LONG JOHN SILVER

"Long John Silver" is the 7th full-length studio album and the last in 17 years by US, California based rock act Jefferson Airplane. The album was recorded March - May, 1972 at Wally Heider Studios, San Francisco and released through Grunt Records in July of 1972. It´s the successor to "Bark" from September 1971. The recording sessions were characterized by tensions and arguments over songwriting, further fueled by the drug and alcohol abuse of the members, and some tracks were written and recorded without all members in the studio.

Stylistically the material is blues influenced rock with psychadelic touches. Not much different from the sound and style on "Bark (1971)". The vocals are both male and female. Grace Slick sounds as vital and furious as ever while the male vocalists sound more restrained and less distinct. The musicianship is strong on all posts. There is a great organic interplay between all musicians (it contradicts what I wrote above about the recordings being done seperately, but it sounds great). I especially enjoy the fierce guitar playing by Jorma Kaukonen.

"Long John Silver" features a warm, organic, and powerful sound production, which is perfect for the material, and upon conclusion "Long John Silver" is a great ending to the classic period of the band and another recommendable album by Jefferson Airplane. Their output had been of a consistently good quality from the beginning with only a very few lows along the way. "Long John Silver" deserves a 3.5 star (70%) rating.