White Rabbit

[Evariste Euler Gauss]

Amazing song, isn't it? It's powerfully compelling, and simultaneously evocative of its own special time of wild challenge and experimentation, yet timelessly brilliant.

No topical hook for this post at all, I was just reminded of the song when I heard it on S1 E7 of The Sopranos which I was watching last night on DVD (such is my up to date finger on the pulse of television drama).

[Amor de Cosmos]

White Rabbit

Didn't want to let this die as a nil thread. It remains a great single, and Airplane's version has a slightly ominous feel which worked suberbly live then, and remains a kind of prescient comment on the late 60s.

In some ways the earlier, Great Society treatment is more typical of San Francisco music of the time. The drawn out quasi-Arabic intro (don't worry the song does start eventually at about four minutes in) is comparable to to the repetitive drones of Country Joe and the Fish and the Grateful Dead. It's amateurish for sure, but you can smell the dope and patchouli.

[Stumpy Pepys]

White Rabbit

It's a terrific single—up there with anything The Beatles were doing around the time of Revolver.

Grace Slick had written it prior to joining Jefferson Airplane; I'm curious how it evolved in the intervening period.

Its biggest antecedent was surely Ravel's Bolero?

[Amor de Cosmos]

White Rabbit

Darby Slick — who wrote Somebody to Love, the other Great Society song Grace took with her when she joined Airplane — had a long-standing interest in Eastern music, which is evident in the early versions of White Rabbit (see above.)

Jorma Kaukonen and Jack Casady were, I think it's fair to say, the de-facto musical directors of Jefferson Airplane and their interest was much more in the traditional American folk and European traditions. Their influence, more than anything, pulled the song towards the version we know now.

[Gangster Octopus]

White Rabbit

I've got a double-A side single with White Rabbit on one side, and Somebody To Love on the other.

[Borracho]

White Rabbit

From White Rabbit to We Built This City in 18 years.

Has there ever been a weirder career arc in the entire history of American rock?

[Evariste Euler Gauss]

White Rabbit

Have to agree, it was a real "WTF?" moment for me when I realised it was, to some extent, the same band.

[WOM]

White Rabbit

Gangster Octopus wrote: I've got a double-A side single with White Rabbit on one side, and Somebody To Love on the other.

Both songs feature Jerry Garcia (uncredited) playing lead guitar. Apparently their guy couldn't 'nail it' and studio time was costly.

[Borracho]

White Rabbit

In We Built This City, there is a bit where Grace snarls the line "Someone's always playing corporation games" with evident relish.

On the mercifully rare occasions that I hear the song, I like to amuse myself by singing along with the lyrics altered to: "Someone's always paying corporation tax".

[WOM]

White Rabbit

Few songs got on my nerves more in the '80s than WBTC. It still bothers me today, but nowhere near as much.

[Amor de Cosmos]

White Rabbit

WOM wrote:

I've got a double-A side single with White Rabbit on one side, and Somebody To Love on the other.

Both songs feature Jerry Garcia (uncredited) playing lead guitar. Apparently their guy couldn't 'nail it' and studio time was costly.

Jorma couldn't nail it? That seems hard to believe, unless you're referring to the earlier Great Society versions?

[Jah Womble]

White Rabbit

Borracho wrote: From White Rabbit to We Built This City in 18 years.

Has there ever been a weirder career arc in the entire history of American rock?

Grace has many times said that Starship was 'horsesh*t' and that she did it purely for the money.

White Rabbit and Somebody to Love are, on the other hand, absolute towers of songs.