Rock 'n' Roll: Open Up, Tune In, Turn On

ROCK 'N' ROLL

The snarl of an engine splits the stillness. Out of the half-light, the projected silhouette of a Piper Cub glides ghostlike across a side wall. Suddenly, sound track and silhouette become a screaming, whooshing jet that dives at the stage and disintegrates with a shattering roar in the midst of six musicians. The drummer roars back with a thumping beat. The guitarists twang away lustily. And, momentum building, voices wailing and all systems gogo, the Jefferson Airplane blasts off.

The launching pad is San Francisco's Fillmore Auditorium, where for the...