“Blows Against the Empire” is a concept album by Paul Kantner and Grace Slick, released under the name Paul Kantner and Jefferson Starship, the first album to use the "Starship" name.
Billing, predating the formation of the group with that name by four years. Kantner used it, extrapolating on the name of his current band, Jefferson Airplane, to refer to Blows's science fiction concept: A bunch of left-wing hippies closely resembling his San Francisco Bay Area compatriots hijack a government-built starship and head off to re-start the human race on another planet.
Kantner had presaged this post-apocalyptic colonization idea on "Wooden Ships" on the last Airplane album, “Volunteers”, and here he expanded it out to album length with the help of members of The Airplane, the Grateful Dead, Quicksilver Messenger Service, and Crosby, Stills and Nash, plus assorted others, a shifting supergroup informally known as PERRO, The Planet Earth Rock And Roll Orchestra. (Kantner later would borrow that name for a subsequent solo album.) “Blows Against the Empire” actually was a little loose as concept albums go, seeming as concerned with the arrival of Kantner and Grace Slick's baby as with the departure of the starship. Kantner employed often dense instrumentation and complex arrangements, but there were enough hooks and harmonies to keep things interesting. The album eventually went gold, and it was even nominated for a science fiction award usually reserved for novels.
Track listing
01. "Mau Mau" (Amerikon) (Joey Covington, Paul Kantner, Grace Slick) - 6:33
02. "The Baby Tree" (Rosalie Sorrels) - 1:42
03. "Let's Go Together" (Paul Kantner) - 4:11
04. "A Child Is Coming" (Paul Kantner) - 6:15
05. "Sunrise" (Grace Slick) - 1:54
06. "Hijack" (Marty Balin, Gary Blackman, Paul Kantner, Grace Slick) - 8:18
07. "Home" (Paul Kantner, Graham Nash, Phil Sawyer) - 0:37
08. "Have You Seen The Stars Tonite" (David Crosby, Paul Kantner) - 3:42
09. "XM" (Jerry Garcia, Mickey Hart, Paul Kantner) - 1:22
10. "Starship" (Marty Balin, Gary Blackman, Paul Kantner, Grace Slick) - 7:07
Credits
Paul Kantner – vocals, electric guitars, acoustic guitars, banjo, bass machine
Grace Slick – piano, vocals
Jerry Garcia – banjo, pedal steel guitar , sound effects and vocals, lead guitar
Bill Kreutzmann – drums
Mickey Hart – percussion, sound effects and vocals
Joey Covington – drums and vocals, congas
Jack Casady – bass
David Crosby – vocals and guitar, background vocals
Graham Nash – congas, sound effects, background vocals
David Freiberg – background vocals
Harvey Brooks – bass
Peter Kaukonen – lead guitar
Phill Sawyer – sound effects
Mastered At – Artisan Sound Recorders
Engineer – Allen Zentz
Producer – Paul Kantner
Notes
Recorded Fall 1970 at Pacific High Recording and Wally Heider Studios, San Francisco
Genre: Psychedelic Rock, Folk Rock
Length: 41:41
Label: RCA Victor
© 1970
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