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After Bathing at Baxter's

Jefferson Airplane - After Bathing at Baxter's Audio CD

A fair review of the Jefferson Airplane "After Bathing at Baxter's" 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: After Bathing at Baxter's
Rating:

Release Date: 2003-08-19
Media: Audio CD

Tracks: 1: Ballad of You and Me and Pooneil 2: Small Package of Value Will Come to You, Shortly 3: Young Girl Sunday Blues 4: Martha 5: Wild Tyme 6: Last Wall of the Castle 7: Rejoyce 8: Watch Her Ride 9: Spare Chaynge 10: Two Heads 11: Won't You Try/Saturday Afternoon 12: Ballad of You and Me and Pooneil [Long Version][Live][#][*] 13: Martha [Mono Single Version][*] 14: Two Heads [Alternate Version][Alternate Take][#][*] 15: Things Are Better in the East [#][*][Demo Version] 16: Young Girl Sunday Blues [*][Instrumental]

The war is over but the my days of listening to this aren't
I had the original album of After Bathing At Baxter's and my only complaint is that the recording was muddy compared to my other JA album Crown of Creation. I was about 12 or 13 when this came out and had only heard Surrealistic Pillow at the time which was great but I really didn't get into them until several years later while in college. I love them both dearly but decided I like Baxter's a tad more because it was like nothing I'd ever heard before. I often wondered if the Beatles were inspired to run their songs together on side A (I Think) of Abbey Road because of this album. This album sure isn't for everyone but for those hardcore acid rock trippin' fans like me it was about as good as it gets. I'm a guy who also loves groups with more than one good singer and songwriter and the variety of the songs by these guys was truly amazing and I never get bored for a minute by them. One of my biggest regrets musically is that I never got to see them live :(.

STREETMASSE is a fine way to begin this as it finally moves into the Young Girl Sunday Blues tune by Balin. The lyrics 'My days are made up of yesterdays and tomorrows ' was fitting for me since I've rarely been in the present. THE WAR IS OVER starts out with the pretty and airy Kantner tune Martha 'she does as she pleases and waits there for me' song which really touched me. Then it moves into the classic Wylde Time (also by Kantner) which really let's Jorma Kaukonen show off his unique guitar skills. HYMN TO AN OLDER GENERATION is where things really get interesting starting with a rare Jorma song that's very spacey : The Last Wall of the Castle with the 'understanding is a virtue that's hard to come by' lyrical hook and then goes into the incredible Slick anti-war song rejoyce which is strange, magical, funny and controvesial all at the same time somehow. The lyrics 'Molly's gone to blazes - Boylan's crotch amazes. . . any woman whose husband sleeps with his head all buried down at the foot of his bed' still cracks me up. Then the very controversial 'War's good business so give your son and I'd rather have my country die for me' comes in at the end. I bet the moral majority just loved that line HA ! Side 2 begins with HOW SUITE IT IS. Another airy Kanter song Watch Her Ride is then followed by the Spare Chaynge featuring Jorma on a solo that builds up for the final 2 tracks on SHIZOFORREST LOVE SUITE that starts with another strange Slick song Two Heads alternating between hard and soft lyrics which I didn't really understand lol but still liked and then finally it goes into what is truly one of the great rock drug songs of all time Won't You Try/Saturday Afternoon which they did at every concert I think. I won't discuss the bonus tracks since I don't have that version of the CD.

That was long but it's a very complex album with so many flavors it's hard to describe it all plus I'm no Hemmingway either. I have some young college guys that rent next door that have a band and are super interested in older rock history so I let them borrow this cd and they were completely blown away by it which was pretty cool and didn't make me feel like such an old fart.

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Overblown rubbish
"Somebody to Love" and "White Rabbit", which Grace Slick brought from her old band, elevated "Surrealistic Pillow" to an above average listen.
The great problem with Jefferson Airplane was they couldn't write a great song to save themselves. However the bulk of Baxter's is overblown, self indulgent and plain boring. Unless you are an avid Airplane fan or have a specific interest in the music of this period, don't bother. .

The Sound Of Freedom Flashing
I have wondered for years how well it might stand up to a revisit. This was my favorite of the JA studio albums way back when, one of the few albums I ever bought more than once. Well, it's still just as great to listen to, but my ears hear differently now. Then, I thought it was just really good music. Now I actually hear why they were the voice of the generation - it's basically in the way the voices fit together, or rather, don't. The duets (or sometimes triets?) are not trying for tight harmonies (think Crosby, Stills & Nash or even Little Big Town). It is as if they have all agreed to come together to form a loose, free association of musicians. It was a realization of the ideal that the group doesn't take over the individual. To me, they best represent what the late '60's was all about. If you think I'm nuts, just listen to the beginning of the first song (or even better, the live bonus track). Glorious amplifier feedback! Perhaps a worn-out cliche now, but still new then, a wild, loud, single voice screaming in the wilderness, calling others to join in. This was never bland-for-the-masses. It was be-here-now. Individuality. Freedom. That's why you should should listen to this album. Listen for the freedom.
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"Looks Like I Picked The Wrong Week To Expect Hit Singles"
There they were, riding high on having chart success with a rock act besides Elvis, and these ungrateful little buggers delivered a followup album of all this decidedly weird music. Poor RCA.
Fortunate, though, for music lovers, as this is the JA album that first showed the real instrumental firepower that was behind the 3 singers. Although the songs were not geared for AM radio play, they are consistently fine, and display an aggressively exploratory nature both musically and lyrically. This is an album meant to be played LOUD, and although the topics are very much of the time, it really hasn't dated as many of its contemporary "hippie" musical adventures have.
A true forebearer of heavy metal, and something that's remained on my playlist since its release. It should be on your playlist, too.

in my top 5 rock records, without doubt
From the gorgeous feedback that opens the album, the exotic, and I would say unprecedented, song structures and lyrics (including a brilliant piano and vocal setting of Molly's soliloquy from Ulysses!) and the inclusion of a 9-minute freeform jam among the telepathic pair Jorma Kaukonen and Jack Cassidy plus brilliant drum/sound colorist Spencer Dryden. Hearing this album at age 14 was a transforming experience. . . well, this just shattered my preconceptions about music in every way, and it's still brilliant. And the "straitforward" rock songs - Young Girl Sunday Blues, Won't You Try, etc. - rock like crazy but have much more interesting chords than most rock songs, plus unique Airplane harmonies and essence-of-60s sensibility. Still one of my favorite albums ever.

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.