Dragon Fly 1974 Album

Jefferson Starship

Rising out of the ashes of the old Jefferson Airplane along with a confusing mish-mash of related albums from Airplane members was, naturally, Jefferson Starship. This actually doesn't sound much different than early 70's Airplane records, but it's more polished, and less overtly political, with moderately heavy spiritual/Eastern overtones. Marty Balin returns with "Caroline", a winding, breathlessly wordy epic somewhat reminiscent of the following year's "Miracles", but definitely a bit much. A good part of the material follows that dramatic blueprint, with Papa John Creach's violin usually an interesting, sometimes maudlin backdrop. The other new additions were David Freiberg and hot shot guitarist Craig Chaquico. In general, if the band is over-the-top with this mysticism stuff, at least they were more energized, and not down in the doldrums thanks to some failed poly-sci-fi fantasy that never came to fruition. Fairly good start from these guys.