The Jefferson Airplane - Surrealistic POLLow

<3 my best friend

One of the few albums I'm willing to say it's important to hear on vinyl (or at least a vinyl rip) because of the whole mastering fuck-up situation.

DCBA25

Coming Back To Me, so spacy and beautiful

Plastic Fantastic Lover yeah

white rabbit

I should listen to this album again

One of the few albums I'm willing to say it's important to hear on vinyl (or at least a vinyl rip) because of the whole mastering fuck-up situation.

― Mordy, Sunday, March 14, 2010 10:30 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark

Just make sure it's the mono mix! Cuz the black label stereo is not so good sounding.

lots of great stuff, but for me it never tops the opener

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQUKfjKc0hY

I'm not usually a fan of ballads, but 'Today' is quite a lovely tune.

ooof. toughy, this one. but i think it's between D.C.B.A. and Today for me. although it's hard to weigh these up against White Rabbit and Somebody to Love, which I've heard my whole life and seen in countless movies and tv shows etc. not that they're necessarily 'played out'. the beginning of White Rabbit still kills me.

and though Embryonic Journey is totally gorgeous, it wouldn't feel right to vote for it

Eight-year-old me would have told you Plastic Fantastic Lover was my favorite song ever.

The two signature singles have unfortunately been played to death; there's a law that says any montage of Viet Nam footage and gyrating hippies must be accompanied by one of "White Rabbit," "Somebody to Love," "For What It's Worth," or "Purple Haze." I'd probably vote for "Today" even if that weren't the case.

Coen Bros pulled off Somebody To Love in A Serious Man.

3/5 of a mile in 10 seconds... but this a killer LP so I'm good with any of the choices.

Random thoughts: Grace Slick is the voice of the hits but I was surprised on re-listening that she doesn't sing lead on the other cuts. And as band photos as LP cover art go, this a great one.

This is way better than anything they did afterwards - I find the later stuff a bit stale and flabby. Plus, I love the reverb! And Kaukonen's guitar tone is fantastic - I was stunned to find out he was using a solid-state amp. I'm gonna be predictable and go for Somebody to Love, if only for the great walking bassline.

"Somebody To Love"

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

i voted Plastic Fantastic Lover cuz it's so cool

so impossible to choose .. went "My Best Friend" as kinda a copout .. it's all good .. one of the best records of all time

somebody to love. I just remembered I saw Sleater Kinney do a totally killer cover of this live.

The entire first side could come close, but "White Rabbit" remains untouchable for me. I can't think of another Top 5 single that resembles it.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

listening to this a lot lately. couple times a week. and ja takes off.

ugh wish i had voted on this poll even though it wouldn't have affected anything. white rabbit, somebody to love, today, and my best friend are all great. the rest are good too but you know.

I think my favorite thing Airplane ever did is that Fred Neil cover, Other Side of This Life, on the live record Bless It's Pointed Little Head.
Heavy acid rock.

I really have a lot of love for Grace Slick's songs...Rejoyce, Hey Fredrick, White Rabbit, Two Heads...it's slimpickings but she's still one of my favourite songwriters of the 60s...

Looks like "How Do You Feel" never had a chance.

is there a recording of "Today" anywhere with Grace Slick singing?

what is the mastering fuck up on this that's mentioned at the start of the thread please? and which is the best version to hear nowadays?

here's the recommendation from allmusic.com:

[Surrealistic Pillow on CD has been problematic -- actually, make that a real pain in the ass. It's been reissued numerous times on compact disc, in distinctly different editions -- a plain 11-song disc from the 1980s that sounded wretched and was an embarrassment; a high-priced RCA-BMG gold-disc upgrade, with significantly better sound from the mid-'90s that encompassed the stereo and mono mixes of the album; a European version from 2000/2001 (with four bonus tracks but no mono mix or liner notes) that got into the U.S. as an import; a U.S.-issued 2001 upgrade, initially available in the bizarre four-CD box Ignition, which encompassed the stereo and mono mixes in a brighter, sharper, louder remastering than the 1996 version, but still -- in some listeners' eyes -- lacking the presence and the soaring sound of the original LP; and a 2003 reissue (on the BMG Heritage label), mastered by renowned reissue producer Bob Irwin (of Sundazed Records fame), including the mono single versions of "White Rabbit" and "Somebody to Love," along with the related bonus tracks "Come Back Baby," "In the Morning," "J.P.P. McStep B. Blues," and "Go to Her," which have previously been scattered around various anthologies and other expanded editions. Those tracks generally push Kaukonen even more to the fore and give the balance of the material a bluesier feel. And there's an uncredited "hidden" bonus cut, an instrumental of "D.C.B.A. - 25."

^^Woah, She Has Funny Cars wuz robbed in this.

They ripped off the Monkees shamelessly:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GxBM9IiIEDY&feature=related

Comin' Back to Me

That's beautiful.

I heard Starship's "We Built This City" followed by Marty Balin's "Hearts" while shopping last week, maybe a secret message from an Airplane fan.

Had moment in another context trying to think of groups named after aircraft which led to a gag which seemed funny at the time of Fred Schneider of the B-52s singing "We built this city on a rock...lobster!"

Rickie Lee Jones did a really nice version of “Comin’ Back to Me” back in the grunge era. It’s almost in the same vein as Sebadoh’s “Everybody’s Been Burned” Byrds cover.

Hard to choose between Comin Back and Today

I don't really regret Balin's limited input on Baxter's, but if he had stayed committed to the group, he might have impeded their tumble into entropy... or maybe they would have just gone AOR sooner.

They had two excellent and distinctive vocalists in Balin and Slick but for some reason many of their singles post-Pillow featured shouty group vocals as if that were the proper hippie thing to do

Good point.

I like the Kantner/Balin/Slick blend most of the time, it's very stirring in a quasi-revolutionary way.

Recently we were talking on The Monkees thread about how sometimes Micky Dolenz sounds exactly like Grace Slick.

33 1/3 Quasi-revolutions per Monkee

I like the Kantner/Balin/Slick blend most of the time, it's very stirring in a quasi-revolutionary way.

Jorma Kaukonen is in there too and it's a blaring mess most of the time.