Grace Slick and The Great Society: How It Was (1968)

Some tasty leftovers that were discovered in the back of the fridge, in case you’re hungry for more Great Society.

Kronomyth 2: The rest of the best of the great society.

This is thirty minutes of leftovers from The Great Society’s appearance at The Matrix, originally recorded in 1966 and kept warm until Grace Slick had safely boarded the Airplane. The better bits from that performance were released as Conspicuous Only In Its Absence, while most listeners were unaware that another eight songs were inconspicuously absent. On How It Was, the other shoe falls; both were eventually cobbled together as a double elpee titled Collector’s Item from the San Francisco Scene. Seriously, that’s what it was called, which I guess it what happens when you take too much acid. Fortunately, the performance was well preserved, so the recording quality is pretty good for an archival release. Grace, of course, sounds great and even joins her bandmates on recorder (for the prescient hippie hit, Nature Boy) and on organ for the freestyle jam ending, Father. Also included here is the sweetly innocent and slightly silly That’s How It Is and a handful of blues-based psychedelic songs. The Great Society was a seminal psychedelic band, true, but their performances tend to live or die by Grace Slick’s vocals. Without them, it’s unlikely that anyone would have bothered to preserve these recordings, since the group really doesn’t have a second viable vocalist, as You Can’t Cry makes painfully apparent. The value of hearing How It Was is more contextual than musical. It provides a window into what was happening in San Francisco in the mid-to-late 60s and shows where the ideologies of The Great Society and Jefferson Airplane intersected, although only one of those bands was destined for great things.

Original elpee version

A1. That’s How It Is (David Minor) (2:35)
A2. Darkly Smiling (Darby Slick) (3:06)
A3. Nature Boy (Eden Ahbez) (3:06)
A4. You Can’t Cry (David Minor) (3:13)
B1. Daydream Nightmare (David Minor) (4:30)
B2. Everybody Knows (Darby Slick) (2:33)
B3. Born to Be Burned (Darby Slick/Jerry Slick) (3:15)
B4. Father (Grace Slick/Darby Slick/Jerry Slick/David Minor) (6:41)

The Players

David Minor (rhythm guitar), Darby Slick (lead guitar, vocals), Grace Slick (vocals, recorder, organ), Jerry Slick (drums), Peter Vandergelder (bass guitar, soprano sax). Produced by Peter Abram; engineered by Francisco De Luna.

The Plastic

Released on elpee in 1968 in the US (Columbia, CS 9702).

1. Re-packaged w. Conspicuous Only in Its Absence as Collector’s Item from the San Francisco Scene on 2-for-1 2LP in the US (Columbia, G 30459) with gatefold cover.