Marty Balin, founding member of Jefferson Airplane, dies.
Marty Balin, one of the founding members of the legendary Bay Area band Jefferson Airplane, died Thursday at age 76. Balin’s family released a statement Friday confirming his death. No cause of death was listed.
The vocalist-guitarist, who was born in Cincinnati on Jan. 30, 1942, is remembered for his key role in developing and popularizing the psychedelic “San Francisco Sound” with the Airplane in the 1960s and then going on to greater commercial heights — if not critical acclaim — with Jefferson Starship in the ’70s.
Jefferson Airplane’s origins date back to the mid-1960s, when Balin met fellow Bay Area folk musician Paul Kantner and began laying the groundwork for a new band. They recruited guitarist Jorma Kaukonen, bassist Jack Casady and drummer Slip Spence and Jefferson Airplane made its public debut on Aug. 13, 1965, at the soonto-be-legendary The Matrix club in San Francisco.
The band quickly become one of the Bay
Area’s hottest acts. The group signed with the mighty RCA Records label, resulting in the little-noticed debut, 1966’s “Jefferson Airplane Takes Off.” The group found more success after singer Grace Slick replaced original vocalist Signe Toly Anderson and it released its sophomore effort, “Surrealistic Pillow.”
Boasting such iconic psychedelic rock standards as “Somebody to Love” and “White Rabbit,” “Pillow” became one of the de facto soundtracks to the Summer of Love in 1967. The band struck a chord with the youth of the day, offering up swirling psychedelic anthems full of rebellion, that had a profound impact on the direction of popular music.
Alongside the Grateful Dead, Quicksilver Messenger Service and other select Bay Area bands, Jefferson Airplane took the so-called San Francisco Sound and made it a national phenomenon, performing at such prominent festivals as Monterey and Woodstock. Balin was, according to accounts, badly beaten by members of the Hells Angels at the infamous Altamont Free Concert in 1969.
In 1970, he left the band at the end of a tour, reportedly disillusioned with the heavy drug use by his bandmates. By the early 1970s, Balin began contributing songs and vocals to the Jefferson Airplane
spinoff, Jefferson Starship, and joined the band officially in 1975. The band, bearing a more commercial sound than its predecessor, reached platinum heights with the mid-’70s albums “Red Octopus,” “Spitfire” and “Earth.” Balin wrote and sang lead on “Miracles,” one of Starship’s biggest singles.
The singer-songwriter was inducted, as a member of Jefferson Airplane, into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1996. Balin authored or co-authored a number of other memorable Airplane/Starship tracks, including “Comin’ Back to Me,” “With Your Love,” “Plastic Fantastic Lover,” “It’s No Secret” and, best of all, the moving anthem “Volunteers.”
Balin was an avid painter who reportedly was fond of doing portraits of other famous musicians.
He underwent open-heart surgery in 2016 at Mount Sinai Beth Israel Hospital in New York City, and later sued the facility, claiming improper care had damaged a vocal cord and part of his hand and led to other health problems.
Balin is survived by his third wife, Susan Joy Balin, whom he married in 2013, along with daughters Jennifer Edwards and Delaney Balin, and two stepdaughters. Information on any services has not been announced.