| Surrealistic Pillow | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | February 1, 1967 (1967-02-01)[1] | |||
| Recorded | October 31 – November 22, 1966 | |||
| Studio | RCA Victor (Hollywood, California) | |||
| Genre | ||||
| Length | 33:40 | |||
| Label | RCA Victor | |||
| Producer | Rick Jarrard[7] | |||
| Jefferson Airplane chronology | ||||
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| Singles from Surrealistic Pillow | ||||
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Surrealistic Pillow is the second studio album by the Americanrock bandJefferson Airplane, released on February 1, 1967, byRCA Victor. It is the first album by the band with vocalistGrace Slick and drummerSpencer Dryden. The album peaked at number three on theBillboard 200 and has been certifiedPlatinum by theRecording Industry Association of America (RIAA).[9] It is considered to be one of the most influential and quintessential works of the earlypsychedelic rock era and1960s counterculture.[10][11][12][13]
"My Best Friend" was released as the first single in December 1966 but only reached No. 103 on theBillboard Bubbling Under chart. Two more singles were released in the spring of 1967: "Somebody to Love" and "White Rabbit" peaked respectively at number five and number eight on theBillboard Hot 100 chart and are the band's only Top 40 hits on that chart. "Today" was not released as a single but was played often on college radio and rock stations and remains one of their most popular songs. In 2024, the album was inducted into theNational Recording Registry by theLibrary of Congress for being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant”.[14]
Early drummerAlexander "Skip" Spence left the band in mid-1966. He was replaced bySpencer Dryden, an experienced Los Angeles jazz drummer and the half-nephew ofCharlie Chaplin. New female vocalistGrace Slick, formerly with another San Francisco rock bandthe Great Society, joined the Airplane in October 1966. Slick, Dryden, male lead vocalist-guitarist-songwriter and founder of bandMarty Balin, guitarist-vocalist-songwriterPaul Kantner, lead guitarist (and occasional vocalist)Jorma Kaukonen, and bassistJack Casady formed the core of the best-known line-up of the group, which remained stable until Dryden's departure in early 1970.
A mere two weeks afterGrace Slick joined the band, the group entered RCA Victor studios in Hollywood on October 31 to record their second album. Working with producer Rick Jarrard, the group recorded album opener "She Has Funny Cars" featuringJack Casady on fuzz bass and the mellow folk-rocker "My Best Friend", written by departed memberSkip Spence and chosen as the album's lead-off single.[15] On November 1 they recorded Balin's "Plastic Fantastic Lover", his ode to a television set penned after a visit to a plastics factory in Chicago while the band was on tour.[15] This was followed the next day by his love ballad "Today", which purportedly featuredJerry Garcia on lead guitar, laid down in a single take and soon to be a popular live staple. On November 3 a Slick composition she brought from her time inThe Great Society, "White Rabbit", was recorded with its original instrumental introduction drastically shortened for commercial purposes; it was among the first explicitly pro-drug rock songs and would go on to become her signature piece, used in countless movies and TV shows since.[16] On the next day the Balin rocker "3/5 Of A Mile In 10 Seconds", which the band had already been featuring in its shows since September, was committed to tape. Marty claimed the title came from seeing two different phrases in the sports section of the newspaper, one for "3/5 of a mile" and another for "10 seconds", which he combined at random.[17] The high price of "real clean, real fine nicotine" in the lyrics was a veiled reference tomarijuana.
