Jefferson Starship

Few American bands carry as much San Francisco history in their name as Jefferson Starship. Its roots lie in Blows Against the Empire, a 1970 Paul Kantner album about a group of people escaping Earth in a hijacked starship, which credited the project as Jefferson Starship and gathered members of Jefferson Airplane, the Grateful Dead, and David Crosby and Graham Nash. The name outlasted the original line-up and many of its sounds.

Red Octopus, released in 1975, went double-platinum and topped the Billboard 200. Spitfire followed the next year as a top five hit. Slick and Balin both left in 1978, and Mickey Thomas came in as their replacement; Slick returned in 1981, and the group continued with minor chart success. Kantner quit in 1984 and pursued legal action over the name, so the remaining members became Starship. He revived the project in 1992 as Jefferson Starship: The Next Generation, touring through the decade and into the 21st century, and the group carried on after his death in 2016.