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Jefferson Starship "Winds Of Change" (1982)
Winds Of Change/Keep On
Dreamin'/Be My Lady/I Will Stay/Out Of Control//Can't Find Love/Black Widow/I
Came Back From The Jaws Of The Dragon/Quit Wasting Time
'They
give you a moment of sweet sweet peace - and you become so happy they all send
you to jail!'
Grace Slick makes everything better. There isn't an
album around that wouldn't be improved for her presence - though she may be a
bit loud for Art Garfunkel's whispered treat 'Everything Waits To Be Noticed'
thinking about it, surely everything else ever made would benefit from her
sarcasm, firepower and, well, grace. Here she is, four years on from being
kicked out of the Starship with a drinking habit that would have felled a
veteran, lessons learnt thanks to a delicious autobiographical solo LP (1980's
'Dreams') and effortlessly taking back control of the Starship tiller again
despite the almighty tug-of-war between old-hand Paul Kantner and newboy Mickey
Thomas during her years away. Grace had played things cleverly, turning up to
the sessions for 'Modern Times' and offering her services as a backup singer,
providing colour to the album sessions without looking for writer's credits,
glory or salary. Grace was never going to be content with a back-up role
though; she was born to be centre-stage and by 'Winds Of Change' it's as if
she's never been away, with every track containing something magical from an
on-form Slick whether it be a full lead vocal, a duet counterpart, a harmony
tease, a coda or a cackle.
Which is just as well because, in truth, 'Winds Of
Change' finds the band in disarray - again - and this album would be pretty
empty and worthless without Grace there. This is the third album made by the
Starship since the big upheavals of 1978 (when, alongside Grace, they lost lead
singer Marty Balin and drummer Johnny Barbata) and already things are beginning
to feel slightly formulaic. Paul Kantner's busy crafting the sequel to his
classic 'Blows Against The Empire' album of 1971 ('The Empire Blows Back',
released in 1983 and whose sessions overlapped quite a bit with this one) and
gets just two co-credits, one of them on a song so flimsy you wonder if anyone
in the studio ever actually wrote it down. Mickey is all written out after
releasing his 1981 solo album 'Alive Alone'. Neither are particularly happy to
see Grace back - it still wasn't that long after her split from Paul and Mickey
was deeply frustrated at the idea of being pegged as a 'duets' singer (which is
ironic given what direction Starship will take in future years - and a little
odd given that nobody really thought about Grace 'n' Marty in that way). Tried
and trusted husband and wife writing team Pete and Jeanette Sears sound as if
they're running slightly short of ideas too after coming out of nowhere to
dominate the last two LPs with a number of songs that sound rather like they
did the last time round. Drummer Aynsley Dunbar is getting increasingly fed up
of the huffy silences of his bandmates and is preparing to quit to re-join
Whitesnake (He'll be replaced by Donny Baldwin for the tour and the next
album). Once again, founding member David Freiberg's talents are ignored. Only
guitarist Craig Chaquico, the band member seemingly most pleased to have Grace
back in the band, can match the band's returning prodigal daughter for ideas
and eagerly resumes his writing partnership with her.
Traditionally 'Winds Of Change' gets bad reviews
from everybody - the people who made it, the people who reviewed it and
especially the people who paid good money to listen to it. 'Winds' currently
languishes low in the lost of Jefferson family must-haves and ranks a pathetic
one-and-one-half stars on 'Allmusic' (to date the only AAA album I've seen get
worse is The Beach Boys' 'Summer In Paradise'). It's not hard to see why in
some respects: the Airplane used to be famous for their lack of filler (you
can't fly high with excess weight after all) and though the Starship were never
quite as solid, their albums can usually be relied upon to be half-great (at
least until 1978's equally embarrassing 'Earth'). 'Winds' is one of those
short-running albums that's a couple of songs short of paradise and where the
middle stuff tends to outweigh the good. The lack of Paul (who still gets the
single best song on the album) and the move even further away from the band's
cult beginnings into heavy metal pop doesn't help matters much with fans
either. The basics of music-making (melody, invention, lyrics, ideas) score
low.
