Paul Kantner: Planet Earth Rock And Roll Orchestra 1983

 

Paul Lorin Kantner (March 17, 1941 – January 28, 2016) was an American rock musician. He is best

known as the co-founder, rhythm guitarist, and a secondary vocalist of Jefferson Airplane, a leading psychedelic rock band of the counterculture era. He continued these roles as a member of Jefferson Starship, Jefferson Airplane's successor band.
                   

Jefferson Airplane formed in 1965 when Kantner met Marty Balin. Kantner eventually became the

leader of the group and led it through its highly successful late-1960s period. In 1970, while still active with Jefferson Airplane, Kantner and several Bay Area musicians recorded the album Blows Against the Empire, which was co-credited to both Paul Kantner and "Jefferson Starship".
              

Jefferson Airplane continued to record and perform until 1973. Kantner revived the Jefferson Starship name in 1974 and continued to record and perform with them through 1984. He later led a reformed

Jefferson Starship from 1992 until his death in 2016. Kantner had the longest continuous membership with the band, with 19 years in the original run of Jefferson Airplane and Jefferson Starship and 24 years in the revived Jefferson Starship. At times, he was the only founding Jefferson Airplane member to remain in Jefferson Starship. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Jefferson Airplane in 1996.
          

Kantner released a solo album, Blows Against the Empire, in 1970. It was followed by a duo album with his partner, Airplane lead singer Grace Slick, Sunfighter, in 1971, and a trio album, Baron Vol

Tollbooth & the Chrome Nun, with Slick and David Freiberg (who had replaced Balin in the Airplane) in 1973. Kantner and Slick reorganized the Airplane under the name Jefferson Starship in 1974. Kantner released a second solo album, Planet Earth Rock and Roll Orchestra, in 1983, and left Jefferson Starship in 1984, after which the band's name was truncated to Starship. Kantner then launched the KBC Band.
                      

In 1989, he was a member of a re-formed version of Jefferson Airplane, and beginning in the '90s, he

toured a new edition of Jefferson Starship, which gradually became a Kantner family band by the 21st century. That lineup released an album in 2008 titled Jefferson's Tree of Liberty, also featuring contributions from friends and family including Grace Slick, Marty Balin, David Freiberg, Cathy Richardson, Slick Aguilar, and Prairie Prince.
                   

On January 28, 2016, Kantner died of multiple organ failure in San Francisco at the age of 74

(coincidentally on the same day, and at the same age, as original Jefferson Airplane singer Signe Anderson, who predated Grace Slick in the band).
               

PLANET EARTH ROCK AND ROLL ORCHESTRA 1983

                 

Thirteen years after his first solo album, Blows Against the Empire, Paul Kantner delivered this sequel,
named after the loose affiliation of Bay Area musicians who had played on Blows and subtitled, The

Empire Blows Back. Like the first album, this one was a science fiction concept album about a commune/rock band eventually fleeing into outer space to escape right-wing oppression. Though the participants this time were limited mostly to Kantner's family (his son, daughter, and ex-wife, Grace Slick, all sing) and his band, Jefferson Starship, and though it was a bit harder rocking than its predecessor, the album shared Blows's vague idealism and complicated arrangements.
              

Kantner remained an electrified folkie with a cosmic edge, and you needed the inserted page of liner notes to follow the story line. But Grace Slick, especially, was in good vocal form, and certain tunes,

notably Kantner's collaboration with Jerry Garcia, "The Mountain Song," were among the strongest material he'd come up with lately. But this album was a swan song for Kantner as a solo: After its release and commercial failure, he quit The Starship (taking "Jefferson" with him) and launched the short-lived KBC Band.
(By William Ruhlmann)

                    

Paul Kantner – Planet Earth Rock And Roll Orchestra
Label: Not On Label (Paul Kantner Self-Released) – none
Format: CD, Album, Reissue, Remastered
Country: US
Released: Jun 4, 2005
Genre: Rock
Style: Psychedelic Rock

TRACKS

AMERICA        

                

  
01. The Planet Earth Rock And Roll Orchestra   4:07
Piano – Pete Sears
Words By, Music By – Paul Kantner
02. (She Is A) Telepath   2:51
Lead Guitar – Ronnie Montrose
Words By, Music By – Paul Kantner
03. Circle Of Fire   3:47
Synthesizer, Vocals – David Freiberg
Vocals – Howard Kaylan, Mark Volman, Mickey Thomas
Words By, Music By – Paul Kantner
04. Mount Shasta   2:44
Lyrics By – Paul Kantner
Music By – Grace Slick, Paul Kantner, Ron Nagle, Scott Mathews
05. Lilith's Song   6:42
Music By [Additional] – Grace Slick, Pete Sears
Words By, Music By – Paul Kantner

AUSTRALIA ... OZ & BEYOND        

                       

  
06a. Transubstantiation Part I Esperanto   1:28
Mandolin, Piano, Organ, Harmonica, Vocals, Bass Drum – Scott Mathews
Music By – Grace Slick, Paul Kantner, Ron Nagle, Scott Mathews
Vocals, Piano – Ron Nagle
06 b. Transubstantiation Part II Science Friction   2:04
Piano – Pete Sears
Words By, Music By – Paul Kantner
07. The Mountain Song   5:02
Words By, Music By – Paul Kantner
08. Declaration Of Independence   1:38 + 09. Underground (The Laboratories)   2:13
Music By – Celius Dougherty
Words By [Text] – Wolcott Gibbs
Lead Guitar – Paul Kantner
Music By – Paul Kantner, Ron Nagle, Scott Mathews
Vocals – Alexander Bowman Kantner, Grace Slick
10. The Sky Is No Limit   2:51
Music By – Paul Kantner
Piano – Grace Slick
Saxophone – Scott Mathews
Words By – China Kantner*, Paul Kantner
11. Let's Go   5:02
Music By – Paul Kantner
Rhythm Guitar [2nd] – John Blakeley
Words By – Paul Kantner

LINE - UP

                   

Paul Kantner – vocals, guitars, banjo, glass harmonica, synthesizers on "Circle of Fire", lead guitar on "Underground"
Grace Slick – vocals, piano on "The Mountain Song" and "The Sky Is No Limit"
Jack Casady – bass
China Kantner – vocals on "Declaration of Independence" and "The Sky Is No Limit"
Alexander Kantner – vocals on "Underground"
Craig Chaquico – lead guitar
Pete Sears – piano on "The Planet Earth Rock and Roll Orchestra", "Lilith's Song", and "Science Friction", bass on "Circle of Fire"
Aynsley Dunbar – drums
Scott Mathews – guitar, percussion, pedal steel guitar, Linn drums, glass harmonica, vocoder, synthesizers on "Circle of Fire", saxophones on "Circle of Fire" and "The Sky Is No Limit", vocals on "Esperanto", mandolin on "Esperanto", harmonica on "Esperanto", piano on "Esperanto", organ on "Esperanto", bass drum on "Esperanto"
Ron Nagle – piano on "Esperanto", vocals on "Esperanto"
The Dūrocs – sound effects on "The Mountain Song"
Ronnie Montrose – lead guitar on "(She Is A) Telepath"
Flo & Eddie – vocals
Mickey Thomas – vocals on "Circle of Fire"
David Freiberg – synthesizers and vocals on "Circle of Fire"
John Blakeley – 2nd rhythm guitar on "Let's Go"

NOTES

Limited to 3000 numbered copies.

Flac Size: 267 MB

Paul Kantner on Urban Aspirines HERE
Jefferson Airplane on Urban Aspirines HERE