Wednesday 15 August 2012

JEFFERSON STARSHIP LINK: Jefferson Airplane/Starship commander: San Franciscan Paul Kantner

Jefferson Starship are a band of whom I am very fond. Their music provided a great deal of the soundtrack to my late adolescence, and I became far too obsessed with some of Paul Kantner's side projects than I should have been. I am greatly enjoying rediscovering albums like Baron Von Tolbooth and the Chrome Nun now I am well into middle age, and so I grab every opportunity to post about them on the Gonzo Daily...


SAN FRANCISCO (Herald de Paris) —
Rock and Roll hall of fame San Franciscan Paul Kantner is the co-founder of the Jefferson Airplane and its spin-off band Jefferson Starship. The Airplane was formed by singer Marty Balin and Kantner eventually became the engine that powered the Jefferson Airplane. He piloted the group through the bands various incarnations eventually settling into the Jefferson Starship. Kantner is the pariah of the band; at times he was its only member. Paul is a songwriter, singer and plays rhythm guitar. Kantner has three children, sons Gareth and Alexander, and daughter China with former Airplane lead singer Grace Slick.

Paul’s mother died when he was eight years old. His father, a traveling salesman, sent young Kantner off to Jesuit military school after his mother’s death. It was in the school’s library at age eight or nine where he read his first science fiction book, finding an escape by immersing himself in science fiction novels beginning with CS. Lewis. And music. He said jokingly, “Given my early age military school experience I should be a serial killer by now. Science Fiction opened up my whole imagination in the middle of military school. I kept reading various authors throughout the years, just stepping forward though various writers such as Asimov and Vonnegut. These other worldly perspectives opened mind my to the possibilities of the world.”

He entered University of Santa Clara and San Jose State College, completing a total of three years before he dropped out to enter the music scene. Kanter was hoping to become a folk singer like Pete Seeger, to whom he gave kudos during his 1996 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction in 1996.



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...and check out the Gonzo Artist Page for Jefferson Starship you know it makes sense.


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