Jefferson Airplane was one of the major bands in the San Francisco Sound of the 1960’s.  I once read frequent lead singer Grace Slick described as “the voice that launched a thousand trips”.  She was not an original bandmember, however; Slick was previously in another San Francisco band called the Great Society.  In the band’s entry in Allmusic, Richie Unterberger notes that the Great Society “were nearly as popular as Jefferson Airplane in the early days of the San Francisco psychedelic scene.  Instrumentally, the Great Society were not as disciplined as Airplane.  But they were at least their equals in imagination, infusing their probing songwriting with Indian influences, minor key melodic shifts, and groundbreaking, reverb-soaked psychedelic guitar by [Grace] Slick’s brother-in-law, Darby Slick.”  In 1967, Grace Slick joined Jefferson Airplane and brought with her the Darby Slick song “Somebody to Love” and her own song “White Rabbit”.  They became her new band’s biggest hit songs, with both reaching the Top Ten, and she became the most prominent member of the group.  

(June 2014)