Editing Hot Tuna (section)

=== 1969–1973: beginnings ===
Hot Tuna began as a [[side project]] to [[Jefferson Airplane]], intended to mark time while [[Grace Slick]] recovered from [[vocal cord nodule]] surgery that had left her unable to perform. They initially named the group Hot Shit but then decided on the more innocuous Hot Tuna.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Jefferson Airplane's Jorma Kaukonen |url=https://www.mtv.com/news/xtb45s/jefferson-airplanes-jorma-kaukonen |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230128071324/https://www.mtv.com/news/xtb45s/jefferson-airplanes-jorma-kaukonen |url-status=dead |archive-date=January 28, 2023 |access-date=2024-05-08 |website=MTV |language=en}}</ref> That name came from someone [[Jorma Kaukonen]] referred to as a "witty wag" who called out "hot tuna" after hearing the line "What's that smell like fish, oh baby", from the song "Keep On Truckin'{{spaces|thin}}".<ref>{{cite book|title=Rock formations: Categorical answers to how band names were formed |last1=Wilson |first1=Dave |publisher=Cidermill Books |year=2004 |isbn=978-0-9748483-5-8 |page=83 |quote=Jorma Kaukonen has been quoted as saying that the name is an answer to a question posed in their song 'Keep on Truckin'{{'}}, as adapted from Blind Boy Fuller's 1938 song 'What's That Smell Like Fish?'}}</ref> Kaukonen, [[Jack Casady]], [[Paul Kantner]] and new drummer [[Joey Covington]] played several shows around San Francisco, including the Airplane's original club, [[The Matrix (club)|The Matrix]], before Jefferson Airplane resumed performing to support ''[[Volunteers (Jefferson Airplane album)|Volunteers]]''. (Although Covington had been hired by Jefferson Airplane, he only performed at select engagements, with [[Spencer Dryden]] continuing to perform as the band's principal drummer until his 1970 dismissal).<ref name=GotA>{{cite book |last=Tamarakin |first=Jeff |year=2003 |title=Got a Revolution: The Turbulent Flight of Jefferson Airplane |publisher=Simon and Schuster |isbn=0-671-03403-0}}</ref> Once the Airplane had resumed touring, Tuna found itself opening for the Airplane. Their early repertoire derived mainly from Kaukonen's Airplane material and covers of American country and blues artists such as [[Reverend Gary Davis]], [[Jelly Roll Morton]], [[Bo Carter]] and [[Blind Blake]].

In September 1969, Kaukonen and Casady employed the moniker for a week of acoustic-based concerts at the New Orleans House in [[Berkeley, California]]; recordings culled from this engagement were released as the band's [[Hot Tuna (album)|eponymous debut album]] in 1970. This album has become affectionately known by the group's fans as the "breaking glass album", because of the sound of breaking beer glasses during the recording of "Uncle Sam Blues".<ref>{{cite AV media notes|title=Hot Tuna |others=Hot Tuna |year=1970 |type=Remaster CD booklet|publisher=[[RCA Records|RCA]] |id=LSP-3864 |location=[[New York City]]}}</ref> Some tracks included Will Scarlett on [[harmonica]]. After the album was recorded, Jorma's brother [[Peter Kaukonen]] soon replaced Kantner on rhythm guitar and Jefferson Airplane co-lead vocalist [[Marty Balin]] joined on vocals for the electric songs. In 1970, the younger Kaukonen was replaced by Paul Ziegler.

[[File:Hot Tuna 1972.JPG|thumb|upright=1.3|left|The band in 1972. Casady and Kaukonen are in front; Creach and Piazza are in back.]]
That summer, [[RCA]] paid for the band to go to [[Jamaica]] to record their next album, but the album was never finished, in part due to a financial dispute between Balin (who left both bands shortly thereafter) and Kaukonen and Casady.<ref name=GotA /> Violinist [[Papa John Creach]] joined Hot Tuna and Jefferson Airplane in October 1970. Both bands finished a joint tour in November 1970 with shows at the [[Fillmore East]].

In September 1970, Kaukonen and Casady performed two acoustic-based shows as Hot Tuna without Jefferson Airplane at Pepperland (a large dance hall in [[San Rafael, California]]) and received good reviews,<ref name=GotA /> further signifying that Hot Tuna could survive without the other band to support it.

As Jefferson Airplane wound down and stopped regularly touring for over eighteen months (save for a handful of concerts in the summer of 1971 and winter of 1972) after the Fillmore East shows, Hot Tuna became an independent group. In this era, Hot Tuna's members were Kaukonen, Casady, drummer Sammy Piazza, and Creach, moving fully to the electric band format. This lineup was first documented on the album ''[[First Pull Up, Then Pull Down]]'' (1971), which was recorded live at the Chateau Liberte, an obscure club located near [[Los Gatos, California]], in the [[Santa Cruz Mountains]] that was favored by the band throughout the era. The group also appeared on three tracks from [[Papa John Creach]]'s [[Papa John Creach (album)|debut solo album]], as well as "Walking the Tou Tou" from his second album, ''[[Filthy!]]''

The studio albums ''[[Burgers (album)|Burgers]]'' (1972) and ''[[The Phosphorescent Rat]]'' (1974) followed, with Creach leaving before the latter was recorded. These two albums featured mostly Kaukonen compositions. On the former album, [[David Crosby]] sang supporting vocals on "Highway Song", while keyboardist Nick Buck (who frequently guested with the group in the studio for the next five years before serving as a touring member in 1977) contributed to two tracks.