craigtheairplaneman:Hi All:
It is a pleasure to be here. I'm Craig Fenton the author of the Jefferson Airplane book "Take Me To A Circus Tent."
I'm curious if any of you fine fans have an alternate version to the common 10/15/66 Tape/CDR.
It has addtional tracks and one specific reference by Marty that this wold be Signe's last gig.
Welcome Craig,
It's a pleasure to have you join us. Timely too as we've been actively transferring and logging many of Bill Graham's Jefferson Airplane reels over the past few months. We're primarily focusing on the more vintage recordings so far. During the last few months of 1966 and the first few months of 1967, Graham was astoundingly concientious about recording JA sets. Most were recorded and actually had date logging notation, which isn't always the case as time went on.
We still have plenty to do in regards to JA, but it so happens the 10-15-66 late show you mention is among one of the runs I recently completed logging. Graham did record all six shows in that run and we have one of the sets up on The Concert Vault at the moment.
Early on, Bill had several 1966 and 1967 Jefferson Airplane live sequences compiled which were given to some of the local underground radio stations, to help promote The Fillmore. I don't have my notation handy at the moment, but I know a piece of that 10-15-66 late show was involved, as well as fragments from several other runs from that general timeframe, when JA were playing at The Fillmore Auditorium or Winterland constantly.
These various sequences were broadcast on KMPX, KPFA, a shortlived station KTIM and of course KSAN many times over proceeding years, which I suspect is where all the circulating collector copies derive.
Graham's reels of that 10-15-66 late show do indeed contain a bunch more of that set than was previously known to exist. As well as additional songs, they contain a brief speech by Marty announcing it would be Signe's last performance and Signe thanks the local fans and bids them farewell in her unique way. It's kind of a heartbreaking thing to hear and being a hardcore fan myself, I admit I was a little teary-eyed myself when I encountered it.
Hang on a second... be right back... I'll do a quick transcription of her little monologue....
Signe says: “I want you all to wear smiles and daisies and box balloons. I love you all. Thank you and goodbye.”
I don't quite understand the "box balloons" thing, but there you have it.
OK, back to your original inquiry... I'm not sure on timing status, but this set is now digitized and logged so once we encode it for Concert Vault, you will likely be able to hear it for yourself soon enough. The Wolfgang's Vault download offerings will be beginning in April too, so it may show up there as well.
Although I'm not able to check back here on a daily basis, I welcome more communication about early Airplane and related recordings. It's something that has deeply interested me long before this match made in heaven happened to me!
Craig, thanks for stopping by and I look forward to continued JA discussion with you and all others interested.
MrBB