cactus; Detroit also featured one-time Alice Cooper guitarist Steve Hunter and ex-ILMO Smokehouse guitarist Steve Gaines.

Such rock resumes and Jefferson Starship’s new album somehow reminded me of Tuesday’s election between Donald Trump, FORMERLY a deal-making billionaire businessman, and Joe Biden, FORMERLY Vice President and a Senator from Delaware.

This columnist has no idea of Tuesday’s outcome or even whether the results will be accepted (although a Reuters/IPSOS poll released Sunday showed that a majority of both candidates’ supporters favor abiding by the results). Maybe voters of all political persuasions will unite to oust Trump and give Biden a win. Maybe pollsters will be stunned again by Trump’s base (who’d vote for him even if he’d “stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody,” as Trump said on January 23, 2016).

Regardless of the victor, Russians may smirk, reveling in our divisiveness.

The difference may come down to a couple of ideas, or lines – or lies.

Jefferson Starship’s new “Mother of the Sun,” their first album in 12 years, is like that. Grabbed in hopes of a distraction and a rekindled musical memory of the original Jefferson Airplane and their anthem “Volunteers” and the spinoff Jefferson Starship’s first outing, “Blows against the Empire,” its seven cuts are overall disappointing. But two tracks are out-and-out gems, so good they’re memorable and timely and worth having the whole package.

Jefferson Starship FORMERLY was Jefferson Airplane, featuring Grace Slick, Jack Casady, Marty Balin, Paul Kantner, Jorma Kaukonen and Spencer Dryden and helped define the late 1960s, the San Francisco Sound and more. They evolved into Jefferson Starship and soared through the 1970s until they crash-landed with goofy personnel changes (vocalist Mickey Thomas, FORMERLY with the Elvin Bishop Group) and earworm hits such as “Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now” (from the dismal rom-com movie “Mannequin”) and the Bernie Taupin-written “We Built This City” (made weirder with its use in Disney’s 2011 “Muppets” film).

With a current five-piece lineup led by David Freiberg (FORMERLY of Quicksilver Messenger Service and a later version of Airplane), 2020’s Starship really blasts off with two numbers: “It’s About Time” (co-written by Slick) and “What Are We Waiting For?” The former is a livewire blast that launches the album and promises a dynamic record, with muscular instruments and riveting lyrics: “Children in cages, shot dead in school./ How long before we let women rule?” The latter follows with a pandemic-era cry to stand up and stand for something: “Now, the money changers, like they always have,/ on golden thrones top the pyramid,/ merchants of suffering, profiteers or miseries,/ they’re selling you cancer, both cure and disease.”

The rest are ballads of denial, simplistic romance, hollow rhythm sections accompanying OK guitar riffs, and unnecessary cuts (a remake of “Embryonic Journey” from Airplane’s fine “Surrealistic Pillow” and a 67-second longer version of “What Are We Waiting For?”).

Meanwhile, during early voting and Tuesday balloting, some Americans are disappointed in Trump – even some conservative, military, Republican, national-security, political, scientific and faith leaders. Likewise, some who supported Bernie Sanders or Elizabeth Warren, Pete Buttigieg or Andrew Yang are still disappointed in Biden.

But, just as Jefferson Starship will dishearten fans of other versions of Starship or Airplane, a couple of good songs – or in this important election, a couple of ideas, line or lies – might be enough to prevail.

Personally, I think, “It’s About Time.”

“What Are We Waiting For?”