Slower Dancing Top Ten: Count on Me (#1)

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The end of the month means the end of the countdown. Next month we’ll get it going with the opposite effect, using many (but not all) of the same artists. Again, a big thanks to @rebelann for the joke that turned into a countdown! Hope you’ve enjoyed it. Here’s the top song, believe it or not. #1: Count on Me - Jefferson Starship The other night I was watching a documentary about the Haight-Ashbury hippie/music scene in the 60s. It was a scene that grew as an “extension” or “replacement” of the beat scene. In many cases, bands that started as folk-rock acts quickly morphed into psychedelic rockers. If you listened to a lot of acts in the 70s like Steve Miller and Jefferson Starship, you’d never guess they came from that scene. In fact, if you listen to Miller’s first album and the first album by the then-Jefferson Airplane you’d be amazed. (That’s true of a lot of bands, honestly: Peter Green-era Fleetwood Mac sounds nothing like the band that did “Over My Head” and “Dreams.”) Of course, that leads to arguments. There are people who loved Airplane’s “White Rabbit” and “Somebody to Love” who’ll tell you that J. Starship’s things like “Miracles” (ooh, I hate that song) and this one were awful. But Jefferson Airplane and Jefferson Starship fans do unite in saying “We Built This City,” by just Starship, was awful. (And, believe it or not, lawsuits over the use of the name resulted in certain band member combinations being required to be on a recording for the recording to be labeled “Jefferson Starship” versus “Starship.” Lawyers dwell on small details, as Don Henley sang. ) Generally speaking, I’m not a big fan of any of the above. As I said, “Miracles” made me set land speed records for getting to the radio and turning it off in 1975. I wasn’t listening to rock and roll in the psychedelic “Jefferson Airplane” days so I don’t go there beyond “White Rabbit” (which I do actually like). However, this album and I met in the right place at the right time. And, yes, I loved skating to this song. It was the perfect tempo for just about anything. Maybe that’s why it’s stuck with me all these years. Thanks for reading. Count on Me Written by Jesse Barish Recorded by Jefferson Starship From Earth, 1978 Lost in the air of a love so real: