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JEFFERSON AIRPLANE : JOURNEY - THE BEST OF JEFFERSON AIRLPANE |
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Label : BMG Time : 71:49 Release Year : 1996 Review (AllMusic) : This 71-minute, 21-song European-released collection is a good - though not nearly perfect - survey of the Jefferson Airplane's work from 1966 through 1972. It beats the Worst of the Jefferson Airplane for sheer comprehensiveness, and is a good compromise between that collection and 2400 Fulton Street, though as a compromise it also sacrifices some good tracks that appear on both - "Martha," "Good Shepherd," and "Chushingura," all of which were on Worst of Jefferson Airplane, are absent here, for example. On the other hand, the producers have reached beyond the singles and the best-known album tracks, going back to the group's debut album and up as far as Thirty Seconds Over Winterland, and have drawn on many of the better songs off of each LP. The only major drawback is that no real effort has been made at putting any of this material in strict chronological order - the tracks generally (though not always) bounce around a span of a year or two at a time; but with the absence of any detailed annotation, the uninitiated might also mistakenly believe that the track "High Flyin' Bird" was recorded in 1974 (the year of its official release, on Early Flight), and not 1966. On the positive side, the mastering is clean, and the best transfers circa 1996 were used to put this collection together. The annotation, oddly enough, follows a chronological sequence, year by year, and the budget price makes it a definite if not ideal candidate for any collection of the group's work, casual or comprehensive. |