[.ca] Collectors Item

What a trip!:
This is Gracie before she was knee deep in the hoopla...before the Airplane before the Top Ten hits. Her voice is perfect- raw, sincere, dreamy, surrealistic. This CD takes you back before the 60s' San Francisco music scene became a tourist attraction. It shows why Grace is one of the most innovative rock n roll vocalists of all time...Somebody to Love, Sally Go Round the Roses, Father Bruce...this CD is a trip.

Promising, but primitive:
Definitely worth hearing for Grace Slick's powerhouse vocals and embryonic versions of two classic Airplane songs. But it's easy to hear why Great Society went nowhere. The instrumentals are pedestrian throughout most of the album, with routine, monotonous drumming and perfunctory, generic guitar work. Once in a while it does catch fire, as on the opening cut, "Sally." But most of this stuff is of purely historical interest.

Absolutely Unreal:
Forget about Jefferson Airplane. If you want some real spaced-out, energetic, intense, mind-blowing rock 'n roll, this is the album for you. I have never heard anything else like it. I have almost 200 albums and this one is by far my favorite. Before the Airplane, Grace Slick, the greatest female rock singer of all time, was with a band called The Great Society. They were only together for a year, but made some of the most mesmerizing music in the world. They are often hailed as the first true psychedelic rock band. After listening to this awesome CD, you'll understand why. They were really ahead of their time, which is why they didn't really become more famous. This music was just a little too weird for people then. Nonetheless, this CD is incredible. Jerry Slick, Grace's husband at the time, gives us frightening moments of psychedelic guitar bliss, and the rhythm section and keyboards don't sit idly by. This also contains the original versions of "Somebody To Love" and "White Rabbit", both of which are BETTER than the Airplane's versions. That's right. After hearing this CD, I'll take The Great Society over Jefferson Airplane any day. All 17 songs are totally amazing in one way or another. "Didn't Think So" is a gentle, beautiful love song. "Grimly Forming", "Daydream Nightmare", "Arbitration", "Nature Boy" and "You Can't Cry" are breath-taking psychedelic masterpieces. "Daydream Nightmare", in particular, also has the trippiest and most beautiful flute playing that I've ever heard. "Father" is a spellbinding instrumental that will leave you speechless (check out the one part where the instruments keep getting faster and faster until it becomes an insane explosion of sound!). Then there's the absolutely shattering, astounding cover of Bob Dylan's "Outlaw Blues". Grace's vocals on this song are powerful enough to break glass! God what a voice. Makes Dylan's version sound like Kenny G in comparison! "That's How It Is", "Born To Be Burned", "Father Bruce" and "Everybody Knows" are just great, upbeat, feel-good rock tunes. BUY THIS. BUY IT NOW. You will not be disappointed. The first time I heard it, I was left speechless.

• Sally Go 'Round the Roses
• Didn't Think So
• Grimly Forming
• Somebody to Love
• Father Bruce
• Outlaw Blues
• Often as I May
• Arbitration
• White Rabbit
• That's How It Is
• Darkly Smiling
• Nature Boy
• You Can't Cry
• Daydream Nightmare
• Everybody Knows
• Born to Be Burned
• Father