Jefferson Airplane: Eccentric Folkies

Jefferson Airplane took flight in late summer of 1966, when vocalist Grace Slick joined the band. Lead singer Signe Anderson had gone out on maternity & never came back. With Grace now onboard, the classic lineup was complete: Grace Slick & Marty Balin on lead vocals, Paul Kantner on rhythm guitar & vocals, Jorma Kaukonen on lead guitar, Jack Casady on bass, & Spencer Dryden on percussion. Their first album w/ the new lineup, "Surrealistic Pillow," released in early 1967, practically defined the Haight-Ashbury hippie culture of the time. Grateful Dead, Big Brother & the Holding Company featuring Janis Joplin, Quicksilver Messenger Service, Moby Grape, & others helped to make San Francisco a real hippie mecca. But anyway, about "Surrealistic Pillow."

The name "Surrealistic Pillow" supposedly comes from Grateful Dead guitarist & spiritual guru Jerry Garcia. Unsure of the meaning, if any. Jefferson Airplane is remembered as a radical anti-authoritarian band, but at this point they were not yet the self-proclaimed "forces of chaos & anarchy" of "Volunteers." "Surrealistic Pillow" has a sort of split in it, half being authentic 60s rockers, the other half sounding like eccentric folkies, songs that could have been recorded by radio bands like the Lovin' Spoonful & the Mamas & the Papas. The two big rock hits were sung powerfully by Grace-"Somebody to Love" & "White Rabbit." They are tight, concise, & potent. Grace Slick has got to be ranked in the Top Three Female Rock vocalists of all time, Janis Joplin being the second, & I can't think of the third. First off, her voice is powerful & cold, like an Ice Queen. Listen to how it shudders at the end of "Somebody to Love." Such steely emotive power. She can also sing sweet & quiet, but she doesn't fool me. That voice is a killer, waiting for an opportunity.

Jefferson Airplane was composed of an unusual number of strong personalities. Marty Balin sings some of the most achingly sad-beautiful love songs. "Today" creates a mood: it's melancholy, regretful, hopeful, uncertain-all those crazy things that people in love experience. Paul Kantner plays rhythm guitar, sings quite adequately, & writes some of their best songs, especially in the later albums. Jorma Kaukonen really set the standard for so many early rock psychedelic guitarists-not for speed, but for nuance. He makes it sing w/ sweetness, urgency, cacophony-whatever the song requires. And Jack Casady was the first "name" bass player. He had the look: long blond hair, dark glasses, exotic outfits. He wielded the bass like thunder, wind, & water-blasting, throbbing, flowing. He may have been the first rock bass player fans knew by name. Leaving us w/ Spencer Dryden on drums. Dryden is the sort of drummer you seldom notice, because his work fits so well into the basic texture of the music. It doesn't stand out. He's not the bombastic sort of drummer. He's the fine technician who is always in the right place, keeping the beat & filling in whatever's required.

When you come right down to it, this is an album about Love, w/ a capital L. Just about every song features successful Love or hopeful Love or despondent Love. Considering the title, "Embryonic Journey" is certainly about Love-plus it's an absolutely gorgeous & sweet acoustic guitar instrumental, flowing like amniotic fluid, written & performed by Kaukonen. In "Plastic Fantastic Lover," I think Balin is singing a type of love song to his TV set.

Cryptic lyrics. The first song on side one, "She Has Funny Cars," has nothing to do w/ motor vehicles. Then there's "3/5 of a Mile in 10 Seconds"; now, I've done the calculations, & this works out to precisely 216 miles per hour. Not sure what travels at exactly that speed. But it's all surreal, right? None of this has to make sense, at least not to the monkey-brain, that analytical tyrant in the head. So much of Love is about feeling, & that's what they're singing about. Feelings-human need, human emotions. Like I said earlier about "Today"-it's hope, regret, uncertainty.

So check out this album. It's a superior start to a notable career. For as long as folks listen to Rock & Roll, they'll listen to "Somebody to Love" & "White Rabbit." Just those two songs would place a band in the R&R Hall of Fame. But this group, this album, offers so much more.