In From The Cold [LP 1988]

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In From The Cold [LP 1988]

Tracks

  1. Perfect Souls – The Gathering
  2. Forever – The Next
  3. White Rabbit (Jefferson Airplane cover) – No Friends Of Harry
  4. Year After Year – The Bad
  5. Falling In Love – Shake Baby
  6. Passion Play – No Friends Of Harry
  7. Some People – No Friends Of Harry
  8. Wooden Walls – The Gathering
  9. Love You So Bad – The Bad
  10. Depression – The Next
  11. Crescendo Diminuendo – Shake Baby

Release information

LP: Principal Records, PRINCE 013
Cassette: Principal Records, PRINCE C013

In From The Cold (Cassette 1988)

Review

White Rabbit – No Friends Of Harry

From 1001 South African Songs You Must Hear Before You Go Deaf

When you cover an old Jefferson Airplane1 song from one of their most highly rated albums (‘Surrealistic Pillow’) and which goes on to be rated by Rolling Stone Magazine as one of the top 500 greatest songs of all time (albeit 478th on the list), you are surely either brave or stupid. I think one can safely say that Rob McLennan and his band were not stupid when they took on this challenge.

No Friends Of Harry were the front runners in the local goth/alternative scene in the late eighties and soon after the appearance of the debut mini album ‘One Came Running’, a few of their tracks appeared on the brilliant compilation of alternative music of that era, ‘In From The Cold’. In amongst these was their blistering version of the old Jefferson Airplane number.

Of course comparisions are almost obligatory when discussing cover versions so here goes. For a start, JA’s version is a builder with the instrumentation sounding almost muted while Grace Slick’s witchy vocals start off as threatening and dark, but as the military tattoo drum beat builds to an ‘into battle’ frenzy, so her voice becomes more banshee like. NFOH, decided to start out in full battle mode and McLennan’s vocals, while a long way off Slick’s in terms of technical ability, are dripping with sneers and anger while a menacing bass circles round the enemy.

Both versions have their merits and there will be those that say Jefferson Airplane’s is better, while other will go for No Friends Of Harry’s and other still, like me, who enjoy both equally. Where NFOH’s version does trump Airplane’s is that it is almost 5 minutes long compared to a paltry two and a half minutes Slick & Co. Feed your head on some white rabbit, the slick, quick way or, the longer, more harried route.

~ John Samson, 2 September 2016

Footnote

  1. John’s original review referred to Jefferson Starship, but this has been changed to Jefferson Airplane for accuracy. ↩︎
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