Post Description

Jefferson Starship's "Dragon Fly" must have looked very promising in 1974 for fans of the recently-disbanded Jefferson Airplane. This has a great bouyancy of sound and a clarity of vision and purpose not seen by this group since 1969's "Volunteers". The singing and intrumentation have bite, vigour and elegance. This is no nostalgia-for-the-sixties band here. This is the work of a new band with a refined direction. With long-estranged vocalist Marty Balin back in the fold on one killer track, "Caroline", this album was assured some commercial success and lots of news coverage. Individual cuts are amongst the finest by either the Airplane or Starship: Paul Kantner's "Ride the Tiger" is a heavy rocker with a clever lyric, great group singing, and dynamic guitar work by young Craig Chaquico; "That's For Sure" is a lovely, jazzy(!) number played with a restraint unknown to the Airplane; Grace Slick's "Devil's Den" has great bass work and sounds like a polished version of the kind of writing she was doing on "After Bathing At Baxter's"; Kantner's and Balin's ode to wonderlust, "Caroline", is the track that garnered airplay for this new band and contains Balin's most exuberant vocal ever; and the final cut "Hyperdrive" is perhaps Slick's finest hour as a writer and singer. Even the lesser cuts such as "Come to Life" and "All Fly Away" are enjoyable and contribute to the overall mood of this fine album. This is a worthy addition to any Jefferson Airplane fanatic's music collection and is easily the best Starship album by any of its incarnations. It deserves a listen and a reassessment. 
Poster: Franke Carlino

Product Details
Audio CD (January 28, 1997) 
Original Release Date: 1974 
Number of Discs: 1 
Format: Original recording remastered 
Label: RCA 


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