What did Jefferson Airplane produce 18 years after Paul visited San Francisco in 1967? That would be 1985. Jefferson Airplane disbanded in 1972.
Only if Brian Epstein didn’t cram every TV show, radio performance, concert, interview and more into their 1963-66 schedule. They really did not have freedom to be artistic until Rubber Soul and Revolver sessions and then Brian died in 1967. They changed the world anyway. What else could they have done? And I second others that they broke up at the right time.
Not showing off, but that's what artists did back then, they played their just completed works for other artists. For instance, McCartney got to listen to an advanced copy of Pet Sounds thanks to Bruce Johnston, and was so inspired he went on to spur the Beatles into Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.
Their career was perfect. From fresh, innovative rockers with a great sounds and loads of talent to seasoned songwriters and sound pioneers. No mediocre reunion albums, no cash-in comeback tours...
The big question in this thread is if it could have continued into the 1970s and even beyond, perhaps innovating where other bands have innovated instead. Does anyone here know of any reunion albums that are perhaps not mediocre?
Since Macca wrote 10 songs to every one song the second most prolific member wrote the next Beatles albums were going to be top heavy with silly love songs had they remained together.
That’s my question as well. By the mid eighties they had morphed into The Starship releasing such masterpieces like We Built This City (I’m cringing as I write that).
Technically, it saved the Beatles recording time and use of tracks, especially when they were still using 4 to 8 tracks. It gave them time to do something else instead of repeating the same vocal/instrumental how many more times. And it saved other people after from having to do their same vocals/instrumentals if they used the innovation, such as Pink Floyd on Piper At The Gates of Dawn and on Hendrix albums. It's like a xerox or copy/paste; you don't have to type it out again, and you can manipulate the tech to get even more sounds. So why not just sing the parts again or do the instrumental again? Well, with the use of ADT, you don't have to. Automatic double tracking - Wikipedia
If John, Paul, George, and Ringo had been solo artists in the 60s instead of a band together, would they have even gotten anywhere at all?
A question that’s impossible to answer. Who would their musical influences be. Remember…no “Beatles”.
Well, they'd just carry on with whatever is going on...Paul would be writing I'll Follow The Sun, John would be writing Hello Little Girl or whatever, and they'd try and get somewhere (maybe) individually. And they'd listen to Smokey Robinson and all all the others they liked. They just wouldn't have each other...same as afterwards when they didn't have each other.
Some people sneer at Free As A Bird and Real Love, done 25 years after, but I think they are masterful. And that they took John's vocal from a cassette and made it work, shows they still were willing to innovate and take chances.
The only connection from Starship to Airplane was Grace Slick. No other members of Jefferson Airplane were in Starship. It was a completely different band. Saying Starship "Knee Deep In the Hoopla" was morphed from Jefferson Airplane would be like saying Mick Jagger "Goddess in the Doorway" was morphed from Rolling Stones. Or as Keef called it, "Dogsh_t In the Doorway."
I agree with you…I’m just trying to figure out what the “18 years later” could possibly have been referring to.
How is it innovative to do the same thing that was already done countless times by many others, starting decades earlier? Two famous examples that immediately come to mind are: Norman Petty was overdubbing Buddy Holly's home recorded vocal and guitar demo tapes with a full band starting almost immediately after Holly died (in 1959). Alan Douglas was editing and overdubbing. Jimi Hendrix's (raw, jammy, never meant for release) session tapes, to create finished masters throughout the last half of the 1970s (adding to and in many cases even erasing/replacing Jimi's original accompanists/band members on those tracks). Some of what Douglas did was technically quite impressive, though ethically quite appalling.
