DJ Allyn – The Soundtrack for my Life

White Rabbit ~ Jefferson Airplane  

Jefferson Airplane was an American rock band from San Francisco, a pioneer of the psychedelic rock movement.

Jefferson Airplane formed in San Francisco during the summer of 1965, emerging from the San Francisco Bay folk music boom (see American folk music revival). Although the Airplane was considered a San Francisco group, Paul Kantner was the only native San Franciscan in the band.

The group’s founder was singer Marty Balin, who had established a minor career as a pop singer in the early Sixties and had made several recordings under his own name. In mid-1965 Balin helped open a night club, The Matrix.

Balin met folk musician Paul Kantner at another local club, the Drinking Gourd. Kantner had started out performing on the Bay Area folk circuit in the early 1960s, alongside fellow folkies Jerry Garcia, David Crosby and Janis Joplin. He has cited folk group The Kingston Trio as a strong early influence. Kantner briefly moved to Los Angeles, California, in 1964 to work in a folk duo with future Airplane/Starship member David Freiberg (who subsequently joined Quicksilver Messenger Service).

After Balin recruited Kantner, the two set about selecting other musicians to form the house band at the Matrix. After Balin heard female vocalist Signe Toly Anderson at the Drinking Gourd, he invited her to be the group’s co-lead singer. Anderson sang with the band for a year, departing in October 1966 after the birth of her first child.

Kantner next recruited an old friend, blues guitarist Jorma Kaukonen. Originally from Washington, DC, Kaukonen had moved to California in the early 1960s and had met Kantner while at Santa Clara University in 1962. Kaukonen was invited to jam with the new band and although initially reluctant to join, was won over after playing his guitar through a tape delay device that was part of the sound system used by Ken Kesey for his Acid Test parties. The original lineup was completed by drummer Jerry Peloquin and acoustic bassist Bob Harvey.

The origin of the group’s name is often disputed. “Jefferson airplane” is slang for a used paper match split to hold a marijuana joint that has been smoked too short to hold without burning the hands – an improvised roach clip. An urban legend claims this was the origin of the band’s name, but according to band member Jorma Kaukonen, the name was invented by his friend Steve Talbot as a parody of blues names such as Blind Lemon Jefferson. A 2007 press release quoted Kaukonen as saying:

I had this friend [Talbot] in Berkeley who came up with funny names for people,” explains Kaukonen. “His name for me was Blind Thomas Jefferson Airplane (for blues pioneer Blind Lemon Jefferson). When the guys were looking for band names and nobody could come up with something, I remember saying, ‘You want a silly band name? I got a silly band name for you!’

The group made its first public appearance at the opening night of The Matrix club on 13 August 1965. The band drew inspiration from The Beatles, The Byrds and The Lovin’ Spoonful, gradually developing a more pop-oriented electric sound.

A few weeks after the group was formed, Peloquin departed, in part because of his disdain for the others’ drug use. Although he was not a drummer, singer-guitarist Skip Spence (who later founded Moby Grape) was then invited to replace Peloquin. In October 1965, after the other members decided that Harvey’s bass playing was not up to par, Harvey was replaced by guitarist-bassist Jack Casady, an old friend of Kaukonen’s from Washington. Casady played his first gig with the Airplane at a college concert in Berkeley, California, two weeks after he arrived in San Francisco.

The group’s performing skills improved rapidly and they gained a following in and around San Francisco, aided by reviews from veteran music journalist Ralph J. Gleason, the jazz critic of the San Francisco Chronicle; after seeing the band at the Matrix in late 1965 he proclaimed them “one of the best bands ever.” Gleason’s support raised the band’s profile greatly, and within three months their manager Matthew Katz was fielding offers from record companies, although they had yet to perform outside the Bay Area.

Signe Anderson gave birth to her daughter in May 1966, and in October announced her departure. Her final gig with the Airplane took place at the Fillmore on October 15th, 1966. The following night, her replacement Grace Slick made her first appearance. Slick, a former model, was already known to the band – she had attended the Airplane’s debut gig at the Matrix in 1965 and her previous group, The Great Society, had often supported the Airplane in concert.

Slick’s recruitment proved pivotal to the Airplane’s commercial breakthrough — she possessed a powerful and supple contralto voice, well-suited to the group’s amplified psychedelic music, and, as a former model, her stage presence greatly enhanced the group’s live impact.

The Great Society had recorded an early version of “Somebody To Love” (under the title “Someone To Love”) as the B-side of their only single, “Free Advice”; it was produced by Sylvester Stewart (soon to become Sly Stone) but it reportedly took more than 50 takes to achieve a satisfactory rendition. The Great Society decided to split up in late 1966 and played its last show on September 11th. Soon after, Slick was asked to join Jefferson Airplane by Jack Casady (whose musicianship was a major influence on her decision) and her Great Society contract was bought out for $750.

White Rabbit

One of Slick’s earliest songs, written in either late 1965 or early 1966, it draws parallels between the hallucinatory effects of psychedelic drugs such as LSD and the imagery found in the fantasy works of Lewis Carroll: 1865’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and its 1871 sequel Through the Looking-Glass. Events in these books, such as changing size after eating mushrooms or drinking an unknown liquid, are referenced in the song. Alice, the hookah-smoking caterpillar, the White Knight, the Red Queen, and the Dormouse are all mentioned in the song, but the details are incorrect. The White Knight does not talk backwards, as the song states. The Queen of Hearts, not the Red Queen, says “Off with her head!” (although, of course, the queen of hearts, as a playing card, is a “red queen”). The last lines of the song are “Remember what the Dormouse said. Feed your head. Feed your head.” and do not explicitly quote the Dormouse as is often assumed. The line probably refers to “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland”, Chapter XI ‘Who Stole the Tarts’:

“‘But what did the Dormouse say?’ one of the jury asked.”

“‘That I can’t remember,’ said the Hatter.

One pill makes you larger
And one pill makes you small,
And the ones that mother gives you
Don’t do anything at all.
Go ask Alice
When she’s ten feet tall.

And if you go chasing rabbits
And you know you’re going to fall,
Tell ‘em a hookah smoking caterpillar
Has given you the call.
Call Alice
When she was just small.

When the men on the chessboard
Get up and tell you where to go
And you’ve just had some kind of mushroom
And your mind is moving low.
Go ask Alice
I think she’ll know.

When logic and proportion
Have fallen sloppy dead,
And the White Knight is talking backwards
And the Red Queen’s “off with her head!”
Remember what the dormouse said:
Feed your head.
Feed your head.
Feed your head

• Audio from the 1967 Surrealistic Pillow album:

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