I can't bring myself to dislike this LP though
because the details (the arrangement, the performance, the variety and the
production) score so highly. Grace of course beings an extra something to
almost everything here (especially the coda to 'Can't Find Love' which is
better than the song - and the song's one of the better ones here). But she's
not alone: Craig turns in some blistering guitar solos even by his standards
that inject life and purpose into these songs. Mickey teases out just enough
'truth' in the Sears' collection of ballads to make them sound heartfelt and
worth listening to. Paul injects his songs with so much gonzo production work
that they either fall over in an embarrassing heap ('Out Of Control') or shine
like never before ('Jaws Of The Dragon'). There are several songs here that
build classily, going from a whispering nothing to a sudden acceleration that
causes such memorable motion sickness in the listener you can almost forgive
the fact that what came before the twist wasn't all that exciting ('Can't Find
Love' is a good example - the opening is dreary, the middle is pretty good and
the coda one of the best minute long tags on this website; there are others
though, with the title track starting in
a murmur and ending in a shriek or 'Black Widow' playing cat-and-mouse - or is that
spider-and-fly? - the whole track through). The sound of - gulp - seven members
now, playing together in the same room (as they seem to on 'Dragon' and 'Black
Widow') cuts through all the not-quite-thereyness of the songs to become a
most-certaintly hereyness of the performance. It's as if the band threw the
songs together at the last minute but then decided to record them properly,
which makes this a more enjoyable album than 'Earth' for starters. The end
result is like listening to a B-movie with plot holes big enough to fit The
Spice Girls' egos through whilst enjoying the scenery enough not to care. These
are winds of change indeed (traditionally the Jeffersons were better on ideas
than execution) and means that this record is rather better than reputation
suggests with lots of great and memorable moments scattered throughout the
record long-term fans really shouldn't lose out on. It's just a shame that
there aren't more great tracks to attach those memorable moments too.
As the title suggests, there's a half-album theme of
change blowing in from this album - and
blowing in from both sides given this album's mix of hope and fear, with
the two sides (almost) split nearly between the two. The title track's howling
wolves and wailing winds make this trait obvious, with its balance of ecology
and mysticism (is this a song about global warming? Spiritual emptiness? Or
both?!) but it's far from the only track concerned with waiting
nervously/eagerly for something to happen. Craig's 'Keep On Dreamin' is a sweet
song about childhood memories of life being there for the taking and how the
young boy couldn't wait to slay his dragons, marry his lady and be happy
forever. Life hasn't quite turned out that way yet, but this being a Chaquico
song the narrator still reckons it might all come true one day - after all,
who'd have guessed he'd be hired to join the remnants of one of his favourite
ever bands at the age of sixteen all those years ago? 'Be My Lady' has Mickey,
via the Sears duo, building up his confidence to ask his girlfriend to be his
wife - it's a big step into the unknown but the winds of change are sounding
positive this time as the singer puts on his best wooing voice (and seduced
enough people to score one of Jefferson Starship's last charting singles). 'I
Will Stay' is the album's oddity, a promise to be constant in an ever changing
world, built on the same lines as 'Be My Lady'. Finally on side one there is
'Out Of Control', a re-action to a world where things are changing too fast and
nothing seems to make sense anymore (with a song that, erm, doesn't make much
sense anyway).
Over on side two, that hippie hope is going through
a bit more of an issue. 'Can't Find Love' has Mickey's narrator thinking that
change isn't coming anywhere near fast enough, locked into a cold hard world of
solitude and loneliness. Even a minute's worth of souped up Grace Slick
offering advice at the end can make the winds of change come fast enough.
'Black Widow' takes up the sexual theme and finds Grace making her prey bite under
the winds of change as he probably wishes he'd stayed in the safe and familiar.
'Jaws Of The Dragon' ought to be on the first side really (swapped with 'Out Of
Control?') dealing as it does with the idea of re-birth and things changing
back to the way things should be. The theme of most Jefferson albums has always
been of looking to the future with hope, whatever the age, but here you sense a
change in Kantner's style and ideology as he embraces the growing 1980s shift
towards materialism and war. Paul knows he's out of time but rather than
relinquish his band's lifelong message of peace simply wishes the old days back
into being once again, while telling everyone why the world they're told
they're living in is really a big hoax and the hippies were right all along.
Along with the Kantner trilogy at the heart of final Jefferson Starship album
'Nuclear Furniture' it's the last great Jefferson hippie moment that no other
band would have thought of (an uncompromisingly tough song that's bursting at
the seams with love) though even this song is tougher than most past Starship
songs, concentrating more on the evil changes in the world that are (hopefully)
coming to an end than the good times to come again (accentuated by more wailing
wolves and howling winds). This leads nicely into the album finale, 'Quit
Wasting Time', another Sears epic that tackles the increasing heat of the cold
war and the idea that we may not have very long to tell the people around us
what we want them to hear, so we really ought to tell them now before it's too
late. The winds of change won't last forever and nor will we.
