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To view a rare Jefferson Airplane poster visit https://members.tripod.com/~zeitgeist_scot/jeffair.html
I really thought that once I was retired I'd have a lot of time on my hands, but that is absolutely the opposite of where my life is now. Taking care of my wife Wanda at the stage of lung disease that she is at, takes 95% of my time. The other five percent is carved up into two book writing projects, plus still trying to get my music off the ground. Even though I've held down a full time day job for the last 20 years, I've still managed to write, to have a band of my own going at one point, plus managing a band and teaching them my songs.
At this point, Brian Fowler, a long time friend and fellow musician are working on songs together, plus remastering songs we recorded several years ago in Georgia. We were thinking of trying to put out an anthology of music I've written and recorded, from 1965 to the year 2000, but the focus is changing.
I went to see Matthew Katz (Airplane Manager from day one, up to Surrealistic Pillow) at his home in Malibu last week. Up until a couple of months ago, after moving back to California, I got in touch with Matthew and then last week I met with him at his home. He has a series of "Then & Now" albums that are an on going project. We both realized that Volumes I & II each had a cut that was recorded at Columbia Records while I was still with the group. There were four songs on which I played at that demo session. I asked Matthew (I'll forward a copy of my e-mail to him and his reply) if we could do an album of those four songs, plus songs I had written and was working on at the time I left the Airplane. He said yes and it is my plan to continue working towards that album coming out, as well as working with Brian Fowler on an album of newer material to come out next year.
Bob Harvey
I don't know if you can really understand where I'm coming from. After all you have been through with all the heavy investment financially and emotionally and even spiritually, anything I'm feeling seems paltry.
But for me, when I was cut from the group, before the good times came, before any possibility of recognition for my songs and before I could even say I was on an album with them - it really hurt. Then they purposely reneged on the promise of money for the time I was in the group. And on top of that Marty putting in the liner notes of their box set that they through me out because I just couldn't play. And that especially, has hurt me in a lot of ways.
I want to be able to say and to show that I recorded with the band and be able to point to those four songs on whatever volumes they are on as proof that I was good enough to be there with them recording at Columbia.
At that point, they didn't know I was a bad bass player. You said it yourself, they didn't know good bass playing from bad. It wasn't until David Crosby laid the trip on them that they should get rid of me, that they decided that, Oh, Crosby says he's no good, we better get rid of him. I've never come to you asking for repayment for anything. I have never held you responsible for my loss as other ex members have, nor come to you holding out my hand for money that I felt was coming to me.
When you ask me to come to San Francisco to as a witness in your behalf, I didn't ask you to try and get my paltry two thousand dollars. I figured I was doing this for you because I believed in you and to put a price tag on that would have been demeaning to both of us. So I just helped as best I could. But it did hurt me. Up to that point I had been welcome at recording sessions, back stage at concerts, at the Airplane House while they were rehearsing. I was allowed to be part of the scene as an ex member of the group. After I was a witness at the trial. I was cut off totally by the band, even on the superficial level that it existed at, at least, I could hang out. Now that was gone too.
There is something that I want from you that will help me, help my own self esteem, help establish me as having been a legitimate member of the early band. I would like you to put out a CD, or let me put it out at my own expense if money is a factor, Let it be a Pre- RCA CD with Bob Harvey on Bass, and use the Harmon Gym Poster with the picture of us that was taken at Girrodelli Square. With all of us on the bench against the brick Wall. Jorma, me, Marty, Signe,Paul and Skippy. The other side could be filled with my early stuff, especially the three songs that I was working on while still in the group. "Blowin My Mind" "Shadow Leaves" & "Completely Harmless". Or, I may be able to come up with at least two reel to reel recordings of my own, that were made my me at the Matrix. One is "Lets Get Together" and one more. I'm sending my reel to reels to a recording engineer friend to see if he can save any of the ones that I originally recorded.
It seems to me that a Jefferson Airplane CD (before RCA) with all songs that I am on and a cover made from that Harmon Gym poster is as legitimate as the "Then and Now" albums. What that would give me is a tiny piece of a step up in prestige as one of the founding members and as someone who recorded with the band. It would give me more standing as I'm trying to get my own music heard and listened to. As near as I can recall, this is really all I've ever asked of you, this is what really means something to me, to be recognized as a legitimate part of building the band into what it could have become.
Your Friend
Bob Harvey