Jefferson Airplane

This is the essential Jefferson Airplane album. Widely available in cut-out bins around the world, this cornerstone of Psychedelic music deserves to be listened to and absorbed by any fan of '60s rock. Most of their best-known songs come from this release, including "White Rabbit," "Somebody to Love," "Today" and "3/5 a Mile in 10 Seconds."

No other studio record summed up the san Francisco rock aesthetic of the late Sixties
better than the Jefferson Airplane's Surrealistic Pillow. Half-live records like Quicksilver
Messenger Service's Happy Trails and the Grateful Dead's Anthem of the Sun came close to
capturing the city's ballroom experience on vinyl. But it was Surrealistic Pillow, the
Airplane's second LP, with its artful compound of modal folk minstrelsy and elect... More >

I dismissed this as "amplified Peter, Paul & Mary" in the first piece of rock criticism I ever wrote; later, under the influence of "Somebody to Love," a few powerful Jorma Kaukonen riffs, my ex-folkie girlfriend, and the prevalent cultural vibes, I recanted--in print, yet. Now I think I was closer the first time. There's good stuff here, but Spencer Dryden plays the drums as if trying out for the Riders of the Purple Sage, the sarcasm is as vapid as the optimism, and the folk-pretty melodies simply do not carry lyrics like "When I see a girl like that/It brightens up my day." (Grade - B+)