Paul Kantner, founding member, Jefferson Airplane, raised Catholic, rebel, passes away

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Rest in Peace, May Eternal Light Shine On His Soul.

This said, this individual is rather interesting per a Roman Catholic perspective, he said this:
I was raised by the Christian Brothers, who believe in that, fortunately. They were, to me, the most rebellious arm of the Catholic Church - and one of the most liberal and forward thinking.
(Paul Kantner) inspirationalstories.com/quotes/t/paul-kantner/
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And so I looked a bit into his background and there are some indeed, interesting things but I turned back doing this on Friday when his death was reported, because it seemed they said some of the Jefferson Airplane songs were blasphemous. I do not know this for a fact with rather shallow knowledge of their songs.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Kantner

He actually had a motorcycle accident in the early '60s, then, in the early '80s, he was hospitalized again with a cerebral hemorrhage.
It was his second brush with serious illness or injury, having suffered a serious motorcycle accident in the early 1960s: “I hit a tree at 40 miles an hour head first and nearly shattered my skull. I had a plate in there for a while.”[4] The injury from the motorcycle accident was credited with saving Kantner from serious complications from the cerebral hemorrhage; the hole left by the accident relieved the accompanying cranial pressure.[2]
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Born in San Francisco, Paul was the son of Paul Sr, a travelling salesman and Cora (nee Fortier), who died when he was eight. His father sent him away to be educated by the Christian Brothers and then to a Jesuit school in Santa Clara. Paul much preferred the “liberal and forward-thinking” outlook of the former to the strict religiosity of the latter, and later adopted the slogan “question authority” as a mantra. However, this would not preclude him from taking an autocratic approach to his bandmates when he considered it necessary.
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theguardian.com/music/2016/jan/31/paul-kantner
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youtube.com/watch?v=-DIluFDkw0g

The Jefferson Airplane recorded “Get Together” which became a hit for the Youngbloods a few years later. That song has lyrics I understand that borrow from or are inspired by the Bible.

songlyrics.com/the-youngbloods/get-together-lyrics/

I don’t know if their material would be offensive in some songs, I only have a superficial knowledge of the band. Or maybe just harmless hippies.
 
Time slips away. I hadn’t really thought about him being quite that old. So many of the rock musicians of the late 60’s and early 70’s have passed away recently. Whether one agrees with their views or lifestyles or not, we have to admit they had a major influence on shaping society. They were very tumultuous times at the height of their music and their music expressed the views of many young people at that time. Hopefully he has found peace. RIP.
 
I know Jefferson Airplane. My dad had a few of their records; I played them from time to time as a teenager. Grace Slick was the most famous member of the group and the band’s biggest hits were White Rabbit and Somebody to Love.

I end up listening to them a fair amount as I have their CD in the car to this very day (Surrealistic Pillow - linked - great record) - it’s either that or Schubert.

They were a creative band - great melodies - not more or less ‘dangerous’ than anyone else, to me anyway. Were they Catholic? No, not really.

youtube.com/watch?v=25JdMW7PwVQ

May he rest in peace.
 
What is interesting, in speaking about Grace Slick, the first Jefferson Airplane album had as the female singer, Signe Anderson born in Seattle. She happened to pass away the same day as Kantner, January 28t, 2016.

I happen to have that first album, Jefferson Airplane Takes Off and it has the “Get Together” song on it I posted above. The music on that is a bit of folk music to me.

And then, Slick, Kantner, Balin, etc. went to form the Jefferson Starship who have quite a few well known songs, Miracles, We Built This City and so on.
 
FollowChrist34 said:
I know Jefferson Airplane. My dad had a few of their records; I played them from time to time as a teenager. Grace Slick was the most famous member of the group and the band’s biggest hits were White Rabbit and Somebody to Love.

I end up listening to them a fair amount as I have their CD in the car to this very day (Surrealistic Pillow - linked - great record) - it’s either that or Schubert.

They were a creative band - great melodies - not more or less ‘dangerous’ than anyone else, to me anyway. Were they Catholic? No, not really.

youtube.com/watch?v=25JdMW7PwVQ

May he rest in peace.
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Thanks for mentioning this, that is their famous album or perhaps better put, most famous.

Thanks to all who contribute.
 
I had quite a bit of their music, back in the day. They had a wide range of music and experimented with a lot of different styles, from Never Argue with a German When You’re Tired, White Rabbit, Wild Turkey and Third Week in the Chelsea. Very strange coincidence with Anderson’s death on the same day.
 
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