Starship seemed the most "corporate" of the ones mentioned, and wasn't their big time a little later than the other three? "We Built This City" was one of the lamest songs of the 1980s ... and they had the nerve to speak of "corporation games" in the lyrics?
I remember when I was a kid in the early 80s going to she a show of them with a friend who was a big fan and thinking that they were terrible! I wasn't really even into the earlier incarnation of the Jefferson Starship band, and most of what I knew about them was from a very old (even at the time) "Worst of Jefferson Airplane" LP, I had, which I really liked... and there was nothing left of them which had any of that vibe, for sure! By that point, any of the imagination, subtlety, passion, etc that they had once had kind of evaporated and they seemed to be just about cashing checks, which I'm sure they did because that music was quite popular.
Yeah, Starship was a travesty on the legacy of the earlier Jefferson Airplane which was a fine group, and the two should really never be spoken of in the same breath. Unfortunately, I have the feeling that Starship has unfairly tarnished the legacy of Jefferson Airplane since they seem to be missing from the legacy revival of the older music acts I've been seeing happening these days. Even the Monkees have seemed to come through better! The middle period Jefferson Starship was, not surprisingly, between the two others in quality, but may also have been the target for accusations of "corporate rock" in their time.
The couple of those that I heard were decent, but weren't they still Jefferson Starship then?
I am also a giant fan of rock operas. Perhaps that is why I also love the music of Meatloaf and Jim Steinman.
Those are awesome pictures!!!
Perhaps so... yet, "We Built This City" fits squarely into the musical trends of the day (1985). It might have been "lame", and they are most certainly hypocrites in so many ways, they did (or their management team) have a finger on the pulse of the times. That is more that can be said for many, formerly successful, bands in the mid-1980s. Personally, not being a great Jefferson Airplane, Jefferson Starship, or plain, Starship, fan, I really only enjoyed three songs of theirs: "White Rabbit", "Somebody to Love", and "Miracles". I can certainly deal with "We Built This City" as it was by far the best song off that Starship CD (which is collecting dust on my CD shelf).
I also have the "Worst of Jefferson Airplane", but on CD... Perhaps they, as a band, had passion and spirit at one time, meshing seamlessly with the California "counter-culture" of the late 1960s. Even their 1975 (or was it 1976) release of "Red Octopus" was pretty good. After that, I think their time was done, and the stage lights should have been turned off. For me, Jefferson Airplane, Jefferson Starship, and Starship, were the same band, just with a different name. I also have no idea why they were so popular, with so many. Perhaps just like with Rush or the Grateful Dead, I simply don't get their music.
I wasn't even comparing the song to other classic stuff. Even compared to the 80s pop hit music of those times, it sucked IMO.
I'll never be able to think of them this way since they each sounded so different, even though they had certain members in common, but that was mostly gone by the time of Starship. To me, different names mean different groups.
You could say the same about Fleetwood Mac...except IMO...all variations thereof were very good indeed...
For me, as a kid with an increasing interest in music through the late 70s and early 80s, I was hungry for music that had some imagination to it that didn't feel like it was necessarily made for the specific purpose of getting radio play. Early on I was into stuff like Boston and Foreigner, but quickly felt that this music lacked any real sense of adventure to it and simply seemed too pre-fab. Eventually, there was all this new music coming out with a different flavor that was much more exciting to me: punk and new wave stuff, but until I caught onto that, I discovered older, less hip music that had the spirit I was looking for, and that included Jefferson Airplane and the Dead. I can actually see why folks don't like the Grateful Dead as so much of their music, and their most popular stuff, is a kind of easy listening, twangy, country rock that doesn't really resonate with me so much. The music that they made well before I was a fan (before I could have gone to their concerts), I hear as a far more adventurous, eclectic affair. To me, the early stuff of the Dead and the Jefferson Airplane was really thoughtful, adventurous music which crossed lots of genre boundaries in interesting ways... They both seem to lose that spirit as time went on, through Jefferson Airplane when they became "Starship" lost it to an even greater extent, to the point where it seems that they might have said to themselves, "this is how we need to sound now, if we want to get on the radio and pay down our mortgages..."Perhaps so... yet, "We Built This City" fits squarely into the musical trends of the day (1985). It might have been "lame", and they are most certainly hypocrites in so many ways, they did (or their management team) have a finger on the pulse of the times. That is more that can be said for many, formerly successful, bands in the mid-1980s. Personally, not being a great Jefferson Airplane, Jefferson Starship, or plain, Starship, fan, I really only enjoyed three songs of theirs: "White Rabbit", "Somebody to Love", and "Miracles". I can certainly deal with "We Built This City" as it was by far the best song off that Starship CD (which is collecting dust on my CD shelf).
I also have the "Worst of Jefferson Airplane", but on CD... Perhaps they, as a band, had passion and spirit at one time, meshing seamlessly with the California "counter-culture" of the late 1960s. Even their 1975 (or was it 1976) release of "Red Octopus" was pretty good. After that, I think their time was done, and the stage lights should have been turned off. For me, Jefferson Airplane, Jefferson Starship, and Starship, were the same band, just with a different name. I also have no idea why they were so popular, with so many. Perhaps just like with Rush or the Grateful Dead, I simply don't get their music.
when I hear bands like Styx, I loose my appetite
Perhaps you are right, yet I am particularly fond of Journey's Frontiers CD. It is very strong, from beginning to end. Unlike Kilroy was Here, however, it doesn't really tell a story. I would agree, however, that this is not a question of "memorable material", but that both bands were winding down. Frontiers was the end for Journey, and Kilroy was the end for Styx. Yet both, were excellent, and fitted the styles, culture, and tastes of the day (early 1980s).
That is really sad, and very narcissistic, if not hypocritical, of Tommy Shaw, because Mr. Roboto was Styx's biggest commercial hit (I believe) and made him a fortune (which is an indisputable fact). In fact, Shaw emulated they style of Mr. Roboto (if not the entire "Kilroy was Here" CD) with his solo work "Girls with Guns" the following year precisely due to the large amount of money he made from Mr. Roboto.I remember an interview with Tommy Shaw where he said he was loaded when they went on stage to do Mr. Roboto because he hated it so much.
Like it or not, Dennis DeYoung, with his theatrical style and love of "rock operas" had his finger squarely on the pulse of the times. None of the others in Styx really did. 