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Volunteers (song)

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"Volunteers"
Single by Jefferson Airplane
from the album Volunteers
B-side"We Can Be Together"
ReleasedOctober 1969 (1969-10)
RecordedApril 1969
StudioWally Heider Studios, San Francisco, California
GenreHard rock[1]
Length2:03
LabelRCA Victor
Songwriter(s)
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

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Chart (1969-70) Peak
position
US Billboard Hot 100[9] 65

Personnel

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Additional personnel

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Cover versions

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Notes

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  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.
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