Collectors Item

In many respects this is the most authentic recording that Grace Slick made. She leads on most of the numbers at this gig and her voice is very clear and powerful with all the characteristic vibrato. There is none of the excessive echo that you hear on her later Airplane recordings (compare STL here and on the up-beat Airplane version). She is also not reduced to providing support vocals, as on so many Airplane numbers. The difference is that the guys in this band (3) who contributed the songs were smart enough to let her to sing them, as well as her own stuff, whereas in the Airplane, the 3 song-writing guys wanted to lead on their numbers, despite having far weaker voices. This band seemed to have plenty of talent, both as musicians and song-writers and probably would have achieved great things had their personality and relationship problems not got in the way. A decent manager and recording contract would have helped. We can only be thankful that the Matrix made such a great effort to capture the band in full-flow in this recording before they spun apart. Although STL and WR are the most famous songs, there is plenty of other good music here. It's a matter of taste as to whether the original versions here of STL and WR are preferable to the Airplane re-makes. These versions are less up-beat pop, and seem to have more weight.

I had to go down a star, because some of the tracks have distortion in one channel, especially noticeable if you listen through headphones. But I think it could be on the recordings, as they were obviously recorded on primitive equipment, as they were obviously not intended for release at that time. Furthermore, Sony have released this same album as download only, and when I played some of it's tracks on Deezer, I noticed it had the same faults. The Great Society, Grace Slick's first band were one of the forerunners of Psychedelia. 1966, the year that this live performance was recorded was deemed as the last year of the mid sixties British Invasion before the onslaught of Psychedelia exploded at the beginning of the following year, which gave the whole music world another kick in the rear, out-fashioning almost everything and most of the top acts of the mid sixties British Invasion. But it was during 1966 that Psychedelia was starting to be felt it the States, while the British side of the Pop/Rock world was still mostly British Invasion based, but with occasional musical advancements. It was as though the British overtook the Americans for once through the onslaught of groups like The Beatles and The Rolling Stones, but the Americans were getting their own back by overtaking the British. Had this set been released at the time, it would no doubt have changed the face of the American scene even more, alongside Frank Zappa's Freak Out which was recorded in March 1966, and released a few months later, and completely broke all the rules and exceeded the boundaries of the mid sixties scene, with it's diverse styles that completely contrasted the then-fashionable sounds of the mid sixties, and became a huge success in the States. By 1967, the american charts were again filled with almost entirely American acts with only occasional records by British artists in the American charts, almost like a return to the days before The Beatles when it was almost impossible for British artists to get records released in the States. It was as though the Americans had got back in front of the British, or at least for the American market which is where all the money is involved. Whereas during the mid sixties, about half the records in the American charts were by British acts. Eventually, all this changed again. The Great Society did have a CD on the Sundazed label still available as download called Born To Be Burned which collected all their December 1965 studio recordings' Only one single was released in the States from that session - Somebody To Love/Free Advice in early 1966. The A side was the original version of a song that Grace was to re-record about a year later after she moved to Jefferson Airplane. These were the only tracks to give any hint of future Psychedelia while the rest of those tracks were just good without being brilliant, and were shamefully based on the then-British Invasion sound. But here, they improved their sound enormously and did live remakes of some of those previous studio tracks, altered the musical arrangements and dressed them up into their new Psychedelic style in line with the rest of the tracks here, and improved them enormously, a typical example being that track Somebody To Love expanded to over four minutes, and was Grace's best version. But i cannot say the same for her early take of White Rabbit here which lacks the drive of her later version of that song with Jefferson Airplane. Had this set been released in 1966, this group would have been huge in the States, and Grace may never have jumped ship. But it was not released until two years later to cash in with her by-then-success with Jefferson Airplane. It was then released as a double album on CBS/Columbia under this title of Collectors Item. Edsel in the UK reissued it as Live At The Matrix. Retroworld have now reissued it under it's original title, which is just as well, because the Floating World label have just released another Great Society CD also called Live At The Matrix containing another concert they did there during the same year, which I will review, as I have just bought that as well. That is a previously unreleased concert recording. Although the booklet there gives no recording date, my guess is that it was recorded slightly earlier, because their sound there is less accomplished, and although they performed some different songs there, the songs they performed in both sets sound less polished there, and the sound quality there is even lesser good, but it is still an absolute must-have if you are a completist as such. This set here contains two covers of songs from other artists, Bob Dylan's Outlaw Blues, and The Jaynetts' us hit of a few years earlier, Sally Go Round The Roses. Their versions of both songs are very different. Finally, it must be noted that 1966 was the first major year for concept albums, not 1967 as always assumed. In the States, The Beach Boys released Pet Sounds,and on the Psychedelic side, The Byrds released 5th Dimension (their third album), Bob Dylan released Blonde On Blonde, and Frank Zappa released Freak Out, the latter two being among the first double albums. Over here, The Hollies released For Certain Because, The Kinks released Face To Face, and most of all, The Beatles released Revolver. But these albums were only really a step forward musically, but gave little hint of future Psychedelia, although the Beatles may have felt it the most, possibly during their visits to the States, as this is strongly revealed in their final Revolver track Tomorrow Never Knows. But the following year, Psychedelia well and truly exploded from both sides of the Atlantic, and the West Coast scene changed accordingly with groups like The Beach Boys and The Byrds getting replaced by The Doors and Jefferson Airplane. But maybe Britain felt it because Jimi Hendrix moved here. But during 1965, British band The Yardbids seemed to have a slight Psychedelic sound which makes it difficult to pinpoint exactly when and where Psychedelia began, as you can think of odd examples as such from before then.