Maybe it's the lack of Kantner songs but, 'Dragon'
aside, it's notable how contemporary an album 'Change' is without as many
throwbacks to the 1960s as usual. Few newcomers listening to this album would
have guessed that this was a record made by the survivors of what was primarily
a 1960s band or that just a decade earlier Jefferson Starship were about as
prog-rock as you could get. Assuming my original vinyl copy isn't missing
something I should know about, it's notable that this is the only Starship
album not to have a photograph of the band somewhere. 'Black Widow'
particularly is such as 1982 song (Madonna meets Adam and the Ants), while the
Sears' four contributions are the sort of songs that can be heard on pretty
much any pop album of the period, from Wham! to Whitesnake. Even 'Modern
Times', the previous Jefferson record (which as the title suggests tried hard
to mirror modern culture) was never quite this current. If you'd have explained
the 1980s to a true Jefferson fan of the 1960s, with all its cold-hearted
synthesisers, materialistic lyrics and over-exaggerated shoulder-pads then,
well, firstly of course you'd have probably made them cry and vow never ever to
grow up, but secondly they'd have assumed any of 'their' precious bands
attempting those sounds would sound awful and stupid. Many of them do of course
(Paul McCartney's 'Pipes Of Peace', George Harrison's 'Cloud Nine' and CSNY's
'American Dream' aren't exactly the greatest records in their respective
catalogues), but actually the Jeffersons make a pretty decent fist of things
here (it's the pure Starship albums that are embarrassing. Compared to
everything else being made at the time 'Winds' sounds punchy, bold, assertive,
impressively modern and generally exhilarating. Which isn't that far off what
the 1960s Airplane always sounded like, even if musically there's very little
link between the two by now. Fans seem to have an idea in their head that the late-period
Jeffersons were the worst thing that could ever possibly happen to music;
actually 1980s music is the worst possible thing that could have happened to
music, but by comparison to their peers the Starship weren't doing badly at
all. Even an album like this one, the weakest of the four records made with the
Mickey Thomas line-up and the 1980s period straightjacket, isn't that weak in
comparison to anything but the band's own free-range past.
Heck the Jeffersons even pioneer the music video,
well sort of. The Airplane were always a highly visual band who spent a long
time concentrating on their recorded history (with appearances in the Monterey
and Woodstock films for starters, not to mention two TV specials, a cameo in a
bank holiday Star Wars spin-off and the first AAA-concert-on-a-rooftop a year
before the fab four). It's not until 1982 though that the band start treating
the medium the way their younger contemporaries are treating it, with four
mini-movies made of the songs from this album (even though only three singles
were actually produced!) To be honest, none of these are much cop and seem to
have been made in something of a hurry, but it's worth pointing out how unlike
the videos being made by their fellow 1960s survivors they are. In the early
1980s ex-Beatles were going for the elder statesman look (literally with
Macca's 'Pipes of Peace' video set in WW1), The Monkees were affectionately
spoofing their age and origins and modern bands alike (the under-rated promo
for 'Heart and Soul'), while Pink Floyd used their 1980s videos (such as the
Final Cut Video EP) to make bigger political points that didn't involve the
band at all. By contrast there Jefferson Starship are, strutting like a band a
quarter of their age and dressing up: 'Winds Of Change' looks like some 1980s
dungeons and dragons computer game (or ITV's superlative 'Knightmare' to anyone
who remembers that); 'Be My Lady' features a groomed band acting like extras
from a Duran Duran video; the rarely seen 'Can't Find Love' smacks of Kylie
Minogue; while 'Out Of Control' looks like a cut scene from 'The Rocky Horror
Picture Show'. None strike you as releases by an aging band from the 1960s but
would have been full of visual references for 1980s kids that most similarly
aged music veterans would no doubt have missed. You can read more about this in
our Jefferson TV clips guide at
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2015/10/jefferson-airplane-surviving-tv-footage.html
by
the way, in which Marty Balin gets attacked by a Hells Angel and transmission
of a Jefferson concert on earth gets picked up by extra-terrestrials - it's one
the more bonkers of the 30 AAA TV reviews).
