Paul Kantner – Blows Against The Empire (1970) (***)

What’s to like?

An overlooked curio of a concept album, born out of chaos at the dawn of prog. One for fans of Jefferson Airplane, Hawkwind or even the Moody Blues.

The low down

Early 1970, and Jefferson Airplane were one of America’s most popular bands, having acquitted themselves well during their performance at Woodstock, and their fifth album Volunteers receiving critical acclaim and commercial success. However, behind the scenes, things were not so settled, with the band members splintering off in different directions to pursue their own musical paths.

That just left guitarist/singer Paul Kantner and singer Grace Slick to begin the process of working up ideas for what was intended to be the next Airplane album, in the hope that the other members would drift back by the time the songs were ready to be recorded. But this endeavour quickly became a vehicle for Kantner to try his hand at a solo album, and specifically, one with a concept running through it.

Kantner had been inspired and fascinated by science fiction from an early age, and some of its themes had already crept into the lyrics of earlier Airplane songs – Wooden Ships (from the Volunteers album) tells the story of survivors of a post-nuclear holocaust. So it seemed a natural progression to base a whole album around a broader sci-fi concept, and Kantner even went to the trouble of contacting writer Robert Heinlein for permission to use some of his ideas. Heinlein was impressed by Kantner’s respectful approach and granted his permission.

The end result is an album of two halves. The first side of the original LP had songs that were more in the tradition of the Airplane’s west coast rock sound, and reflect the unhappiness of the younger generation at the state of society and the government’s increasing infringements of civil rights. This was a particularly turbulent time in America’s history, and it’s not surprising that many young people wanted to leave the country (to avoid being drafted into military service in the Vietnam war), and in some cases would  have dreamed about what it might be like to leave the planet.

The second half of the album follows that dream, as the protagonists hijack a starship being built in the skies overhead between 1980 and 1990. They take off for an uncertain future, but are unable to leave their all-too human prejudices behind, leading to a battle for control of the ship. In the end, the more idealistic faction wins and plunges the starship beyond the solar system and life as we know it… (Interestingly, a year after release, Blows was the first rock album ever nominated for a Hugo science fiction literary award in the category of Best Dramatic Presentation. Unfortunately, it didn’t win because the majority of eligible voters elected not to proceed with that particular award that year!)

So for such a grand concept, how does the music stack up? Surprisingly well actually. Kantner limited himself to playing guitars and singing, while Slick provided backing vocals and piano, and turned out to be quite an accomplished player. Slick had studied the playing style of the Airplane’s guest piano player, Nicky Hopkins, during the recording of the Volunteers album, and her chord-heavy technique becomes one of the dominant sounds across the album. Playing the piano within her limitations, meant that the chords were direct and unfussy, but very effective and make for an enjoyable listening experience.

Kantner realised though, that he needed other musicians to help bring his music to fruition, and he basically called in a who’s who of the San Francisco rock scene to help out. So you’ve got extra guitars and banjo courtesy of Jerry Garcia, and drumming from Bill Kreutzmann and Mickey Hart (the Grateful Dead), along with David Crosby and Graham Nash contributing lead and backing vocals. The Airplane’s bassist, Jack Casady, also returned to the fold in time to lay down some particularly effective bass guitar and pedal effects.

Listeners already familiar with the Airplane’s albums, especially Volunteers, will find a lot to enjoy in the music, as songs like Mau Mau (Amerikon), A Child Is Coming, and Hijack don’t stray too far from the traditional sound, but offer enough diversity within the arrangements and layered instruments to bring something new to the listener. David Crosby’s contribution as a singer also lends the vocals some lovely harmonies, and brings a nice balance in between Kantner’s laid-back lower register and Slick’s clipped higher range.

The shorter pieces in between the longer songs are more experimental, but just brief enough to add ambience and colour, with some liberal helpings of movie sound effects (eg the 1950s version of War Of The Worlds), and at some points the music almost veers into the electronic tones and musique concrète passages that typified soundtracks such as Forbidden Planet.

It all amounts to an interesting album, not short on ideas or music, but not over-running and certainly not indulgent. And it sounds great audio-wise.

I picked up a 35^th anniversary remaster, and it’s pitched at a nice volume level, with lots of clarity to hear every instrument and voice. This version of the cd comes with helpful liner notes and interviews, and is paired with a second cd insert which faithfully recreates the artwork sketched by Slick for the LP insert.

Blows Against The Empire may have started out as a Jefferson Airplane album, but actually ended up as a precursor to Kantner forming Jefferson Starship four years later. The signs are all there in the music, with the earlier songs offering a familiarity with the Airplane’s style of music (as if to say “this is more music from the Jeffersons”), and the later songs hinting at the shape of new things to come.

Fans of Jefferson Airplane will enjoy checking out this overlooked album, as a nice diversion from the band’s main body of work. But Blows should also appeal to fans of early prog-rock concept albums and artwork, as it comes as a nice audio-visual package. In some aspects, Blows has much in common with Hawkwind’s acoustic numbers on their early albums, and is also worth a listen if you enjoy the sci-fi concepts adopted by the Moody Blues on their album To Our Children’s Children’s Children.

Worth a listen.

[PS – if you want to learn more about Jefferson Airplane’s albums, you can read my bluffer’s guide here.]