THIRTY SECONDS OVER WINTERLAND

This album is more like the Airplane's epitaph, the last round of honour as the group was clearly almost over, just fulfilling the last few contractual obligations. Hot Tuna was already a recording and touring outfit for the last two years, and Kantner and Slick had now done three "solo" albums, the last one replacing the usual guest Marty Balin with David Freiberg (ex-Quicksilver MS). The ex-QMS was coming out of jail after a marijuana bust and had found himself jobless in his former band, so he was not only invited in the last Kantner/slick album but also given credit for it as well as retained as the other main vocalist of the furure Jefferson Straship. With Creach, Barbata, Freiberg and the Kantner/slick couple, the Starship was almost complete and the launching of the side booster rocket of Casady and Kaukonen was now all but done.

If the Airplane had become a real powerhouse with drummer Joey Covington, they had lost much of thaty power when he left on disagreement of him also be able to write and sing. On overcrowded Airplane threatening to crash under its own weight, the group turned to ex-Turtle Barbata, but this was most likely to be the reason of the final landing of the Airplane: his soft drumming style was obviously not fitting Kaukonen and Casady and this is a glaring evidence on this album. Clearly the energy is almost gone and you can feel it. And actually the track selection is already all but ignoring the early classics (only Crown Of Creation was selected), and two typical Tuna tracks. And for the icing on the cake, the album opens on the Kantner now-classic Have You Seen The Saucers? Again telling us how much Kantner was hugely influenced by sci-fi literature. But overall, this album is hardly essential to progheads and I am unable to say if it got a Cd re-issue before the remastering of all their albums.