Jefferson Airplane Album: “Surrealistic Pillow”

All the accolades afforded this album over the years are well justified--and if you're reading this, I'm sure you've heard (and likely experienced for yourself) them all. This is truly one of the greatest albums not only of the Sixties & the folk-rock/psychedelic era, but of the entire pop music era period! That said, I'm afraid we've yet to see the ultimate cd issue of this masterpiece--though this latest one offers the added attraction of four songs not on the original LP, three of which were cut during the "Pillow" sessions. Airplane aficianados are well familiar with all these tracks (scattered through various compilations over time), but in fact, the extra tracks are really the only reason to purchase this edition of the album, if you don't already own one of the more recent issues. The real killer in the bonus bunch is "Go To Her," a showcase for Marty Balin's soulful wail, and a song more than deserving of inclusion on the original album. You'll also hear Jorma Kaukonen step out front on an original blues "in The Morning," as well as on an excellent reading of Lightning Hopkins' "Come Back Baby," the latter actually recorded a few weeks after the album came out. Further, there's an unlisted bonus cut at the end, an instrumental run-through of "B.C.D.A. -25," on which Paul Kantner's 12-string rhythm playing takes the spotlight.

All that said, I want to caution you: If you're looking for an improved-quality recording of this album over the gold disk, the 1996 issue or the 2001 issue, you ain't gonna get it here! That's not to say it doesn't sound good, rather to say it's not been improved upon. Fans are well aware of the differences between the mono and stereo mixes of the album: It's great to have both, but this version only has two of the mono mixes (the two monster hit singles.) As for the standard stereo mix, all the tape hiss is still there, not to mention the early fade-outs on the tracks which go on a little longer on the mono album. I've thought for quite a long time that this album begs to be remixed, from top to bottom, from the original four-track masters. Perhaps that'll be done someday--either after someone gets smart or after someone dies! Fact is, the bonus tracks (all of which are in stereo outside of the two singles) are technically of higher quality than those from the original album.

In the meantime, to reiterate: If you have one of the above-mentioned issues of this album, the bonus tracks are really the only reason you may want to purchase this one. They were my reason; I needed them and am quite pleased with them. And oh yes: The liner notes are very good--with stories behind and recording info about--all the tracks, but of course, you can't play the liner notes!

We all know that Surrealistic Pillow is a landmark album. The question is where can I find a decent sounding CD of this essential album? We suffered for more than ten years with the first generation CD - a notoriously bad CD plagued by hiss and crummy mastering. No surprise, RCA showed the same disregard for the Elvis CDs for years until his estate finally stepped in and said enough is enough - suddenly the original masters started showing up and now remastered Elvis sounds great. Will the same good fortune happen to Surrealistic Pillow? Well, there was the [pricey] Gold disc a few years ago. It sounded better, and even included the mono along with the stereo mixes (22 tracks), but virtually anything would have been an improvement! The problem was that the Gold disc lacked any depth whatsoever, it sounded very flat - and on top of that it had an edgy, harsh treble quality whenever the music got louder. Oh, well... Then a box set came out that included a slightly less harsh sounding Surrealistic Pillow that also had both stereo and mono versions. But again, the basic problems remained - a one-dimensional soundstage, a still too-harsh high-end, and muddied vocals, not to mention that, like the Gold disc, it was going to cost you some major bucks to buy the whole box to get this one disc. And remember, throughout this whole time RCA had continued to mass produce that first generation CD without remastering it - forcing you to either buy the Gold disc or the box to get better sound. Are you starting to get the picture here? Frustrating! Anyway, FINALLY last year (2001) a new single CD was issued domestically and it turns out to be exactly the same as the remastered one in the box set (includes both stereo and mono tracks). Same sound problems, but at least now you can get it without having to buy the whole box. But, that's not all folks! There is more to the story. There was also a new European import CD issued in 2001 with 4 bonus tracks (no mono tracks) that actually sounds ALMOST as good as my LP copy from the 70's, which of course isn't saying much. In any case, for what it is worth, this is by far the best re-issue CD I have heard. My advice is that if you need to get the best sound, then get the import. I can listen to this import CD without cringing and actually enjoy the experience. The remastering on the import is very faithful to the original LP mix (unlike the domestic issue) and on some songs it has some of that warm three-dimensional presence that all the other domestic CDs lack. Now I am not saying this is a fantastic CD, only that it finally begins to approach the minimal quality that you might expect from this great album. Be forewarned that even this import CD still is harsh at times, but it is far, far less annoying than the domestic versions. Let's just say Surrealistic Pillow needs to be totally remixed from top to bottom from the first generation four-track master instead of the worn out two-track Stereo mix-down master to do it justice. Until that happens, get the import CD and skip all domestic issues or better yet dig out that old LP and give it a spin.

