Marty Balin got Jefferson Airplane airborne

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.

Slick's thundering contralto, dubbed "the voice that launched a thousand trips", would define the Airplane's sound in anthems such as White Rabbit and Somebody to Love.

The group performed at Woodstock and two other hippie gatherings of the era, Monterey and Altamont. Balin was knocked unconscious at Altamont while trying to stop the Hell's Angels security guards "beating this guy with pool cues", as he recalled. "When I woke up I had all these boot marks tattooed all over me."

Balin left the group in 1971, later blaming cocaine: "I personally just drank alcohol. But some of the chemicals made people crazy and very selfish, and it just wasn't any fun to be around for me."

He formed the short-lived Bodacious DF, then in 1975 rejoined his old band. The lineup was changed but still led by Slick and Kantner, and renamed Jefferson Starship.

Balin left again in 1978 after the band's sound had become pop-tinged, bland and corporate.

He continued recording and in the early 1980s enjoyed several US hit singles.

Balin was born Martyn Jerel Buchwald in Cincinnati, Ohio, on January 30, 1942.

He is survived by his third wife, Susan Joy Balin and two daughters.

- Telegraph Media Group