Overall, then, 'Winds' isn't the place to start your
Jefferson collection as it's more a case of not betraying the old values as
badly as you think rather than an album to fall in love with. There's none of
the power and commitment and songwriting of the two previous albums ('Freedom
At Point Zero' and 'Modern Times') or the ambitious songwriting framework and
general consistence of successor 'Nuclear Furniture' (one of our original 101
under-rated AAA classics for some very good reasons). However 'Change' wouldn't
actually have to change that much to work; mix it with the best of Paul and
Mickey's side projects and actually late 1981 through to mid 1983 seems like
something of a mini-golden age for the band, with three albums within 18 months
that are at worst presentable and at best pretty darn good (though all three
are mixed bunches). Even if 'Winds' is
one of the weaker Starship LPs, it just shows up how good the rest of them are
with only two bland songs ('I Will Stay' and 'Quit Wasting Time') and one
well-at-least-its-not-bland-but-what-the-hell-is-going-on??? experiment ('Out
Of Control'). Most of the rest is pretty darn good, whilst 'Jaws Of The Dragon'
'Black Widow' and 'Can't Find Love' are respectively one of Paul's, one of
Grace's and one of the band in general's greatest moments on record. Maybe the
winds of change were blowing a bit too strong at times, with Grace's arrival
Paul's absence Mickey's power struggle and Aynsley's departure all adding to
the slightly unsettling feeling of the album. Or perhaps they're not blowing
hard enough, with a few too many songs here that are just like last time out
(but in truth not quite as good). No matter: when this album's creativity and
inspiration are merely a light breeze it's inoffensive and as bad as people
have been telling you for years - but when it's blowing a hurricane this is an
album to be reckoned with, thanks to a trio of tracks that are good as anything
the Jeffersons had done in years and even the worst tracks rescued to some
extent by guitar-solos, productions that go the extra mile and Grace Slick back
in charge and back in control. All Jefferson Starship records barring their one
big hit album 'Red Octopus' are undervalued and under-estimated to some extent;
this one, long dismissed as the runt of the catalogue, especially. In the final
analysis, 'Winds Of Change' just does enough to impress, in the same way that
it just squeaks over the 40 minute barrier (the usual length bands were told to
aim for in the pre-CD age).
The winds are starting to howl, the beast is on the
prowl and the album has started with the title track 'Winds Of Change'.
Lyrically this is the song on the album most like the old-look prog-rock
Starship, with tales of spiritual walks through desert sands and crumbling
empires left to rot on desert floors that could have come from 'Spitfire'. The
best verse comes in the middle with a typical Jeffersonian pull-back from the
state of the world to the personal, as we are told that even if you 'think you
got your life planned out' the little detail of un-foreseen change can wreck
the best laid plans in a heartbeat. For the band that, more than perhaps
anyone, represented the children of the 1960s who once greeted change as
something wonderful and fulfilling, it's a timely reminder that not all 1960s
wishes came true. Which is certainly true of the performance which is
crushingly contemporary, with Craig transforming from one of the warmest
guitarists out there to a snarling detached 1980s beast and Grace and Mickey
between them turning into a slightly hipper version of oh-so-1980s band Dollar.
As usual with the Sears writing team, the music and lyrics match well, turning
from cosy domesticity to alienating landscape by twists and turns and there are
just enough to keep the song brimming over even though in truth neither of
these sections are as memorable as many past Starship songs. This song's
greatest Grace moment: that purr into the last verse 'It's starting again!' in
which she upstages Mickey putting so much effort into his vocal throughout with
one single sentence.
'Be My Lady' was the single's highest charting
single with a US peak of #33 - not bad for a band who weren't known for their
singles and weren't exactly at the peak of their popularity at the time.
Unfortunately this slightly bland song has rather tarred the rest of the album
with the same brush as fans assume all songs are going to be as forgettable as
this one. It's not the song is truly awful you understand - especially the nice
and typically Jefferson mixture of detached cool and bubbling emotion which
works well when the two things meet in the middle (with a typically expressive
Chaquico guitar solo chasing down a detached Sears piano part into submission
and the moment of 'realisation' into the chorus when the two sync into harmony
is one of the loveliest moments on the whole record). As you'd expect from a
tried and tested husband-and-wife team, the love-lorn lyrics are just real
enough to come from the heart, even if they don't say much you can't learn from
other songs. The swirl of band harmonies is rather lovely too. But a Jefferson
love song used to have so much more going on than this: Marty sang his ballads
as if his heart and soul depended on them while the Jeffersons gave their all
behind him; here Mickey is going for detached cute charm while everyone else
just kind of noodles along. In the olden days love was all it took to blow the
mind of the audience and everyone on stage, expressed in extreme life-affirming
glory; here Mickey sounds like a teenage boy with a crush he's going to have
forgotten about when the next pretty girl comes along. Pete's melody also
sounds suspiciously like something else ('Stand By Me' crossed with 'Imagine'
is the closest I can tell) and only really comes alive when it explodes into
commitment in the all-too-brief chorus. Somebody clearly liked this song (it
wouldn't have made the charts if they hadn't) and certainly compared to most of
the other messes around in the charts in 1982 Jefferson Starship's take on love
reads like an Ibsen play or a Tolstoy novel. But you can't shake off the
feeling that nobody involved in this song has really connected to it or
believes in it somehow, despite the intensity of some of the lyrics ('I cannot
speak and now I've lost my sight' - you don't need a girlfriend, son, you need
a doctor!) This song's top Grace moment: another golden chorus harmony that's
the warmth to Mickey's posing.
