Disco de Jefferson Airplane: “2400 Fulton Street: An Anthology”

Jefferson Airplane was the greatest of the late sixties San Francisco bands, of which there were many (hold your horses and read on, Dead fans). They developed over their brief career a deliberately loose, almost ramshackle sound that was integral to their appeal. It was emblematic of the "San Francisco sound" that they helped create, but no other band of that time and place produced such energetic unpredictability with such tight musicianship, or with such a strong sense of melody, harmony and drama. Sure, the Grateful Dead emerged from the same scene and mastered that tight looseness too, but it took them longer to get good at it, and they never came close to the Airplane on intra-band vocal interplay. The Dead, of course, established a much greater legacy over three decades, but if we're talking San Francisco bands of the Airplane's creative era (roughly 1966-1970), then the Airplane is the champ. Jorma Kaukonen and Jack Casady were among the very best lead guitar-bass combinations in the rock era (comparable to the fully mature Jerry Garcia and Phil Lesh), and no other female rock singer ever equaled Grace Slick. She's in a league of her own, vocally, and she composed some of the most strikingly original songs of the rock era (think White Rabbit, Lather, Greasy Heart, Eskimo Blue Day, Mexico).

This collection, while lacking the remastering of the Airplane's music that occurred in the mid 90s, is still the most comprehensive collection of their best material available to this day. Of course it does not include all their good songs, but it includes all of their very best. And naturally, not all of the material here is equally good, but most of it is very high caliber. So if you love their music, this collection is the only reasonable alternative to buying each of their albums individually. It's debatable whether Jefferson Airplane ever produced a five-star album (I tend to think "Surrealistic Pillow' and "Volunteers" were, but barely). But four of their consecutive albums are worthy of at least four stars (the above two, plus "Crown of Creation" and "After Bathing at Baxter's"). In my scheme of rating, that is a phenomenal output for a band, and since this collection draws richly from all four of these, it seems obvious that Fulton Street should rate 5+ stars.

When this came out in 1990 or so, it was easily THE compilation to get on Jefferson Airplane. It didn't sound too bad, better than the Jefferson Airplane CD's from previous years, the artwork was (and is) well-done and pretty cool, and the track selection was superb. However, it's been out-of-print for years, and when RCA/BMG merged with Sony, they released another two-disc compilation as part of Sony's "Essential" CD's. That set, titled "The Essential Jefferson Airplane," used the same mastering as the superb reissues produced by Bob Irwin in 2003, utilizing the original master tapes for every song and supposedly using EQ instructions given for the original Lp releases.

So what else is different? Well, the artwork on "2400 Fulton Street" is still better, a nice throwback to the late 60's (I think, I wasn't around then), and it has 36 tracks to "The Essential"'s 32, adding a few interesting choices like 'Triad' and some early Levi's commercial 'jingles' recorded by the band. However, the sound on "2400 Fulton Street" is subpar in comparison, and the shuffled order on "2400 Fulton Street" doesn't work that well.

The only reason for buying "2400 Fulton Street" is the price - as of this writing, there's a ton of used copies ranging from $5 to $10 being sold right here. If you're on a budget, I'd pick up one of those used copies, but if you've got a little more money to spend or prefer a better introduction to the band, get the "The Essential Jefferson Airplane."

This is a great compilation of a legendry band. Paul Kantner will always be a rebellious writer. Jorma and kack still lat down the funkiest blues and can rock your socks off in their electric sets, coupled with Gracie and Marty belting out soulful notes,,,, this was the music of 1968 to 1973. I had the old vinyl but having on CD and my ipod in one compilation is great.