one of the greatest bands from the 60's. Notice how the song increases is speed all the way through. they had so many great songs in the 60's. Gracie had a wonderful voice and style. saw them in concert several times and will never forget.
I cut school one day to see them and The Grateful Dead at a free concert in Golden Gate Park. It was 1969 and a weekday afternoon. The Hari Krishnas were there with a giant cauldron like incense burner. The hippie scene was winding down in the nearby Haight Ashbury district but was on full display in the park that afternoon.
The voice that launched a thousand trips. One of my all-time favorite songs and favorite female singers. The Great society the group she was in before did an even trippier version of this song.
Only two minutes and twenty seconds long, but still too long to listen to without constantly talking over the lyrics. No wonder the meaning flew over her head.
The "White Rabbit" is your curiosity. In the 60s, drugs were a large part of mind expansion and social experimentation. White Rabbit was one of the first songs to sneak references to certain substances past censors on the radio.
When I was a kid growing up in the SF bay area in the music business through family and casually meeting and chatting with many of these musicians I had no idea that I was talking to future icons of rock. Grace is one of those approachable down to earth people that is unassuming but on stage she is so powerful. Talent like this we took for granted at the time, and now we idolize them because there will never be anything like them, it represents a simpler time of true talent and skill for the love of creating unique music to share with others.
In the 1960's, producing a song to run about two minutes was guaranteed to get a lot of air time on AM Top 40 radio. The more common timing was around three minutes. When you DJ'd a station, you liked to have some odd times to fill exactly the right slots. For instance, a common thing was to carefully time the music to end at the stroke of the hour, U.S. Naval Observatory time. You were pulling and cuing up 45 rpm vinyl records, and every record was prominently marked with the exact time and sometime additional notes, like the length of the lead in and fade out, so you knew how long you could talk over the intro and outro. Some formats required you to leave no break between songs and to talk into and out over the instrumental beginning and ending. On a lot of stations, there was a tone exactly on the hour that was built in and which was synced to a signal from the time source that snapped the minute hand of the studio clock to the 12 o'clock position. An announcer could not change it. Often, that tone triggered a short newscast or a commercial, sometimes a network news break, and those were completely locked onto the hour. You were judged on your ability to stay tight and hit that mark just as the last note of the song faded. Jocks prided themselves on their ability to make things happen exactly as that minute hand snapped to the top. You could easily get stuck with less than three minutes. Too much to fill with talk in a format where there was little talk. Too much to fill with commercials. But with a little talk, a two-minute cut would hit the mark and make you look good. And since you were playing from a limited list put together by your program director, there weren't many tow-minute choices. (Similarly, very long cuts were appreciated, especially late at night, when the announcer had lengthh bathroom business or even wanted to dash down the street to pick up food. You took great care of those records, hoping to not be stuck away from the board if it started skipping. I once had a program director who kept a transistor radio beside his bed at home. If he had to go pee in the middle of the night, he'd carry it with him. Let a long cut run out before you got back to the board, and he'd catch you every time.)
This is 1967, in San Francisco.... the height of the Haight-Ashbury scene. The San Francisco bands of that era were spectacular, The Jefferson Airplane, The Grateful Dead, The Sons of Champlin. These bands never made it on the national scene, but they produced iconic numbers, like White Rabbit, and ruled the music scene in the California Bay Area for a decade.
The Song was about "Alice in Wonderland", but it was also about "dropping acid (an LSD Trip)". The Beatles did this with "Lucy in the Sky" (two different meanings, one of them being Drugs (LSD)).
Every band member and reputable biographer of Lennon/The Beatles all say John's young son Julian drew a picture of a woman and when John inquired what the picture is Julian replied "Lucy in the sky with diamonds". John was also influenced by Alice in Wonderland writing this song but has always denied any intentional drug use references.
Grace Slick did eventually write a book, "Somebody to Love? -- A Rock and Role Memoir". The only person, in my view, who knew more top rock performers on a personal level than Grace Slick, was Mick Jagger. Remember Jefferson Airplane were at THREE of the top early rock concerts: Woodstock, Altamont, AND Monterey Pop! 😘 🫠
My wife was a "Flower Child" of the 60's in Marin County, Calif.. She hung out with Janice Joplin, Big Brother and the Holding Company, Quick Silver Messenger Service and the Grateful Dead etc.,etc. Grace Slick lived on the same street as my wife parents in Mill Valley, Calif.., That was before they changed the bands name to Jefferson Starship. Crazy Times!! Later in1993 Graces house burned down. El Mirage, Arizona USA
Lot if cool, psychadelic posters got printed and sold during this era. I happened to grab theirs.... of a gigantic wooden airplane with all kinds of stuff hanging on it. Jefferson Airplane. One of the bright shining stars of the late 60s!
