Got a Revolution! The Turbulent Flight of Jefferson Airplane ↑

Grinnell College Homecoming dance

Bill Thompson [the band’s manager] remembers the moment when he knew for sure that Jefferson Airplane really had the power to transform people. It happened not in San Francisco, but in Iowa, Grace Slick’s first show with the band away from California.

BILL THOMPSON: It was the Grinnell College homecoming dance. All of the girls wore these long, frilly dresses down to their ankles, and corsages, the guys had suits and ties and their parents with them, sitting in the bleachers watching. The band did three sets. We brought a light show with us. The first set, they’re looking at us like we’re Martians: “What the hell is this?” The band had pretty long hair at the time, even compared to the Beatles. The second set, they started to dance. Then the parents all went home, and by the third set, the kids went nuts.

PAUL KANTNER: All the kids came in prom gowns and tuxedos. Then we came back to Iowa a year later and they were having nude mud love-ins and everybody had their faces painted.

Jeff Tamarkin, 2003, from the book Got a Revolution! The Turbulent Flight of Jefferson Airplane