The Great Society

Grace Slick had already served as lead vocalist and multi-instrumentalist in the Great Society before entering Jefferson Airplane. In the earliest phase of San Francisco’s psychedelic era the two bands enjoyed roughly equal local stature. Although the Great Society never matched Jefferson Airplane’s instrumental tightness, they displayed comparable inventiveness, shaping their exploratory material with Indian influences, frequent minor-key turns, and pioneering psychedelic guitar drenched in reverb, supplied by Darby Slick—Grace’s brother-in-law. Darby also wrote “Somebody to Love,” the song Grace later took to Jefferson Airplane, which carried it into the Top Five in 1967. The Great Society dissolved in late 1966 after issuing only one single on a local label. Once Jefferson Airplane attained national success, Columbia released two live albums drawn from the Great Society’s 1966 performances at San Francisco’s Matrix Club.