"Surrealistic Pillow" is Jefferson Airplane's finest moment, and one of the quintessential '60s albums. So many great records were put out in the late '60s, particularly in the period surrounding and including the "Summer of Love," but this is always one of the first mentioned.

I had the privilege of hearing Jorma Kaukonen play "Embryonic Journey" while I was in college in the late 70s, and it evoked for me how great this album is. That lovely, fluid, and weaving solo tune is the only one unaccompanied by singing, and Grace and company do it up with the rest. There is consistently good instrumentation, but this album is more marked by verse and lyrics, the accompanying melody usually dominating rather than the surrounding music and soloing.

"White Rabbit" and "Somebody to Love," which stand as '60s anthems on the magnitude of almost anything, are the highlights of a load of great tracks. Through the looking glass, and let's love one another. They have a similar dramatic tone and structure but are still distinctive, and both are superb. "Plastic Fantastic Lover" is another memorable song, and provides a forceful conclusion. "My Best Friend" is more spirit of the '60s. "DCBA" is one of a number of pretty songs, with rhythmic cadences that make it a favorite for me. "Today" and "Comin' Back to Me" are highly evocative, beautiful ballads, with a sort of tripped out aura, but more lyrically dominated. Indeed, one thing I like about this album is the clear, fluid structures, not the tripped out excesses of the Airplane''s later work. There are no wasted cuts, as the Airplane make one of the great artistic statement of the 60s.

Most of the members of Jefferson Airplane have always said that Jerry Garcia played on, sang on, named and produced SURREALISTIC PILLOW, facts denied by RCA's named producer Rick Jarrard and Airplane drummer Spencer Dryden. Hence, Garcia was never given producer's credit; but he was named as "spiritual advisor" to the album. As metaphysician to the acid-rock age, Dr. Garcia did a great job. SURREALISTIC PILLOW spawned not one but two classic anthems of the Summer of Love (for those of you too young to know, that would be 1967), "Somebody To Love" and "White Rabbit," covers of songs originally sung by The Great Society. Thus, not only did Jefferson Airplane attain flight speed (their first album, JEFFERSON AIRPLANE TAKES OFF literally got them off the ground), but it ensured them a permanent place in the Rock pantheon as the definitive interpreters of "the San Francisco sound."

While SURREALISTIC PILLOW is not the prime example of the band's preferred overtly political, dense musical style (that would be their fourth album, CROWN OF CREATION), SURREALISTIC PILLOW is, far and away, their best work. A group with intense internal stresses, this album found the band in a fleeting moment of dynamic suspension. The Airplane would never sound so unified and yet so eclectic ever again. SURREALISTIC PILLOW has wandered, but not too far, from Jefferson Airplane's folk/blues/vocal harmony roots. Although they sing and play together, each member of the band has a distinctive sound, all of which mesh perfectly on this album.