Unfortunately the album's two sloppiest, blandest
songs are together on this album with 'I Will Stay' even less memorable than
its predecessor. Another Sears partnership about their undying love for each
other, it's another slightly sweet if rather clichéd declaration of commitment
robbed by the fact that nobody in the room seems to care as much as they should
do and a slow tempo that makes this song come across like an Elton John B-side
from the same period. Mickey's narrator was thinking of leaving after an
argument, but instead he turns around in the doorway and vows to stay,
unfortunately with a lyric so bland his lover is more likely to throw bricks at
him to make him leave than melt in his arms as he's obviously aiming for here.
One wonders if the Sears wrote this song after an argument for real, although
by most accounts theirs was (and is) a super-happy reliable meeting of
soulmates (not like the broken crockery going on at Grace and Paul's a few
years before). At least this song has a melody that works slightly better this
time around, with a slow-burning fuse that again lights up nicely in the chorus
though. If Jeffersonia (the Jefferson Airplane utopia every fan enjoys secretly
in their head) ever enters the Eurovision Song Contest (and I don't see why
they shouldn't given that flipping Australia are in there now!) then this is a
prime candidate for the first year, cheesy key change and all. This number's
top Grace moment: a duet harmony on the line 'I will stay with you' that wraps
Mickey's pleading with an emotional cocoon of certainty.
Rounding out by far the weaker of the album's two
sides is 'Out Of Control', the first shared songwriting credit between Grace
and Paul since 'Ozymandias' in 1976 which fans had been patiently awaiting,
with an extra credit to their daughter China Wing Kantner since the same song
(China, once the baby on the cover of mum and dad's 'Sunfighter' record, is by
now a lively eleven-year-old with a passion for period pop music, which might
explain why this curious song turned out the way it did). Grace takes lead as
she basically goes nuts, imagining a world on fire though whether literally or
figuratively is never made clear. It could be that Grace is a mental patient,
complaining that she's locked up inside away from the world while 'all the
girls are outside and all the fun is outside!', before turning to her doctor
with a sarcastic grin and putting on a fake voice that adds 'I have no mental
problems...didn't anybody tell you?!?' Grace has never sounded madder - or
badder if truth be told. After a short but snappy Chaquico guitar solo Grace
complains that the lights have been turned off (again is this literally or
figuratively?) and complains that she's a 'specialist in darkness' but this
darkness is really bad while in true hippie speak '...the only light is from
the fire of the burning books!' So far, so weird, but that's nothing on the
ending which features a vocoderised Paul in the left channel and a by-now
histrionic Grace shouting things in the right while Grace adds 'he says' or
'she says' in the middle. Sample lines from Paul's robotic voice: 'I am not
Jesus, I am not radiation, I am not a commando, this is not Romper Room, I am
not responsible...I'm going to Hollywood!' To which Grace answers about the
only thing she could say really under the circumstances...'Shut up!' That must
have felt satisfying given that it was aimed at a robotic version of her ex -
the latest in many weird moments in Jefferson family folklore. To be honest
it's hard to work out where the Jeffersons were going with this surreal song,
which sounds like it was written in a shorter time than the three minutes it
took to sing in order to pad out the LP. Is this a comment on how the 1960s
idealist generation have been driven mad by 1980s societal pressure? (If so
using another oh so 1980s pop backing is a good plan). Is it Grace repaying her
own parental generation's assumption that straight-talking take-no-prisoners
chicks into free love were themselves mad? Is it a misguided attempt at a
comedy song? ('What character would you really like to be on this one Grace?'
'I don't know - someone in a loony bin?') Who the hell are Mary and Sue meant
to represent?!? Or, most, likely, did this song only make sense when its
creators were high? Whatever the cause or inspiration, this is a song that's
totally out of control and while almost so-bad-it's great, ultimately it's
so-truly-awful it's one of the lowest moments in the Jefferson canon as a
whole. Your brain is likely to implode from listening to it this track is so
bad. Well, I tried to warn you...Many failed AAA comedy songs are car-crashes;
this one's a Starship-crash. Grace's best moment on this song? Err, when she
stops singing and it's all over...
Thankfully side two is much better, to the point
where you can't quite believe this is the same band. 'Can't Find Love' is one
of the tastiest concoctions the Thomas-era Starship ever put together and plays
towards all their strengths. Mickey, oddly, brings far more pathos to this
band-written number (Grace, Mickey, Craig and several outside writers all get
co-credits) about being out of love than the Sears songs about being in love.
Craig's guitar riff merges well with some of Aynsley's crispiest drumming for a
backing track that's lean and hungry, unlike many of Starship's recent grooves.
