Marty Balin, Jefferson Airplane Co-Founder, Dies at 76
He was not on the list.
Marty Balin, a co-founder of Jefferson Airplane and a member
of its later incarnation Jefferson Starship, whose high and soulful voice
defined many of both groups’ songs, died Thursday, his rep confirmed. He was
76; the cause of death was not announced.
His wife, Susan Joy Balin, was “by his side,” according to
the announcement.
Although Balin had his greatest impact as one of the
architects of the musical counterculture during his 1965-71 tenure in Jefferson
Airplane, he had his greatest commercial success when he rejoined the remnants
of that group a few years later in Jefferson Starship, as the sole lead singer
on both of that band’s singles to reach the top 10, “Miracles” in 1975 and
“Count on Me” in 1978.
He was a member of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, having
been inducted with other members of the Airplane in 1996. It was 20 years later
that the band received the Recording Academy’s lifetime achievement award, with
Patti Smith writing in the Grammy Awards’ program book about her appreciation
for “the soaring combination of Grace Slick’s acerbic wit and fearless charisma
and the romantic purity of Marty Balin.”
Born Martyn Jerel Buchwald, Balin was a young folksinger in
San Francisco when he formed a band with fellow folkie Paul Kantner, who
specialized in 12-string guitar. The pair teamed up with guitarist Jorma
Kaukonen, bassist Jack Casady, drummer Skip Spence and singer Signe Anderson as
the Jefferson Airplane and released their debut album, “Jefferson Airplane
Takes Off,” in 1966. Anderson and Spence soon left the band and were replaced
by Grace Slick and Spencer Dryden, respectively, and the group’s 1967 album
“Surrealistic Pillow” — featuring the Slick-sung hits “White Rabbit” and
“Somebody to Love,” along with several songs co-written by Balin — vaulted the
group into superstardom. The harmonies between Slick, Balin and Kantner became
a signature of the group’s sound.
Balin was a galvanizing member of both the band and the San
Francisco scene, and in 1965 helped launch a club in the city called the Matrix
that hosted many groups of the era, ranging from the Airplane, the Doors and
Janis Joplin to the Velvet Underground. He sold his interest in the club after
the Airplane’s star began to rise.
Jefferson Airplane issued several more albums into the early
1970s and played at both Woodstock and Altamont (where he was famously knocked
out by a Hell’s Angel after trying to intervene amid the violence).
The group splintered in the early 1970s but several members,
including Slick and Kantner, reunited as Jefferson Starship in the mid-‘70s,
and Balin was persuaded to reunite with his former partners during the
recording of their debut album. His high tenor voice became a centerpiece of
the group’s sound via hits like “Miracles” and “With Your Love.” That group
splintered as well before reuniting without Balin several years later as a pure
pop outfit under the abbreviated name Starship.
Balin went solo and enjoyed a top 10 hit of his own in 1981
with the song “Hearts.” In 1989, he joined up with a short-lived Airplane
reunion tour and returned four years later to Jefferson Starship, finally
leaving for good in 2008. His final solo album, “The Greatest Love,” was
released in early 2016.
He underwent open-heart surgery in 2016 and later sued New
York’s Mount Sinai Beth Israel Hospital for medical malpractice, claiming
multiple injuries from the operations. Balin’s illness rendered him unable to
attend the Grammys when the Airplane was awarded lifetime achievement honors,
but he released a statement at the time, saying, “”I am grateful for the
beautiful musical journey my life continues to take. To all my fellow Jefferson
Airplane Band members, through its various metamorphoses, I thank you for a
dream come true.”
In a statement, Susan and Balin’s family issued a statement
that noted how Balin “also enjoyed painting all his life. He painted vibrant,
large-scale portraits of many of the most influential musicians and good
friends Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison and Jerry Garcia, to name a few.”
“Marty was the one who started the San Francisco scene,”
says Bill Thompson, Balin’s roommate back in the mid-’60s and former manager of
both Jefferson Airplane and Jefferson Starship.
“Back in those days Marty was quite the businessman,” said
Paul Kantner, who passed away in 2016. “He was the leader of the band on that
level. He was the one who pushed us to do all the business stuff,
orchestrating, thinking ahead, looking for managers and club opportunities. He
was very good at it.”
Balin is survived by Susan, daughters Jennifer Edwards and
Delaney Balin, and stepdaughters Rebekah Geier and Moriah Geier.
“Marty and I shared the deepest of love — he often called it
Nirvana — and it was,” Susan Balin said in a statement. “But really, we were
all touched by his love. His presence will be within my entire being forever.”
