If you're a fan of Jefferson Airplane, Craig Fenton's book, "Take Me To Your Circus Tent" should be part of your collection. The book features interviews with over 30 musicians including members of the band, music industry professionals, and friends of the band; complete detailed information on over 120 Jefferson Airplane live concerts; a look at 60 unreleased songs; and over 93 rare photographs in a giant 543-page encyclopedia of everything Jefferson Airplane!
"If you're a Beatles fan or into the Grateful Dead or Frank Zappa you have such incredible information available at a moments notice," explained Craig Fenton of Monroe Township. "You could go to a database or a message board or do a Google search, but the Airplane was always filled with question marks. People would talk about the shows and song number two or three would be blank. It amazed me. I would say don't you want to know what you're listening to? It became an obsession to hunt down the correct title, proper running order and proper dates for all of the shows as a tribute to the band and to make it easier for the fans."
Fenton began collecting Jefferson Airplane memorabilia in 1976. It's often said that he has the largest collection next to Marty Balin's father. Fenton went through every show meticulously and made sure everything in the book was confirmed to be accurate. Some of the collection was acquired during his days as a disc jockey in the 1980s. He worked at stations in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, New York, and Florida before winding up back in the Garden State.
The book's research took six months of 12 hours a day, 7 days a week shifts. "I put everything on hold to do this," he said. "Every day I looked forward to the 12 hours because I knew I was getting closer to the goal. That became my entire existence - the Airplane book, taking care of Dad, eating and showering... but it was pretty special."
Sadly his father passed away on March 10th. His health had been failing for a while and updates on his condition were posted on Fenton's website for the Jefferson Airplane community, which seems to have become a bit closer thanks to this book and the website. While the community isn't as large as that of the Beatles or the Grateful Dead, it's much larger than the average music fan would realize. Fenton believes that part of the reason the Airplane community is smaller is due to an original timeframe of just 7 years (and even less with Marty Balin included) and a lack of commercial hits.
"Everyone knows 'White Rabbit' and 'Somebody to Love' but a lot of the music would be for the more esoteric person," he explained.
Jefferson Airplane continued on in various ways from the name changes of Jefferson Starship and then Starship to bands like Hot Tuna. Fenton says the general concensus is that if you stopped 100 fans the Airplane would be the top of the mountain and the Starship of the '80s is obviously at the bottom.
"The fans are very much enjoying what Paul Kantner and Starship are doing now, but the period of time when Mickey Thomas was in band is sort of the same situation the TV show Dallas had when they had gotten rid of the main character and they made it only a dream," said Fenton. "People refuse to recognize it. 'We Built This City' never happened!"
While Fenton says he truly enjoyed talking with artists like Marty Balin and Paul Kantner, some of his favorite interviews were with people who weren't in the bands for very long - people like Bob Harvey and Jerry Peloquin, the original bass player and original drummer for Jefferson Airplane.
"They just had tremendous stories that they could tell and a wealth of knowledge and passion as to what the time of life was like back then," he said.
"The Airplane had a timeless diversification of songs, great vocals, and the passion of how they felt about things like the war and peace and love and rock and roll. They laid such a nice groundwork that the time capsule will always be there for them."
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