Pete's bass keeps things downcast and moody, while David's glorious synthesiser
work keeps things hopeful and bright. Grace positively nails the stunning
finale where she dishes out advice like the hippest hippiest agony aunt ever,
bordering on the X-rated in her gleeful improvisation for the first time since
naming body parts in German back in 1971 ('Take some, make some, do it till you
make her come...') Better yet, for once there's a song to go with the decent
performance and production, one that the listener can actually get involved in
and believe for real. Mickey's narrator has searched everywhere for love and
still feels totally alone, staring out his bedroom window and counting the
stars in the sky that he should be seeing reflected in his lover's eyes simply
because there's nothing better to do. The turning point in the song is once
again on this album the chorus, which we rush to headlong with the lines 'when
there is nothing to believe in...' The first time around the chorus is a red
herring: it's just another chance for another search and a quick jaunt through
a Chaquico guitar solo that sounds a little sorry for itself. The next time
around Grace and Paul have joined in too and urge the narrator to give up on
waiting for love to come to him and 'reach out to something you believe in!' like
a hippie Supremes. A few natty key changes later and we get the philosophy that
'you can't find love all alone', calling for the narrator to leave his isolated
world behind and mingle. Not sure that advice has ever worked for me to be
honest, but Mickey makes it all sound so infectious here and the power-push
into the last chorus - a source of dead-ends the first twice we came to it - is
majestic, now a source of unity and pride as the Jeffersons sing in triumphant
chorus. All that and still Mickey and Grace's 90 second duet fade full of
'advice' to go - fab! 'Can't Find Love' is a song that truly rocks and one that
surely would have out-sold the album's other singles had it been released first
rather than third.
Having recently completed an alcoholics course for
real, Grace sounds as if she needs to check into sex therapy rehab for most of
this album's second side. 'Black Widow' is her first shockingly sexual piece
since 'Across The Board' back in 1973 (motherhood clearly slowed that side of her down) and
she's clearly having fun with her own daft lyric. Grace's first real
composition since rejoining the Starship (and no, 'Out Of Control' doesn't
count!) sees her back with her favourite writing partner Craig who contributes
the aggressive-but-fun music and plays Dustin Hoffman to her Mrs Robinson
throughout. Like the spider of the same name, Grace is merciless as she devours
her prey, fooling him into thinking he's conquered and satisfied her when at
the end she calmly walks away to her next conquest leaving him heartbroken and
a little spent. This long cool woman in a red dress (sorry, red thang as it
says in the lyrics) is one of Grace's better characters and she delivers the
song with the right balance of knowing wink and seductive purr, sounding far
more believable in this song of powerplay and mind-games than Mickey did
singing about pure love. Like the character, the song is full of surprises:
just when you think it's playing things coolly the song jumps into bed with a
power-pop chorus that's full of some of the best harmonies on the record; when
you think you've got in touch that this song is an epic it casually shrugs off
the production numbers and goes back to basics; just when you think Grace is
going to get her way scot-free Craig turns in a thrilling guitar solo that
suggests he's giving as good as he gets. Even though the chorus 'take my love'
sounds suspiciously like the 'can't find love' chorus we've only just heard
(bad running order work right there), it's another good one: this is no monster
but someone in control, eager to give their prey what they secretly want, if
discarding them without a second glance later. Best Grace moment? Heck all of
it: this is one of her last great songs before her 1989 retirement.
Meanwhile Paul has been busy concocting his second
'true' solo album 'The Empire Blows Back' with family and friends from other
bands and hasn't really paying much attention to this album after deciding to
pull away from the struggles from the control of the band the year before. 'I
Came Back From The Jaws Of The Dragon' sounds much more like something from
that record than this (and furthermore I'm convinced it got 'swapped' at the
last minute with the song 'She's A Telepath', the only 'Empire' track that
includes the whole of this Jefferson Starship line-up) spruced up with a few
overdubs. The plot of the song (overcoming bad times against the odds) suits
that record's generally downcast vibe (with hopeful overtones) and would have
sounded mighty fine somewhere around the album's second side. That said, it
also sounds pretty fine here, with (ironically if my guess is right) more of a
'band' feel than anything else on 'Winds'. Paul was fascinated by Chinese mythology
and used dragons often in his work (see 'Dance With The Dragon' from 1976's
'Spitfire' in particular); here though the dragon is a metaphor for something
bad and unwieldy, perhaps the corporations and societies 'really' in charge of
America who were once again costing the generations dear. Mickey gets a verse
that points towards 'Nuclear Furniture' to come as he comments on the horrors
of modern day living and especially the deaths seen on TV, wishing that
somebody would assassinate him after seeing the horrors committed against so
many other human beings. A middle eight then discusses doughnuts - seriously.
