1967. Mancava poco agli anni '70. I Jefferson Airplane venivano dal loro primo album, "Takes Off", incentrato su un suono folk-rock. La band era composta da musicisti molto dotati: i due chitarristi, Kantner (che in alcune canzoni presta la sua voce) e Kaukonen, il bassista Casady, il cantante-leader Marty Balin e due new-entry: il batterista Dryden e la cantante Grace Slick, come voce femminile.
Per il secondo disco i Jefferson Airplane sono bravi a fondere il suono del primo album con elementi psichedelici, dei quali la chitarra acida di Kaukonen è un elemento fondamentale insieme ai sublimi intrecci vocali della Slick e di Balin.
L'entrata nel gruppo della Slick apportò vivacità nella band e nel suono, infatti la ragazza arrivò con due canzoni scritte da lei che fecero la fortuna di "Surrealistic Pillow". I brani in questione sono i celeberrimi "Somebody To Love" e "White Rabbit": il primo è un allegro inno hippie dal ritmo veloce, il ritornello ti si imprime nella mente e non esce più, il tutto condito dalla voce della Slick e dalla chitarra accattivamente acida; il secondo è un trascinante acid-rock che parte lento e finisce in un grande crescendo di sensazioni esplicite all'uso dell'LSD, con il testo che fa riferimenti al racconto di "Alice nel Paese delle Meraviglie" e alle sue stranezze legate agli effetti dell'acido lisergico.
Venendo alle altre canzoni, "She Has Funny Cars", "3/5 of a mile in 10 seconds" e "Plastic Fantastic Lovers" sono grandi esempi di acid-blues-rock;
invece "My Best Friend", "Today", "How Do You Feel" e "D.C.B.A." riprendono (e migliorano) i suoni folk-rock di "Takes Off".
Ma i due capolavori sono la strumentale "Embryonic Journey", con la grandiosa performance di Kaukonen alla chitarra acustica, e "Coming Back To Me", dotata di un meraviglioso arpeggio, del suono di un delizioso flauto e della suadente voce di Balin.
Insomma un disco da avere assolutamente, che ha aperto la strada ad altri capolavori della band americana, come "After Bathing At Baxter's" e il loro probabile apice della carriera, "Volunteers".
Si perchè i Jefferson Airplane sono tra quei fenomeni musicali, Grateful Dead (tra l'altro il loro leader Jerry Garcia collabora in quest'album) e Velvet Underground in primis, che più hanno infuocato gli ultimi anni '60 e i primi anni '70 con i loro concerti psichedelici e dai riferimenti politici.
Elenco tracce testi e samples
01 She Has Funny Cars (03:14)
Every day I try so hard to know your mind
And find out what's inside you
Time goes on and I don't know just where you are
Or how I'm going to find you
You can do whatever you please
The world's waiting to be seized
You can collect all neglect
Or all the self-respect you need, what you need
And I know... and I know... and I know
Your mind's guaranteed
It's all you'll ever need
So what do you want with me?
We live but once
But good things can be found around
In spite of all the sorrow
If you see black
You can't look back
You can't look front
You cannot face tomorrow
Some have it nice
Fat and round, flash, paradise
They're very wise to their disguise
Trying to revolutionize tomorrow
And I know... and I know... and I know
Your mind's guaranteed
It's all you'll ever need
So what do you want with me?
02 Somebody to Love (03:01)
When the truth is found
To be lies
And all the joy
Within you dies
Don't you want somebody to love?
Don't you need somebody to love?
Wouldn't you love somebody to love?
You better find somebody to love
When the garden flowers
Baby, are dead
And your mind, your mind
Is so full of red
Don't you want somebody to love?
Don't you need somebody to love?
Wouldn't you love somebody to love?
You better find somebody to love
Your eyes, I say your eyes
May look like his
But in your head, baby
I'm afraid I don't know where it is
Don't you want somebody to love?
Don't you need somebody to love?
Wouldn't you love somebody to love?
You better find somebody to love
Tears are running
They're all running down your dress
And your friends, baby
They treat you like a guest
Don't you want somebody to love?
Don't you need somebody to love?
Wouldn't you love somebody to love?
You better find somebody to love
03 My Best Friend (03:04)
Ah, you're my best friend
(You are my best friend)
And I love you so well
Till the end of time you won't see me
Ah, you're my best friend
(You are my best friend)
When I see you, it seems
Now I can see I've fallen into your love stream
I follow your dream
Do you know what I mean, yeah
I follow you wherever time will take me to
Forever I'll be one with you
One with you
One with you
Ah, you're my best friend
(You are my best friend)
And I saw that you're seein'
I'll set you free and just like me you'll be bein'
In love with me
Do you know what I mean, yeah
Do you know what I mean now
(Do you know what I mean)
I'm gonna set you free now
(Do you know)
You'll be in love with me
(Do you know what I mean)
You're my best friend now
Ah, you're my best friend
(You are my best friend)
And I love you so well
Till the end of time you won't see me
Ah, you're my best friend
(You are my best friend)
When I see you, it seems
Now I can see I've fallen into your love stream
I follow your dream
Do you know what I mean, yeah
Do you know what I mean now
(Do you know what I mean)
You'll be in love with me now
(Do you know)
I'm gonna set you free, yeah
(What I mean)
Oh you're my best friend now
Ah, you're my best friend
04 Today (03:02)
Today I feel like pleasing you more than before
Today I know what I want to do but I don't know what for
To be living for you is all I want to do
To be loving you it'll all be there when my dreams come true
Today you'll make me say that I somehow have changed
Today you'll look into my eyes, I'm just not the same
To be anymore than all I am would be a lie
I'm so full of love I could burst apart and start to cry
Today everything you want, I swear it all will come true
Today I realize how much I'm in love with you
With you standing here I could tell the world what it means to love
To go on from here I can't use words, they don't say enough
Please, please listen to me
It's taken so long to come true
And it's all for you
all for you....
