Jefferson Airplane: The most pivotal moment of Jack Casady’s career
Jefferson Airplane are one of the defining bands of the 1960s. With their Californian peers, they pioneered the psychedelic sound of the decade. Playing at iconic festivals like Woodstock and the Monterey Pop Festival, one moment stands out as especially pivotal to bassist Jack Casady.
Going on to write hits like ‘Today’, ‘White Rabbit’ and ‘Somebody To Love’, the psychedelic rock band formed in 1965. Existing in the same scene that birthed the Grateful Dead, Janis Joplin, Steve Miller band and Sly and the Family Stone, to name a few, Jefferson Airplane were a major influence on the San Francisco sound.
When their debut album, Jefferson Airplane Takes Off, was released, the band were immediately written into the zeitgeist. Way outselling their record label’s predictions, the initial print run of 15,000 copies had to be instantly extended after 10,000 copies sold in San Francisco alone.
It was this debut album that stood out as a pivotal moment for Jack Casady. Beyond their well-regarded slots at Woodstock and Monterey, their humble start means the most to their bassist.
When asked by Guitar World to pinpoint a pivotal moment, Casady said: “I’ve got to say probably going into the studio for the first time”. Detailing further, he continued: “And don’t forget, I had a tape recorder – a 1959 Wollensak, which was the high-end personal tape recorder. So, I had my hands a little bit in the recording world.”
Without the easy recording equipment available at the touch of a button, getting the chance to cut a record was a rarity back in the 1960s. “Most folks didn’t even get a chance to hear what they sounded like – unless you had a recording contract and got into the studio,” Casady continued.
The process back then was simple, as the band merely tried to capture their sound in the most organic way. Casady explained: “To have those early years doing the [Jefferson Airplane] Takes Off album and then Surrealistic Pillow, that was a time to get in the studio and have fun in the there for its own sake. Up until then, it was pretty much a case of trying to get the sound you got on stage in the studio.”
“And once you realize that that could only go so far, you started to enjoy that atmosphere and uniqueness to that sound environment in the studio, and start to work with that,” he added, “I found that to be really a watershed moment for me playing bass.”
Looking back at the band’s achievements and accolades, those early recording experiences stand out as pivotal to Casady. “It was a great revelation for me to get in a studio and hear back what I actually sounded like,” he said. Adding simply, “That was a big moment for me.”