The metaphor being that we're told so much to concentrate on the hole in the
middle that you forget about the bit that's there (the Jeffersons always seemed
to be hungry, there's even a cupcake pattern on the 'After Bathing At Baxters'
cover - or is it?...)
This all leads up to a typically triumphant final Kantner
last verse in that he tells us that this 'dissatisfaction' and 'demoralisation'
with modern day living is all part of a secret plot to keep up is our place.
'That's the way you're supposed to feel - that's the way they want you to
feel!' The Jeffersons cry. Because while war is on our TV screens everyday and
fear is in our hearts 'they' can get away with pretending that they're
protecting us. Cue breakdowns in communication, family set upon family, chaos,
disorder - stories about high crime rates (though actually crime used to be
higher in centuries gone by - it was just better reported in the second half of
the 20th century) and wars that are always imminent but never quite happen.
They want us scared - and for a time there Paul was scared along with everyone
else. All it takes is 'a moment of sweet sweet peace' and everyone is so
deliriously happy they act of character and get locked up anyway for breaking
some phony law that affects badly on no one. Paul thinks that the world powers
have got us so scared that they're too afraid to do anything or speak out of
turn and for a time there he was scared himself. But now he knows better, has
come back from the jaws of the dragon trying to swallow him whole and is talking
'to your heart again', i.e. the fans who've been following the hippie
hopefulness of the Jefferson philosophy for nearly two decades by this time. Together
with a classic melodyline, nicely enhanced by Pete's bass playing, this is one
of Kantner's strongest songs in a while with a track that sounds both as if
it's been crushed in spirit and is refuses to give in the fight simultaneously.
Many fans consider the Starship albums in this period to be over-produced and
in many cases they're right, but not here: those tough harmonies, whistling
synthesisers and scary animatronics wolf howls (because nobody knows what a
dragon roar sounds like?!) all add up to a memorable creation that stays locked
inside your memory-banks long after the rest of this album has been forgotten.
The album's greatest triumph and a more than fair swap with the slightly
limiting 'She's A Telepath'. This song's greatest Grace moment: after Paul
sings about how we become 'so happy they all send us to jail!' to which her
reply is a sarcastic 'why not???'
The album ends with the strongest Sears song 'Quit
Wasting Time' which still manages to sound less interesting than the other
three songs on 'Winds Of Change's second side. A taut, disciplined rocker
featuring the first true Mickey-Grace duet (with the pair singing at the same
time rather than swapping lines), it's an early sign towards the future
'Starship' sound from 1985 onwards, though superior to almost everything Starship
actually did. Craig's gritty guitarwork is again the highlight of a song that's
simple but drenched in just enough extra paraphernalia to stay interesting. You
can tell that this is a 'cold war' song, sharing a lyric like many other AAA
bands in this period about making the most of life because it might not be here
much longer ('Nuclear Furniture' is full of several songs like this one). 'We
could treat each other so much better than we do' is the key line of the song,
delivered with aggression rather than love by first Grace then Mickey as they
turn out to be the sort of lovers who attack each other's weak points for hours
and then passionately kiss. They also warn us that that waking up tomorrow
isn't guaranteed given world events and that we shouldn't put off telling
someone we love them until tomorrow if we can tell them today (I love you dear
dearer! There, I've said it. No, come back! Don't leave us for the Spice Girls
forum, that's a dark place on the internet...) Sadly the final rhyme ('said'
with limi-ted') rather lets the lyric down , while the song badly lacks a
middle eight with Pete choosing to switch gears roughly between a chorus and
verse that sound stapled together without any musical progression to ease the
transition between the two. Still, if this song sounds as if it was made in
slightly more of a hurry than some of the deeper tracks on the album, that's
all in character at least. This track's greatest Grace moment: when Mickey
suddenly ups his game and goes into a roar that seems to be improvised - so she
replies by out-roaring him in just the same way, without missing a trick! (The
two really were never really friends and were suspicious of the other's role in
the band as 'token new boy' and 'token old girl' respectively, which makes the
fact that they're two of the only three Starship members left by 1988 all the
weirder).
