Jefferson Starship "Dragon Fly"
RCA BFL1-0717
Released: October 1974
Chart Peak: #11
Weeks Charted: 37
Certified Gold: 2/19/75

For several years, the nucleus of the Airplane/Starship has been struggling to hold together a concept that didn't seem workable in the first place. The performing personalities of Slick and Kantner have long seemed much too cold-hearted to deal convincingly with humanistic themes. Their key remoteness has combined with Kantner's pedantry and Slick's sarcasm to turn the pair into unknowing self-parodies.
But this is better: Dragon Fly is at worst listenable and at best surprisingly engaging. New guitarist Craig Chaquico makes up in ebullience what he lacks in subtlety, Pete Sears (on bass and keyboards) is a pro, and the leading couple sounds almost excited at times.
Long-time Airplane devotees will love the album, if only for its best track, the sexy and nostalgic "Caroline," which reunites Marty Balin with what has become of his band. Balin's charming vulnerability neutralizes the Slick/Kantner harshness and kindles a much needed spark through the album as a whole, making Dragon Fly the Slick/Kantner combine's first adequate effort since '69's Volunteers. A spark, however, does not necessarily mean a lift-off -- it's safer to view this album as a proud exit than the first sign of a major resurgence.
- Bud Scoppa, Rolling Stone, 1/2/75.
Bonus Reviews!
The finest effort from Slick, Kantner, Freiberg, Creach, Balm and company in a long time, with several superb rock cuts in the best tradition of the Jefferson Airplane and some equally well done ballads. Ms. Slick has not sounded as powerful on her vocals in a long while, the harmonies will bring back memories of the 1960's and Papa John Creach's violin contributes substantially to each cut without intruding. A superb LP which should put this fine band right back into the mainstream of the rock world. Best cuts: "Ride The Tiger," "Be Young You," "Caroline," "Devil's Den," "All Fly Away."
- Billboard, 1975.
The key cut here is Grace Slick's gnomic "Hyperdrive," in which supertechnology (spirit-powered, perhaps?) cuts through "corners in time." If in 1973 you'd been responsible for Baron von Tollbooth and the Chrome Nun (Jefferson Jitney), Thirty Seconds Over Winterland (dead live), and Bodacious D. F. (Marty's party), you'd want to think you'd turned a corner in 1974 yourself. But though this does achieve a slick modernization of their polyvocal sound (Barbata-powered, definitely), with Papa John Creach's fiddle and Craig Chaquico's guitar synthesizing past and future for purposes of metaphor and stage presentation as Marty Balin's cameo contribution links them audibly to their own history, it also proves that you can't get along forever on generalized imprecations against the powerful and invidious oriental-occidental comparisons. C+
- Robert Christgau, Christgau's Record Guide, 1981.
http://www.superseventies.com/spjeffersonstarship.html

Credited to "Grace Slick/Paul Kantner/Jefferson Starship," Dragon Fly was the transitional album between the various shifting aggregations Slick and Kantner had been recording with as Jefferson Airplane dissolved in the early '70s and the new Jefferson Starship (which essentially was the Airplane with a new guitarist and bassist -- Craig Chaquico and Pete Sears). But where such preceding efforts as Sunfighter, Manhole, and Baron Von Tollbooth and the Chrome Nun had suffered from indulgence and a lack of focus, Dragon Fly, from the first note of its rocking leadoff track, "Ride the Tiger" (a chart single), was a unified effort. Like much of the Airplane catalog and all of the Starship albums to follow, the album suffered from the band's communal approach to song selection (the eight tracks credited 12 writers, half of them bandmembers), leading to an unevenness in the material. But unlike the recent Kantner/Slick/etc. albums, it sounded like the work of a seasoned band. (It didn't hurt that the album was cut just after a tour, instead of before one.) Especially notable was Chaquico, who on such tracks as "All Fly Away" and "Hyperdrive" demonstrated that he was a distinctive lead guitarist able to define the Starship sound just as the very different Jorma Kaukonen had the Airplane. But what turned Dragon Fly into an artistic and commercial triumph (it was the most popular album any of these people had been involved with in five years) was the return, for one song, of former Airplane singer Marty Balin, since that one song was the epic power ballad "Caroline," which became a radio favorite and remains one of the best songs the Airplane/Starship ever did.