If one were to attempt to carve in three dimensions the zeitgeist of the Summer of Love in 1967 America, you would have to chisel the Jefferson Airplane‘s second album Surrealistic Pillow into any Mt. Rushmore of Rock containing three other classics of the time. While The Doors debut and Sgt.Pepper’s… showed us where rock was heading, and Are You Experienced by Jimi Hendrix Experience seemed positively from some future dimension, Surrealistic Pillow by the Jefferson Airplane had LSD-inspired songs and sounds unapologetically butted up next to breezy vocal singalongs clearly influenced by the hit hootenany pop style of the Mamas and the Papas. It is that anachronistic Jekyll-and-Hyde crazy quilt that makes Surrealistic Pillow a more representative snapshot, possibly, than any recording of its time. Jefferson Airplane co-founder singer/songwriter Marty Balin, Grace Slick, and rhythm guitarist/songwriter Paul Kantner, the latter who passed away one year shy of Surrealistic Pillow‘s fiftieth anniversary, joined me for this landmark recording. – Redbeard
