Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Up on the Roof

Funnily enough, I've been listening to a lot of vintage Jefferson Airplane of late -- now that I think of it, perhaps inspired by the upcoming premiere of the 1970 student movie featuring my college Airplane wannabe band -- and I just discovered this remarkable artifact.

Shot by Jean-Luc Godard on top of a Manhattan office building on November 11, 1968, for the froggy auteur's ultimately never finished One A.M. (One American Movie).



And yes, that's actually quite a while earlier than the iconic band performance atop the Apple Building it seems to emulate; in fact, The Beatles rooftop swansong didn't happen till January 30, 1969.

In any case, great minds thought alike. Or something.

[h/t Steve Schwartz]

9 comments:

The Phantom Creep said...

Marty Balin really was a charismatic SOB, wasn't he. And if he's a hippie, I'm U Thant.

Anonymous said...

November? Must have been freezing.

And strangely, I've been listening to some Airplane recently too, steve, but I've been listening to very early stuff -- 66-67 -- when they were more flower-power and not up-against-the-wall-motherfucker.

And before they all hated each other; really,you can hear the difference.

Gummo

steve simels said...

Gummo:

Stuff with Signe? There's a bunch at Wolfgang's vault....

Anonymous said...

Love the Signe "Tobacco Road"!!!

Anonymous said...

Yes, both Signe and early Grace.

Signe's last show with the Airplane was October 15, 1966; Grace's first was the very next night!

To me that's so cool & nonchalant.

Gummo

steve simels said...

Our friend Willard posted the expanded remastered version of "Bless It's Pointed Little Head" a while back and I just got around to listening to the bonus tracks, which are unreal...

dave™© said...

Good thing you posted this. I had a very long treatise on how, if you entered your teenage years in the late 70s when punk/new wave was happening and Dylan was singing to Jeebus, you might not necessarily think he was the greatest thing since sliced bread planned as a comment below.

I did post the lyrics to the classic "Wiggle Wiggle" down there...

Anonymous said...

Dave TMC, give the guy a break.

It's his friggin' birthday, fer chrissakes!

TMink said...

Gummo, just what I was thinking. Especially about the "before they hated each other" part. The improvisational aspects of their voices together was really something special, especially when there was joy in doing it.

Trey