When Jean-Luc Godard filmed Jefferson Airplane performing live on a New York rooftop in 1968
On a chilly Tuesday morning at around 7am on November 19th 1968, pioneering psychedelic rock band Jefferson Airplane carried their gear to the roof of the nine-story Schuyler Hotel located close to New York’s chaotic Times Square. It would be a defining moment for the band and propel them even further into the depths of the counterculture. It would not only see the group become giants in their field but once again confirm the late, great Jean-Luc Godard as one of the decade’s most inspiring filmmakers.
The free gig, which took place before The Beatles decided to perform their now-iconic show atop Apple Record headquarters in London, attracted the same kind of reaction, but its legacy has proven to be less memorable despite some very well-known attendees—most notably the now critically acclaimed filmmaker Jean-Luc Godard. While it may have fallen flat in comparison to the escapades of the Fab Four, the film has now taken on even greater significance following the director’s sad passing.
Godard, famed for his films such as Bande à part, Pierrot le Fou and more, had alternative rock and roll music running through his veins on the day that Jefferson Airplane picked up their instruments on that day in 1968. Having recently released his Rolling Stones documentary Sympathy for the Devil just a matter of weeks before, Godard was now a hot commodity in the rock and roll world.
Detailing how Godard came to be in control of the camera on that day, Richard Brody says: “He took over from the specialists and operated the camera from the window of Leacock-Pennebaker’s office on West Forty-fifth street, shooting the band on the roof of the Schuyler Hotel across the street,” in a study published as part of his Everything is Cinema: The Working Life of Jean-Luc Godard project.
However, despite becoming one of the pioneers of the French New Wave, as well as a leading light in the world of modern cinema, it would seem that Pennebaker was not exactly pleased with his contribution to the project: “Pennebaker recalled him to be an amateurish cameraman who could not avoid the beginner’s pitfall of frequent zooming in and out.” The performance took place without a permit, at standard rock volume, AKA very, very loud. The band’s counterculture Queen and singer Grace Slick later wrote: “We did it, deciding that the cost of getting out of jail would be less than hiring a publicist.”
Without a permit and music so loud it could be heard for a considerable distance, the band went into their plan with no fear and no care for the repercussions. The film may not be considered as culturally relative as the moment The Beatles went to the rooftop of Apple Records, a notion compounded by the recent documentary from Peter Jackson, nor as well-known as Godard’s work with The Rolling Stones, however, it confirms the director and the band as pivotal members of the cultural revolution in the 1960s.
Remembering the moment, Jefferson Airplane founding member Paul Kantner once fondly reminisced in an interview: “Just for a while there, maybe for about 25 minutes in 1967, everything was perfect.”
See the footage below.