This is the first time I have seen this classic on cd. It is, ,admittedly, more expensive than my vinyl copy was at 12s6d but is definitely worth it.It contains many great tracks in their earliest versions, ,notably "White Rabbit" and "Somebody to Love" , but also "Sally Go Round the Roses" which is a favourite of mine, plus "Grimly Forming" ,"Arbitration" and a few others with an extra seven bonus tracks tacked on the end.This was the first recording Grace made with her husband Darby Slick on lead guitar, his brother Jerry on drums, David Minor on rhythm guitar and Peter Vandergelder performing as the Great Society. (The " Grace Slick and the ..." tag was only added after the Great Society disbanded in early 1967 and she went on to find fame with Jefferson Airplane.)The first ten tracks on this were originally released on vinyl titled "Conspicuous Only In Its Absence" from live recordings made at various San Francisco clubs between 1965 and I967 and have the authentic dreamy, spaced out feeling of that era. Long, dramatic raga-like guitar solos building back into razor sharp bursts of vocals characterise these tracks, matching the rainbow coloured light shows and psychedelic nature of these events. These tracks are very different from the tighter, more disciplined Jefferson Airplane ones but have a place in my heart.

If the recordings were of better quality than they are on this cd, then I might be inclined to give this a more positive review but I cannot agree with other reviewers by saying that this is some sort of masterpiece. Why anyone would say that the versions of White Rabbit and Somebody To Love are superior on this album is beyond me as they seem to lack drive. I only got it because it was a decent price but doubt I will play it that often having heard it for the first time.

The Great Society was a West Coast band with rhythmic tunes, radical lyrics and Grace Slick as main vocalist. This CD has the original version of 'White Rabbit', with the clarinet, 8 minutes long and absolute magic. The track is far superior to the Jefferson Airplane version, even though that also features Grace Slick as lead vocal. The CD is worth buying for that track alone. The first half of the CD is based on an album which was only available as a special import from the USA, back in the 70s. It was a live recording on a poor quality tape machine, but the CD is much better quality. If you like Grace Slick, you must get this album.

Bought this as an LP back in early 70's when Virgin used to advertise in Melody Maker hope it still has that something for a ageing hippy to remember