After a short break to play some gigs the group reconvened at RCA on November 14 to record another Spence composition, "J.P.P. McStep B. Blues", which was ultimately left in the can; the group would sporadically play it on stage, sometimes in a medley with the later "Wooden Ships". Spence was present for this session, which also saw the recording ofThe Mamas & the Papas soundalike "How Do You Feel" written by Kantner friend Tom Mastin.[15] On the following day "Somebody to Love", another song from the Great Society penned by Slick's brother-in-law Darby and given a new, punchier arrangement by Garcia, was captured in 13 takes along with Kantner's chiming, Byrdsian folk-rocker "D.C.B.A.-25" (the title referring to the song's chord progression, with the number 25 an oblique reference to LSD-25).[15] On November 16 the band recorded Balin's "Comin' Back to Me", a gentle acoustic-baroque ballad penned that very day after having smoked a particularly strong joint given to him byPaul Butterfield and featuring only himself, Casady, and Garcia plus Slick on recorder, as they were the only musicians left in the studio that night."[18] Two outtakes, the driving Kantner-Estes acid-rocker "Go To Her" (which had also been attempted for the debut album) and slow Kaukonen blues "In The Morning", were taped on the 17th and 21st with the album's final song, the acoustic fingerpicking showcase "Embryonic Journey" penned by Kaukonen some five years prior, added on November 22 at the insistence of Jarrard.[15]
As producer, Jarrard was under orders by RCA to produce something commercial, so none of the longer covers and psychedelic instrumental jams the group had been featuring on stage, such as "Fat Angel", "Thing", and "The Other Side Of This Life", were attempted. He forbade the group to smoke marijuana at the sessions, an edict that was ignored and which contributed to the group not re-hiring him for subsequent albums; they disparaged him behind his back as a company man, although Slick stated she was "knocked out" when she heard the final product.[19] Jarrard also bathed the stereo mix of the album in swathes of reverb, a controversial choice which has led some to prefer the drier mono mix.[18]
Some controversy exists as to the role of Garcia in the making of the album. His reputed presence on several tracks is denied by producer Jarrard,[15] but he is credited on the RCA label copy[15] and received credits on theFlight Log compilation[20] and theJefferson Airplane Loves You box set.[21] In the sleeve notes forEarly Flight, a 1974 compilation album of previously unreleased material, manager Bill Thompson writes only that Garcia was "listed as 'spiritual advisor' on the album cover [and] played one of the guitars" on "In the Morning". Garcia himself recalled in a mid-1967 interview that he played the high lead on "Today" in addition to playing guitar on two other songs ("Plastic Fantastic Lover" and "Comin' Back to Me") and rearranging "Somebody to Love." He also played on "J.P.P. McStep B. Blues" (included onEarly Flight and the 2003 CD reissue) and may have played on "How Do You Feel". In his autobiography, Jorma Kaukonen said of Garcia, "I used to think about him as co-producer, but now that I really know what a producer is, the producer of that record was Rick Jarrard. Jerry was a combination arranger, musician, and sage counsel."[22]
The overall style of Surrealistic Pillow has been categorized as "folk-rock-basedpsychedelia". The material is said to be "both melodic and complex."[23] The style on the album's closing track, "Plastic Fantastic Lover," has been described as "quasi-electronica." The album's fourth track, "Today," has been described as a "delicateballad".[24] The track "D.C.B.A.-25" contains elements of what is said to be "proto-country-rock" and "3/5 of a Mile in 10 Seconds" contains elements ofblues rock.[25]
San Francisco photographerHerb Greene photographed the band for the album's cover art in his dining room, whose walls were covered in primitive quasi-hieroglyphics.[26] Marty Balin had wanted the cover tinted in blue but RCA overrode him and chose pink instead, although he liked the change. The back cover was a psychedelic photo collage of the band members picked from shots taken at the same Greene photo session, also assembled by Balin. A comment to Marty by Garcia about the music being "as surrealistic as a pillow" inspired the album title.[27][28]
The album was initially released on LP record by RCA Victor in different stereo (LSP-3766), andmono (LPM-3766) editions.[1] The stereo mixes include heavier use ofreverberation effects than the mono. The mono version was deleted in the late 1960s and remained unavailable until 2001. The first United Kingdom release replaced some original songs with tracks from the group's first US LP,Jefferson Airplane Takes Off.
The album was initially slow to take off until the release of "Somebody to Love" in March. Heavy radio play took the song into the Billboard top 5, aided by the group's first national TV appearances onThe Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour on May 7 andAmerican Bandstand on June 3, the former appearance featuring a facsimile of the group's swirling light show, the first time the average American had seen such effects.[15] The album entered the Billboard top 10 in May and peaked at number three on August 5, with the help of the follow up single "White Rabbit".
Jefferson Airplane's fusion offolk rock and psychedelia was original at the time, in line with musical developments pioneered bythe Beatles,the Byrds,the Beach Boys,the Mamas & the Papas,Bob Dylan, andthe Yardbirds, among other mid-1960s rock bands.Surrealistic Pillow was the first blockbuster psychedelic album by a band from San Francisco, announcing to the world the active bohemian scene that had developed there starting withthe Beats during the 1950s, extending and changing through the 1960s into theHaight-Ashbury counterculture. Subsequent exposure generated by the Airplane and others wrought great changes to the counterculture. By 1968, the ensuing national media attention had precipitated a very different San Francisco scene than had existed in 1966.
In January 2017, "Somebody to Love" received a gold certification from the Recording Industry Association of America, while "White Rabbit" received a platinum certification.[9]
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |  [2] |
| The Absolute Sound | [31] |
| The Daily Vault | A−[30] |
| Encyclopedia of Popular Music | [32] |
| The Village Voice | B+[29] |
Just as The Beach Boys gave listeners a glimpse of southern Californiasurf culture in the early 1960s, Jefferson Airplane'sSurrealistic Pillow painted a musical picture of the free-thinking Summer of Love. [...] Like fellow San FranciscansThe Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane combined the folk esthetic and some of its form with a determinedly electric approach.
