Disco de Jefferson Airplane: “After Bathing at Baxter's [1989]”

Eric Clapton once opined (in the late 60s: no idea how he would feel today) that groups were either instrumentally oriented (like Cream) or vocally (like the Beach Boys). Jefferson Airplane were the exception that may or may not have proved the rule. No one could deny the vocal chops of Grace Slick and Marty Balin, both wonderful and unique singers, but the instrumental prowess of Jack Casady and Jorma Kaukonen was an equally distinctive and powerful element of the group's sound. To say they offered the best of both worlds is not quite accurate, though: rather they shaped a whole new one.

"Baxter's" was the Airplane at their boldest and most experimental. Released the same year as their commercially successful "Surrealistic Pillow" is was a radical departure from that album. "Pillow" was a tight, conventionally well produced affair, with little bits of psychedelic freak-out thrown in almost as coloration (e.g. the guitar "outro" on "Somebody to Love"). "Baxter's" was unabashed psychedelia, as others have noted below, and was all the more representative of the group's power and their true sensibility.

It's hard to believe that a rock epic like "The Ballad of You & Me & Pooneil" was actually released as a single--let alone the equally adventurous "Watch her Ride," the vocals of which constantly threaten to derail, but never do. Grace Slick's brooding compositions "rejoyce" and "Two Heads" were real stream-of-consciousness dazzlers --"literary", in an unself-conscious way (much less so than the obvious conceit behind "White Rabbit," say) and penetrating. Her subsequent work only occasionally displayed such flashes of true brilliance. (I say this as a fan, but as an honest one.)

The only down side for me (both in '67 and today) was the diminishment in Marty Balin's contribution. Marty's folky romanticism was already losing ground after "Pillow," and he proved to be one of those artists, for whom increased public acclaim and the exhausting demands of touring, actually proved at least temporarily detrimental to his creative output. "Young Girl Sunday Blues" is a real rouser and he contributes lively vocals throughout, but his role in the group was already on the wane. On the group's subsequent releases, he would average two actual lead vocals and share others with Grace and Paul Kantner. Their vocal sparring remained a highlight of the group's later releases (especially the live album "Bless Its Pointed Little Head"). But Kantner was becoming the dominant songwriter by this point, if not the group's actual "leader."

Speaking of Kantner, his writing was still very strong and not nearly as portentous as it would later become. His compositions here, including "Martha" and "Saturday Afternoon/Won't You Try" achieve a splendor here that he would have trouble matching in later years (when everything became an epic). "After Bathing at Baxter's" is experimental rock at its most successful. If it were played for today's audiences, it could be a salvo against the domniant strains.corporate rock--just as it was in '67.

Recorded hot off the heels of their successful "Surrealistic Pillow", which was burning up the charts and one of the main reasons why thousands of teenagers were descending upon the city of San Francisco for the millenium's biggest party, "After Bathing At Baxter's" found the Airplane convinced that they were recording the greatest album of all time. And, in the heady zeitgeist of that era, they just might have. The album was released at Christmas to a puzzled audience; some took to it as the greatest thing they'd ever heard, while the majority of middle-America, irritated at not having another "Somebody To Love", learned just how underground the Airplane really were. If "Takes Off" was the sound of the hippie movement as it was just beginning in '65 and early '66, and "Surrealistic Pillow" a commercially distilled essence of 1966 that became the soundtrack for the summer of love, then "After Bathing At Baxter's" was the summer of love in 1967 as it happened. And what a peak! "Baxter's" takes the sound established on "Pillow" to quantum levels; there are also attempts to bring the band's live playing to focus, as in the bass/drums/guitar duel "Spare Chaynge". The songs are all about freedom, love, abandon and a change of perspective; drummer Spencer Dryden's piece becomes Frank Zappa-ish on "A Small Package", which turns ordinary cocktail-party conversation into a hallucinatory revelation. Slick's two songs "rejoyce" and "Two Heads" are the best of her career, as she plays the crazed intellectual to the hilt, borrowing from "Ulysses" in the former and creating a singularly unique mirror-world in the latter. Everything, from the guitars (this one's mostly electric, although the acoustic "Martha" is a gem) to the harmonies to the drums to the sound effects (many of the guitars, bass, harpsichords, etc are recorded backwards, sped up, slowed down, etc) bristles with a polished sparkle; you can almost taste the acid after "Two Heads" climaxes. After that, the joyous invitation, backed with charged feedback effects and glorious communal four-part harmony vocals, that accompanies "Won't You Try/Saturday Afternoon" is like icing on the cake.

