Fact #140107
When:
Short story:
Jefferson Airplane release their second album, Surrealistic Pillow, in the USA on RCA Victor Records.Full article:
SURREALISTIC PILLOW BY JEFFERSON AIRPLANE
by Johnny Black
On November 15, 1965, with an unprecedented $25,000 advance, Jefferson Airplane became the first West Coast hippy band to be signed up by a major record label, RCA, the home of Elvis Presley. They were launched as, “a San Francisco sextet singing in the folk-rock vein” but their debut album Jefferson Airplane Takes Off didn’t trouble the charts.
Surrealistic Pillow (so named Jerry Garcia of the Grateful Dead who produced it), was their second effort, recorded over 13 days in November 1966. This one amped up the Airplane’s quirky folksydelia with rockier riffs, but the major change was the arrival of the band’s new vocalist, Grace Slick.
And with her came two songs, White Rabbit and Somebody To Love, written for her previous band The Great Society. White Rabbit, perhaps the quintessential Haight-Ashbury hit, was inspired by Slick’s observation that virtually every great children’s story, from Peter Pan To Wizard Of Oz and Alice In Wonderland, involved children ingesting strange substances then having fantastical dream-like adventures. For musical inspiration, she says, “I took acid and listened to Miles Davis’ Sketches of Spain for about 24 hours straight.”
The band’s other major songwriter, Marty Balin, also contributed several powerful tracks, while guitarist Jorma Kaukonen provided the shimmering acoustic solo piece, Embryonic Journey, but it was Slick’s songs that would provide the two hits that would establish the Airplane as a major chart force. The album peaked at No3 that spring, and was declared gold on 24 July, opening the floodgates for Frisco’s hippy bands.
(Source by Johnny Black, first appeared in the book Albums from Backbeat Books, 2007)
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Grace Slick (vocalist, Jefferson Airplane) : The Airplane had played those songs a lot live and I'd played the songs I brought, like Somebody To Love and White Rabbit, with Great Society. There was also a purity about the record which is almost childlike. We weren't governed by the record company, there were no preconceptions and we weren't trying to sound like anybody else. In fact, I didn't know shit from shine which is probably why White Rabbit doesn't even have a chorus.
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by Johnny Black
On November 15, 1965, with an unprecedented $25,000 advance, Jefferson Airplane became the first West Coast hippy band to be signed up by a major record label, RCA, the home of Elvis Presley. They were launched as, “a San Francisco sextet singing in the folk-rock vein” but their debut album Jefferson Airplane Takes Off didn’t trouble the charts.
Surrealistic Pillow (so named Jerry Garcia of the Grateful Dead who produced it), was their second effort, recorded over 13 days in November 1966. This one amped up the Airplane’s quirky folksydelia with rockier riffs, but the major change was the arrival of the band’s new vocalist, Grace Slick.
And with her came two songs, White Rabbit and Somebody To Love, written for her previous band The Great Society. White Rabbit, perhaps the quintessential Haight-Ashbury hit, was inspired by Slick’s observation that virtually every great children’s story, from Peter Pan To Wizard Of Oz and Alice In Wonderland, involved children ingesting strange substances then having fantastical dream-like adventures. For musical inspiration, she says, “I took acid and listened to Miles Davis’ Sketches of Spain for about 24 hours straight.”
The band’s other major songwriter, Marty Balin, also contributed several powerful tracks, while guitarist Jorma Kaukonen provided the shimmering acoustic solo piece, Embryonic Journey, but it was Slick’s songs that would provide the two hits that would establish the Airplane as a major chart force. The album peaked at No3 that spring, and was declared gold on 24 July, opening the floodgates for Frisco’s hippy bands.
(Source by Johnny Black, first appeared in the book Albums from Backbeat Books, 2007)
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Grace Slick (vocalist, Jefferson Airplane) : The Airplane had played those songs a lot live and I'd played the songs I brought, like Somebody To Love and White Rabbit, with Great Society. There was also a purity about the record which is almost childlike. We weren't governed by the record company, there were no preconceptions and we weren't trying to sound like anybody else. In fact, I didn't know shit from shine which is probably why White Rabbit doesn't even have a chorus.