Jefferson Airplane - Surrealistic Pillow

Originally released in 1967, this RCA/BMG Heritage remastered reissue adds 6 bonus tracks 'In The Morning', 'J.P.P. Me Stop B. Blues', 'Go To Her', 'Come Back Baby', 'Somebody To Love' (mono single version) & 'White Rabbit' (mono single version). This groundbreaking piece of folk-rock-based psychedelia includes a 12-page booklet with extensive liner notes, detailed track listing & rare photos. Voted one of Rolling Stone's Essential 200 albums. 2003. Album Description

one of my top ten albums not at all just psychedelic

This is one of my top 10 albums not for white rabbit or somebody to love
but the rest of the albums most people dont remember. It is brillient.
Marty Ballin and Grace harmonize superbly, In fact Grace don't do as good without marty

all the songs are put togather beautifully with talented mucicains June 28, 2008

Jefferson Airplane, Surrealistic Pillow 1967

Jefferson Airplane was the first California scene band to get a record deal. There first album was, "Jefferson Airplane Takes Off", of course that was'nt anything compared to this album. In the summer of 1967 this album was realesed. A truly great album and pretty psychedellic the key tracks on here are, Somebody To Love, and White Rabbit. The song White Rabbit if you've heard is a song that is about drugs since at the time many people at that scene were using drugs. Anyways all in all this a great album
5/5 stars May 21, 2008

Sounds of Surrealistic Pillow

Jefferson Airplane's legendary album Surrealistic Pillow is surrealistic indeed. Jefferson Airplane came on the scene in the 1965 and after 1970 broke off into two bands, Jefferson Airplane and Hot Tuna. The band was made up of lead signer, Grace Slick, lead guitarist, Jorma Kaukonen, and drummer, Spencer Dryden. The band was introduced into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1996.
Surrealistic Pillow with the sounds and the emotions provoked, have a distinct impact on the listener. Specifically, in the song "In the Mourning", the vocals are altered to be those usually attributed to the blues and the harmonica is also utilized to bring on that "bluesy" feel. This album also has the psychedelic style used by many in the 1960's. This is most evident in "White Rabbit", a song that is a mix between Alice and Wonderland and drugs. What makes this song so psychedelic is the slow pace of the guitar, lyrical content, and the vocals themselves. The pace of the guitar is slow throughout with no solos and there is no real point at which the song picks up. The lyrical content consists of fairytale ideas with the story of Alice and her adventure. Also, the song speaks of "mushrooms and smoking caterpillars "which are obvious drug references. The vocals are just as the guitar: slow moving in pace, although, Slick's vocals build at the end to create a strong and dramatic finish.
Surrealistic Pillow also affects the way a person feels by toying with their emotions. Many of the songs provoke a feeling of tranquility, happiness, and romance. In the song "Today", romance is most palpable in the lyrics. The main theme of the song is of love and how it changes the person for the better. Happiness is shown in "My Best Friend" with a joy felt when one falls in love with a close friend. Tranquility can be felt throughout the song "Comin' Back to Me", with the gentle, soothing sound of the flute and the acoustic guitar.
I felt overall that the music was good. The vibe of the music was energizing and moving all at the same time. The lyrics of the songs brought about many positive emotions; I felt a sense of tranquility and happiness. However, the tranquility and happiness were interrupted by the placement of "Embryonic Journey". I found it awkward that a song with no words was placed amongst a sea of lyrical songs; it is strange to the ear to hear a lyrical song and then have a drastic change to a song were lyrics would be expected yet they do not come.
Jefferson Airplane's album Surrealistic Pillow portrays the ideals of an era. This particular generation valued love, friendship, peacefulness, happiness and even altered states of conscience. Grace Slick's voice is arguably one of the best and most powerful voices in the history of Rock and Roll and she idolized by many aspiring singers. The vocals, instruments, and lyrics, capture a moment in time and allows you to experience the moment time and time again. May 9, 2008

From transparent dreams to trapezoid thermometers

1966 and 1967 were the peak years of Western pop and rock music, as far as I'm concerned. So much great music came out in a short span of just two years - the Beatles, the Kinks, the Doors, the Who, Jefferson Airplane, Pink Floyd, the Rolling Stones, the Yardbirds, the Beach Boys, and other groups put out a series of superb singles and albums. Right in the middle of this period, in February '67, the month the Beatles released their greatest single "Strawberry Fields Forever / Penny Lane", Jefferson Airplane released their second LP "Surrealistic Pillow", one of the landmark albums of the 60s. Airplane's two best and most successful singles "Somebody to Love" and "White Rabbit" came from this album.

"Pillow" is a thoroughly enjoyable mixture of harder and softer rock, with a Byrd-esque/Simon&Garfunkel-esque folk rock flavoring, but laced with psychedelic sounds and lyrics. The album starts off in grand style with the wonderful riff-based rocker "She Has Funny Cars", a title that has nothing to do whatsoever with the actual lyrics. The song alternates between harder verses of descending notes and lovely softer verses - and ends with a delectable explosion of psychedelic guitarwork (it's a pity this wasn't put in the middle of the song as well). Ten songs later, the album (i.e. the original LP) ends with the fabulous "Plastic Fantastic Lover" which sounds to me very much like a Simon & Garfunkel song that strayed into a Jefferson Airplane album - the singer could be Paul Simon, but it's Marty Balin.

In between, we have JA's two best-known songs (the hit singles I mentioned - and yes, they're both glorious!), a couple of beautiful ballads, one hard rocker ("3/5 of a Mile") and several melodious mid-tempo tunes. And then there are the bonus tracks, the most outstanding being the blues epic "In the Morning" and the sizzling rocker "Go to Her" - these songs are magnificent. In fact, this second version of "Go to Her" is probably one of the greatest rock 'n roll tracks ever recorded - amazing singing, amazing guitarwork! (The first version - on JA's debut album - isn't bad either.) And speaking of electric guitarwork, I don't think any group matches JA in this area.

There's also a short instrumental ("Embryonic Journey") which has been highly praised - for sure, it's nice acoustic guitar, but I prefer the much longer, darker, and eerier electric-psychedelic "Spare Chaynge" on JA's next album "After Bathing at Baxter's", another great must-own record. JA's debut "Jefferson Airplane Takes Off" is also indispensable. By the way, all three of these CDs (the 2003 versions) come with booklets with excellent liner notes and great photos.


April 17, 2008

Hip Music

Although I'm sure I wore out my vinyl copy of "Surrealistic Pillow" back in the Sixties, I hadn't paid much attention to it since then. When one of my teenage guitar students came to his lesson asking to learn songs from this album I was blown away.

This was my excuse to pick up my own copy of this latest edtion of an amazing album. After getting hit with a flood of memories, which included seeing Grace Slick at Fillmore Auditorium while she still did many of these songs with The Great Society, I realized why a teen today would still be attracted to this music. The musicianship here is in top form for a hippie-era psychedelic folk-rock band. The guitars are in tune and tight, and the harmonies are amazing.

Many other Sixties-era hippie bands now sound dated. Not so on this recording of Jefferson Airpline. There's a reason why this band rose to the top, and at one point was outselling the Beatles in Bay area record stores.

If you're a fan of music from this era, this is a recording to add to your collection. Even the bonus tracks are satisfying. My guitar student is already working hard at playing along with "In the Morning," a pretty nice extended blues number. March 21, 2008

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