BLOWS AGAINST THE EMPIRE - PLANET EARTH ROCK AND ROLL ORCHESTRA

 Well, looks like we have yet another exclusive offer for you, Blows Against the Empire and Planet Earth Rock and Roll Orchestra. This issue of Blows contains bonus tracks of Demos, SFX (Hart and Garcia), Alternative takes and a live version of Starship (Airplane members performing). Blows Against the Empire also includes a deluxe booklet with original art, commentaries and more.

Planet Earth Rock and Roll Orchestra, the original release, digitized at RCA (BMG) and released as a CD for the first time (exclusively from this site) is the bookend to the original Jefferson Starship adventure. PERRO, also known as "The Alternate Quantum Universe" features the original Jefferson Starship line-up with some very special guests. The CD includes an 11"x17" two sided poster with lyrics and artwork by Paul Kantner.

 A bonus disk features a demo of the Planet Earth Rock and Roll Radio Show, which is under consideration for broadcast. The disk also contains rare interviews, Planet Earth Rock and Roll Orchestra web links,  articles, pictures and whatever else fits!

 If you are still playing the tapes, this is a must have. Click the store link or click here to order.

Paul Kantner 1983-Sandinistas and Synthesizers
(Excerpt from History of the Planet Earth Rock and Roll Orchestra )

1983 would bring both members of Jefferson Airplane, Jefferson Starship, the Kantner children plus a host of seasoned session players to form Paul Kantner's Planet Earth Rock and Roll Orchestra, the companion piece to 1970's Blows Against the Empire. It would take more than 20 years for this science fiction masterpiece to be reissued. Hailed as the long lost Jefferson Airplane/Jefferson Starship album, Sony/BMG Music is releasing Planet Earth Rock and Roll Orchestra for 2005.


However, Jefferson Starship was to move further and further away from its original concepts which ultimately led Paul Kantner to leave the band in July 1984. He had put in 19 years as a veteran of Jefferson Airplane and Jefferson Starship.

In 1985 he formed his the band, KBC with Marty Balin and Jack Casady. The band produced one album and toured for the next two years.

In 1987, Paul traveled to Nicaragua. He played for the Sandinistas who were familiar with such revolutionary songs as Volunteers. He became close to the people of Nicaragua. He was inspired to write a book entitled Paul Kantner's Nicaragua Diary aptly subtitled: How I spent my Summer Vacation or I was a Commie Dupe for the Sandinistas. Paul was to return to the US reinvigorated.

It was Paul Kantner who sparked a Jefferson Airplane reunion in 1989 with Grace, Marty, Jack, and Jorma. The reunion produced one album and a tour. In 1992 he launched a new band under the name Jefferson Starship claiming that he loved the idea of "hijacking" his own band.

Paul has continued his command of Jefferson Starship The Next Generation since 1992 with JS veteran Marty Balin. The core of the band has consisted of Darby Gould (vocals 1992), Diana Mangano (vocals1995), Prairie Prince (The Tubes) drums, Tim Gorman (keyboards 1992) Chris Smith keyboards, Slick Aguilar (David Crosby band) guitar, and both Jack Casady and Tom Lily on bass. The Jefferson Starship extended family has included David Freiberg (Quicksilver Messenger Service) Jack Traylor (Steelwind) Signe Anderson (vocalist on Jefferson Airplane's first album), Tom Constanten keyboards (Grateful Dead) and many others.

Paul Kantner played guitar, synthesizer, banjo, glass harmonica, and provided vocals on Planet Earth Rock and Roll Orchestra.

    PAUL KANTNER DISCUSSES PERRO

" I originally took it (Planet Earth Rock and Roll Orchestra) to publishers in the 80s but they couldn't quite figure out what it was about or if it was  any good even. The main question I got from them was "we don't know what shelf we'd put it on the bookstore. Is it a music book, a spy novel, an adventure, a screen play, a science fiction book." At that point I got pretty disheartened and was doing a lot of other things at the time so I didn't really pursue it. But then some fans among others, not by insistence but more request ...I got back into it.

 When we got our own website I decided to take the vanity publishing route and I did the whole thing myself on this little homegrown business that we do here on our website.  I went and re-edited, type-checked, spell checked and added this and that and put together a 500 page novel and a CD and combined it from the music from the same novel. We  are putting it up for sale on our website. 

There's a couple of other books that I am working on, one that I have already done called "The Nicaraguan Diaries," about a trip to Nicaragua.

 This is a step further down the line. I'm telling the people who liked the Airplane and the Starship, "Here's another step if you want to take it." Not this band, but this concept. I think our generation is already doing that, likening people to the prospect of being out there in a natural setting rather than it being some big science fiction place where big green guys are after you, or the moon is green cheese. It's a natural environment and that's the first step to getting people ready to go. It's like the way it was getting people ready to come to America, to go across in a covered wagon after they've lived in Vienna with Mozart and everything. "What do we wanna go in the fucking covered wagon for?" Because there's something there to do for those who want to do it. For the weirdos that want to do it. For the weirdos that wanna go. 



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