Jefferson Airplane - White Rabbit (Live 1967) reaction commentary

Today I listen to American rock band, Jefferson Airplane perform White Rabbit live on The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour in 1967.


Chapters
0:00 - Intro
0:18 - White Rabbit
2:51 - My thoughts
5:40 - Who are Jefferson Airplane?


Links
Original Music Video:    • Jefferson Airplane -White Rabbit-  

Live Music playlist:    • Live Music  

Psychedelic Rock playlist:    • Psychedelic Rock  


Jefferson Airplane was an American rock band formed in San Francisco, California in 1965 that became one of the pioneering bands of psychedelic rock. The group defined the San Francisco Sound and was the first from the Bay Area to achieve international commercial success. They headlined the Monterey Pop Festival (1967), Woodstock (1969), Altamont Free Concert (1969), and the first Isle of Wight Festival (1968) in England. Their 1967 breakout album Surrealistic Pillow was one of the most significant recordings of the Summer of Love. Two songs from that album, "Somebody to Love" and "White Rabbit", are among Rolling Stone's "500 Greatest Songs of All Time".

Surrealistic Pillow is their second studio album, released on February 1, 1967, by RCA Victor. It is the first album by the band with vocalist Grace Slick and drummer Spencer Dryden. The album peaked at number three on the Billboard 200 and has been certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). It is considered to be one of the most influential and quintessential works of the early psychedelic rock era and 1960s counterculture.

White Rabbit is track ten, written by Grace Slick. It was released as a single and became the band's second top-10 success, peaking at number eight on the Billboard Hot 100. It appears on The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll. In 1998, the song was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.
The lyrics draw on imagery from Lewis Carroll's 1865 book Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and its 1871 sequel Through the Looking-Glass. The music is influenced by Miles Davis's 1960 album Sketches of Spain.

Grace Slick – vocals
Jorma Kaukonen – lead guitar
Paul Kantner – rhythm guitar
Jack Casady – bass
Spencer Dryden – drums


Lyrics
[Verse 1]
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

[Verse 2]
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
He called Alice
When she was just small

[Verse 3]
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

[Verse 4]
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