Volunteers by Jefferson Airplane

Volunteers, Jefferson Airplane's fifth studio album, came roaring out of San Francisco on RCA in November 1969, and it's the sound of the Airplane picking up the barricade and swinging it. The lyrics call for revolution and rail against the war, the language gets salty, and the whole thing stirred up plenty of controversy, all of it riding on a harder, heavier bite than the band's earlier psychedelia.

It was also the last stand for the classic lineup: Marty Balin and Grace Slick out front, Paul Kantner on rhythm guitar, Jorma Kaukonen on lead, Jack Casady on bass and Spencer Dryden on drums. Balin and Dryden were gone soon after, Casady and Kaukonen poured their energy into their blues outfit Hot Tuna, and Kantner and Slick went off to make Blows Against the Empire, so it would be two years before the Airplane put out another album of new songs.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.