The bass player is Jack Casady. He and Jorma Kaukonen, the lead guitarist, are still performing together as Hot Tuna, primarily a blues band, which they started while they still were in Jefferson Airplane. Jack also played bass on "Voodoo Chile" on Jimi Hendrix's Electric Ladyland album.
That was Jack Casady on bass. Casady and lead guitarist Jorma Kaukonen were also the core members of Hot Tuna. Grace Slick wrote this song while she was still with the group The Great Society. She brought the song over to the Jefferson Airplane when their previous singer Signe Anderson left the group to raise her new born baby.
In the 60's and 70's, to get air play, songs needed to be between 2 and 3 min long. One of the big selling points for the "new" FM stations was that they played longer songs. Early on, around KC we called them "album stations" because they would play whole album sides.
Check out the reformation of Jefferson Airplane called Jefferson Starship. Big hits were "Jane" and "Find Your Way Back." Grace Slick was still a great member and contributor to that band as well. She's a legend and she opens up her crazy life to public interviews and is as honest your grandma. She tells about the time she almost had a chance to slip President Nixon a hit of acid or LSD. That would have been a sight to see!
Yeah, her acid days were over with and her alcohol and Quaaludes were in. She even admits to this day that she is sober but if Ludes were still made, she would be all in. I would be with her too! "Ride The Tiger."
Every time I listen to Jefferson Airplane, I remember the scene of Jim Carrey in the movie "Cable Guy" singing "Somebody to Love" on Karaoke. This scene is priceless.
The biggest hit by Jefferson Airplane was Somebody To Love from the Surrealistic Pillow album. What an album! For a couple of soft songs from that album listen to Today and Comin' Back To Me where Marty Balin sings lead.
Jack Casady on bass. He can still be heard, along with Jorma Kaukonen, the guitarist, as Hot Tuna, more blues and folk than Rock. Grace has retired. She wrote this song for her previous group, The Great Society. Of course, Lewis Carol inspired the lyrics. I hear Ravel and Miles Davis (Sketches of Spain) influences.
Another great song from the same album that you should try out is "Somebody to Love". Grace Slick wrote White Rabbit, and the way it repeats the same staccato melody and builds in a continuous crescendo was reportedly inspired by Ravel's Bolero. I don't believe there is a 15-minute version of White Rabbit, but Ravel's Bolero is right about 15 minutes long. If you have never heard it before, you ought to give it a listen to see where some of Grace Slick's inspiration originated. It is a very cool piece of music.
Another possible reference for this song, besides acid and Lewis Caroll, is Alice B.Toklas, the life partner of Gertrude Stein, who wrote a book including a recipe for hash brownies, and in 1968, a year following her death, was the subject of a Peter Sellers film called "I love you Alice B. Toklas". My theory is that the term "tokeing" springs from her name, anybody know?
I’ve loved Jormas playing since the 60’s. I have seen him perform many times, most often with Jack in Hot Tuna. I am going to see him in Minneapolis in a couple of weeks and likely it will be the last time as Jorma is in his 80’s now.
Songs were usually 2:30 mins to play commercials on AM radio.To me Grace Slick was one of the greatest singers ever. Somebody to Love was their biggest hit Loved the physedelic sound late 60s. She was a successful singer went to Jefferson Starship later, i dug the group and the music
Bass figured prominently in Jefferson Airplane songs and arrangements, particularly on the album Crown of Creation, as well as Volunteers and Bark. Try Hey Frederick for an 8:36 song with Grace vocals and an extended jam for the last half of the song. To hear very prominent bass on a shorter song, Crown of Creation. Jefferson Airplanes lead guitarist Jorma Kaukonen and bassist Jack Casady formed a bluesy band Hot Tuna in the early 70's that put out albums and still is playing together. They have three main vocalists, Grace Slick, Marty Balin, and Paul Kantner, who sing separate verses on Wooden Ships, as well as harmony later in song.
The song was released in 1967, at the height of L.S.D. consumption in the United States. "White Rabbit" was a tongue-in-cheek song about what happens when you take L.S.D.
