Today is the birthday of Jefferson Airplane (Starship)

vocalist Grace Slick. Recruited to the San Francisco band by a lovesick Paul

Kantner, Slick joined the Airplane in 1966, bringing with her the songs "White

Rabbit" and "Somebody To Love" from her band, Great Society. The huge success

of the album Surrealistic Pillow ensured the band a solid position in the

burgeoning '60s psychedelic San Francisco scene, and the band often played with

the Grateful Dead, the Quicksilver Messenger Service, Big Brother and the

Holding Company, and Country Joe and the Fish. Always in the right place at the

right time, the Airplane played such infamous concerts as the Golden Gate Park

Human Be-In, Woodstock, and the ill-fated Stones show at Altamont. In 1970 the

band changed its name to Jefferson Starship, Slick and Kantner had a daughter,

and Blows Against the Empire was nominated for a Hugo award for sci-fi writing.

It wasn't until four years and a few personnel changes later that the name

change became official, and the year after that Slick and Kantner broke up.

Shortly after this she embarked on a solo career, but continued to record with

the band. In 1985 Kantner legally extricated himself from Jefferson Starship

taking some cash and the Jefferson part with him. The following year the

remaining band, now known just as Starship, released the single "We Built This

City On Rock and Roll," which performed better than any previous Jefferson

Airplane or Starship releases. In 1989 Kantner returned and the band reunited

as Jefferson Airplane once again, but nothing much came from this

collaboration, and in 1989 they were awarded "Most Unwelcome Comeback" by

Rolling Stone magazine. Other birthdays: Bush's Gavin Rossdale