DESCRIPTION:
The Great Society with Grace Slick - Conspicuous Only In Its Absence
Columbia Records, 1968 CS 9624

Side 1 Time Ends
1. Sally Go ‘Round The Roses 6:35 6:35
2. Didn’t Think So 3:24 9:59
3. Grimly Forming 3:53 13:52
4. Somebody to Love 4:25 18:18

Side 2
5. Father Bruce 3:31 21:50
6. Outlaw Blues 2:28 24:18
7. Often As I May 3:43 28:01
8. Arbitration 3:57 31:58
9. White Rabbit 6:11 38:09

Grace Slick, keyboards, vocals
Darby Slick, lead guitar
David Minor, rhythm guitar
Peter Van Gelder*, bass, flute, sax
Jerry Slick, drums

*Sometimes listed as "Vandergelder" (even in Darby Slick's autobiography, but Van Gelder appears to be correct)


Recorded live at The Matrix in San Francisco in 1966. This wasn't released until 1968, a year after the group had disbanded. (According to Wikipedia, the club’s owners sold the tapes of Great Society live shows to Columbia in 1968 -- the delay was a result of having to get all the necessary releases.)

The Great Society was an exemplar of the “San Francisco Sound.” The version of “Somebody to Love” is slower, less intense than the Airplane versions I've heard (the song was written by Grace’s then-brother-in-law, Darby Slick). Grace sounds like she’s having real fun on the cover of Dylan’s “Outlaw Blues.”

“White Rabbit,” the other song destined to become an Airplane classic, has a long instrumental intro. This version, even minus the four-minute intro, somehow feels a little casual, rushed. It doesn't have the power of the Airplane version.