Grace is such an icon of the 60's and early 70's mostly but was still going strong into the 80's with Jefferson Airplane, then Jefferson Starship, but can't remember if she was still with them when they became Starship. The "Alice" stories have always been my favorite since childhood, so I really appreciated this song. And yes, it is referencing the drug use in the stories.
Back in the late 60's the AM radio stations wouldn't play anything that was longer than 2 and a half minutes, So if bands wanted their song to be on the radio they had to be short.
Jack Casady, the bass player was, and still is an amazing bass player. You should definitely check out more of his work. He and Jorma (lead guitar) broke off from Jefferson Airplane to form Hot Tuna. They are still playing (their last tour) to this day. Grace is retired and living in Malibu. When this song was played with The Great Society, the first band that Grace was in, they played it a bit slower and definitely an extended intro. Grace said at the time that she was calling out the hypocrisy of parents being alarmed over the drug use of the younger generation. We had been brought up on Alice in Wonderland, The Wizard of Oz, and Peter Pan while the adults were drinking and taking amphetamines/depressants to get through their days. "Better Living Through Chemistry" was a famous tag line for a major pharmaceutical company. What did parents expect? We were brought up in an age of taking drugs to make us feel better.
Jefferson Airplane is just fantastic. You should check out the version of this tune from Woodstock. There's also a seriously cool video of them performing "The House at Pooneil Corners" from a rooftop in New York City, kind of a guerilla-gig. EDIT: Also, yes, Jack Casady is a top-notch bassist.
Jefferson Airplane did this song at Woodstock (8/17/69) and it's on UA-cam (ua-cam.com/video/R_raXzIRgsA/v-deo.html). They also did it on American Bandstand in 1967 along with Somebody to Love (ua-cam.com/video/tKtJ0XTwgTE/v-deo.html). Still too short in both instances, but Grace is superb.
Hello Millie, as far as Jefferson Airplane goes I shall recommend a favorite from the " Crown of Creation " album " The House at Pooneil Corners ". If you do first listen to the album version then view the UA-cam version that was " Live " from a rooftop in New York City " Both are excellent. " Hey! "
Ok that remembers me my very late teens years with a lot of mushrooms and good trips ... The Flower Power ... I was in love with Grace Slick ^^ ... Is it a problem if I am french and old ? First time I write here, but I liked a lot of your react. !
If you like this vibe and want to to hear their best search for bassist Jack Casaday "Spayre Change" and vocalist Grace Slick "Bear Melt", both much longer jams.
Grace was unique to say the least- her voice is very distinguishable, and as Millie noted here, 'mysterious'. Grace looks the part here in her long medieval gown.
If you want some 15 minute trippy songs you could watch "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida" by Iron Butterfly (1968) or "Get Ready" by Rare Earth (1970) "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida" is my personal favourite and I lost many a night, high as a kite & listening to this song.
This is a great song, but this hits different because WWE used an isolated vocal track for Bray Wyatt’s return in 22 during live shows and during Raw and Smackdown during commercial breaks. R.I.P Bray
This was shown on the Smothers Brothers show. They used Alice in Wonderland to hide that this was about drugs - very much the psychedelic 60s, sex drugs and rock and roll
Millie, You mentioned loving a great bass holding down the bottom. Try listening to Albert King & Stevie Ray Vaughan - “In Session 2010 1983.flv” two of the very best Bluesmen.
Helen of Troy was called "The Face that Launched a Thousand Ships". Grace Slick was called "The Voice that Launched a Thousand Trips". So true!
And before she got into music she was a dress model at a high end women's store. The music is based on Ravel's Bolero.
Grace Slick was the girl who kicked the door open for Women to Rock it.
@@larrybremer4930 Hmm...what about Janis Joplin too?
This is acid rock. Great song, great band.
From the first few sentences after the music started: "This is trippy." Exactly. Exactly. Literally exactly. :)
🍄👍😎
one of the greatest bands from the 60's. Notice how the song increases is speed all the way through. they had so many great songs in the 60's. Gracie had a wonderful voice and style. saw them in concert several times and will never forget.
Grace Slick. A 60s icon.
70's, 80's
A 15 minute version of this song would be awesome.
I cut school one day to see them and The Grateful Dead at a free concert in Golden Gate Park. It was 1969 and a weekday afternoon. The Hari Krishnas were there with a giant cauldron like incense burner. The hippie scene was winding down in the nearby Haight Ashbury district but was on full display in the park that afternoon.
