Darby Slick

Dabney Roger "Darby" Slick (born 1944) is an American guitarist and songwriter, best known as a former member of The Great Society, and as the writer of the Jefferson Airplane song "Somebody to Love." In 1965, he co-founded The Great Society with his brother Jerry Slick, Jenn Piersol, and his sister-in-law Grace Slick (David Miner and Bard Du Pont joined shortly afterward). Darby played lead guitar and occasionally performed backup vocals early on and less often towards the disbanding. He wrote some other songs for The Great Society, including "Free Advice" and "Darkly Smiling."[1]

Darby Slick
Darby Slick in Hanapepe, Kauai in 2011
Background information
Birth nameDabney Roger Slick
Born1944 (age 76–77)
Occupation(s)guitarist
Instrumentsguitar
Years active1965–present
Associated actsThe Great Society

"Somebody to Love"

Originally under the title "Mind Full of Bread,"[2] the composition was created during Slick's process of creating a novel, which started in 1962. Slick spent time writing and playing jam sessions with his guitar. Periodically, he spent less time writing a novel and more time writing the composition.[3] The song was complete in 1965 after Slick ended a relationship. His intent for the piece was to go against the cliche of wanting love as a theme for a song and instead giving love.[4]

The song was released as a single under the North Beach label. It was released as "Someone to Love" with the B-side "Free Advice" but the single's distribution was limited and made little impact at the time. When Grace Slick and Jefferson Airplane recorded the song, it became a top 10 hit on the national charts. Darby Slick wrote other compositions like "Free Advice" that largely were influenced by Indian music that he studied after the band broke up.[5]

After The Great Society

After Slick's time with the band, he took an interest in Indian music.[6] He took several trips to India to learn more about the genre. Slick published an autobiography in 1991 titled Don't You Want Somebody to Love detailing his time with the band and lessons while on trips to India.[5]

Bibliography
  • Slick, Darby (January 1, 1991). Don't You Want Somebody To Love: Reflections on the San Francisco Sound. SLG Books. ISBN 978-0943389080.

Discography

In addition to his work with The Great Society, Darby worked in the 1990s on an album with his son Jor Slick (Sandoland, Taxim Records) and a solo album (King of the Fretless Guitar (1998), Taxim Records).[7]

References
  1. "Bay Area, Darby Slick". bay-area-bands.com. Retrieved February 26, 2015.
  2. "Original Lyrics For Sale". jambands.com. Retrieved February 26, 2015.
  3. "Darby Slick Interview". famousinterview.com. Retrieved February 26, 2015.
  4. Slick, Grace; Cagan, Andrea (December 14, 2008). Somebody to Love?: A Rock-and-Roll Memoir. Grand Central Publishing. Retrieved February 26, 2015.
  5. Unterberger, Richie. "Biography: Darby Slick". Allmusic. Retrieved 6 May 2010.
  6. Zickos, Coco (2013-05-01). "One Guitar, Two Different Styles". MidWeek Kaua'i. Retrieved 2020-07-09.
  7. Taxim Records site


This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.