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Surrealistic Pillow

Jefferson Airplane - Surrealistic Pillow Audio CD

A fair review of the Jefferson Airplane "Surrealistic Pillow" Audio CD. Please note that the below review is the views of the authors, and authors only. You can get a complete list of all Jefferson Airplane reviews here, or go back to the Jefferson Airplane tabs.

Band: Jefferson Airplane
Title: Surrealistic Pillow
Rating:

Release Date: 1990-10-25
Media: Audio CD

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

The breakout cassette
Surrealistic Pillow reached #3 U. Surrealistic Pillow is thirty-three minutes and forty seconds long and released in February 1967. S. Billboard 200 Album Chart and went Gold. The album chart two of it most famous songs: White Rabbit and Somebody To Love. This was Jefferson Airplane follow-up album to their not so successful debut album: Jefferson Airplane Takes Off. Also the album would introduce us to Grace Slick. One can clearly hear the Psychedelic\folk rock sound on this cassette. Also you can clearly hear that the group is still struggling to find themselves. Overall I give the album an A.

Side 1
She Has Funny Eyes
Comin' Back To Me
Somebody To Love
#5 U. S. Billboard Pop Singles
My Best Friend
#103 U. S. Billboard Pop Singles
D. C. B. A.

Side 2

Today
3/5 of a Mile in 10 Seconds
Embryonic Journey
How Do You Feel
White Rabbit
#8 U. S. Billboard Pop Singles
Plastic Fantastic Lover
B Side to Somebody To Love.

A Work of Art
While, yes, it is somewhat inspired by nasty drugs, by now (40 years later), it remains as a cultural icon, time having healed the former taboo status. Surrealistic Pillow, is of course, one of the best albums ever. I believe that more than any other band, the Airplane captured the essence of at least the counterculture movement of the 1960s. Also, they had tremendous endurance as a band, and great commercial success.

My favorite song, by far, is D. C. B. A. 25. I finally learned what it stands for: the chord progression of the song, and the 25, well that is probably a reference to LSD.

This has to be their best album, although Takes Off is close. I believe that the Airplane became more dark, moody, and certainly in the realm of protest-oriented from 1968-1970 or so, thus becoming dated somewhat, whereas the first two albums were rich with ballads and happy songs.

In my opinion, there was not a finer era for popular music than the second half of the 1960s. I cannot even begin to listen to any of today's sounds.

Finally, while the Airplane personnel were not quite in the category of being moral, at least they and virtually all bands of this era, were usually courteous and gracious people, at least to media and in public.

Bueno, pero lejos de ser un cl�sico
Pepper, Are you Experienced, Astral Weeks, Pet Sounds, Forever Changes o el debut de los Doors, pero en mi opini�n ni siquiera es el mejor trabajo de los Airplane (After Bathing. En casi todas las listas de los mejores discos de los 60's Surrealistic Pillow aparece al lado de Sgt. . . lo supera con creces y Crown of Creation por poco. A�n asi seguir� siendo la obra maestra del grupo y contra eso poco se puede hacer. Ahora mis razones.

Pocas canciones de la �poca me parecen tan sobrevaloradas como Somebody to Love, un tema sin fuerza y mejor logrado en el original de Great Society. Al contrario, White Rabbit es lo mejor del disco y donde Grace Slick demuestra que aparte de ser apta para estar al frente cantando tambi�n puede componer. Los pastorales My Best Friend y How do you Feel no resisten repetidas escuchas, aunque en el mismo contexto Comin' Back to Me y Today son dos puntos altos. Lo cierto es que con contadas excepciones el disco no logra sonar sicod�lico, la instrumentacion es demasiado ortodoxa para una de las bandaras l�deres de San Francisco y en ese sentido parece m�s cercano al folk y no al revolucionario estilo que ese mismo a�o con distintos matices mostraban entre otros Moby Grape o Country Joe & The Fish. A lo mejor no pretend�an sonar aventureros y �cidos, y el probema es que no siendo compositores muy dotados tienen que echar mano a otros recursos, algo que en Surrealistic evitaron, pero cuando quisieron hacerlo en sus siguientes entregas los resultados mejoraron ostensiblemente, aunque al respecto las opiniones seguir�n estando divididas.

One masterpiece made for the Summer Of Love...
It's an amazing album, with those 2 big hits from the Airplane; "Somebody To Love", and "White Rabbit", which were probably two of the many tunes being played on radios in San Francisco during the Summer Of Love (1967, for those who don't know their history). It's an album that gave a generation some amazing music to listen to. But it gave people something to think about, a rock and roll band incorporating so much different types of music into their sound, like folk, pop, jazz, and psychedelic influences. It's an amazing mix, folk musicians Marty Balin and Paul Kantner, rock vocalist Grace Slick, Blues enthusiasts Jorma Kaukonen and Jack Casady, and jazz-influenced drummer Spencer Dryden, add a little drugs, some long hair, and a little peace, and you get The Airplane.

This album is an alluring bouquet of early psychedelic folk-rock that will make love to your ears. I recommend to anybody who just likes music.

Good Tunes But The Psychedlic Tone Could Vary A Little
There are some very strong tracks on this release. Don't get me wrong. The Grace Slick sung Somebody To Love and White Rabbitt are excellent mesmerizing tunes with some awesome instrumentation. She Has Funny Cars and Your My Best Friend are fairly catchy as well. And the instrumental Embryonic Journey is certainly quite ear pleasing with some nice guitar effects.

However ther psychedelic tone could vary a little. The arrangements sound fairly similar and the drums don't kick hard in any one song. Whereas there are some very good guitar solos, there are some moments when the guitars don't do anything special for me. And tracks like Commin' Back To Me, Today, and How Do You Feel are really quite dull. There is very little tune to any of them. I prefer the live version of Plastic Fantastic Lover to the one included on Surrealistic Pillow(although this version is certainly not bad).

Diehard fans of the Airplane should pick this one up, but moderate fans should consider a compilation such as Worst Of which really has all the essential songs.

You can see a complete list of all Jefferson Airplane discography, or go back to the Jefferson Airplane tabs. There is also a good guide on how to read guitar tabs here.