Jefferson Starship "Nuclear Furniture (USA, Grunt, PCD1-4921)"

Nuclear Furniture is the eighth album by American rock band Jefferson Starship, released in June 1984 through Grunt Records. It was the final album by the band before the departure of leader Paul Kantner and the eventual transition of the remaining members of the group to become Starship.

Produced by Ron Nevison, the album was arranged with the help of Austrian producer Peter Wolf (unrelated to the J. Geils Band singer of the same name), who had previously worked with Grace Slick on her solo album Software. Wolf also contributed keyboard and synthesizer work to the album, although not an official part of the band. Wolf and his wife Ina also wrote the single "No Way Out", the first of many songs penned by the duo that took the future Starship in a more commercial direction.

As the album was being recorded, Paul Kantner became frustrated with the album's direction. Before the sessions came to a close, he stole the master tapes, put them in his car, and drove around San Francisco for a few days, and would not return them until the band mixed the album in a way more to his liking. Shortly after the album's release, Kantner left the band, and he only appears in the first promotional video produced, "No Way Out". After the departure of Kantner, the band lost the "Jefferson" moniker and became Starship; there would not be another studio album released under the Jefferson Starship name until after Kantner reformed the band in 1992.

Nuclear Furniture was released in 1984 and spawned the Top 40 single "No Way Out", which was also the first single by any incarnation of the band to hit No. 1 on the Mainstream Rock Tracks chart. The album itself reached No. 28.

Joseph McCombs of AllMusic described it as a "competent but rather forgettable collection of radio-friendly dual guitar/keyboard period pop tunes." McCombs said that the juxtaposition between Kantner's politically-oriented songs and Thomas's more commercially-oriented songs "makes for an intriguing if uneven album."

Track listing

1. "Layin' It on the Line" L: Mickey Thomas, Craig Chaquico M: Chaquico, Thomas 4:09
2. "No Way Out" L: Ina Wolf M: Peter Wolf 4:22
3. "Sorry Me, Sorry You" L: Jeannette Sears M: Pete Sears 4:07
4. "Live and Let Live" L: J. Sears M: P. Sears 3:50
5. "Connection" L: Paul Kantner, Thomas M: Kantner 4:27
6. "Rose Goes to Yale" L: Kantner, Ronnie Gilbert M: Kantner 2:56
7. "Magician" L: Grace Slick  M: P. Wolf 3:23
8. "Assassin" L: J. Sears M: P. Sears 3:52
9. "Shining in the Moonlight" L: Chaquico, Thomas M: Chaquico 3:38
10. "Showdown" L: Slick M: Slick 3:22
11. "Champion" L: Kantner, Gilbert M: Kantner 4:40

Recording information:

Jefferson Starship – arrangements

Ron Nevison – producer, engineer, arrangements

Peter Wolf – arrangements

Maureen Droney – assistant engineer

Kevin Eddy – assistant mixing engineer

Mike Reese – mastering

Pat Ieraci (Maurice) – production coordinator

Rod Dyer, Clive Pierce / Dyer / Kahn, Inc. – cover design

Tracks recorded at The Automatt, San Francisco

Over-dubs and mixing at The Plant, Sausalito

Mastered at The Mastering Lab, Hollywood

Bill Thompson – manager

Grace Slick/Jefferson Starship/Paul Kantner "Dragon Fly"

Dragon Fly is the 1974 debut album by Jefferson Starship. Credited to Grace Slick / Paul Kantner / Jefferson Starship, it was the transitional release between the various shifting groups that Slick and Kantner had been recording with, as Jefferson Airplane dissolved in the early 1970s and the new group that Jefferson Starship began.

The album received a RIAA gold certification within six months, selling as well as most Jefferson Airplane albums. Although the single "Ride the Tiger" only reached #84 on the Billboard charts, the album itself hit #11. "Hyperdrive" was used in the opening ceremonies of the 1976 World Science Fiction Convention, MidAmeriCon, in Kansas City, Missouri.

Paul Kantner And Jefferson Starship "Blows Against The Empire"

Blows Against the Empire is a concept album by Paul Kantner, released under the name Paul Kantner and Jefferson Starship, the first album to use the "Starship" name, although the personnel line-up was not the same as would appear on the first actual Jefferson Starship album. It was released in 1970 as RCA Victor LSP-4448. It peaked at #20 on the Billboard 200, and has been certified a gold record by the RIAA. It was the first music album to ever be nominated for a Hugo Award.

Beginning in 1965, Paul Kantner had recorded five studio albums with Jefferson Airplane, but by 1970 internal problems began taking their toll on the band, including the departure of drummer Spencer Dryden in 1970 and a rift that was forming between founder Marty Balin and the rest of the band that would lead to Balin's departure in April 1971.

In 1970, the Airplane released only one single, and Kantner took advantage of the hiatus to work on a solo album. Blows Against the Empire is his concept album recorded and released in 1970, credited to Paul Kantner and Jefferson Starship. This marks the debut of the Jefferson Starship moniker, though not of the band of that name itself, since Blows predates the actual formation of the band Jefferson Starship by four years.

A small number of promotional copies of the album were released to radio stations on clear translucent vinyl. These are now coveted by vinyl record collectors.

The album was recorded at Pacific High Recording Studios and Wally Heider Recording Studios in San Francisco by Kantner and Slick with a collection of musician friends that included members of Jefferson Airplane (Jack Casady and Joey Covington), The Grateful Dead (Jerry Garcia, Bill Kreutzmann and Mickey Hart), Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young (David Crosby and Graham Nash), David Freiberg of Quicksilver Messenger Service and Harvey Brooks of Electric Flag. Also appearing was Jorma Kaukonen's brother Peter Kaukonen, and Phill Sawyer,[6] the engineer at Pacific High Recording studios. The credit to Jefferson Starship reflected many things – the ad-hoc all-star line-up, the album being an evolutionary progression from Jefferson Airplane, and finally the story it relates of the hijacking of a starship.


Stylistically, the songs range from the light folk of "The Baby Tree" to the "musique concrète" passages "Home" and "XM". Kantner even presents a kind of proto-grunge in "Mau-Mau (Amerikon)". Mostly, however, the songs are delivered in the kind of improvised, free-form rock & roll representative of the Bay Area bands of the day. Lyrically, the album celebrates countercultural idealism; it is set in a future where the counterculture is able to unite and decide their own fate far away from planet Earth. Written in 1970, Kantner describes in "Hijack" the construction of a starship beginning in 1980, which "ought to be ready by 1990."