Search - Jefferson Airplane :: Last Flight

San Francisco Night

PHILIP S WOLF | SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, CA. USA | 05/03/2007

(4 out of 5 stars)

"We did not know it at the time, but this was the final flight by the great Jefferson Airplane. My friend Larry, attended this Winterland concert, and raved to me that Airplane had put on the best show since 10/25/69 (also a Winterland show). The LP: "Thirty Seconds Over Winterland" was my only document of this event upon it's release in 1973. I was taken back that a 7 track short album was only a very tiny part of this monumental event, but I did like the sound the band had with a very prominent Hot Tuna, flavor.



Over the years many bootlegs of this big night have appeared and disappeared, and they always seemed to come from the same lousy audience source (Way back, with some joker's talking about their dope throughout the show). Worse still these poor quality boots never contained the full show. Well, tripsters, here it is! Not of perfect sound, lot's of bum notes and without the funk-factor of being inside Winterland itself...BUT, it's the truth of what happened that night, and you can own it.



The late, Bill Graham does the introduction and it's right into a fast, grundgy; "Somebody To Love". Fine versions of: "The Son of Jesus", "Long John Silver" and "Have You Seen the Saucers?" make this a little more special than your normal Airplane collection. And for you guys that want: "White Rabbit" and other 'Hits', they ain't here, so save your bucks for the greatest hits CD, this is not for you...



For true fans of the Airplane, this CD set is a: "Must-Have". I really enjoy this... wart's 'n' all. This is what the Jefferson Airplane was...a great, great band of an era that changed everything...It will never be like this again! Here goes, I've said it before, and I can't stop saying This: I MISS this band, and I miss Winterland... THIS IS HISTORY!"

Now this is more like it!

Barry P. Saranchuk | Moosic, PA United States | 04/17/2007

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Here's a raw,but very exciting document of the last ever Jefferson Airplane concert from 1972.



There are a few missed notes,and some flat spots here and there,....but this shows that the band still had some musical fire to spew even in it's last moments.



Avoid the other "Live at Golden Gate Park" release from this Charly/Snapper series though. That one ,although from the band's prime period,has an horrible mix where most of the guitar is missing,and the drums and vocals are too "in your face".



"Last Flight" is a flawed but very cool document for all the Airplane fans out there!"

Could have made a great double live album in 1972/73

mimo | 03/29/2007

(4 out of 5 stars)

"This is (for Airplane afficionados) a highly interesting set largely because of the song selection. The band is in good form throughout from start to finish.

The recording originates from one concert (songs are in the original running order) and shows their live set quite "together", much more than you would have expected after having listened to the quite carelessly thrown together THIRTY SECONDS OVER WINTERLAND (the official live record from that tour).-



Recorded at the very end of the golden Airplane era it focuses on their at that time last two LPs (9 tracks from BARK/LONG JOHN SILVER). As the booklet says: These were - compared to their other "solo"activities - the weaker records.... but they get a s t r o n g treatment here and are the center of the show.

The Airplane had been (losing key members of the band and) dividing into fractions at that time & a lot of those "fractions" get their way here:

- Hot Tuna ("Come Back Baby", "John's Other", "Trial By Fire" & "Walking The Tou Tou")...

- Papa John Creach ("Down Home Blues").... and those

- SF-Allstar-LPs that were made at the same time (records that centered mostly around Paul Kantner, then Grace Slick, David Freiberg; represented here to a lesser extent through the "Diana"-intro & "Blind John" that later ended on Mickey Hart's "Rolling Thunder")

Marty Balin joins the band on the last track (his co-penned "Volunteers").



Recording quality is a bit muddy, slightly inconsistent but (for that time) quite good; you can hear vocals and instruments (& what I'm personally very happy about: the BASS); the band has a "sound".- My Christmas wish: a more "heartfelt" mastering.- "Feel So Good" has a cut in the middle.

The booklet is nicely done and informative (nothing new for the die-hard fan).



PS. I cannot say similar favourable things about "Quicksilver Messenger Service At The Kabuki Theatre 1970" from the same series (only for completists)."