‘Somebody to love’

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    “Fifteen minutes of work has supported me for 35 years,” remarks new Malibu resident Darby Slick.

    The 15 minutes of work Slick is referring to is the giant hit song, “Somebody to Love,” which he wrote. The song was made famous by the legendary rock band Jefferson Airplane during the late 60s.

    The band that first recorded the tune was not Airplane, but a previous incarnation, also featuring the musical wizardry of singer, songwriter Grace Slick in the San Francisco-based group The Great Society.

    “Grace was married to my brother, Jerry Slick, and the three of us were the nucleus of the band,” explains Slick.

    The Great Society diffused some time later when Grace joined Airplane as lead singer and Darby Slick took off to study music in India.

    “Grace loved the song,” said Slick. “The song is in the key of F sharp minor. People kept commenting, ‘There’s never been a rock ‘n’ roll hit in such an off-the-wall key as F sharp minor.’ “

    “Grace went back home and three days later she came walking in and she had a new song and it was in F sharp,” explained Slick. “It was ‘White Rabbit,’ so that was a pretty good week for The Great Society.”

    Slick’s impetus for writing the tune was born from a condition that often inspires a lyric — the suffering of a lost love.

    “It was 1966,” he recalls. “My girlfriend had stayed out all night long and I knew that meant she had been with another guy. Toward dawn that day, I wrote this song.”

    ” ‘When the truth is found to be lies, and all the joy within you dies, don’t you want somebody to love?’ ” Slick repeats a line from the song. “It was just sadness and loneliness coming out in a song.”

    While he continues to earn a living income from the timeless piece, Slick’s other credits include a Clio award for music composed for Sesame Street. To date, he is still writing and producing and intends to open shop with a home studio at his new digs in Malibu.

    “I’m putting a band together, talking to agents, meeting TV and movie makers,” said Slick, adding that nibbles are turning into offers since his move down from the Bay area.

    The move to Malibu is not the first major move of his life. The Texas native, born during the second World War, experienced a major musical influence when he lived in India at the end of the 60s, and returned later to the Bay area to continue study and work with Maestro Ali Akbar Khan.

    That work led Slick to invent a fretless electric guitar, which, combined with Slick’s approach, resonates the sound of Hendrix and early Clapton.

    “There’s a place in the world for that,” Slick asserts. “I don’t want to see it die out. I want to represent it as long as I can.”