05 Comin' Back to Me (05:24)
The summer had inhaled and held its breath too long
The winter looked the same, as if it never had gone
And through an open window where no curtain hung
I saw you, I saw you, comin' back to me
One begins to read between the pages of a look
The shape of sleepy music, and suddenly you're hooked
Through the rain upon the trees, that kisses on the run
I saw you, I saw you, comin' back to me
You can't stay and live my way
Scatter my love like leaves in the wind
You always say you want to go away
But I know what it always has been, it always has been
A transparent dream beneath an occasional sigh
Most of the time I just let it go by
Now I wish it hadn't begun
I saw you, yes I saw you, comin' back to me
Strolling the hills overlooking the shore
I realize I've been here before
The shadow in the mist could have been anyone
I saw you, I saw you, comin' back to me
Small things like reasons are put in a jar
Whatever happened to wishes wished on a star?
Was it just something that I made up for fun?
I saw you, I saw you, comin' back to me
06 3/5 of a Mile in 10 Seconds (03:45)
do away with people blowing my mind
do away with people wasting my precious time
take me to a simple place
where I can easily see my face
maybe, baby I'll see that you were kind
know I love you baby, yes I do
know I love you baby, yes I do
do away with people laughing at my hair
do away with people frowning on my precious prayers
take me to a circus tent
where I can easily pay my rent
and all the other freaks will share my cares
know I love you baby, yes I do
know I love you baby, yes I do
do away with things that come on obscene
like hot rods, beauty queens, real fine nicotine
sometimes it buys for 65 dollars
prices like that make a grown man holler
'specially when it's sold by a kid who's only 15
know I love you baby, yes I do
know I love you baby, yes I do
3/5's of a mile in 10 seconds...
07 D.C.B.A.-25 (02:39)
It's time we walked away
set me free
I must move away
leave you be...
time's been good to us, my friend
wait and see how it will end
we come and go as we please...
we come and go as we please...
that's how it must be
Here in crystal chandelier, I'm home
too many days, I've left unstoned
if you doubt my happiness
what full pleasure feels in the Sun
ah, don't you know I'm runnin' home...
don't you know I'm runnin' home...
to a place to you unknown?
I take great peace in your sitting there
searching for myself, I find a place there
I see the people of the world
where they are and what they could be...
I can but dance behind your smile...
I can but dance behind your smile...
08 How Do You Feel (03:34)
Look into her eyes
Do you see what I mean
Just look at her hair
And when she speaks, oh what a pleasant surprise
How do you feel
Just look at her smile
Do you see what I mean
She is looking our way
Oh how I wish we could stay, just stay for a while
How do you feel
When I meet a girl like that
I don't know what to say
But to meet a girl like that
Brightens up my day
My day, oh
How do you feel
Just look at her walk
Do you see what I mean
She is coming our way
Oh, how my heart beats, I don't even think I can talk
How do you feel
When I meet a girl like that
I don't know what to say
But to meet a girl like that
Brightens up my day
My day, oh
How do you feel
How do you feel
Do you know how you feel
Just look at her smile
(Tell me how do you feel)
Look into her eyes
(Tell me how do you feel)
She is coming our way
(Tell me how do you feel)
Look into her eye
(Tell me how do you feel)
She is coming our way
(Tell me how do you feel)
10 White Rabbit (02:33)
One pill makes you larger, and one pill makes you small,
And the ones that Mother gives you don't do anything at all.
Go ask Alice when she's ten feet tall.
And if you go chasing rabbits, and you know you're going to fall,
Tell 'em a hookah-smoking caterpillar has given you the call.
Call Alice when she was just as small.
When men on a chessboard get up and tell you where to go,
And you've just had some kind of mushroom, and your mind is moving low,
Go ask Alice -- I think she'll know.
When logic and proportion have fallen sloppy dead,
And the White Knight is talking backwards,
And the Red Queen's off with her head,
Remember what the dormouse said.
Feed your head, feed your head...
11 Plastic Fantastic Lover (02:37)
Her neon mouth with the blinkers-off smile
Nothing but an electric sign
You could say she has an individual style
She's part of a colorful time
Secrecy of lady-chrome-covered clothes
You wear cause you have no other
But I suppose no one knows
You're my plastic fantastic lover
Her rattlin' cough never shuts off
Is nothin' but a used machine
Her aluminum finish, slightly dinimished
Is the best I ever have seen
Cosmetic baby plugged into me
I'd never ever find another
I realize no one's wise
To my plastic fantastic lover
The electrical dust is starting to rust
Her trapezoid thermometer taste
All the red tape is mechanical rape
Of the TV program waste
Data control and IBM
Science is mankind's brother
But all I see is drainin' me
On my plastic fantastic lover
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Di JonnyORiley87
Grace Slick rappresenta il vero e proprio inno del gruppo con un doppio assolo del solito Kaukonen, l’ideale ciliegina sulla torta.
White Rabbit è scienza e arte, un aggiornamento della favola di Lewis Carroll che nutre la mente.
