David Miner had a minor, excuse the pun, role in San Francisco psychedelic music as a guitarist, singer, and songwriter in the Great Society. Miner (whose name is spelled "Minor" on some reissues of Great Society material) was an original member of the group, who also included the pre-Jefferson Airplane Grace Slick, in 1965 and 1966. Miner wrote a number of tunes in the band's repertoire, including "That's How It Is," "You Can't Cry," and "Daydream Nightmare," which are all on the 1966 live performances heard on Collector's Item. A number of other Miner compositions were unearthed for the studio collection Born to Be Burned, largely comprised of previously unreleased material; they included a studio version of "Daydream Nightmare," and some other compositions that (unlike "Daydream Nightmare") are generally among the weakest tunes the band recorded. When the Great Society began in late 1965, David Miner took most of the lead vocals. In retrospect, this was an absurd situation, as Miner was an average, even colorless singer, and Grace Slick an exceptional one. On numbers where Miner and Slick sang together (the original version of "Somebody to Love," then known as "Someone to Love"), and even on one where she sings background (the "Someone to Love" B-side "Free Advice"), the force of her vocals overwhelms Miner's. It's also strange that Tom Donahue of Autumn Records felt that Miner's decent but hardly wonderful good-time rocker, "That's How It Is," should have been the band's debut single, when "Someone to Love" was available (and eventually selected as the single). Great Society guitarist Darby Slick once recalled (in the San Francisco '60s rock fanzine Cream Puff War) that when Donahue advised them to make "That's How It Is" the single, "We all refused. [That song] sounded too happy, it didn't strike the mood we were after -- heavy, a little bit threatening, in the manner of the Stones or the Yardbirds." David Miner's songs and singing were pushed to the background as it became apparent to the band and their audience, that Grace Slick was much the superior vocalist, and as Grace and Darby Slick introduced much stronger compositions into the band's repertoire. Miner left the band in the late summer of 1966, to be replaced by a musician remembered by Darby Slick only as "Oscar". Miner tried to rejoin a few weeks later, but was rejected. He didn't miss out on the fame and glory, however, as the band broke up very shortly afterward, with only Grace Slick going on to stardom. Miner does appear on all of the Great Society live and studio recordings that have been issued. ~ Richie Unterberger