Been So Long: My Life and Music

by Jorma Kaukonen

Overview

"A modern parable." —from the foreword by Grace Slick

“Jorma Kaukonen is a force in American music, equally adept at fingerpicked acoustic folk and blues as he is at wailing on an electric.” – Acoustic Guitar

“Jorma Kaukonen lit a fuse and transformed his electric guitar into a firework.” – Live For Live Music

From the man who made a name for himself as a founding member and lead guitarist of Jefferson Airplane comes a memoir that offers a rare glimpse into the heart and soul of a musical genius—and a vivid journey through the psychedelic era in America.

“Music is the reward for being alive,” writes Jorma Kaukonen in this candid and emotional account of his life and work. “It stirs memory in a singular way that is unmatched.” In a career that has already spanned a half century—one that has earned him induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, among other honors—Jorma is best known for his legendary bands Jefferson Airplane and the still-touring Hot Tuna. But before he won worldwide recognition he was just a young man with a passion and a dream.

Been So Long is the story of how Jorma found his place in the world of music and beyond. The grandson of Finnish and Russian-Jewish immigrants whose formative years were spent abroad with his American-born diplomat father, Jorma channeled his life experiences—from his coming-of-age in Pakistan and the Philippines to his early gigs with Jack Casady in D.C. to his jam sessions in San Francisco with Jerry Garcia, Janis Joplin, Bob Dylan, and other contemporaries—into his art in unique and revelatory ways. Been So Long charts not only Jorma’s association with the bands that made him famous but goes into never-before-told details about his addiction and recovery, his troubled first marriage and still-thriving second, and more. Interspersed with diary entries, personal correspondence, and song lyrics, this memoir is as unforgettable and inspiring as Jorma’s music itself.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781250229496
Publisher:	St. Martin's Publishing Group
Publication date:	04/07/2020
Pages:	368
Sales rank:	276,948
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.20(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

JORMA KAUKONEN is one of the most highly respected interpreters of American roots music, blues, and Americana, and at the forefront of popular rock 'n roll. He is the founding member and guitarist of Jefferson Airplane and the still-touring Hot Tuna, and has recorded more than a dozen solo albums. He's a member of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and a Grammy nominee. Jorma and his wife Vanessa operate Fur Peace Ranch Guitar Camp, a center in Ohio for studying guitar and other instruments.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments vii

Foreword Grace Slick ix

Into the Light xi

Introduction xiii

l Land of Heroes 1

2 A New Song 12

3 Trouble in Mind 17

4 Living in the Moment 25

5 A Walk with Friends 36

6 Simpler Than I Thought 60

7 In the Kingdom 84

8 Seasons in the Field 109

9 Turn My Life Down 131

10 Trial by Fire 148

11 Genesis 157

12 Watch the North Wind Rise 169

13 Roads and Roads & 175

14 Broken Highway 186

15 The Other Side of This Life 196

16 Do Not Go Gentle 215

17 Too Many Years 225

18 Heart Temporary 242

19 A Life Well Lived 257

20 Stars in My Crown 271

Epilogue 285

Afterword Jack Casady 287

Lyric Appendix 289

Index 343

Editorial Reviews

★ 06/11/2018
Jefferson Airplane guitarist Kaukonen’s candid and affectionate memoir resembles the rambling and free-flowing road trips he enjoys. The author began taking trips early in life as he traveled to Pakistan and the Philippines from his Washington, D.C., home with his father, who worked for the State Department. When Kaukonen was 16, he was inspired by a guitar-playing friend to play music and, with his father’s help, bought his first guitar. In high school, he met Jack Casady, who would become the bassist for Jefferson Airplane and Hot Tuna, and the two began a lifelong friendship and musical partnership. Kaukonen continued to develop his fingerpicking blues guitar style at Antioch College in Ohio, playing with fellow guitarist Ian Buchanan. After college, he headed to California where he joined the Airplane and played at the 1966 Monterey Jazz Festival. At the same time his music career was evolving, he sank into alcoholism, and his marriage with his first wife, Margareta, disintegrated, exacerbated by his own ambivalence. Kaukonen left Jefferson Airplane in 1972, pursuing the Hot Tuna project he and Casady had begun, but five years later, he decided to go out on his own. He now lives on a ranch with his wife, Vanessa, in southern Ohio, where he runs songwriting and guitar workshops. A mesmerizing storyteller, Kaukonen delivers a memoir as intricate and dazzling as his music. (Aug.)

Publishers Weekly

Kaukonen's brilliant acoustic guitar work results in an aural feast.” —Raleigh News & Observer

“Kaukonen doing what he does involves playing folk/blues-derived guitar with skill and dexterity few can match.” —San Francisco Chronicle

“Nobody does the acoustic blues better these days than the founder of Jefferson Airplane and Hot Tuna guitarist, Jorma Kaukonen.” —Popmatters

“With early Tuna, there was a bit of respectful distance; they were playing an older generation's music and giving it a few psychedelic tweaks. Today, Kaukonen plays that music like it's his own; the hard-lived sentiments are those he has experienced firsthand.” —Sound & Vision Magazine

“The playing is quietly astounding, but it’s the sincere love for these songs that pushes the plow.” —Detroit Free Press

From the Publisher

2018-06-27
Amiable and informative, if not always compelling, memoir by the folkie who anchored Jefferson Airplane.As guitarist for Airplane, Kaukonen once wrote a memorable acoustic instrumental named "Embryonic Journey." That could well serve as a title for this debut, the septuagenarian rocker's therapeutic account of his inner and outer life and times. The son of a State Department attaché, Kaukonen's formative years were spent traveling around the world. Along the way, he became an obsessive finger-picking guitarist and, luckily, wound up back on the family's California home turf at a time when legendary bands were formed at a moment's notice. Such was the case with the Airplane, which reaped a hefty advance from the beginning and created a new and defiantly trippy sound. "All of a sudden," he writes, "psychedelic was no longer a door to perception or an excuse to party…it was becoming a genre!" As the money rolled in, so did amphetamines (among many other pharmaceuticals) and more music. "I am convinced that many of the crystalline solos on those Airplane recordings were directly related to that little orange pill," writes the author. "It's funny to think that my life could have been so completely ruled by mood-altering substances, but at the time it would never have occurred to me that there might be another way to live." Kaukonen spares little in describing the winding path of his life, both the ups (writing and playing music) and the downs (addiction and a destructive codependent marriage). Unfortunately, his philosophical and spiritual ramblings become increasingly repetitive and tedious. Also, while he offers factual details about life inside the Airplane (and follow-up band Hot Tuna), he is short on offering the kind of interesting personal details only he would know—e.g, what was/is lead singer Grace Slick really like? Was he affected by the controversies swirling around the provocative "Volunteers" album?An honest personal portrait but also one where the author could have revealed more—and written less.

Kirkus Reviews