The singer who sparked a rock revolution

In the mid-1960s, San Francisco folk singer Marty Balin was inspired by the Beatles and other British Invasion rock bands to go electric. “But when I mentioned that notion in clubs that I played,” he said, “the owners would say, ‘We wouldn’t have you play here. This is a folk club.’” So Balin took matters into his own hands, founding a club and a band; both would be integral to the rise of hippie culture and 1967’s “Summer of Love.” The band was Jefferson Airplane, the first U.S. psychedelic rock group to achieve mainstream success, with hits like “Volunteers,” “White Rabbit,” and “Somebody to Love.” The club was the Matrix, which would host early performances by the Grateful Dead, Santana, and the Janis Joplin–fronted Big Brother and the Holding Company. “Marty,” said former Airplane manager Bill Thompson, “was the one who started the San Francisco scene.” Born in Cincinnati, Balin relocated to California with his family at age 4. His lithographer father took the young Marty to jazz concerts, said The Times (U.K.), and “he was transfixed by the effect the music and the lights had on the audience.” At 20, he released two pop singles, neither of which was a hit, before immersing himself in the San Francisco folk scene. Jefferson Airplane would meld all of the singer’s musical loves— blues, folk, rock, and jazz—and Balin became known for “his yearning tenor on the ballads ‘Today,’ and ‘It’s No Secret’ and on the political anthem ‘Volunteers,’” said The Washington Post. Yet he was shy, and often felt overshadowed by Jefferson Airplane’s other vocalist, the charismatic Grace Slick. “Grace was the most beautiful girl in rock,” he said, so critics “gave her credit for everything.” He left the group in 1971, fed up with his bandmates’ cocaine habit, said RollingStone.com. “The chemicals made people crazy and very selfish,” Balin said. “It just wasn’t any fun to be around.” He reunited with several Airplane alumni as part of Jefferson Starship in 1974, and wrote and sang their biggest hit, 1975’s “Miracles,” which reached No. 3 on the Billboard chart. Weary of touring, Balin quit the band in 1978 to go solo. He occasionally joined Airplane and Starship reunion projects, but preferred playing low-key club sets with his folk trio. “There aren’t any egos,” he said in 2016. We just “get to the music, man.”