Manhole (album)

Background

The album is credited solely to Slick (she had previously recorded Sunfighter with Paul Kantner and Baron von Tollbooth and the Chrome Nun with Kantner and David Freiberg, both of whom co-produced Manhole). It was recorded in 1973, when Jefferson Airplane had stopped touring, and Jorma Kaukonen and Jack Casady were making the Hot Tuna album, The Phosphorescent Rat. All the members who would form Jefferson Starship in 1974 performed on this album, except for Papa John Creach. The album was conceived as a soundtrack to a movie (noted by the title of the second track, "Theme from the Movie Manhole"), although there was no such movie made. Grace drew all of the artwork for the album, and wrote on the cover "Child Type Odd Art by Grace."

Recording

Bob Mathews, engineer in the studio, has said that since there were words Slick wanted to be in Spanish, she waited around to six in the morning until the Mexican janitor appeared and would then ask him to translate her words while he emptied garbage cans.

Craig Chaquico, a young guitarist, had not yet graduated from high school and was playing on Jack Traylor's Child of Nature at Wally Heider's in January and February 1973 when Slick, Paul Kantner and David Freiburg were working on Baron von Tollbooth & The Chrome Nun. According to Chaquico she got drunk as they worked - "Then she'd go turn the guitar up and tell me to make it ballsy. She wanted me to make it loud, raunchy. She was very patient with me. She took hours for one song and we'd improvise it through. I was inspired by her vocals and sexy lyrics. They gave me ideas to play. I could really feed off her energy and ideas."

Bob Mathews observed that though in her career she had always been quite disciplined, known for her reliability, at this time, "she was very much self-abused. She drank too much, smoked too much. She also shared my desire for particular drugs that kept us awake longer and allowed us to do more."

Reception

The album commercially underperformed, reaching #127 on the Billboard charts.

Track listing

Personnel