Volunteers (song)

1969 song by Jefferson Airplane

"Volunteers"

Single by Jefferson Airplane
from the album  Volunteers
B-side| "We Can Be Together"
Released| October 1969 (1969-10)
Recorded| April 1969
Studio| Wally Heider Studios, San Francisco, California
Genre| Hard rock[1]
Length| 2:03
Label| RCA Victor
Songwriter(s)|

* Marty Balin
* Paul Kantner

Producer(s)| Al Schmitt
Jefferson Airplane singles chronology
| "Plastic Fantastic Lover"
(1969)  | "Volunteers"
(1969)  | "Mexico"
(1970)

|
|

"Volunteers" is a Jefferson Airplane single from 1969 that was released to promote the album Volunteers two months before the album's release. It was written by Marty Balin and Paul Kantner. Balin was woken up by a truck one morning, which happened to be a truck with Volunteers of America painted on the side.[2][1] Balin started writing lyrics down and then asked Kantner to help him with the music. The music is similar to that of the single's b-side "We Can Be Together" and was based on a bluegrass riff that David Crosby had shown Kantner.[2][1] "Volunteers" also has a similar chord structure and rhythm to "We Can Be Together".[2]

Toronto Daily Star critic Jack Batten used the following lyrics as an example of how many then-current pop songs "constitute documents as inflammatory and subversive as any anarchist's blueprint for civil war", except that there is nothing hidden.[3] But Kantner said that "'Volunteers' is not political, outlaws aren't political. That's what the song is about...I don't get involved with crazy revolutionaries. They're spending all their time being paranoid when they could be out on the West Coast enjoying themselves, getting high, meeting lotsa people and ignoring it all."[4]

Cash Box said that the song's "lyric and more rock-based drive" provide "a commercial drive", and compared it to the Buffalo Springfield song "For What It's Worth".[5] Record World called it "an instant smash."[6] Boston Globe critic Ernie Santosuosso described it as a song that "will stick in your consciousness."[7]

Allmusic critic Matthew Greenwald said " It's a heavy rocker, and one of the Airplane's finest – and easily most underrated – singles.[1] Ultimate Classic Rock critic Michael Gallucci rated it Jefferson Airplane's 3rd best song, calling it one of the band's "most aggressive tracks and a rousing anthem for the more revolutionary arm of Woodstock nation."[8]

Jefferson Airplane performed the song live at the original Woodstock Festival and that performance was included on the album Woodstock: Music from the Original Soundtrack and More.[1]

## Chart performance

[edit]

Chart (1969-70)  | Peak
position

|

US Billboard Hot 100[9] | 65

## Personnel

[edit]

* Grace Slick – piano, vocals
* Marty Balin – guitar, lead vocals
* Paul Kantner – rhythm guitar, vocals
* Jorma Kaukonen – lead guitar
* Jack Casady – bass
* Spencer Dryden – drums, percussion

### Additional personnel

[edit]

* Nicky Hopkins – piano

## Cover versions

[edit]

* Balin released a new version on his 1991 solo album, Better Generation.[10]

## Notes

[edit]

1. ^ a b c d e Greenwald, Matthew. "Volunteers". Allmusic. Retrieved 2025-01-11.
2. ^ a b c Tamarakin, Jeff (2003). Got a Revolution: The Turbulent Flight of Jefferson Airplane. Simon and Schuster. ISBN 0-671-03403-0.
3. ^ Batten, Jack (January 27, 1970). "What pop music is saying to kids". Toronto Daily Star. p. 7. Retrieved 2025-01-11 - via newspapers.com.
4. ^ Mills, Josh (December 15, 1969). "Jefferson Airplane soaring higher". Peninsula Times Tribune. p. 18. Retrieved 2025-01-11 - via newspapers.com.
5. ^ "CashBox Record Reviews" (PDF). Cash Box. November 1, 1969. p. 16. Retrieved 2025-01-11.
6. ^ "Single Reviews" (PDF). Record World. October 25, 1969. p. 8. Retrieved 2023-05-04.
7. ^ Santosuosso, Ernie (November 2, 1969). "'Airplane' glides in". Boston Globe. p. 80. Retrieved 2025-01-11 - via newspapers.com.
8. ^ Gallucci, Michael (January 28, 2016). "Top 10 Jefferson Airplane songs". Ultimate Classic Rock. Retrieved 2025-01-11.
9. ^ Whitburn, Joel (2013). Joel Whitburn's Top Pop Singles, 14th Edition: 1955-2012. Record Research. p. 429.
10. ^ "Marty Balin, Better Generation". AllMusic. Retrieved November 25, 2016.

* v
* t
* e

Jefferson Airplane · Jefferson Starship · Starship

Members|

* Jefferson Airplane members
* Jefferson Starship members
* Starship members

Discographies|

* Jefferson Airplane discography
* Jefferson Starship discography
* Starship discography

Studio albums|

| Jefferson Airplane|

* Jefferson Airplane Takes Off
* Surrealistic Pillow
* After Bathing at Baxter's
* Crown of Creation
* Volunteers
* Bark
* Long John Silver
* Jefferson Airplane

|

Jefferson Starship|

* Blows Against the Empire (with Paul Kantner)
* Dragon Fly
* Red Octopus
* Spitfire
* Earth
* Freedom at Point Zero
* Modern Times
* Winds of Change
* Nuclear Furniture
* Windows of Heaven
* Jefferson's Tree of Liberty
* Mother of the Sun

Starship|

* Knee Deep in the Hoopla
* No Protection
* Love Among the Cannibals
* Loveless Fascination

Live albums|

| Jefferson Airplane|

* Bless Its Pointed Little Head
* Thirty Seconds Over Winterland

|

Jefferson Starship|

* Deep Space/Virgin Sky
* Greatest Hits: Live at the Fillmore
* Across the Sea of Suns

Archival releases|

* Live at the Monterey Festival
* Live at the Fillmore East
* At Golden Gate Park
* Last Flight
* Sweeping Up the Spotlight
* At the Family Dog Ballroom
* The Woodstock Experience

Compilations|

| Jefferson Airplane|

* The Worst of Jefferson Airplane
* Early Flight
* Flight Log
* 2400 Fulton Street
* Jefferson Airplane Loves You
* The Essential Jefferson Airplane

|

Jefferson Starship|

* Gold

Starship|

* Greatest Hits (Ten Years and Change 1979–1991)

Singles|

| Jefferson Airplane|

* "My Best Friend"
* "Somebody to Love"
* "White Rabbit"
* "The Ballad of You and Me and Pooneil"
* "Volunteers" / "We Can Be Together"
* "Wooden Ships"
* "Mexico"

|

Jefferson Starship|

* "Miracles"
* "Play on Love"
* "With Your Love"
* "Count On Me"
* "Runaway"
* "Jane"
* "Find Your Way Back"

Starship|

* "We Built This City"
* "Sara"
* "Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now"

Related articles|

* Grunt Records
* Hot Tuna
* KBC Band
* The Matrix (club)
* The Planet Earth Rock and Roll Orchestra

* Category

*[v]: View this template
*[t]: Discuss this template
*[e]: Edit this template