I used to throw this one on while I was executing psychedelic paintings (tempera paint on poster-board) during sophomore year ('68-'69) at the university.

The first, very long lead guitar note signals the beginning of an epic/epochal journey, which in a way is what this album set out to achieve. It was to be a transformation of the consciousness of our generation, perceived/conceived through what the Airplane offered us through their creativity, experience, and of course their music. It was the herald of a new dawn, a kind of strange bird trumpeting to us of its arrival, and secondarily announcing their new style/sound.

On "The Ballad of You and Me and Pooneil", you almost don't know what Balin and company are singing about, but somehow it makes perfect sense, in a most visionary sort of way. This is excellent, as they don't fall prey to trying to describe the situation too precisely [if you can say/see exactly what it is, you ain't there!] So what you get is the map of the energy currents your soul can follow in order to travel the paths they are marking. Jefferson Airplane are describing and charting the way into and through the region of numinous. (Who really cares whether or not if it's meant to be thought of as drug-induced? It works either way, I'd say).

Dylan never did it any better than this. When Mr. Zimmerman got into a similar mode ["Gates of Eden", "Desolation Row", "The Ballad of Frankie Lee and Judas Priest", et al.), he was busy creating new prophetic religious texts for the New/Now Generation. Bob created a series of alternate worlds staring at us, right in front of us. Or was he semi-transforming what we always see into what we always know, but don't always realize? Again, either way, it works.

Following "Pooneil", there is the relative short interlude of the happy psychedelic party, a sound-space through which meaningful and/or hilarious one-liners, musical passages/quotations and various conversations float, and which segues into the beautiful, very moving "Young Girl Sunday Blues".

Even more amazing is the beginning of the second suite, the song "Martha", during which we succumb to some of the most beautifully poetic lines imaginable, all which compassionately conspire to take us higher and deeper into and through the new vista. "Martha she speaks to me from a feather in the meadow . . . " This is the one song that starts with an acoustic guitar ostinado, which continues throughout. (A little ways in, it's heavily overlaid, in most a friendly manner, by offerings from the lead electric.)

These first couple of suites, Grace is given free rein to use her voice as an accompaniment instrument (Marty does most of the lead singing). Grace was sort of serving the function of a second lead guitar, of course timbrally different. I wonder if Yoko Ono learned how to sing listening to these pieces? Grace does a great job here. Then, later when she takes the lead on the two severely satirical pieces ["Last Wall of the Castle" and "Two Heads"] her voice assumes its usual, masterful [powerful] attitude. These two songs (and to some extent all of 'side two') more or less forecast what's to come next (album #4: 'Crown of Creation'), where satirical and apocalyptic energy/imagery kick in furiously.

Here on 'Baxters' there's not yet too much trouble in paradise . . . Middle America is witnessed as something outside of the new hippie way. Alienation has acted in its own way to create the [beautiful] alternate to what was referred to at the time as the Death Culture. But by splitting humanity/America into two camps, we were led in a way to the partial dissolution of this new vision, as most had our feet planted somewhat in both worlds. 'Crown of Creation' dives headfirst into this fray. Please stay tuned.

Remember "psychedelic" bands? Remember the Electric Prunes? The Blues Magoos? I didn't think so. But all of us who can't remember the 60's can still remember the Airplane and Baxters. I remember me and Gretchen over at Tom and Noelle's with side two on auto-repeat. Spare Chaynge over and over while the sidewalks outside heaved like Merry Melody streets and the stars bounced against each other like they were on the old Lovely Lucy pinball. It was the final word in flat-out, unashamed "Yes We Take LSD" rock and roll. Everything before wasn't quite ready yet (okay, excepting maybe Purple Haze), everything after was imitation. And I'd STILL rather have my country die for me.

Professional rock critics generally seem to like this album, but they won't give it "5 stars" because it's so forthrightly weird and/or self-indulgent. Well, I'll give it 5 stars for uniqueness. For a concept album about hallucinogens and their effect on the brain, this is a surprisingly tight and upbeat collection of "songs." Even the "jam" on side 2 is aggressive rather than spaced-out. Overall there are few better examples of Jefferson Airplane's instrumental and vocal talents than this album, and this one rebellious without being disadvantageously tied to political issues of the day (that's a plus). Though it's obviously a "60s" album, it transcends the era via its musical accomplishment. Also, the cover art is wonderful. Buy this for yourself and a few more for friends and relatives. They'll thank you.