Jefferson Airplane : Thing

Here is Something Rare...

In late 1967, 

Jefferson Airplane 

drummer 

Spencer Dryden

 commandeered the end of the 

recording sessions

 for the group’s

 After Bathing At Baxter’s,

 infusing a new-found,

 drug-drenched,

 free-form chaos

 to the Airplane’s evolving 

modus operandi. 

In the process, 

creating an

 Unreleased Album 

that would be lost to history. 

Under Dryden’s leadership, 

the recording studio became a 

pharmaceutical playhouse 

for the band, 

who collectively indulged 

every half-baked idea 

and ill-conceived whim

 that presented itself, 

resulting in a form-less, 

song-free collection of 

musique concrète and jams. 

At least one of the titles

 offers a clue, 

“A Small Package Of Value 

Will Come To You, Shortly” 

 The most obvious reference to

 the non-musical 

comings-and-goings

 in the studio.

 Frank Zappa

 and some Mothers

 were in-house,

 feeding the

 anti-commercial atmosphere,

 performing an

 improvised piece with

 Grace Slick entitled, 

“Would You Like A Snack” 

(they are also heard in the bizarre, 

“The Saga Of Sydney Spacepig”). 

Drummer Dryden 

orchestrated the entire first side

 “suite” 

of radio unfriendly madness, 

while side two 

is composed of 

two lengthy jams. 

When it was delivered to

 RCA Records

 (titled, Thing) 

the LP 

immediately created 

problems between

 the band and label, 

making it as far as 

production before

 wiser corporate heads 

pulled the plug 

 forcing the band

 back into the studio to

 “get serious.” 

Spencer Dryden’s

 presence in the band 

would be severely diminished… 

and he would exit

 the Airplane

 after Volunteers. 

Partly because of the

 backlash produced by 

this project. 

As weird as this LP is,

 the mono version

 is even stranger 

and is highly coveted… 

but is impossible to find. 

Listen below

 to all of

 Side A & Side B, 

and hear what

 might have been

… and now is.

TRACK LIST 

Side A 

01. Intro 

02. A Small Package Of Value 

Will Come To You, Shortly

03. Ribump Ba Bap Dum Dum

04. Would You Like A Snack 

(With Frank Zappa )

05. The Saga Of Sydney Spacepig / Chushingura 

Side B 

06. Spare Chaynge

07. Thing 

Unreleased Album 

1968 

08. Thing Jam 1 

09. Thing Jam 2 

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