"She Has Funny Cars" opens the album with a jungle beat, wailing guitars, and offbeat lyrics, immediately followed by the anthematic "Somebody To Love" (written by Darby Slick but sung by Grace Slick). Grace's voice has been described by some as "steely" and by others as "a silken-sailed clipper ship," and everyone is both right and wrong. The former I. Magnin model's powerful contralto both challenges and invites her bandmates (and the listener) to keep pace, being all at once playful, petulant, demanding, ingenuous, and erotic.

"My Best Friend" is a nice vocal harmony number that goes well with whatever everybody was smoking that long-ago summer; and "Today" and "Comin' Back To Me" are paeans to lost love, the former from the perspective of the leaving party, and the latter from the one left behind (and still tear-inducing).

The oddly named "3/5 of a Mile in 10 Seconds" and "DCBA-25" are drug songs, pure and simple, from that innocently luminescent time where no harm was done to anyone, the consciousness expanded, and God was seen on a daily basis. Both songs presage the Airplane's emergent distinctive style, musically and thematically.

"How Do You Feel" revisits the tenor of "My Best Friend," to be followed by what many people consider the best song on the album, guitarist Jorma Kaukonen's brief (less than two minutes), beautiful, complex, finger-picking instrumental masterpiece, "Embryonic Journey."

The original album closes with the Lewis Carroll-inspired cautionary drug anthem, "White Rabbit" and then singer Marty Balin's "Plastic Fantastic Lover," which he claims to be about television, but transcends itself into a song about free love.

The bonus tracks "In The Morning," "JPP McStep B. Blues," "Go To Her," "Come Back Baby" and mono AM radio mixes of "White Rabbit" and "Somebody To Love" were all recorded during the SURREALISTIC PILLOW sessions, but never used. Each spotlights and highlights the amazing talents of the members of Jefferson Airplane, and each has its rightful home on this disc.

SURREALISTIC PILLOW belongs next to The Beatles' SGT. PEPPER'S LONELY HEARTS CLUB BAND, the Beach Boys' PET SOUNDS, Jimi Hendrix's ARE YOU EXPERIENCED?, Cream's DISRAELI GEARS, and The Doors' THE DOORS as a definitive addition to the canon of ageless rock albums released in that one amazing year of 1967.

Unlike, say, the Doors or the Jimi Hendrix Experience, Jefferson Airplane really is a "'sixties band." The group's hippie ethos was and remains omnipresent, the very core of its sociomusical importance. Thus it is that the Airplane's most celebrated and probably greatest album, SURREALISTIC PILLOW, sounds a lot more dated now than many other classic records from 1967 - though still less so than SERGEANT PEPPER. But as even a cursory listen proves, the flower children had a lot more to offer than free love and cheap acid.

Right from the heavily reverbed drums opening "She Has Funny Cars," PILLOW is a powerfully expansive and entertaining experience, and its overt sense of its own time and place does nothing to weaken it. The hard-rocking "Somebody to Love" is still a rousing blend of psychedelic swagger and pop accessibility, "D.C.B.A. 25" a lovely folk-rock gem which can wring a nostalgia for the Summer of Love even from one who wasn't there. It's a pair of beautiful ballads, however - "Today" and the magnificent "Comin' Back to Me" - which are really the album's highlights. Singer Marty Balin's lovely, emotive tenor has never quite gotten the credit it deserves; but his performances on these two songs make clear that it was he, rather than the overhyped Grace Slick, who truly was the voice of Jefferson Airplane. Not that Slick doesn't do some fair work of her own, on flute and keyboards as well as at the mike: "White Rabbit" may sound corny from the smarmy vantage of 2006, but put it up against any of the tripe currently being peddled as worthwhile music on FM radio and it's nothing less than high art.

This 2003 remaster of PILLOW sounds good - though not great, perhaps, as the original album appears to have been rather muddily recorded - and adds seven bonus tracks, a couple of which are indeed good enough to have been on the LP itself. Hippie or not, you're sure to find something you like here, as people have been doing for nearly forty years. Peace!