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22 of 22 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
"Won't You Try?" , June 3, 2006
Jefferson Airplane tried hard, on this 1967 utterly noncommercial followup to their phenomenally successful classic Surrealistic Pillow. Having made RCA millions of dollars with PILLOW, the Airplane took full advantage of their newly-minted blank check to create what may be the purest example of musical psychedelia to come out of the Sixties.
Listening to AFTER BATHING AT BAXTER'S is literally a trip. Bizarrely torqued lyrics are wedded to experimental recording techniques, sound montages, and off-center tempos and rhythms to provide the listener with an auditory hallucination. Everything goes, and so it went at BAXTER'S. It was all new, avant-garde to excess, and it largely failed to reach its fullest potential.
Most art does fail, but there's no question that BAXTER'S cross-pollinated with many other performers and musical styles. The influence of BAXTER'S can be heard in "Revolution 9" by The Beatles, and on many other recordings of the era. BAXTER'S may have sold relatively poorly compared to PILLOW, but it was heard by the Airplane's contemporaries, and it clearly served as a wellspring of inspiration. An aficionado's album, AFTER BATHING AT BAXTER'S is a ghost in the machine that remains haunting even today.
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14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Bathin' Sounds, January 10, 2006
This album has been widely criticized, as well as the rest of the psychedelic style, for something called 'amateurish experimentation'. But it is in the lack of knowledge that one can experiment, & even today, this album sounds far more daring than most of the 'experimental' bands of today (and I am sixteen years, so I'm not just being nostalgic). Also, this band harbours much stronger songs than most of what is released today (or ever was).
The first cycle of songs are the three brilliant tracks that make up the chapter 'Streetmasse'.
It opens with the delightful acid-rock'n'roll gem of 'The Ballad Of You & Me & Pooneil', a great kicking rhytm with a brilliant killer riff. This leads into the almost jazzy experimentation of 'A Small Package Of Value Will Come To You, Shortly'. It is a form of joyous madness, wrapping the gleaming sounds in some uncanny veil.
'Young Girl Sunday Blues' is one of the best Airplane songs ever. Its strenght is further solidified with a wonderfully awkward & still druggily burning guitar solo, that falls into a gorgeous last verse. But overall, the song is gorgeous all the way, a mixture of melancholy, myth & rock'n'roll that sounds like everything from The Doors' 'Crystal Ship' to Led Zeppelin's 'Over The Hills And Far Away'.
It comes as a surprise then, that the following track, 'Martha', is, arguably, even stronger. Its verses are gorgeous, but the melancholy in the chorus, as Grace Slick's voice soars beneath the main vocal, is simply divine. This dreamy song also opens the second cycle of songs on the album, the one called 'The War Is Over'.
'Wild Thyme' is a delicious, purely Airplane rocker with great vocals, and a mood like an invocation of the wild, raging forces of nature.
Opening the third song cycle, 'Hymn To An Older Generation', comes the awkward & psychedelic/bizarre rocker, 'The Last Wall Of The Castle', a riveting piece of Alice In Wonderland-like madness.
'rejoyce' is also one of the most beautiful songs ever, that the Airplane recorded, though much of it is very very strange. But all of it is brilliant & what appears to be the chorus is as melancholic, gorgeous & divine as anything on the album.
The next song cycle, 'How Suite It Is', opens with the poppy, 'Surrealistic Pillow'-like classic Airplane rocker, 'Watch Her Ride', that just gets better & better, until it matches everything from 'She Has Funny Cars' to 'Volunteers'. It is then followed by 'Spare Chaynge', the, judged on the surface alone, strangest track on the record, one long jammed, instrumental journey through all the spaces around us & within us, which will set some people free & drive others insane. An acquired taste, I still find it fantastic.
The fifth & last cycle, 'Schizoforest Love Suite', opens with Slick's twisted, psychedelic 'Two Heads'. It is built on a great rhytm, while the music, as everything, is chaotic beauty. The last song on the record is 'Won't You Try/Saturday Afternoon'. Both songs (if they are two, not one, it is indeed a bizzare medley) are great Airplane average speed rockers. But it is where they are entwined, & their vocals mix into a blurred cauldron, that they really achieve true greatness.
As far as I'm concerned, 'After Bathing At Baxter's' is a brilliant & daring move from Jefferson Airplane at a crucial moment of their career. And it may have robbed them of superstardom, leaving them as another great hippie band, instead of someone alongside Janis, The Doors or The Stones. But I think it was worth it. I think this music is worth much more...
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25 of 28 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A 60's Must-Have, June 23, 2005
I believe that a lot of people are often times forgetting the west-coast psychedelic era when they consider all of the successful and innovative genres of classic rock. Jefferson Airplane is nothing short of The Grateful Dead, being that they were musically virtuous, very poetic, and had this brilliant flow and collaboration that really was not topped by many other bands of the era.
Jefferson Airplane gave a unique picture of themselves to this world thanks to the female singer, Grace Slick (who has an incredible voice), and the lead guitar player, Jorma Kaukonen. They were both the innovative and creative minds behind Jefferson Airplane (at least, in my opinion) and it is unfortunate that they do not get more memorable press. Jefferson Airplane truly was a unique and out-of-this-world band, and I believe that this album more than any of their others demonstrates this claim.
After Bathing at Baxter's is a really soulful album and the instrumentals are very LSD-inducing. The drums are especially fitting for the music and it's good to see a drummer with some real funk. The group-singing, especially in the opening track, The Ballad of You and Me and Pooneil, is very catching and emotional. Young Girl Sunday Blues, however, is the highlight of this track, in my opinion. The graceful singing performed by Slick is just majestic, and the emotion it portrays is fascinating. The strange 1 and a half minute long mix of different noises, "A Small Package of Value Will Come to You, Shortly" also shows the listener some very interesting innovation of recording methods, and I'm sure this track in particular inspired other producers of records, such as those responsible for the effects that are to be heard in groups like Pink Floyd and Utopia.
The album in general highlights on a few major themes, such as, but not limited to, female freedom, the Vietnam war, and society expectations. The overall picture painted by this album is a weird one - this is certainly not for the unforgiving mind. It is also not for the closed one, either. Some of the ideas may surprise you, but the album in general is just unique, trippy, and weird. This will certainly take time for it to grow on you, but once you are able to make sense of this work of art, you will have a much more extensive knowledge of a long-forgotten era in music history. Jefferson Airplane today is just one of those little-praised bands that people SHOULD be looking back at, but aren't. Maybe it was their LSD. Maybe it was their "out there" music style. Or maybe it was their controversial song themes. Or maybe more people weren't ready for complex song structures and 12 minute songs. Whatever the reason, this band is a pleasure to listen to. After Bathing at Baxter's is one of their best works, and it is apparent, after listening, what other great things have come out of this creation.
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~ Jefferson Airplane
~ Jefferson Airplane
~ Jefferson Airplane
~ Jefferson Airplane
~ Paul Kantner
by Jefferson Airplane 