Overall, then, 'Winds Of Change' is an album of two
halves. I can see why this album got it's lacklustre reputation in many ways - so
many fans must have heard the first side and felt they couldn't quite stomach
the second. But if you persevere you discover, if not quite a classic, then at
least an inconsistent album with some mighty fine stuff. Given the
circumstances and the winds of change blowing through the studio (Grace
joining, Aynsley leaving, Paul and Mickey partly absent and only Grace, Craig and
Pete really giving their whole attention to the record). Had this record been
made more like the last one ('Nuclear Furniture') with Paul fully focussed (if
apart from what everyone else was writing), Mickey fully committed (with
perhaps his two best songs), Grace slipping her own solo songs in quietly to
avoid the band mind-games and David Freiberg given at least something to do,
'Winds Of Change' could have been a classic. Instead it's an album that's not
as bad as you think it's going to be, from a band who are much more interesting
than people think they're going to be, from a period that's not as bad as
people claim it to be. Lower your expectations a little if you have to, skip
most of the first side and celebrate the little victories that crop up on every
track and you might just find that the winds of change don't always blow for
the worse and that sometimes change can be a good thing.
Other Jeffersonian adventures in space, time and print from this website can be read by connecting the with following links:
A NOW
COMPLETE LIST OF JEFFERSON ARTICLES TO READ AT ALAN’S ALBUM ARCHIVES:
'Takes Off!' (1966) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2011/10/news-views-and-music-issue-116.html
'Takes Off!' (1966) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2011/10/news-views-and-music-issue-116.html
'Surrealistic Pillow' (1967) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.com/2014/03/jefferson-airplane-surrealistic-pillow.html
'After Bathing At Baxters' (1967) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2008/07/review-15-jefferson-airplane-after.html
'Crown Of Creation' (1968) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/jefferson-airplane-crown-of-creation.html
'After Bathing At Baxters' (1967) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2008/07/review-15-jefferson-airplane-after.html
'Crown Of Creation' (1968) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/jefferson-airplane-crown-of-creation.html
'Volunteers' (1969) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2014/06/jefferson-airplane-volunteers-1969.html
'Bark' (1971) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2011/02/news-views-and-music-issue-91-jefferson.html
'Blows Against The Empire' (Kantner) (1971) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2008/07/review-44-paul-kantner-and-jefferson.html
'Bark' (1971) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2011/02/news-views-and-music-issue-91-jefferson.html
'Blows Against The Empire' (Kantner) (1971) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2008/07/review-44-paul-kantner-and-jefferson.html
‘Sunfighter’ (Kantner/Slick) (1972) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/paul-knatnewrgrace-slick-jefferson.html?utm_source=BP_recent
'Long John Silver' (1972) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.com/2017/02/jefferson-airplane-long-john-silver-1972.html
'Baron Von Tollbooth and the Chrome Nun'
(Kantner/Slick/Freiberg) (1973) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2014/09/paul-kantner-grace-slick-and-david.html
'Dragonfly' (1974) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2010/01/news-views-and-music-issue-51-jefferson.html
'Dragonfly' (1974) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2010/01/news-views-and-music-issue-51-jefferson.html
'Red Octopus' (1975) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2015/06/jefferson-starship-red-octopus-1975.html
'Spitfire' (1976) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/jefferson-starship-spitfire-1976-album.html
‘Earth’ (1978) https://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2017/06/jefferson-starship-earth-1978.html
‘Freedom At Point Zero’ (1979) http://www.alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/jefferson-starship-freedom-at-point.html
'Dreams' (Slick) (1980) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2009/08/news-views-and-music-issue-39-grace.html
'Modern Times' (1981) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/jefferson-starship-modern-times-1981.html
'Winds Of Change' (1982) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.com/2016/07/jefferson-starship-winds-of-change-1982.html
'The Empire Blows Back'# aka 'The Planet Earth Rock
and Roll Orchestra (Paul Kantner/Jefferson Starship) (1983) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.com/2016/10/paul-kantnerjefferson-starship-planet.html
'Nuclear Furniture' (1983) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2008/07/review-87-jefferson-starship-nuclear.html
'Nuclear Furniture' (1983) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2008/07/review-87-jefferson-starship-nuclear.html
'Jefferson Airplane' (1989) http://www.alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2016/03/jefferson-airplane-1989.html
Non-Album Songs 1966-1984 http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2015/10/jefferson-airplanestarship-non-album.html
The Best Unreleased Recordings 1966-1974 http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2015/10/jefferson-airplane-best-unreleased.html
Surviving TV Footage 1966-1989 http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2015/10/jefferson-airplane-surviving-tv-footage.html
Tribute Special: Paul Kantner and Signe Anderson http://www.alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2016/02/tribute-special-paul-kantner-and-signe.html
Live/Solo/Compilation/Hot Tuna Albums Part One
1966: 1978 http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2015/11/jefferson-airplanestarship.html
Live/Solo/Compilation/Hot Tuna Albums Part Two
1979-2013 http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2015/11/jefferson-airplanestarship_16.html
Essay: Why Flying In Formation Was So Special For
The Jeffersons https://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2018/02/jefferson-airplane-essay-why-flying-in.html
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