- Writer: Darby Slick
- Producer: Rick Jarrard
- Recorded: 1967 at RCA Studios, Los Angeles
- Released: Spring 1967
- Players:
Grace Slick — vocals
Marty Balin — vocals
Paul Kantner — guitar, vocals
Jorma Kaukonen — guitar
Jack Casady — bass
Spencer Dryden — drums - Album: Surrealistic Pillow (RCA, 1967)
- Also On:
Bless Its Pointed Little Head (RCA, 1969)
The Worst Of Jefferson Airplane (RCA, 1970)
Flight Log (Grunt, 1976)
2400 Fulton Street — An Anthology (RCA, 1987)
Jefferson Airplane Loves You (RCA, 1992)
Live At The Fillmore East (RCA, 1998)
Ignition (RCA, 2001)
The Roar Of Jefferson Airplane (RCA, 2001) - Jefferson Airplane formed in 1965 in San Francisco. Their early days were spent playing at singer Marty Balin‘s club the Matrix.
- Singer Grace Slick joined the band in October 1966, replacing original vocalist Signe Toly, who left to have a baby.
- Slick brought with her the song “Somebody To Love,” which she had performed and recorded with her previous band, the Great Society.
- “Somebody To Love” was written by Slick’s brother-in-law, Great Society member Darby Slick.
- Of writing the song, Darby said, “I’d broken up with a girl around then. And one night I took some LSD….”
- Grace Slick had written “White Rabbit” around the same time and, Darby Slick noted, “We knew instantly that these songs were hits.”
- “Somebody To Love” and “White Rabbit” were the first major pop hits from the San Francisco Bay-area rock community.
- Grateful Dead singer-guitarist Jerry Garcia was credited as a “musical and spiritual adviser” on the Airplane’s Surrealistic Pillow album, and he played on some of the songs.
- Surrealistic Pillow peaked at Number Three on the Billboard 200 and earned a gold record for sales of more than 500,000 copies.
FAST FORWARD:
- Jefferson Airplane broke up in 1972. Slick, guitarist Paul Kantner, and (at times) Balin moved forward with the Jefferson Starship, while bassist Jack Casady and guitarist Jorma Kaukonen formed Hot Tuna.
- The Airplane regrouped briefly for an album and tour in 1989.
- Jefferson Airplane was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1996.
- Slick has retired from rock-and-roll and now makes her living as a painter.
- Kantner leads the current version of Jefferson Starship, and Balin is sometimes part of the group.
- Drummer Spencer Dryden died from stomach cancer in January 2005 at age 66.