Hell's Angels knocked Marty Balin unconscious at one hippie gathering. Photo / AP
Marty Balin, who has died aged 76, was a singer, songwriter and founding member of the acid-rock group, Jefferson Airplane.
In the mid-1960s, San Francisco was a thriving site of cultural experimentation, given added stimulus by drugs such as LSD and mescalin. The hippie counter-culture was centred in the
Haight-Ashbury district (dubbed "Hashbury" by Hunter S Thompson) and the Airplane, as they would become known, provided its soundtrack — a blend of vocal harmonies with strands of blues, rock, folk and more exotic influences such as Indian music.
Jefferson Airplane took shape in 1965 when Balin, who had played acoustic guitar in folk group the Town Criers, met Paul Kantner, a 12-string guitar player.
"I wanted to go electric," Balin explained, "so I looked for an electric guitarist and a drummer."
After some early shuffling around, the lineup comprised Balin (vocals and guitar) and Kantner (rhythm guitar), with Jorma Kaukonen (guitar) and Jack Casady (bass), Spencer Dryden on drums and Signe Anderson as female vocalist. Anderson left to have a baby, however, and former model Grace Slick joined the band.
