Jefferson Starship/CA,USA 1975 Mike Millard Tapes

Discovery of Mike Millard’s never-ending audience recording masters. Sound sources of various artists are released every week and continue to excite maniacs, but this Sunday, Jefferson Starship 1975 Long Beach Arena appeared. Speaking of the same venue this year, Millard just accomplished a feat that will be handed down to future generations at Led Zeppelin two months ago. For that reason, from the very beginning of this recording, you will be overwhelmed by the powerful sound image of stable mirrored quality. In the first place, isn’t the stage performance of the Jefferson Airplane-affiliated musicians a genre that doesn’t interest Millard? Given that impression, the fact that he even visited their stage was surprising. Millard’s amazing work shows that even such an artist can perfectly handle the spectacular recording condition. This time as well, the sound image is overwhelming, and as soon as you press the play button and the opening “Ride The Tiger” starts, you will be able to listen to it with confidence as the sound board is bright blue and has a “mirrord-like sound quality”. 1975 marked the beginning of the group’s peak, when they upgraded from Jefferson Airplane, which stopped in 1973, to Jefferson Starship in 1974. This year, when the album “RED OCTOPUS” was released and achieved more success than the Airplane era, Millard recorded a valuable time. He recorded it on May 25th, less than a month until the release of “RED OCTOPUS”. Many songs from the same album have already been included in the set, and in combination with the previous album “DRAGON FLY”, it is a confident set list that is mostly composed of Starship songs. Also, the big appeal of this recording is that it is a valuable time for the members. It was the last time that Papa John Creech, who joined Airplane in its final stages and gained popularity as a unique grandpa fiddler, was enrolled in Starship from parallel movement. In addition, it was also the time when Marty Balin, an ally from the Airplane era who had also participated as a guest singer on “DRAGON FLY”, became an official member. In other words, Papa John’s and Ballin’s time together on stage was very short. It means that Millard captured the stage of such a precious time. Papa John, who was a cheerful grandpa, left Starship after this tour was over when talk of his own solo album arose. Even so, his presence was tremendous, and you can tell that he was loved by everyone, not only playing the fiddle but also sharing the MC with Grace Slick. What’s more, with the addition of guitarist Craig Chaquiso and other musicians, Jefferson Starship succeeded in creating a hard 70’s rock sound, which led to the huge hit of “RED OCTOPUS”. Therefore, this day’s performance is centered around him and progresses in a hard and sometimes jam-like direction, but it is wonderful that John Creech comes in with the fiddle on songs such as “Wooden Ships”. Furthermore, with Ballin’s return, the greatest appeal of the Airplane sound, which is the intersection of songs by him, Slick, and Paul Kantner, has been revived, and the singing parts have been greatly enriched, and the performance and front lines have been improved. It is also of great value in that Millard captures the best period, when the fulfillment of both was remarkable. Towards the end of the live show, the band is filled with numbers from the Airplane era, but these also blend well with a hard rock sound that eliminates the psychedelic feel (which had become old-fashioned at the time) in a good way. Rather, it evolved into a new sound thanks to Chaquiso’s guitar and drummer John Barbeita, who supported this peak. Barin’s addition filled the last vacant seat on Starship, and the performance and singing were overwhelmingly fulfilling, as the song “Sweeter Than Honey” from “RED OCTOPUS”, which had already been performed just before its release, was played with full of confidence. It also realistically captures the excitement of the audience. And it can be said that it is a document that captures the band’s state of being on the upswing, as Slick’s singing performance stands out throughout. A stage performance by the strongest members of the time when they were playing the hardest rock sound, different from 60’s psych Airplane or 80’s synth pop Starship, with the best sound quality! Long Beach Arena, Long Beach, CA, USA 25th May 1975 TRULY PERFECT SOUND Disc 1 (62:17) 1. Intro 2. Ride The Tiger 3. Fast Buck Freddie 4. The Witcher 5. Devil’s Den / Bass solo 6. Caroline 7. You’re Driving Me Crazy 8. Papa John’s Down Home Country Blues 9. I Want To See Another World 10. Play on Love Disc 2 (68:52) 1. Better Lying Down 2. Have You Seen The Saucers? 3 Come To Life 4. White Rabbit 5. Sweeter Than Honey / Drum Solo 6. John’s Other 7. Somebody To Love 8. Wooden Ships 9. Volunteers