Желбезек жастық: Jefferson Airplane альбомының тарихы

Surrealistic Pillow is the second studio album by the American rock band Jefferson Airplane, released by RCA Victor on February 1, 1967. It is the first album by the band with vocalist Grace Slick and drummer Spencer Dryden. The album peaked at number three on the Billboard 200 and has been certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). It is considered to be one of the most influential and quintessential works of the early psychedelic rock era and the 1960s counterculture. "My Best Friend" was released as the first single in December 1966 but only reached No. 103 on the Billboard Bubbling Under chart. Two more singles were released in the spring of 1967: "Somebody to Love" and "White Rabbit" peaked respectively at number five and number eight on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and are the band's only Top 40 hits on that chart. "Today" was not released as a single but was played often on college radio and rock stations and remains one of their most popular songs. It was also recorded by jazz saxophonist Tom Scott for his 1967 album The Honeysuckle Breeze; this version was sampled in the song "They Reminisce Over You" by Pete Rock & C. L. Smooth. In 2024, the album was added to the National Recording Registry by the Library of Congress for being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant” to American recorded music.

Early drummer Alexander "Skip" Spence left the band in mid 1966. He was soon replaced by Spencer Dryden, an experienced Los Angeles jazz drummer and the half nephew of Charlie Chaplin. New female vocalist Grace Slick, formerly with another San Francisco rock band the Great Society, joined the Airplane in October 1966. Slick, Dryden, male lead vocalist guitarist songwriter and founder of band Marty Balin, guitarist vocalist songwriter Paul Kantner, lead guitarist (and occasional vocalist) Jorma Kaukonen, and bassist Jack Casady formed the core of the best known line up of the group, which remained stable until Dryden's departure in early 1970.

A mere two weeks after Grace Slick joined the band, the group entered RCA studios in Los Angeles on October 31 to record their second album. Working with producer Rick Jarrard, the group recorded album opener "She Has Funny Cars" featuring Jack Casady on fuzz bass and the mellow folk rocker "My Best Friend", written by departed member Skip Spence and chosen as the album's lead off single. On November 1 they recorded Balin's "Plastic Fantastic Lover", his ode to a television set penned after a visit to a plastics factory in Chicago while the band was on tour. On the next day the Balin rocker "3/5 Of A Mile In 10 Seconds", which the band had already been featuring in its shows since September, was committed to tape. After a short break to play some gigs the group reconvened at RCA on November 14 to record another Spence composition, "J. P. P. McStep B. Blues", which was ultimately left in the can; the group would sporadically play it on stage, sometimes in a medley with the later "Wooden Ships". Spence was present for this session, which also saw the recording of the The Mamas & the Papas soundalike "How Do You Feel" written by Kantner friend Tom Mastin. Two outtakes, the driving Kantner Estes acid rocker "Go To Her" (which had also been attempted for the debut album) and slow Kaukonen blues "In The Morning", were taped on the 17th and 21st with the album's final song, the acoustic fingerpicking showcase "Embryonic Journey" penned by Kaukonen some five years prior, added on November 22 at the insistence of Jarrard. Some controversy exists as to the role of Grateful Dead guitarist Jerry Garcia in the making of the album. His reputed presence on several tracks is denied by producer Jarrard, and the Jefferson Airplane Loves You box set. In the sleeve notes for Early Flight, a 1974 compilation album of previously unreleased material, manager Bill Thompson writes only that Garcia was "listed as 'spiritual advisor' on the album cover [and] played one of the guitars" on "In the Morning". Garcia himself recalled in a mid 1967 interview that he played the high lead on "Today" in addition to playing guitar on two other songs ("Plastic Fantastic Lover" and "Comin' Back to Me") and rearranging "Somebody to Love." He also played on "J. P. P. McStep B. Blues" (included on Early Flight and the 2003 CD reissue) and may have also played on "How Do You Feel". Kaukonen has opined that Garcia was essentially the producer who arranged the songs for the group. More recently, in his biography, he says, "I used to think about him as co producer, but now that I really know what a producer is, the producer of that record was Rick Jarrard. Jerry was a combination arranger, musician, and sage counsel." A comment by Garcia about the music being "as surrealistic as a pillow is soft" also reportedly inspired the album title. San Francisco photographer Herb Greene photographed the band for the album's cover art in his dining room, whose walls were covered in primitive quasi hieroglyphics. Marty Balin had wanted the cover tinted in blue but RCA overrode him and chose pink instead, although he liked the change. The back cover was a psychedelic photo collage of the band members picked from the same Greene photo session, also assembled by Balin.