I can totally picture that. I remember being so sad that the sixties were over. I knew life would not be the same, even though I was a kid.
@@peacepupppy I also remember those concerts at the panhandle in golden gate park . went to about a dozen of them as a kid. groovy times
The ultimate psychedelic rock song, in my opinion.❤️
The voice that launched a thousand trips. One of my all-time favorite songs and favorite female singers. The Great society the group she was in before did an even trippier version of this song.
Grace made bands like Heart, Joan Jett, Blondi, and Pat Benetar possible by kicking the door open for women to rock it.
@@larrybremer4930 her and Joplin.
The lyrics is about Alice in Wonderland and the crazyness. It´s typical psychadelical song from 1967.
Well, I don’t know about typical. 😊
Its about LSD, just as much as the Beatles Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds. Feed you head, is an explicit 1960s slogan to do psychadelics
Pretty much the epitome of the psychedelic song from 1960s. Trippy sound.
This is how you get a song about tripping balls past the record label and censors.
Only two minutes and twenty seconds long, but still too long to listen to without constantly talking over the lyrics. No wonder the meaning flew over her head.
The "White Rabbit" is your curiosity. In the 60s, drugs were a large part of mind expansion and social experimentation. White Rabbit was one of the first songs to sneak references to certain substances past censors on the radio.
Ummm…ever heard of Lewis Carroll? He wrote a book once. A couple of people have read it. You should check it out sometime. 😐
@Pete-ov7kj yea I've read it. My comment is based on what the group said the songs about.
Two years before Woodstock. I remember watching this show/episode when it first aired. I loved this one then and I still love it.
When I was a kid growing up in the SF bay area in the music business through family and casually meeting and chatting with many of these musicians I had no idea that I was talking to future icons of rock. Grace is one of those approachable down to earth people that is unassuming but on stage she is so powerful. Talent like this we took for granted at the time, and now we idolize them because there will never be anything like them, it represents a simpler time of true talent and skill for the love of creating unique music to share with others.
We called this Head Music when I was young.
Love, love, love you Millie.
The most creative and intellectual Band out of the 60's San Francisco Psychedelic Scene.
She talked right through the "some kind of mushroom 🍄" part
she didn't know the significance of the line
And the pills that Mother gives you don't do anything at all.
Been listening to this song for decades.
Grace's singing is fabulous -- her ability to hold a note is fabulous.
In the 1960's, producing a song to run about two minutes was guaranteed to get a lot of air time on AM Top 40 radio. The more common timing was around three minutes. When you DJ'd a station, you liked to have some odd times to fill exactly the right slots. For instance, a common thing was to carefully time the music to end at the stroke of the hour, U.S. Naval Observatory time. You were pulling and cuing up 45 rpm vinyl records, and every record was prominently marked with the exact time and sometime additional notes, like the length of the lead in and fade out, so you knew how long you could talk over the intro and outro. Some formats required you to leave no break between songs and to talk into and out over the instrumental beginning and ending. On a lot of stations, there was a tone exactly on the hour that was built in and which was synced to a signal from the time source that snapped the minute hand of the studio clock to the 12 o'clock position. An announcer could not change it. Often, that tone triggered a short newscast or a commercial, sometimes a network news break, and those were completely locked onto the hour. You were judged on your ability to stay tight and hit that mark just as the last note of the song faded. Jocks prided themselves on their ability to make things happen exactly as that minute hand snapped to the top. You could easily get stuck with less than three minutes. Too much to fill with talk in a format where there was little talk. Too much to fill with commercials. But with a little talk, a two-minute cut would hit the mark and make you look good. And since you were playing from a limited list put together by your program director, there weren't many tow-minute choices.
(Similarly, very long cuts were appreciated, especially late at night, when the announcer had lengthh bathroom business or even wanted to dash down the street to pick up food. You took great care of those records, hoping to not be stuck away from the board if it started skipping. I once had a program director who kept a transistor radio beside his bed at home. If he had to go pee in the middle of the night, he'd carry it with him. Let a long cut run out before you got back to the board, and he'd catch you every time.)
This is 1967, in San Francisco.... the height of the Haight-Ashbury scene. The San Francisco bands of that era were spectacular, The Jefferson Airplane, The Grateful Dead, The Sons of Champlin. These bands never made it on the national scene, but they produced iconic numbers, like White Rabbit, and ruled the music scene in the California Bay Area for a decade.
