Friday, May 15, 2009

LIKE I BELIEVE, BABY


Marty Balin was the founder and a featured vocalist for Jefferson Airplane from 1965 to 1971. Miracles - from Starship's "Red Octopus" album is perhaps my favorite love song ever written, make no mistake. Certainly the most sensuous. I'm still blown away by the intimacy, the intensity of the lyrics. Marty's haunting vocals made him one of the most distinctive and charismatic singers on the rock scene.

"If only you believe like I believe...," are sentiments from Marty's heart. "I'm a spiritual-oriented person and I believe that music and art can help change the world for the better" he says.

Balin says of the song: "I wrote 'Miracles" about Barbara (his girlfriend at the time), and also about the miraculous powers of Sai Baba. I went to Puttaparti with Barbara and saw Sai Baba. We journeyed through the South Indian desert to the village; the song emerged from that darshan, that experience.""When I wrote 'Miracles,' I had my love for Barbara and my love for Sai Baba -- two very different forms of love -- running through me. So the song is about both of them. I picked up my guitar and I started singing: 'If only you believe, if only you believe like I believe, we'll get by' The words flowed one after another, along with the music; I got the song written down in one draft, on a sheet of yellow paper."

On a sunny spring morning, both Marty and guitarist Slick Agular played three special requests for the Innkeeper. "Today", "Coming Back to Me", and "Miracles".

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