"White Rabbit" was written and performed byGrace Slick while she was still with her previous band,the Great Society. Slick then left the Great Society to joinJefferson Airplane to replace their departing female singer,Signe Toly Anderson (who left the band to give birth to her child). The first album Slick recorded with Jefferson Airplane wasSurrealistic Pillow, and Slick provided two songs from her previous group: her own "White Rabbit" and "Somebody to Love", written by her brother-in-lawDarby Slick and recorded under the title "Someone to Love" by the Great Society.[9] The Great Society's version of "White Rabbit" was much longer than the more aggressive version of Jefferson Airplane. Both songs became top-10 hits[10] for Jefferson Airplane and have ever since been associated with that band.[11]
Slick wrote the lyrics first, then composed the music at a red upright piano she had bought for US$50 with eight or ten keys missing — "that was OK because I could hear in my head the notes that weren't there"[13] — moving betweenmajor chords for the verses and chorus. She said that the music was heavily influenced byMiles Davis's 1960 albumSketches of Spain, particularly Davis's treatment of theConcierto de Aranjuez (1939). She later said: "Writing weird stuff about Alice backed by a dark Spanish march was in step with what was going on in San Francisco then. We were all trying to get as far away from the expected as possible".[12]
Slick said the song was supposed to be a wake-up call to parents who read their children novels such as these and then would wonder why their children used drugs.[14] She later commented that all fairytales read to little girls have aPrince Charming who comes and saves them. But Alice did not; she was "on her own... in a very strange place, but she kept on going and she followed her curiosity – that's the White Rabbit. A lot of women could have taken a message from that story about how you can push your own agenda". Slick added that "The line in the song 'feed your head' is both about reading and psychedelics...feeding your head by paying attention: read some books, pay attention".[13]
Characters Slick referenced includeAlice, theWhite Rabbit, thehookah-smoking caterpillar, theWhite Knight, theRed Queen, andthe Dormouse.[15] Slick reportedly wrote the song after anacid trip.[16] For Slick, "White Rabbit" "is about following your curiosity. The White Rabbit is your curiosity".[17] For her and others in the 1960s, drugs were a part ofmind expansion and social experimentation. With its enigmatic lyrics, "White Rabbit" became one of the first songs to sneak drug references in, bypassing censorship on the radio.Marty Balin, Slick's former bandmate and co-founder of Jefferson Airplane (and laterJefferson Starship), regarded the song as a "masterpiece". In interviews, Slick has related thatAlice in Wonderland was often read to her as a child and remained a vivid memory well into her adulthood.[7]
In an interview withThe Wall Street Journal, Slick mentioned that, in addition toAlice in Wonderland, her other inspiration for the song wasRavel'sBoléro. LikeBoléro, "White Rabbit" is essentially one longcrescendo. The music combined with the song's lyrics strongly suggests the sensory distortions experienced withhallucinogens, and the song was later used in pop culture to imply or accompany just such a state.[18]
The song was first played by the Great Society in a bar in San Francisco in early 1966, and later when they opened the bill for bigger bands like theGrateful Dead. They made a series ofdemo records forAutumn Records, for which they were assisted bySly Stone. Grace Slick said: "We were so bad that Sly eventually played all the instruments so the demo would sound OK". When Slick joined Jefferson Airplane later in 1966, she taught the song to the band, who recorded it for their albumSurrealistic Pillow.[12] "White Rabbit" is in the key ofF-sharp which Slick acknowledges "is difficult for guitar players as it requires some intricate fingering".[13]
Cash Box called it "a real strong outing guaranteed to get lots of attention."[19]Record World said it has "a littlebolero sound and a haunting lyric."[20] Reviewing several of Jefferson Airplane's albums forMojo in 1998,Jon Savage described "White Rabbit" as "one of the oddest records ever to make the US Top 10, being pure, relentless build from start to finish."[21]Ultimate Classic Rock critic Michael Gallucci rated it Jefferson Airplane's 2nd best song, calling it "one of the druggiest cuts ever recorded" and claiming that "the crawling, hazy pace was meant to mirror the time-altering effects of LSD."[22]
Em Casalena ofAmerican Songwriter wrote, "[the track] is one of the most recognizable psychedelic rock songs from the 1960s. Whether you were around to hear it debut or discovered it decades later, it's a song that has stood the test of time in ways that many similar tracks from the 1960s haven't. It'sSan Francisco, it'sAlice In Wonderland, it's a time capsule."[23]
^Loebker, Terri (October 16, 1971)."Books In Review: Diary of a Young Drug Addict".The Cincinnati Enquirer. p. Teen-Ager–p. 3. RetrievedDecember 21, 2016 – via Newspapers.com."Go Ask Alice", (title adapted from Grace Slick's song, "White Rabbit",) is the anonymous diary of a 15-year-old drug user.
