Jefferson Airplane
Volunteers

THE REVIEW

If with their previous albums, particularly with "After Bathing At Baxter's," the legendary Jefferson Airplane had projected a world of peace, love, and freedom onto an entire generation of young people, with the variety and psychedelia of "Volunteers," they look with a lucid mind, cleansed from the acids, making young people observe the world as it truly is: harsh and ruthless, where the times of free love, freedom, and peace are already past.

With this work, the Jeffersons affirm a world of peace, but this time not by professing it calmly, but by marching through the streets proclaiming revolution. Meanwhile, their sound becomes more aggressive while still trying to capture a return to tradition in their music by depicting countryside places.

The album begins (We Can Be Together), the piano leads the melody, and after a few seconds, Kaukonen's distorted and rough guitar makes its entrance. The track proceeds on a bluesy rock, where the sweet and melodic singing screams "We can be together," the anthem of America's outlaws, all of this for six incredible minutes. Right after, the Jeffersons hit with the second track (Good Shepherd), Kantner's acoustic guitar and Kaukonen's accompany us in a rock ballad with folk hints, where Balin's deliberately understated voice gives a melodramatic air to the entire piece.

We move to a country folk (The Farm), driven by Hopkins' piano and Jerry Garcia, in the duet singing, Grace Slick manages to keep her voice soft and hard at the same time, but there's no time to lose, as "Hey Frederick" arrives. Once again, the regal voice of Slick rises, Hopkins and Kaukonen almost enchanted by her voice follow her, the track continues descending into a mythical and improvised psychedelic blues instrumental coda, a flight like no one had ever taken before, here Jefferson's plane flies higher than ever.

A brief break of mysticism and magic with the 3 minutes of "Turns My Life Down" and we kick off again with a spectacular song, one of the peaks of the album, the marvelous, dark, hermetic, dreamy journey, a journey towards a better land, where man can coexist peacefully, a place without wars of "Wooden Ships," the light, delicate, and fragile atmosphere and the voices of Balin and Slick, which splendidly accompany the sound by merging masterfully, make this track beautiful.

Straight after comes another gem of all psychedelia, "Eskimo Blue Day" advances and we move forward towards another stunning flight, Slick signs another masterpiece again soaring majestically accompanied by the piano (which proceeds at a martial rhythm) and by a hypnotic flute. Now it's time for a happy and choral country (A Song For All Seasons). The happiness is immediately cut off by a surreal and funereal keyboard (Meadowlands), the melancholy made music. This great masterpiece beautifully closes with "Volunteers," an incredible outburst towards everything and everyone, shouting revolution with all the spirit and strength they have in their bodies.

This monument or testament, if you prefer, consecrates the Jefferson Airplane into the Olympus of all rock.

AMAZING.