Jefferson Starship released their album Red Octopus 40 years ago. Fueled by the hit singles “Miracles” and “Play on Love,” the album hit #1 on the Billboard Top 200 and became a staple of rock—and ultimately classic rock—radio.
Jefferson Starship released their album Red Octopus40 years ago. Fueled by the hit singles “Miracles” and “Play on Love,” the album hit #1 on the Billboard Top 200 and became a staple of rock—and ultimately classic rock—radio. Lead guitarist Craig Chaquico was 20 years old when the record was released, and he recalls some of his memories of the making (and airplay) of that chart topper.
“The sessions for Red Octopus were all done at Wally Heider Studios in San Francisco,” recalls Chaquico, “as were the Jefferson Starship platinum albums, Dragonfly, Spitfire, and Earth.
Starship in the studio (left to right)—Craig Chaquico, John Barbata, unidentified kid, Pete Sears, Marty Balin (seated), Grace Slick, David Freiberg, and Paul Kantner.
“Fresh out of high school art classes, I remember drawing the octopus idea for the logo with a heart and tentacles on a notepad in the control room between breaks and playbacks. It was later given to a major art department to polish up…kind of like my guitars in the mix.
“On ‘Miracles,’ all my guitars were recorded with Marty singing with his acoustic guitar in a separate room and Paul Kantner, John Barbata, Pete Sears on bass, and David Freiberg on keys all playing live and miked in the same room. Amps were set up and close miked in between gobos, but we could all make eye contact and wear these awesome headphones.
“‘Miracles’ is one of the songs where all of the lead guitar—for seven minutes on the album version—is completely from the first take. I always felt embarrassed if I didn’t nail it right the first time. I worried that any overdubs would be a huge imposition from the new guitar player kid, so I tried to not waste studio time. Plus I just love to play on the actual live basic track.
“After we selected basic tracks and took them home to listen, I would usually come up with a note or two I’d like to fix. I can still hear two or three notes I punched on the original solo from ‘All Fly Away’ off Dragonfly, but most everything you hear on Red Octopus was done live in one take. For months I kept asking the producer, Larry Cox, to let me go in and redo my guitar on ‘Miracles.’ We recorded a whole symphony string section over it, and layered tons of vocals. Well, by the time that song was done and Larry did his magic with the mixing, the guitar didn’t need fixing. It never sounded so good as when he was done with the song.
“I played nothing but real ’50s ‘vintage’ Les Pauls, which at that time in the ’70s were just called ‘used.’ My amps were almost always old blond Fender Bassmans. My effects were the original wah wah pedals and stompboxes like MXR Phase 90s. I didn’t usually need a distortion box, as I just turned the Bassmans all the way up to 10. That distortion and sustain was perfect: really clean and biting with a tube edge and bell-like sound.
“When I hear a song like ‘Miracles’ today, I usually hear the elevator door ding, or the sound of a supermarket P.A. Or, I’ll hear them talk over my guitar solo: ‘Price check. Price check for broccoli please.’ Seriously, though, it’s a trip to hear something I played guitar on before I was old enough to drink, as part of such an iconic band during a historic time musically and socially.