Great Rock Albums of 1983: Paul Kantner- Planet Earth Rock and Roll Orchestra

 

It figures that my weird mind would notice that Paul Kantner's very recent passing would occur right when I was going through the music history of 1983, the year his solo album was released. I was going to visit his album "Planet Earth Rock and Roll Orchestra" further along down the road as it didn't come to light until near the end of said year. Actually, I remember the opening title cut getting some airplay on radio back then. Mind you commercial radio didn't completely suck in 1983. Like I said last post, I always preferred the songs Kantner penned on Jefferson Starship albums, so it was a no brainer that I would get this one.

What I never knew was that this album was written to be a soundtrack for Paul's second novel "The Empire Blows Back," which was a sequel to his first "Blows Against the Empire." Listening to the album again, I can see how it fits. "Planet Earth Rock And Roll Orchestra" or PERRO for short is a mixture of hard, progressive and space rock and it's nicely done. Many of the musicians who appear on the album were current or former members of Jefferson Starship and Jefferson Airplane. Grace Slick does lead vocals on two songs and backing on many of the others. Furthermore, Craig Chaquico works his guitar magic as does Pete Sears with the keyboards, just like all three of them do on Jefferson Starship albums.

The album starts out in a fine hard rock form with the first three songs. The title cut opens things very well and I'm very impressed with track 2, "(She is a) Telepath." "Circle of Fire" was originally meant for the "Winds of Change" but it fits very well here. The next few tracks go very spacey and I think that possibly when these tracks are listened to, maybe one should partake of the same substances they would if listening to a Pink Floyd album. "The Mountain Song" combines both hard and space rock and to me has the typical trademark of a Kantner song. I have since learned that Paul co wrote it with Jerry Garcia so that may explain a lot. Then , out of the blue comes the very amusing track, "Declaration of Independence." Sung by Paul and Grace's daughter China Wing Kantner, the song is almost country with Paul playing along on the banjo, a very amusing song to say the least. China, who was only 12 at the time, provides the perfect vocals for it sounding like a little girl. The last two songs end things very well, especially the closer, "Let's Go." I remember once when listening to the track "I Came Back from the Jaws of the Dragon" off Starship's "Winds of Change" album, my ex wife commented that it sounded like Godspell. Yes, Paul had a thing for harmonies in that style on many of the songs but on "Let's Go," it concludes the album in masterful form.

Track Listing:

1. Planet Earth Rock And Roll Orchestra
2. (She Is a) Telepath
3. Circle of Fire
4. Mount Shasta
5. Lilith's Song
6. Transubstantiation
7. The Mountain Song
8. Declaration of Independence
9. Underground (The Laboratories)
10. The Sky's No Limit
11. Let's Go

[caption id="attachment_1600" align="aligncenter" width="178"] Paul Kantner- Jefferson Starship[/caption]

Paul Kantner- vocals, guitar, banjo, harmonica, synthesizers, lead guitar on "Underground"

Grace Slick- vocals, piano on "The Mountain Song" and "The Sky is No Limit"

Jack Casady- bass

Chiam Wing Kantner- vocals on "Declaration of Independence" and "The Sky Is No Limit"

Alexander Kantner- vocals on "Underground"

Craig Chaquico- lead guitar

Pete Sears- piano

Aynsley Dunbar- drums

Scott Matthews- guitar, harmonica, synthesizers, pedal steel guitar and Linn drums

Ron Nagle- piano and vocals on Transubstantiation

Ronnie Montrose- lead guitar on (She is a) Telepath

Flo & Eddie- vocals

Mickey Thomas- vocals on Circle of Fire

David Freiberg- synthesizers and vocals on Circle of Fire

The problem with "Planet Earth Rock and Roll Orchestra" was that it wasn't mainstream enough. That's why it go only limited airplay on radio. Even if it didn't I believe that I would have eventually discovered it and bought it anyway. This is a cool album and I think it would be only fitting to honour Paul Kantner by listening to it.

Next post: (Hopefully) Billy Idol

To buy Rock And Roll Children, email me at: tobychainsaw@hotmail.com 

Great Soundtracks of 1981: American Pop

Whilst I was on leave after my first deployment overseas, the animated film "American Pop" was at the cinemas. The fact that they used the spot where Jimi Hendrix plays "Purple Haze" was enough to make me want to go see it. The movie itself was all right but what was even better was the soundtrack. It had some of the great artists from the 60s and 70s on it and those songs together make this soundtrack very cool to listen to.

[caption id="attachment_113" align="aligncenter" width="226"] Jimi Hendrix[/caption]

It has been many years since I have seen this film or listened to the soundtrack but for those who may not be familiar with it, I'll go through a very quick synopsis of the movie. "American Pop" is about 4 generations of musicians. It begins in the early 20th Century and focuses on the character Zamwe who is a child star. However, is throat is injured while singing for the troops on World War One so he never gets to be a star. He also falls foul of the mafia. The story then goes to his son Benny who is an accomplished pianist in a jazz band. He is on the road to fame when World War Two breaks out. Unfortunately, he is shot in the back while playing a piano in a bombed out bar in France. However, Benny's seed is passed on through Tony. Now in the 60s, Tony's mother has remarried and has more kids making him an outcast. He goes on the road taking odd jobs where he meets a rock band and becomes their song writer. However, he gets involved with the female lead singer and also gets hooked on drugs ending his brief brush with success. Several years later, Tony is a down and out and his companion is a young street kid named Pete. Tony disappears after giving Pete a load of drugs telling him not to sell it all in one place. Several years more and Pete is a big time drug dealer and is selling to rock stars. One day, he asks the band he is selling to to hear one of his songs. The band refuse at first but relent when Pete threatens to withdraw his business. Pete plays his song and the result is he becomes a big rock star, the end.

[caption id="attachment_2316" align="aligncenter" width="208"] Tony and Pete[/caption]

At the time, this film was slated by a lot of people. The problem was that some people tried to take the film too literally. For instance, the girl singer comes across like Grace Slick, (the rest of the band does resemble Jefferson Airplane a little) but turns into Janis Joplin. Okay, those two 60s rock queens may have been fused together to create the character but I say good on them. The other one was at the end. It turns out that Pete's song is none other than "Night Moves" by and I know I've said it before, the unsung hero of 70s rock, Bob Seger. The Pete character was never meant to be Bob, they just use his song. Besides, I did a little research and didn't find any evidence that Bob Seger was a drug dealer. If I were to go back to that time, I would tell those people to lighten up because if you don't try to look at things that aren't really there, the film is quite enjoyable. Of course it is the soundtrack that really makes this movie.

[caption id="attachment_2317" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Do they resemble Jefferson Airplane to you?[/caption]

Official Track Listing:

1. Pat Benatar- Hell is for Children

2. Big Brother and the Holding Company- Summertime

3. The Mamas and the Papas- California Dreamin'

4. Peter, Paul and Mary- This Train

5. Jefferson Airplane- Somebody to Love

6. Jimi Hendrix- Purple Haze

7. The Dave Brubeck Quartet- Take Five

8. Sam Cooke- You Send Me

9. Fabian- Turn Me Loose

10. The Doors- People are Strange

Songs in the film not on the Soundtrack

Bob Seger- Night Moves

Lynyrd Skynyrd- Freebird

[caption id="attachment_940" align="aligncenter" width="251"] Bob Seger[/caption]

Just from looking at this list of songs, it is obvious that I do not need to go into more detail about them. A great array of songs from several decades brought together to make one hell of a soundtrack and you can't debate that whatever you think of the film.

Next post: The Soundtrack to Heavy Metal

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