Grace Slick thinks FM look awful..

[brad975]

I love Grace Slick. Jefferson Airplane made a lot of great music from '67 to '69. I still listen to those records.

But it gets a LOT spottier in the 70s. Like Stevie (probably), Grace had surgery to treat vocal nodules in the late 60s. In the years after that, she lost a lot of what made her vocals special -- her ability to wail and imitate the guitar.

Marty Balin sang most of Jefferson Starship's best known songs in the mid to late '70s. And Grace certainly played second fiddle to Mickey Thomas after rejoining the band in '81 after a three-year break.

Say what you will about the songs, but it was kinda of cool to see and hear Grace on MTV and the radio in the '80s, thanks to "Winds of Change" (a pretty cool tune), "We Built This City," and "Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now."

But I was glad to see her ditch Starship in time for the JA reunion in '89 (the album had some bright moments, including Grace's "Freedom").

But at 50, when she was looking better than she had in years, Grace elected to bow out gracefully. She quit dying her hair and trying to defy aging, then later had some health issues. It's cool that she's found a creative outlet in painting, but it would have been nice to hear more from her in the 90s (after synth rock went out of style and she could have done something grittier - as her duet with Linda Perry demonstrated).

She's always been a blunt instrument, based on a lot of what I've heard about her history. So I'm not surprised to hear her tell it like she thinks it is.

But Stevie is an exception. In her 50s and 60s, she's managed to keep me far more interested in her music than a lot of acts I no longer follow as closely.

I don't know how long she'll be able to keep up the blonde witchy woman look, but it's a persona that's allowed her to age more gracefully than Madonna. It's amazing what Madonna can still do on stage, but she needs to start thinking about what she'll do for the next stage of her career.

Rock on, Gold Dust Woman. And Lindsey, Christine, Mick, and John, too!