SURREALISTIC PILLOW

The second and most famous album from this San Francisco band. The first with singer Grace Slick who brought along with her two songs from her former band The Great Society. I have never heard the originals, but Airplane's versions of those two songs are the two best songs here and were the two biggest hits for the group. This album was recorded in 1966 and is still primarily in folk-rock territory. Althought this is now considered a classic psychedelic album, the music is not very psychedelic compared to the next two albums (which are also more 'proto-proggy' as well).

"She Has Funny Cars" is one of the better songs. I like the fuzzed out guitar and harmony vocals here. "Today" is a highlight. A nice ballad with mainly acoustic guitar and vocals, along with a little bit of electric guitar, bass and tambourine. Barely audible drums way in the background add texture later on in the song. "3/5 Of A Mile In 10 Seconds" has a great psychedelic title, but the music is basically R&B. The guitar solo is typical mid-60s psych- rock. "Embryonic Journey" is a good instrumental with intricate folky guitar playing. This reminds me of some of the stuff David Gilmour will do later with Pink Floyd.

"Somebody To Love" and "White Rabbit" are both great singles and the two most psychedelic songs on the album. The latter in particular has great lyrics and is one of the best songs to come out of the 1960s. The next album, After Bathing At Baxter's, will be an improvement over this. There have been many CD releases of this album; I'm used to the original '80s CD with no bonus tracks and mediocre sound quality. The sound of the album itself is very mid-60s with all the reverb added. Surrealistic Pillow gets 2.5 rounded up to 3 stars.