Since I first heard her, Grace Slick has been among my most favorite vocalists. Her vocal range was astounding, from clear delicate whisper to sustained and soaring cries and made her name virtually synonymous with that of her second band, Jefferson Airplane. Yes, second.
The Airplane sought her specifically because of her work with The Great! Society.
The Great! Society (they later dropped the punctuation) formed late in the summer of 1965 after Grace read an article in the San Francisco Chronicle about a new band called Jefferson Airplane. A week later, she and her husband Jerry Slick checked them out at the Matrix. Deciding that being in a rock band looked like fun and would pay better than her modeling, Grace and Jerry soon formed their own band, The Great! Society, joined by Darby Slick (Jerry's brother) and later others. The name was intended to poke fun at then-President Lyndon Johnson's program of the same name.
Although they lasted only for a little over a year and released just one single, The Great! Society did produce two songs which the Jefferson Airplane would soon make into top ten hits: Somebody to Love (Darby) and White Rabbit (Grace). Here's the band lineup:
Darby Slick - guitar, backing vocals
Grace Slick - vocals, recorder, organ, guitar, bass
David Miner - vocals, guitar
Jerry Slick - drums
Bard Dupont - bass, harmonica
Jean Piersol - vocals (for a short time in 1965)
Peter van Gelder - bass, flute, saxophone
Oscar Daniels - guitar
Today I'll play you a nice sampling of The Great Society! and then later on, some 1976 Grateful Dead (playlist).