Jefferson Starship—“Winds Of Change”

Entered Top 40:  March 19, 1983
2  weeks 
Peaked at: 38

Morphing out of the Jefferson Airplane in 1974, shuffling vocalists made Jefferson Starship’s body of work eclectic, anyway. Grace Slick got fired in 1978 after her drunken onstage antics caused West German audiences to riot. Marty Balin left soon after. The band recruited Mickey Thomas as a new frontman, at the time best known for singing on Elvin Bishop’s big #3 hit from 1976, “Fooled Around and Fell in Love.”

Thomas recorded one album in 1979 as Jefferson Starship’s sole frontman; if you know “Jane” from the Wet Hot American Summer franchise and adjacent works, that’s from this period. By 1981 Grace Slick was back in a supporting role. On Modern Times she sings backup on 4 songs, and she and Thomas duet on “Stranger,” which missed the Top 40 but was a mid-range Rock Albums track (#17). I don’t love any of this, and I don’t know that Thomas was chosen with an eye toward Slick’s eventual return, but they sound good together.

For 1982’s Winds of Change LP, Slick was back full-time. The LP’s first single was “Be My Lady” (#28), where Mickey sings lead. Mick & Slick are duetting again on the title track. It’s got a level of bombast reminiscent of “Stranger,” and did about as well as that song did on the Rock Albums chart (#18) both were written by bassist Pete Sears and his wife Jeannette (as was “Be My Lady.”

Jefferson Starship would record one more record under that name, Nuclear Furniture; Paul Kantner was unhappy with the results and quit the band shortly after. As the last original member of Jefferson Airplane, he took “Jefferson” with him, and the group then became Starship, ridiculously successful corporate rocksters. I’m not linking to any of that.