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As the mysterious female voice of the sixties San Francisco band Jefferson Airplane, Grace Slick forever shattered the mold of the female pop singer, first gaining notoriety with her Alice-in-Wonderland-inspired song "White Rabbit" in 1967. Although her voice and personality often overshadowed her songwriting ability, Slick possessed a unique musical and lyrical creativity.
She's been officially retired from the music business for the past ten years, but Slick doesn't quite fit the description of your average retiree. She just finished a press and book-signing tour for her autobiography, Somebody to Love?, and plans to hit the road again soon to promote the paperback edition of the book. Later this month, RCA will release The Best of Grace Slick, a collection of Slick's songs that spans her early years with Jefferson Airplane through her work with Jefferson Starship in the seventies and eighties.
For someone who's retired, you've been pretty busy lately.
Well, I'm not sure what "retired" means. I guess that means if you have a long job in one field, and you don't do that anymore, that's retired. I'll do anything that comes up in the arts. Obviously I'm not going to be a rocket scientist. If I can make it with my hands, I'll do it. Sewing, drawing, sculpting. Right now I'm working on wood. So whatever comes up is fine.
How was the experience of going on the road to promote your book?
Bizarre. Because fifty percent of the people who show up are anachronisms. [Laughs]. More power to them if they're having a good time and they feel good doing that. It's just sort of weird to see somebody in a tie-dyed shirt who looks like George Carlin.
Do you get tired of talking about the sixties?
Oh, sort of. Only because I'll be sixty on my next birthday, and you don't have a hell of a lot of time left. Repeating what you've already done seems like a waste of time. I'd like to concentrate on what I can do now.
How much input did you have with the Best of Grace Slick album?
[Laughs] Well, they called me and said they're putting out a "Best of Grace Slick," and I said, "'Best of Grace Slick?' I don't write singles, I write these screwy songs."
So they said, "Well, here's a list of what we like," and I crossed out a couple and added some more. I thought, "Ok, fine. It'll probably sell four copies in Omaha to some unusual person."
They sent me a cassette and I listened to it in the car to make sure everything's ok. It's fascinating to listen to, because I hadn't listened to some of that stuff for thirty years. You get a sense of who you were, how good you were -- or weren't. Songs you thought were fabulous at the time and now you think they suck, and vice-versa. It was interesting.
What you do think of the idea of presenting your songs on their own, apart from a group album?
One thing it does it to point out the individual. You can hear a continuity that was not strived for, because its not one record, it's from a bunch of different records over a long period of time. But you can hear the continuity that happens.
One of the things I liked about Jefferson Airplane was that there were different things all within the same album. You'd get blues out of Jorma, you'd get that dark sarcasm out of me, you'd get the "let's all storm the citadel" stuff from Paul, you'd get love songs from Marty, some crazy stuff from Spencer, an occasional piece from Garcia or David Crosby. I like that smorgasbord.
Do you think people have overlooked your songwriting ability?
I don't think they've overlooked it because -- particularly when I've listened to the songs recently -- I hear that several of them have four or five different time changes, and I don't believe I have any repeated choruses. I may repeat some things, but it isn't "Baby I love you, yes I do, baby I love you. . . " It's not easy to sing along with. They're wordy, the concepts are bizarre. It's not easy to connect with.
So when I say "I think that's really good," I'm talking from my point of view -- it's well done, it's well recorded, it says what I want it to say. It doesn't have anything to do with the marketplace, because those kinds of songs that are difficult like that have never been popular. You have to simplify in order to make a popular song.
Do you write songs now?
I do occasionally. I have about six songs that I've been putzing around with, but they're not for a marketplace. I just do it because I like it. I've got 150 drawings, am I selling them? No, I just do it because I like it.
(Copyright 1999 Kevin Delaney)