Jefferson Airplane - After Bathing at Baxter's

Originally released in 1967 (same year but 10 months after Surrealistic Pillow), this RCA/BMG Heritage remastered reissue adds 4 bonus tracks 'The Ballad Of You Me and Pooneil' (live-long version previously unreleased), 'Martha' (single version-mono), 'Two Heads' (alternate version-previously unreleased) & 'Things Are Better In The East' (demo version-previously unreleased). Includes 12-page booklet with extensive liner notes, detailed track listing & rare photos. 2003. Album Description

"Looks Like I Picked The Wrong Week To Expect Hit Singles"

Poor RCA. There they were, riding high on having chart success with a rock act besides Elvis, and these ungrateful little buggers delivered a followup album of all this decidedly weird music.
Fortunate, though, for music lovers, as this is the JA album that first showed the real instrumental firepower that was behind the 3 singers. Although the songs were not geared for AM radio play, they are consistently fine, and display an aggressively exploratory nature both musically and lyrically. This is an album meant to be played LOUD, and although the topics are very much of the time, it really hasn't dated as many of its contemporary "hippie" musical adventures have.
A true forebearer of heavy metal, and something that's remained on my playlist since its release. It should be on your playlist, too. August 28, 2008

in my top 5 rock records, without doubt

Hearing this album at age 14 was a transforming experience. From the gorgeous feedback that opens the album, the exotic, and I would say unprecedented, song structures and lyrics (including a brilliant piano and vocal setting of Molly's soliloquy from Ulysses!) and the inclusion of a 9-minute freeform jam among the telepathic pair Jorma Kaukonen and Jack Cassidy plus brilliant drum/sound colorist Spencer Dryden... well, this just shattered my preconceptions about music in every way, and it's still brilliant. And the "straitforward" rock songs - Young Girl Sunday Blues, Won't You Try, etc. - rock like crazy but have much more interesting chords than most rock songs, plus unique Airplane harmonies and essence-of-60s sensibility. Still one of my favorite albums ever. August 10, 2008

Won't you try Jefferson Airplane's best album? Surely you will rejoyce!

The first three Jefferson Airplane albums are among the best rock records of all time. While many consider the second of these, "Surrealistic Pillow", to be Airplane's best, for me that honor belongs to this their third album. It's a little more adventurous musically, it displays more interesting guitarwork, more musical complexity, but also it simply rocks a little more. "After Bathing at Baxter's" was supposedly made without consideration to commercial success, and indeed compared to "Pillow", which reached #3, Baxter's sales didn't fly as high, getting to #17 (still quite respectable when you consider that JA's fabulous debut "Jefferson Airplane Takes Off" only made it to #128, which totally baffles me).

But it's also very baffling that Baxter's opening song "The Ballad of You & Me & Pooneil" only reached #42 as a single. (Maybe that clumsy title turned people off?) In my opinion, "Pooneil" (composed by Airplane's Paul Kantner) is the greatest *original* Jefferson Airplane song. Remember "Somebody to Love" and "White Rabbit" were originally songs that Grace Slick sang with the Great Society, her pre-Airplane band. There's no other song like "Pooneil" in the JA catalog. Magnificent, complex, psychedelic proto-punk rock and roll with a pounding riff that is also sung out by several band members together, mixed in with a variety of melodic and instrumental changes. The guitarwork is Airplane at their best, and I think no group has played guitar, whether bass, lead or rhythm, as well as Airplane! Let me make it clear: this is one of the greatest rock songs of all time. Nothing less.

As "Pooneil" ends we start feeling dizzy (not only because of what we've just heard) as we hear feedback flying back and forth between our left and right speakers, and we're transported into a short -- and to me, quite enjoyable -- psychedelic sound collage that serves as a bridge to the next song "Young Girl Sunday Blues", another song that rocks, though in a more conventional way than "Pooneil". YGSB is a fine song, though Marty Balin's singing is a bit thin here as it struggles to be heard above the powerful musical engine driving the song until its delectable acid fade-out. Next we have Kantner's "Martha", an attractive ballad with a sharper edge than the two purely acoustic ballads on "Surrealistic Pillow" thanks to deftly interwoven electric guitar parts. And then come two high-powered tracks, "Wild Tyme" (Kantner) and "The Last Wall of the Castle" (composed and sung by Jorma Kaukonen) - both are showcases of Airplane's genius with electric guitars, both lead and bass, with drumming to match. Incidentally, the title of "Castle" has nothing to do with the lyrics themselves, something we see also with "Pooneil" and a number of other JA songs.

In the second half of the album, Slick comes out of the Baxter shadows with two of her best songs since the Airplane hit versions of those Great Society songs. The lyrically bizarre "rejoyce" with its James Joyce and other, more acid-inspired references is a beautiful, haunting track and a rich musical experience. Slick's singing is wonderful, as it is on her other Baxter contribution "Two Heads", whose lyrics are even more bizarre than those of "rejoyce"! Musically, both songs have strong Middle Eastern touches, and much more. Between these two, we have "Watch Her Ride" and "Spare Chaynge" which together form one of the album's five suites. While "Ride" is the only song on this album that could be considered mediocre (though the middle section is quite decent), "Spare Chaynge" is a mesmerizing 9-minute-long instrumental with superb, psychedelic, Spanish-flavored guitarwork. It may not be to everyone's taste, but I for one love it, and you might too.

The album ends with one of Airplane's best songs, the mini-epic "Won't You Try / Saturday Afternoon". If you can overlook the slightly excessive frequency of the "Won't You Try" line, you'll find it hard to deny this is a beautiful, even majestic song with nice (if at times a little chaotic) harmony singing and powerful music, especially that pounding chord that opens the song and returns at the 2:56 mark and the opening riff. But the high point of the song for me is the music that goes with the line "it's a time for growing and a time for knowing" - the melody occurs only once, but it's gorgeous and powerful. To be honest, though, I think the live Woodstock version of the song, available on YouTube, is better. It features some of Slick's greatest singing ever, even though she only has a supporting role in this song. (It's a pity it wasn't included as a bonus track.)

To paraphrase the title of Baxter's sound collage, this CD is truly a small package of great value. Let it come to you shortly! April 28, 2008

Shizoforest Love Suite

I've always loved this freakin' album. If you've never heard it, believe me, your life is poorer for it.

If you've heard it and don't like it, well, I suggest that Michael Jackson and Brittany Spears have put out many fine albums of muzak, and you have my sincere pity.
November 30, 2007

I'm Doin' Things That Haven't Got a Name Yet

Read the reviews below to get a sense of the emotional response this album evokes. It's not just a so-called psychedelic album, it's an album of great searching and yearning for an alternate path during times dark with the Vietnam war, the clunky Johnson administration (JKF was still a recent martyr, RFK not yet dead), and the very cold war (Nuclear annihilation anyone?). The baby boomers could not believe the cornucopia of new sounds and experiences available to them, as the radio got looser and everyone began to swap their monophonic record players for high end stereos. This album made no sense to people expecting a continuation of "Pillow", but true fans listened over and over to this record until the grooves were worn out. Something in this album, LSD influenced or not, resonated with a lot of music lovers, and it remains an iconoclastic "screw you" tip o' the hat to the music biz. The Airplane embodied the spirit of the antiestablishmentarianism of the times, a template of non-conformity during a very conformist time (next up, Richard Nixon). Grace Slick et al have become forgotten relics of a time of great passion and desire for a better reality, and god knows we could use a band as rebellious and expressive now. A great aural souvenir of a transitional time in Amerikan culture. June 16, 2007

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