Search - Great Society :: Born to Be Burned

PRE-AIRPLANE GRACE

07/27/1999

(4 out of 5 stars)

"This is the band led by Grace Slick, her husband and brother-in-law in 1965-66, before Grace joined Jefferson Airplane. They shared bills with the Airplane and had sort iof a split personality. Anyone familiar with the COLLECTOR'S ITEM CD on Columbia knows the Society's long, hypnotic jams on tunes like "Sally Go Round the Roses", featuring Grace's piercing wail. BORN TO BE BURNED shows the other side of the coin, Great Society as a first-rate pop band of the era with ebullient, catchy tunes like the wonderful "That's How It Is". The only clinker on the album is, unfortunately, the single with which the Society's label attempted to break them at the time. "Free Advice" is, a piece of psuedo-psychedelic with a godawful lead vocal by, I believe, Grace's brother-in-law Darby Slick. The best thing about the track (and the two alternate versions on this CD) is Grace's wordless vocal improv in the background.Maybe if the label, Tom Donahue's Autumn Records, had released "That's How It Is" instead, we might be talking about Great Society today as som,ething more than a footnote in Airplane history."

The Chrome Nun`s first steps

R. N. ESPIÑEIRA | Malaver , Argentina | 05/03/2006

(4 out of 5 stars)

"A very interesting view on the early days of Grace Slick`s carrer. The Great Society was not an outstanding band, but neither were The Grateful Dead when they made their first recordings (incidently, the same year The Great Society did theirs). If they had had time to develop, they could have turned into a really great band, but Grace took the decision of joining Jefferson Airplane and that was it for Society.

I consider their live recordings far more interesting, but this is undoubtfully a very interesting release. It contains a nice booklet with notes and the sound quality is certainly great."

Interesting early San Francisco Scene band....

B. Margolis | Minneapolis, MN United States | 12/11/2005

(3 out of 5 stars)

"The other review is honest, but I want to add a couple of bits of information.



First off, their sole released single "Someone To Love" b/w "Free Advise" are tracks 2 and 16. Track 16 is listed as Alternate version 1. That's wrong...this is the sole version issued and it was NOT the A side. I actually once owned the single (on Northbeach, a subsidary of the short-lived Autumn label).



Had this material been released on an album back then, I doubt that this groups reputation would've been improved. As it stands now, The Great! Society!! (which is exactly how it was listed on the single) now have a reputation of being a good early live SF band that, of course, contained Grace Slick.



This brings me to my last thought; it's really interesting that by late 1966 and into 1967 and all of the break-out San Francisco bands being signed-up and recorded, there wasn't a single surviving local SF label. All of the bands were signed by out-of-town labels (Jefferson Airplane and The Loading Zone to RCA, Quicksilver and Steve Miller Band to Capitol, Grateful Dead to Warners, Country Joe And The Fish to Vanguard, etc.) Had Autumn survived a few months longer, they would have been poised to get contracts for some of these extremely popular and influential bands.



Anyhow, this CD is worth getting, but much of the material is not that strong.



Sound quality is really amazingly good. Bob Irwin at Sundazed has done his typically excellent job....."