Surrealistic Pillow

Jefferson Airplane

Product Details

• Audio CD (October 25, 1990)
• Original Release Date: February 1967
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: RCA
• ASIN: B000002W5J
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette  |  Vinyl
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (43 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #82,879 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

Track Listings

1. She Has Funny Cars

2. Somebody to Love

3. My Best Friend

4. Today

5. Comin' Back to Me

6. 3/5 of a Mile in 10 Seconds

7. D.C.B.A. -25

8. How Do You Feel

9. Embryonic Journey

10. White Rabbit

11. Plastic Fantastic Lover

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

When she joined the Jefferson Airplane in 1966 as replacement for original vocalist Signe Anderson, Grace Slick brought with her two songs she'd performed in her previous band, the Great Society: "Somebody to Love" and "White Rabbit." Featured on this classic 1967 album, they became Top 10 hits, and helped establish both the San Francisco and the emerging counterculture they celebrated. With Jorma Kaukonen's sinewy guitar, Jack Casady's probing bass, and Spencer Dryden's inventive drumming swirling around Slick and co-vocalists Marty Balin and Paul Kantner on songs like "She Has Funny Cars" and "3/5 of a Mile in 10 Seconds," Surrealistic Pillow virtually defined the communal spirit of Summer of Love hippiedom. --Billy Altman

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars QUINTESSENTIAL AMERICAN PSYCHEDELIA, May 19, 2000

By	Michael D. Zungolo (Philadelphia, PA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

It's tragic that all the casual listener knows of Jefferson Airplane today are those Classic Rock mastodons "Somebody to Love" and "White Rabbit". At their 1967-69 peak the Airplane vied with the Byrds as the greatest American band, and for good reason. They had three outstanding singer-songwriters in Marty Balin, Grace Slick and Paul Kantner, and three superb instrumentalists in guitarist Jorma Kaukonen, bassist Jack Casady (amazing!) and drummer Spencer Dryden. Although the incredibly dense, improvisational, psychedelic masterpiece AFTER BATHING AT BAXTERS is my personal favorite, SURREALISTIC PILLOW is the album with the best songs--even the lesser-known ones like Kantner's "How Do You Feel" and "DCBA-25" and Kaukonen's "Funny Cars" (sung by Marty) ring out with the freshness of the times. But this is predominantly Marty Balin's record. The man's voice, one of the most exquisite in rock, is at its best here, and his songwriting--the anthem of hippie defiance "3/5 of a Mile in 10 Seconds", the magnificent love songs "Today" and "Comin' Back to Me" and the eerily prophetic boy-and-his-machine pean "Plastic Fantastic Lover"--was unparalleled in the Summer of Love. Too bad he would become so totally eclipsed by Grace, who had plenty of charisma and wrote many clever, nasty little ditties ("Lather", "Greasy Heart", "Rejoyce") on subsequent albums. Here, of course, we have "Somebody to Love" and "White Rabbit". I probably wouldn't miss "Somebody to Love" if I never heard it again (the Great Society's version was better), but the vocal on "White Rabbit", building up to the thunderous "feed your head", still amazes after thirty billion hearings.

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Back In The Daze #1, February 9, 2000

By	PC Fields - See all my reviews

Having grown up in the Bay Area during the sixties and seventies, I'd like to share my impressions with Amazon buyers and browsers of the aural artifacts of the scene, we'll call it "Back In the Daze." And there's no better place to start than with this essential recording. While the majority of the first wave of Bay Area bands didn't translate well to the studio, the Airplane was a glowing - and I do mean "glowing" - exception. This is a perfect rock album from start to finish. However, and it's a BIG however, don't buy it. This release is one of RCA's nefarious, generic, "Digitally Remastered" CD's. In other words, the term, "digitally remastered," when discs first started appearing in the eighties, was bandied about in a slipshod fashion. One could argue that all CD's are "digitally remastered," but today, we do know better...right? Compare this with almost any other recent RCA Jefferson Airplane release, and you'll know you've been had. Especially at full price! And to address another contributor's comments, "Pillow" was available on an RCA gold disc, with both stereo and mono versions, and while the sound is infinitely better than the present issue, the remastered versions of the other Airplane releases set the standard. The mono portion still counts among one of my favorite discs. For those who aren't quite so jaded, pick out your favorite songs on "Pillow," and search around Amazon's Airplane listings for a recent compilation that'll suit you. Perhaps you'll find yourself enjoying the other material, as there's much more - with better sound - to enjoy by this classic band.

16 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great Album Desperately In Need Of Remastering, September 24, 2000

By	Michael Topper (Pacific Palisades, California United States) - See all my reviews

Although they had released a highly competent folk-rock debut before it ("Takes Off"), "Surrealistic Pillow" sounds like the true arrival of The Jefferson Airplane, thanks largely to the addition of Grace Slick and the increasing dexterity of guitarist Jorma Kaukonen and bassist Jack Casady. The San Francisco sound comes alive on "Somebody To Love" and "White Rabbit", two explosive acid rock anthems which came to define the era. Slick's knife-edge vocals are hard to ignore, and her lyric on "White Rabbit" is as clever and ominous as it was thirty-four years ago; even after all the drug-related burnouts and deaths, the song avoids sounding dated because it does not celebrate drug use so much as express a generation's frustration at their parents' hypocrisy. Coupled with the essential human truth expounded on so urgently in "Somebody To Love", it awakened millions to the possibility that something new and better could arise. The other rockers, "She Has Funny Cars" and "3/5 Of A Mile In 10 Seconds", also feature bohemian/hippie lyrics coupled with stuttering rhythms, bouncy guitar leads and ping-pong vocal harmonies. However, the album is also known for its quieter, romantic side, where Marty Balin takes center stage for tracks like "Today" and "Comin' Back To Me", meditative prayers on love that find him reaching an early peak of expression and yearning; listen closely with eyes shut and you'll understand. Kaukonen contributes to the mood with his gentle, cathartic solo acoustic guitar showpiece "Embryonic Journey". The final track, "Plastic Fantastic Lover", is a hilarious, cynical love song to a car which was later funkified in concert (see "Bless Its Pointed Little Head"). Indeed, most of these songs became standards in the Airplane's concert setlist; the exceptions were "DCBA-25", which harkened back to the folk-rock of the first album, and "How Do You Feel", which sounded a little like The Mamas And The Papas' mild folk-pop. These lesser moments aside, another reason why this otherwise-seminal album only gets four stars is the quality of the CD, which has to be one of the worst ever; released in the 80s, it sounds metallic and boomy, and made a good case for the format's lack of warmth back then. It is in desperate need of remixing or remastering, which has been done with all the other Airplane albums but curiously enough, not the one which defined their sound (an expensive gold CD exists combining the mono and stereo versions and is supposed to sound better). It is somewhat fitting, and perhaps not surprising, that technology has not been kind to an album which was so fiercely cynical toward technology. This was the Jefferson Airplane, and San Francisco, in 1966 (the year of its writing and recording, although it was released in 1967 and came to symbolize that year as well): the thrill of discovery, the gentle hope and optimism, the cynical look at the straight world--it's all here, and it's waiting for you.