Mickey Thomas explains how he learned to sing
On the song “Fooled Around and Fell In Love,” which I highlighted in this post, I couldn’t help but notice the strong gospel flavor of lead singer Mickey Thomas’ rendition. There’s no question that’s one of the elements that made the song so special. And he does it so effortlessly; never show-offy, unlike so many singers who put a lot of embellishment into their work. It just seems natural when he does it. He’s a white male Aretha Franklin, which may sound like a ridiculous claim, but not when you hear him.
I figured he just always could sing that way. But he swears he couldn’t. He tells the story here, and it’s a great one.
Here’s one of his live performances:
The song lyrics are a great hook, too. The repetition and emphasis on “fooled around and fell in love” highlights the surprise of it. A player, a user, discovers to his shock that there’s this one special woman who calls forth a different response from him: love. Some listeners think it means he gets his comeuppance and gets shafted by this woman, but I don’t see that at all. He looks way too happy. I think it’s the real thing.
Call me romantic.
This has always been my favorite Mickey Thomas vocal performance.
‘Jane’ Jefferson Starship
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJCuB-uhNgM
The mid 80s Starship was definitely not my thing but I did like this song and another really strong vocal performance.
‘Sara’ Starship
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=32ScTb6_KHg
Elvin Bishop played some great guitar on that song. He’s in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as an original member of the Butterfield Blues Band.
The mid 80s Starship was definitely not my thing…
Yes, same here. I liked a little harder edge to my rock’n roll. Nice video. It includes a young Rebecca De Mornay, if I’m not mistaken.
I was quite surprised by the story of the soundtrack, Guardians of the Galaxy: Awesome Mix Vol. 1.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guardians_of_the_Galaxy_(soundtrack)
Fooled Around is a great song.
Re: Mid-80s Starship
Griffin, TommyJay:
Definitely not my thing either. I didn’t even realize those were Starship songs. They just went into my mental bin of big forgettable 80s pop hits.
However, as much as I’d like to join the recent Two-Minute-Hate of “We Built This City” as one of worst songs of the 80s, it’s pretty darn catchy.
–“Starship – We Built This City (Official Music Video) [HD]” (1985)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K1b8AhIsSYQ
Ah, give me the original Jefferson Starship, “Blows Against the Empire” (1970) perhaps the silliest concept album of all.
Hippie mutants, disowned by Amerikkka, hijack starship; blast off into the cosmos, blasted on acid. Utopia ensues.
Fortified with Jery Garcia, David Crosby and Graham Nash.
huxley,
‘We Built This City’ co written by Bernie Taupin BTW. It is very catchy no doubt and it has become such a cliche to rip on it that it is almost cool to praise it.
BTW. that is Mickey Thomas as main vocalist on “We Built This City.”
Starship actually had three #1’s in the mid 80’s. The aforementioned ‘Sara’ and ‘We Built This City’ as well as ‘Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now’ all with Mickey Thomas as the lead vocalist.
The best the Jefferson Airplane/Starship ever did was reach #3 with ‘Miracles’ a great Marty Balin song in 1975 pre Mickey Thomas.
‘Miracles’
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7m8izf-oXY4
And then in the next century, “they” destroyed this city. Ironic, or The God of the Copybook Headings.
Griffin:
You’re talking to an unreconstructed Jefferson Airplane fan. I imprinted the Airplane on my first acid trips. True love is nothing compared to acid imprints.
Which is not say I’m incapable of some objectivity. JA’s members got caught up in the hippie ethos, but at root they were also seriously ambitious musicians.
The drugs, rock’n’roll, hippie imperatives and personal issues were a volatile mix for the Airplane. The surprising thing was they did not implode years earlier.
The Jefferson Starship was the short transition from Jefferson Airplane to Starship, which were essentially two different groups. Listening to Starship now, I recognize a not unadmirable interest in satisfying customers.
When I was young, it didn’t occur to me how my 60s icons were also ordinary folks just trying to pay the bills and dancing as fast as they could to push product for the bucks.
I believe that the Airplane’s fine lead guitarist Jorma Kaukonen is another political “changer”.
huxley,
Yep, I have no dog in this fight as I was never a fan of any of the 3(?) incarnations of the band but I would say it’s obvious that they got more commercial minded through the years (the original band had surprisingly little commercial success) and less artistic though I would say ‘Miracles’ is a great song just different from the Airplane style.
Commercial interests are something fans don’t like to think about but they have always been there. A band of my youth Heart went through the same thing when after their success of the seventies they hit the skids and then made a huge comeback but with more middle of the road material written by outside writers and while it made huge bank for them it will never be looked at as fondly as the early stuff.
McCartney famously said he thought of the Beatles as his job and people didn’t like that but it really was true.
Yup. Big fan of Jefferson Airplane, Grace Slick, and Paul Kantner.
While it’s nothing like acid trips, it is interesting that the music that I was exposed to early in my freshman year in college really stuck with me. My roommate had the first big Airplane album, and I bought the first album that Chick Corea and Return To Forever did.
I had listened to a variety of interesting music in high school: Led Zepplin, Beatles, Jethro Tull, Hendrix, the Stones, CSN&Y, but nothing stuck quite like the two above.