AM Radio in the 50's & 60's did not want songs 3:00 long.
The Song was about "Alice in Wonderland", but it was also about "dropping acid (an LSD Trip)". The Beatles did this with "Lucy in the Sky" (two different meanings, one of them being Drugs (LSD)).
Every band member and reputable biographer of Lennon/The Beatles all say John's young son Julian drew a picture of a woman and when John inquired what the picture is Julian replied "Lucy in the sky with diamonds". John was also influenced by Alice in Wonderland writing this song but has always denied any intentional drug use references.
Grace Slick was insane with her voice. This song is pure drugs. No need to take any.
Love Grace Slick! She was awsome. Great Voice.
Grace Slick did eventually write a book, "Somebody to Love? -- A Rock and Role Memoir". The only person, in my view, who knew more top rock performers on a personal level than Grace Slick, was Mick Jagger. Remember Jefferson Airplane were at THREE of the top early rock concerts: Woodstock, Altamont, AND Monterey Pop! 😘 🫠
Grace Slick - the voice that launched a thousand trips!!!
My wife was a "Flower Child" of the 60's in Marin County, Calif.. She hung out with Janice Joplin, Big Brother and the Holding Company, Quick Silver Messenger Service and the Grateful Dead etc.,etc. Grace Slick lived on the same street as my wife parents in Mill Valley, Calif.., That was before they changed the bands name to Jefferson Starship. Crazy Times!!
Later in1993 Graces house burned down.
El Mirage, Arizona USA
Grace Slick. One of the most beautiful and talented ladies of Rock and Roll. Her solo album Dreams (1980) is still one of my favorites.
One of the greatest voices in Rock n' Roll
Grace had an amazing voice and as you say, that bass line just is incredible.
Thanks Milli, I love the Airplane.
There was actually a book and then movie made around this song called "Go Ask Alice".
In the intro: "Okay, this is trippy."
Bingo! You nailed it! :)
4:10 For a longer version, see their White Rabbit performance at Winterland in 1975.
This is one of the best examples of how great was the psychedelic rock in the 60's.
Such an amazing, varied taste MIllie has, plus total cutie... this channel is pure joy.
From one bass player to another this is a song that we all learn. I’m 60 and a old metal bassist
As others have commented, the 15 minute version is called Ravel's Bolero.
Yeah, id love a 15 minute version of White Rabbit
Lot if cool, psychadelic posters got printed and sold during this era. I happened to grab theirs.... of a gigantic wooden airplane with all kinds of stuff hanging on it. Jefferson Airplane. One of the bright shining stars of the late 60s!
Great to see a fellow lefty muso! Great reaction!
If you like White Rabbit you'll like, "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida" By Iron Butterfly.
they played this at woodstock in 1969 the album "worst of jefferson airplane is one of the best albums ever.
The bass player is Jack Casady. He and Jorma Kaukonen, the lead guitarist, are still performing together as Hot Tuna, primarily a blues band, which they started while they still were in Jefferson Airplane. Jack also played bass on "Voodoo Chile" on Jimi Hendrix's Electric Ladyland album.
That was Jack Casady on bass.
Casady and lead guitarist Jorma Kaukonen were also the core members of Hot Tuna.
Grace Slick wrote this song while she was still with the group The Great Society.
She brought the song over to the Jefferson Airplane when their previous singer Signe Anderson left the group to raise her new born baby.
Still one of my favorite songs ever
In the 60's and 70's, to get air play, songs needed to be between 2 and 3 min long. One of the big selling points for the "new" FM stations was that they played longer songs. Early on, around KC we called them "album stations" because they would play whole album sides.
I understood this back in the day when it first came out ..... "good drugs" ... lol This brings back memories .....
Great reaction to this classic song. Grace was a fantastic singer. Definitely had her own style. Thanks for sharing. 😊🎉❤
Love,peace and flowers🤘
Check out the reformation of Jefferson Airplane called Jefferson Starship. Big hits were "Jane" and "Find Your Way Back." Grace Slick was still a great member and contributor to that band as well. She's a legend and she opens up her crazy life to public interviews and is as honest your grandma. She tells about the time she almost had a chance to slip President Nixon a hit of acid or LSD. That would have been a sight to see!
