‘With Your Love’: the 1976 song that proved Jefferson Starship were not the same as their predecessors
When Jefferson Airplane landed their first two Top 10 hits in 1967 with ‘Somebody To Love’ and ‘White Rabbit’, there was something genuinely exciting about what the group had to offer, and a sense that they had the potential to help shape the psychedelic rock movement.
The former song felt full of venom and was a surefire way to attract attention, while the follow-up was cryptic and mysterious, with plenty of references to aspects of counterculture that were bound to be a hit with those looking for an alternative to the pop market. Yes, there was the obvious ‘drugginess’ that caused something of an alarm for certain listeners, unsure of whether it was responsible for them to be promoting a band who so blatantly sang about mind-altering substances, but for others, this was an obvious winner.
One particular element that set them apart from the rest of their contemporaries was the booming vocals of Grace Slick, something that you would have put money on them using to their advantage and ensuring that it was woven into the fabric of the band. However, as easy as it would have been to apply such a signature element, it appeared that they weren’t interested in employing it for too long.
Sales began to dip towards the end of the 1960s, and albums were considerably less well-received than Surrealistic Pillow, the album that these two hits had been taken from. They began to change tack a little bit as they moved into the 1970s in an effort to make themselves more relevant, but it never seemed to feel natural, and then, nothing.
It wouldn’t be long before they found themselves transforming completely into a new band with a new identity, so to speak. Their new, slightly altered guise of Jefferson Starship wasn’t exactly too different from Jefferson Airplane in terms of the personnel, but stylistically, they seemed to have all but abandoned their psychedelic origins in favour of soft rock.
This may well have been the flavour of the month in the early to mid-1970s, but it wasn’t where either iteration of the project ought to have been, and by the time they released their third album under this new moniker, they’d all but shed their old identity.
The song that demonstrates this the most is ‘With Your Love’, the lead single from 1976’s Spitfire, which features Marty Balin on gently delivered vocals; a far cry from the wails of Slick that made their two hits as Jefferson Airplane stand out so much. There may be slight touches of their psychedelic past that are easy to pick up on, but for the most part, this was now a thing of the past.
It’s like they wanted to be the Eagles or Fleetwood Mac, but it lacks the conviction of either band because it simply wasn’t where they belonged. The fact that ‘With Your Love’ marks the first and only time they reached the Top 10 of the Adult Contemporary chart, while still failing to make the same kind of impression in the main Billboard charts, ought to have underlined just how middle of the road they’d become, and while the song is still pleasant on the ears, you have to question how Jefferson Airplane mutated into this in under ten years.
There was something daring about what Jefferson Airplane had to offer on those early singles, and Jefferson Starship were simply a shadow of their former selves. They’d chosen to play it incredibly safe, and it’s hard to know what possessed them to make such a move away from something that was arguably more artistically and commercially rewarding, but then again, they’d make it worse for themselves when they underwent their second transformation into Starship in 1985 and tarnished their reputation all over again.
