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PEOPLE & ARTS Monday 1 october 2018
Marty Balin, founder of Jefferson Airplane, dies at 76

By HILLEL ITALIE cizing this beautiful-feeling
NEW YORK (AP) — Marty scene out here,'" and he
Balin, a patron of the 1960s looked me right in the eye
"San Francisco Sound" both and said, 'Fastest way to kill
as founder and lead singer it.'"
of the Jefferson Airplane Starting with "Surrealistic
and co-owner of the club Pillow," a soundtrack for
where the Airplane and many during the so-called
other bands performed, Summer of Love of 1967,
has died. He was 76. the group's music be-
Balin died Thursday in Tam- came more experimental.
pa, Florida, on the way to By such albums as "Blows
the hospital, spokesman Against the Empire" and
Ryan Romenesko said. The "After Bathing at Baxter's,"
cause of death was not im- Kantner was the principal
mediately available. songwriter (and eventually
Balin, who underwent Slick's boyfriend) and Balin
emergency heart surgery in found himself out of place
2016, sued a New York hos- with his own band and with
pital earlier this year, saying the rock scene overall.
a tracheotomy he had at He shunned hard drugs and
the time paralyzed a vo- preferred tight pop songs
cal cord and caused other to long jams. The classic film
damage. In this Feb. 15, 2016 file photo, Marty Balin arrives at the 58th annual Grammy Awards at the "Gimme Shelter," centered
"We knew he had some Staples Center in Los Angeles. on the ill-fated Altamont
health problems, but he re- Associated Press concert from 1969, showed
ally didn't talk about it at all Balin getting knocked out
and we never pressed him," cal anthem "Volunteers." In thought it was Grace's.' For tles' 1964 movie "A Hard on stage by the Hell's An-
fellow Jefferson Airplane the mid-1970s, when the a while that hurt my feel- Day's Night." Through the gels. By the early '70s, he
founding member Jorma Airplane regrouped as the ings, but there's nothing I club scene, he brought had left the Airplane.
Kaukonen said following more mainstream Jefferson can do about it." in songwriter-guitarist-vo- 'It was a period of cocaine
a show with his band Hot Starship, Balin sang lead Kaukonen said Friday that calist Paul Kantner, singer then — everybody took co-
Tuna on Friday night in on such hits as "Miracles" Balin had himself to blame Signe Anderson (whom caine. And people I would
Massachusetts. "His passing (which he co-wrote), "With at least partly for that, add- Slick replaced), guitar- work with, they would yell
to me at least was sudden Your Love" and "Count On ing the singer never liked to ist Kaukonen, bassist Jack at you and it got intense.
and unexpected. Me." He later had solo suc- draw attention to himself. Cassidy and drummer Skip The Airplane was on that
"He was certainly one of cess with "Hearts" and "At- "He was a good guy, he Spence, a novice given kind of trip," he told song-
the greatest voices of my lanta Lady." was a friendly guy, he just the job by Balin because writersuniverse.com in 2018.
time," Kaukonen contin- The Airplane was inducted wasn't openly gregarious," he supposedly looked like In recent years, he re-
ued. "His intense commit- into the Rock and Roll Hall Kaukonen said. He recalled a rock star. (Spence would leased such albums as "The
ment to song and music, it of Fame in 1996, but Ba- that Balin always carried leave after the first album Greatest Love" and "Good
just never abated." lin would long have mixed himself with "quiet dignity" and was replaced by Spen- Memories," a retrospec-
The dark-eyed, baby- feelings. Pride in the band's while other members of cer Dryden). The name Jef- tive of his Airplane/Starship
faced Balin was an ex-folk achievements was shad- the band could be "loud- ferson Airplane, suggested songs. He also reunited on
musician who formed the owed by its eventual break- mouths." by Kaukonen, was based occasion with old band-
Airplane in 1965 and within up and by Balin's acknowl- Balin was married twice, in part on bluesman Blind mates, whether appear-
two years was at the heart edged jealousy of Grace most recently to Susan Joy Lemon Jefferson. ing in concert with Casady
of a nationwide wave that Slick, the other lead vocal- Finkelstein, and had three Meanwhile, Balin and a and Kaukonen and their
briefly rivaled the Beatles' ist. Slick joined the group in children. handful of business part- group Hot Tuna, or bringing
influence and even helped the fall of 1966, soon before He had been in show busi- ners converted a Fillmore Signe Anderson on stage to
inspire the Beatles' "Sgt. the Airplane recorded its ness well before the Air- Street pizza place into the perform the Airplane's first
Pepper" album. landmark second album, plane. Born Martin Jerel Matrix, which opened in single, "It's No Secret."
The Airplane was the "Surrealistic Pillow." Buchwald in Cincinnati, he August 1965. A year later, And he liked returning to
breakout act among such One of rock's most charis- ended up in the Bay Area the group signed with RCA his folk roots, doing club
San Francisco-based art- matic singers and perform- as his father, a Jewish immi- Records and released the performances as part of an
ists as the Grateful Dead ers, she displaced Balin as grant from Eastern Europe, folk-rock album "The Jef- acoustic trio.
and Janis Joplin, many of the perceived leader, on struggled to find work. ferson Airplane Takes Off," "The whole night is me —
whom played early shows stage and on the Airplane's Marty Balin was a brooding, for which Balin wrote or co- and if you dig it, cool," he
at the Matrix, a ballroom best known songs, "Some- artistic child who dropped wrote eight songs. The Air- told Relix in 2016. "And I'm
Balin helped run and for body to Love" and "White out of San Francisco State plane, attuned early on to having fun. I move wher-
which the Airplane served Rabbit." University to pursue a ca- the counterculture, turned ever I want, from one song
as house band. "Every time I did some- reer in music. He recorded out buttons and bumper I want to another. There
The San Francisco Sound thing, it was always Grace a few singles with some of stickers reading THE JEFFER- aren't any egos and (we
was a psychedelic blend Slick and the Airplane and Phil Spector's session musi- SON AIRPLANE LOVES YOU. are free from) people's
of blues, folk, rock and jazz, Grace Slick and the Star- cians in the early '60s be- "I remember it was really problems — waiting for
and the musical expression ship," he told Relix maga- fore joining the folk group pretty and beautiful for a somebody to light a cig-
of the emerging hippie life- zine in 1993. "Even if it was the Town Criers. He also year or two," Balin told Re- arette, have a drink or
style. my voice. I've even done changed his last name to lix magazine in 1993. "And change guitars and orga-
Balin himself was known for songs of mine on my own Balin. then Time magazine came nize their music. Let's get
his yearning tenor on the and people come up to Like many of his peers, Ba- out and they were inter- to the music, man. That's
ballads "Today" and "It's No me and say, 'I'm surprised lin switched to electronic viewing me. I told the guy, what I'm doing — just flying
Secret," and on the politi- you do that song. I always music after seeing the Bea- 'It's great that you're publi- along."q