On initial release, the album received positive reviews.Billboard said of "Somebody To Love" that it was a "hard driver, featuring powerful female vocal lead, that never stops from start to finish."[33] Similarly, the magazine said of "White Rabbit" that it was a "change-of-pace number" with "intriguing lyric content and driving beat in strong support."[34]Cash Box wrote of the album that "the LP could easily go all the way to the top of the chart" and "should be especially popular with the teen set."[35]Robert Christgau ofThe Village Voice gave it a B+ although he critiqued the lyrics, claiming "the sarcasm is as vapid as the optimism."[29]
A live version of "Plastic Fantastic Lover" was released as a single in 1969.Billboard described it as "heavy hard rock."[36]Cash Box wrote that it "features the team's more commercial-than-controversial style" and has "a solid instrumental track and very fine vocal."[37]Record World wrote it was one of the band's favorites.[38]
In subsequent years the reputation of the album has continued to grow. Bruce Eder ofAllMusic gave the album a perfect score, calling "every song [...] a perfectly cut diamond." He expressed his view that the album was a "shot heard around the world" and that the group never released anything of the same quality again in their career, adding that "few artists from the era ever did."[2] In 2003, the album was ranked number 146 onRolling Stone magazine's list of the "500 Greatest Albums of All Time",[39] maintaining the rating in a 2012 revised list, and dropping to number 471 in the 2020 revised list.[40][41] It was voted number 174 inColin Larkin'sAll Time Top 1000 Albums.[4]
Surrealistic Pillow was included in the book101 Essential Rock Records, where music historianJeff Gold lauded the album's musicianship (particularly the stylings of Kaukonen and Casady), and stated his belief that Jefferson Airplane "remade pop history" with the album.[42]
The first compact disc releases were in Japan in 1987 and the U.S. in 1988. A 2001 re-issue by RCA was released as a limited editiongold CD and contained both the stereo and mono recordings. Both mixes were later included as part of theIgnition box set on a standard aluminum CD.
Another stereo reissue appeared on August 19, 2003, with six bonus tracks, including the monoA-sides of "Somebody to Love" and "White Rabbit." The 2003 reissue was produced byBob Irwin.
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Lead vocals | Length |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "She Has Funny Cars" | Jorma Kaukonen,Marty Balin | Balin and Slick | 3:03 |
| 2. | "Somebody to Love" | Darby Slick | Slick | 2:54 |
| 3. | "My Best Friend" | Skip Spence | Balin, Kantner, and Slick | 2:59 |
| 4. | "Today" | Balin,Paul Kantner | Balin | 2:57 |
| 5. | "Comin' Back to Me" | Balin | Balin | 5:18 |
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Lead vocals | Length |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6. | "3/5 of a Mile in 10 Seconds" | Balin | Balin and Slick | 3:39 |
| 7. | "D.C.B.A.–25" | Kantner | Kantner and Slick | 2:33 |
| 8. | "How Do You Feel" | Tom Mastin | Kantner | 3:26 |
| 9. | "Embryonic Journey" | Kaukonen | None | 1:51 |
| 10. | "White Rabbit" | Grace Slick | Slick | 2:27 |
| 11. | "Plastic Fantastic Lover" | Balin | Balin | 2:33 |
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Lead vocals | Length |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 12. | "In the Morning" | Kaukonen | Kaukonen | 6:21 |
| 13. | "J.P.P. McStep B. Blues" | Spence | Balin, Kantner, and Slick | 2:37 |
| 14. | "Go to Her" | Kantner, Irving Estes | Balin, Kantner, and Slick | 4:02 |
| 15. | "Come Back Baby" | Traditional; arranged by Kaukonen | Kaukonen | 2:56 |
| 16. | "Somebody to Love" (mono single version) | Darby Slick | Slick | 2:58 |
| 17. | "White Rabbit" (mono single version; song ends at 2:33; 2:40 begins "D. C. B. A.-25" [alternate backing track]) | Grace Slick | Slick | 5:21 |
Side one
Side two
| Chart (1967) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Finnish Albums (The Official Finnish Charts)[44] | 14 |
| Norwegian Albums (VG-lista)[45] | 20 |
| USBillboard 200[46] | 3 |
| Region | Certification | Certified units/sales |
|---|---|---|
| United Kingdom (BPI)[47] 2003 release | Silver | 60,000‡ |
| United States (RIAA)[48] | Platinum | 1,000,000‡ |
‡ Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone. | ||
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