Grace Slick has a unique voice. You can't forget it.
Meant to see her lead Jefferson Starship at Knebworth in the 1970s, but she went on a bender in Berlin and never made it
Yeah, her acid days were over with and her alcohol and Quaaludes were in. She even admits to this day that she is sober but if Ludes were still made, she would be all in. I would be with her too! "Ride The Tiger."
Every time I listen to Jefferson Airplane, I remember the scene of Jim Carrey in the movie "Cable Guy" singing "Somebody to Love" on Karaoke. This scene is priceless.
The biggest hit by Jefferson Airplane was Somebody To Love from the Surrealistic Pillow album. What an album! For a couple of soft songs from that album listen to Today and Comin' Back To Me where Marty Balin sings lead.
There is a longer version .... but it was edited for TV consumption. White Rabbit is old timey code for H E R O I N. ;)
One verse builds to a crescendo, and it's over.
Jack Casady on bass. He can still be heard, along with Jorma Kaukonen, the guitarist, as Hot Tuna, more blues and folk than Rock. Grace has retired.
She wrote this song for her previous group, The Great Society. Of course, Lewis Carol inspired the lyrics. I hear Ravel and Miles Davis (Sketches of Spain) influences.
There is a 6 minute live version of this by Grace's first band, "The Great Society"... Also a live version of "Somebody to Love"
Unique vocals
Another great song from the same album that you should try out is "Somebody to Love". Grace Slick wrote White Rabbit, and the way it repeats the same staccato melody and builds in a continuous crescendo was reportedly inspired by Ravel's Bolero. I don't believe there is a 15-minute version of White Rabbit, but Ravel's Bolero is right about 15 minutes long. If you have never heard it before, you ought to give it a listen to see where some of Grace Slick's inspiration originated. It is a very cool piece of music.
White Rabbit it's a psychedelic masterpiece
Color television debuted around 1955 in the US. However, it wasn’t truly common until 1970 in the average US home.
Another possible reference for this song, besides acid and Lewis Caroll, is Alice B.Toklas, the life partner of Gertrude Stein, who wrote a book including a recipe for hash brownies, and in 1968, a year following her death, was the subject of a Peter Sellers film called "I love you Alice B. Toklas". My theory is that the term "tokeing" springs from her name, anybody know?
So Trippy
The star of this video is Millie's hair !!
Your hair style looks terrific. ❤
I’ve loved Jormas playing since the 60’s. I have seen him perform many times, most often with Jack in Hot Tuna. I am going to see him in Minneapolis in a couple of weeks and likely it will be the last time as Jorma is in his 80’s now.
Songs were usually 2:30 mins to play commercials on AM radio.To me Grace Slick was one of the greatest singers ever. Somebody to Love was their biggest hit
Loved the physedelic sound late 60s. She was a successful singer went to Jefferson Starship later, i dug the group and the music
Bass figured prominently in Jefferson Airplane songs and arrangements, particularly on the album Crown of Creation, as well as Volunteers and Bark. Try Hey Frederick for an 8:36 song with Grace vocals and an extended jam for the last half of the song. To hear very prominent bass on a shorter song, Crown of Creation. Jefferson Airplanes lead guitarist Jorma Kaukonen and bassist Jack Casady formed a bluesy band Hot Tuna in the early 70's that put out albums and still is playing together. They have three main vocalists, Grace Slick, Marty Balin, and Paul Kantner, who sing separate verses on Wooden Ships, as well as harmony later in song.
The song was released in 1967, at the height of L.S.D. consumption in the United States. "White Rabbit" was a tongue-in-cheek song about what happens when you take L.S.D.
Grace is such an icon of the 60's and early 70's mostly but was still going strong into the 80's with Jefferson Airplane, then Jefferson Starship, but can't remember if she was still with them when they became Starship. The "Alice" stories have always been my favorite since childhood, so I really appreciated this song. And yes, it is referencing the drug use in the stories.
Somebody to Love by them is a great one.
Alice in Wonderland is a metaphor for an acid trip. Awesome voice bass guitar and drums. Great song.
Back in the late 60's the AM radio stations wouldn't play anything that was longer than 2 and a half minutes, So if bands wanted their song to be on the radio they had to be short.
You will love "too much to dream last night" by the Electric Prunes. 1967.
This song was the title track for a movie Go Ask Alice based on the diary of a girl who was addicted to drugs and eventually over dosed
Jack Casady (bass) and Jorma Kaukonen (lead guitar) also formed a band Hot Tuna. They still play to this day.
