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Jefferson Airplane - Surrealistic Pillow (1967)

Track listing:
  1. She Has Funny Cars 3:11
  2. Somebody to Love 2:58
  3. My Best Friend 3:03
  4. Today 3:02
  5. Comin' Back to Me 5:22
  6. 3/5 of a Mile in 10 Seconds 3:43
  7. D.C.B.A.-25 2:38
  8. How Do You Feel 3:33
  9. Embryonic Journey 1:55
  10. White Rabbit 2:33
  11. Plastic Fantastic Lover 2:36

Notes

The second album by Jefferson Airplane, Surrealistic Pillow, was a groundbreaking piece of folk-rock-based psychedelia, and it hit like a shot heard round the world. From the Top Ten singles "White Rabbit" and "Somebody to Love" to the sublime "Embryonic Journey," the sensibilities are fierce, the material is both melodic and complex, and the performances, sparked by new member Grace Slick on most of the lead vocals, are inspired, helped along by Jerry Garcia (serving as spiritual and musical advisor and sometimes guitarist). Every song is perfect, and the only pity is that RCA didn't record for official release any of the group's shows from this era, when this material made up the bulk of their repertory; though they later claimed that the record wasn't representative of the group's sound, Jefferson Airplane did wonderful things with these songs on-stage. The songwriting was spread around between Marty Balin, Slick, Paul Kantner, and Jorma Kaukonen, and Slick and Balin (who never had a prettier song than "Today," which he'd actually written for Tony Bennett) shared the vocals; and the whole album was resplendent in a happy balance of all of these creative elements, before excessive experimentation (musical and chemical) began affecting the band's ability to do a straightforward song. The group never made a better album, and few artists from the era ever did. [In 2001, a new remastering of the album appeared, initially as part of the four-CD set Ignition. This version came out as a single CD in late November of 2001 featuring both the stereo and mono mixes with extensive new annotation by Jefferson Airplane biographer Jeff Tamarkin. Two years later the album was reissued yet again, sans mono mix (with the exception of the single versions of "White Rabbit," and "Somebody to Love," along with the bonus tracks "Come Back Baby," "In the Morning," "J.P.P. McStep B. Blues," and "Go to Her," which had previously been scattered around various anthologies and other expanded editions, and generally push Kaukonen even more to the fore and give the material a bluesier feel.]