Jack Casady
@@vicdoorknocker9195 Thanks for catching that for me. I meant to put Casady but it came out Bruce.
@@blwestern Hendrix announced Jack as Jack Bruce at a concert in 1969. You are in good company.
Grace Slick the San Franco foghorn. Best female voice in rock music Period !!!!
Jack Casady, the bass player was, and still is an amazing bass player. You should definitely check out more of his work. He and Jorma (lead guitar) broke off from Jefferson Airplane to form Hot Tuna. They are still playing (their last tour) to this day. Grace is retired and living in Malibu. When this song was played with The Great Society, the first band that Grace was in, they played it a bit slower and definitely an extended intro. Grace said at the time that she was calling out the hypocrisy of parents being alarmed over the drug use of the younger generation. We had been brought up on Alice in Wonderland, The Wizard of Oz, and Peter Pan while the adults were drinking and taking amphetamines/depressants to get through their days. "Better Living Through Chemistry" was a famous tag line for a major pharmaceutical company. What did parents expect? We were brought up in an age of taking drugs to make us feel better.
Jefferson Airplane is just fantastic. You should check out the version of this tune from Woodstock. There's also a seriously cool video of them performing "The House at Pooneil Corners" from a rooftop in New York City, kind of a guerilla-gig.
EDIT: Also, yes, Jack Casady is a top-notch bassist.
I've always agreed with you that the song is too short! Good review.
Jefferson Airplane did this song at Woodstock (8/17/69) and it's on UA-cam (ua-cam.com/video/R_raXzIRgsA/v-deo.html). They also did it on American Bandstand in 1967 along with Somebody to Love (ua-cam.com/video/tKtJ0XTwgTE/v-deo.html). Still too short in both instances, but Grace is superb.
You should see and hear the Molly Tuttle version. Amazing!!
Inspired by Sketches of Spain from Miles Davis.
And a memorable scene in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.
Hello Millie, as far as Jefferson Airplane goes I shall recommend a favorite from the " Crown of Creation " album " The House at Pooneil Corners ". If you do first listen to the album version then view the UA-cam version that was " Live " from a rooftop in New York City " Both are excellent. " Hey! "
Hello, Jack Cassady is a hell of a good, unorthodox bass player. You should view the sheet music for Bass of J.A. music.
Jefferson Airplane has always had terrific recording engineers and studios. There is so much silence included within their tracks.
Ok that remembers me my very late teens years with a lot of mushrooms and good trips ... The Flower Power ... I was in love with Grace Slick ^^ ... Is it a problem if I am french and old ?
First time I write here, but I liked a lot of your react. !
Now you need to watch Alice in Wonderland to get a little more context. The whole movie is trippy.
If you like this vibe and want to to hear their best search for bassist Jack Casaday "Spayre Change" and vocalist Grace Slick "Bear Melt", both much longer jams.
Grace was unique to say the least- her voice is very distinguishable, and as Millie noted here, 'mysterious'. Grace looks the part here in her long medieval gown.
i used to love "chasing Rabbits" when i was young :) cannot take it now .. but damn back then it was soo fun...
Millie: "I'm having goose bumps..."
Listen to the isolated vocals of this song on YT...only then will you understand Grace's power.
Jack Cassidy my favorite bassman. Jim
Somebody To Love is great as well and the album Surrealistic Pillow check it out ..
If you want some 15 minute trippy songs you could watch "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida" by Iron Butterfly (1968) or "Get Ready" by Rare Earth (1970)
"In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida" is my personal favourite and I lost many a night, high as a kite & listening to this song.
This is a great song, but this hits different because WWE used an isolated vocal track for Bray Wyatt’s return in 22 during live shows and during Raw and Smackdown during commercial breaks. R.I.P Bray
This was shown on the Smothers Brothers show. They used Alice in Wonderland to hide that this was about drugs - very much the psychedelic 60s, sex drugs and rock and roll
Now listen to Somebody to Love (studio version).
she wasn't called the "acid queen " for nothing.
Millie, You mentioned loving a great bass holding down the bottom. Try listening to Albert King & Stevie Ray Vaughan - “In Session 2010 1983.flv” two of the very best Bluesmen.
Wish I could find a version with Sif (Anderson?), who being pregnant didn't want to tour, so Grace was brought in.