Jefferson Airplane

 Surrealistic Pillow (1967)

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1. She Has Funny Cars (Balin/Kaukonen)
2. Somebody to Love (Slick/Slick)
3. My Best Friend (Spence)
4. Today (Balin/Kantner)
5. Comin' Back to Me (Balin)
6. 3/5 of a Mile in 10 Seconds (Balin)
7. D.C.B.A. 25
8. How Do You Feel
9. Embryonic Journey (Kaukonen) (instrumental)
10. White Rabbit (Slick)
11. Plastic Fantastic Lover (Balin)

Notes / Jefferson Airplane

 

 
 She Has Funny Cars TOP
Every day I try so hard to know your mind 
And find out what's inside you 
Time goes on and I don't know just who you are 
Or how I'm going to find you 
You can do whatever you please 
The world's waiting to be seized 
You can collect all neglect 
Or all the self-respect you need, what you need 
And I know... and I know... and I know 
Your mind's guaranteed 
It's all you'll ever need 
So what do you want with me? 
We live but once 
But good things can be found around 
In spite of all the sorrow 
If you see black 
You can't look back 
You can't look front 
You cannot face tomorrow 
Some have it nice 
Fat and round, flash, paradise 
They're very wise to their disguise 
Trying to revolutionize tomorrow 
And I know... and I know... and I know 
Your mind's guaranteed 
It's all you'll ever need 
So what do you want with me?
 Somebody to Love TOP

When the truth is found to be lies
and all the joys within you dies
don't you want somebody to love
don't you need somebody to love
wouldn't you love somebody to love
you better find somebody to love

When the garden flowers baby are dead yes
and your mind is full of red
don't you want somebody to love
don't you need somebody to love
wouldn't you love somebody to love
you better find somebody to love

your eyes, I say your eyes may look like his
but in your head baby I'm afraid you don't know where it is
don't you want somebody to love
don't you need somebody to love
wouldn't you love somebody to love
you better find somebody to love

tears are running ah running down your breast
and your friends baby they treat you like a guest
don't you want somebody to love
don't you need somebody to love
wouldn't you love somebody to love
you better find somebody to love

(trascritta da Johnny Blasi)

 My Best Friend TOP

Ah, you're my best friend
(You are my best friend)
And I love you so well
Till the end of time you won't see me
Ah, you're my best friend
(You are my best friend)
When I see you, it seems
Now I can see I've fallen into your love stream
I follow your dream
Do you know what I mean, yeah
I follow you wherever time will take me to
Forever I'll be one with you
One with you
One with you

Ah, you're my best friend
(You are my best friend)
And I saw that you're seein'
I'll set you free and just like me you'll be bein'
In love with me
Do you know what I mean, yeah
Do you know what I mean now
(Do you know what I mean)
I'm gonna set you free now
(Do you know)
You'll be in love with me
(Do you know what I mean)
You're my best friend now

Ah, you're my best friend
(You are my best friend)
And I love you so well
Till the end of time you won't see me
Ah, you're my best friend
(You are my best friend)
When I see you, it seems
Now I can see I've fallen into your love stream
I follow your dream
Do you know what I mean, yeah
Do you know what I mean now
(Do you know what I mean)
You'll be in love with me now
(Do you know)
I'm gonna set you free, yeah
(What I mean)
Oh you're my best friend now

Ah, you're my best friend

 Today TOP

Today I feel like pleasing you more than before
Today I know what I want to do but I don't know what for
To be living for you is all I want to do
To be loving you it'll all be there when my dreams come true
Today you'll make me say that I somehow have changed
Today you'll look into my eyes, I'm just not the same
To be anymore than all I am would be a lie
I'm so full of love I could burst apart and start to cry
Today everything you want, I swear it all will come true
Today I realize how much I'm in love with you
With you standing here I could tell the world what it means to love
To go on from here I can't use words, they don't say enough
Please, please listen to meh
It's taken so long to come true
And it's all for you
all for you....

 Comin' Back to Me TOP

The summer had inhaled
And held its breath too long.
The winter looked the same,
As if it had never gone,
And through an open window,
Where no curtain hung,
I saw you, I saw you,
Coming back to me.

One begins to read between
The pages of a look.
The sound of sleepy music,
And suddenly, you're hooked.
I saw you, I saw you,
Coming back to me.

You came to stay and live my way,
Scatter my love like leaves in the wind.
You always say that you won't go away,
But I know what it always has been,
It always has been.

A transparent dream
Beneath an occasional sigh...
Most of the time,
I just let it go by.
Now I wish it hadn't begun.
I saw you, I saw you,
Coming back to me.

Strolling the hill,
Overlooking the shore,
I realize I've been here before.
The shadow in the mist
Could have been anyone--
I saw you, I saw you,
Coming back to me.

Small things like reasons
Are put in a jar.
Whatever happened to wishes,
Wished on a star?
Was it just something
That I made up for fun?
I saw you, I saw you,
Coming back to me.

 3/5 of a Mile in 10 Seconds TOP

Do away with people blowing my mind
do away with people wasting my precious time
take me to a simple place
where I can easily see my face
baby, baby I can see that you're fine
know I love you baby, yes I do
know I love you baby, yes I do

do away with people laughing at my hair
do away with people climbing on my precious prayers
take me to a circus tent
where I can easily pay my rent
and all the other freaks can share my cares
know I love you baby, yes I do
know I love you baby, yes I do

do away with things that come on obscene
like hot rods real clean real fine nicotine
sometimes the price is 65 dollars
prices like that make a grown man holler
'specially when it's sold by a kid that's only 15
know I love you baby, yes I do
know I love you baby, yes I do
3/5's of a mile in 10 seconds...

 D.C.B.A. - 25 TOP

It's time you walked away and set me free
I must move away, 'n' leave you be.
It has been good to us my friend,
Wait, and see how it will end.
We come and go as we please.
(Grace: We come and go as we please)
(Paul: That's how it has to be).

Here in this ocean, the near and holy,
Too many days I've left unstoned.
If you don't mind, happiness
Purple pleasure-fields in the sun
Ah don't you know I'm runnin' home
(Grace: Don't you know I'm runnin' home)
(Paul: To a place, for you unknown).

I take great peace in your sitting there(1).
Searching for myself, I find a place there(2).
I see the people of the world,
Where they are and what they could be.
I can but dance behind your smile
(Grace: I can but dance behind your smile)
(Paul: To [the] other world---to me, for a while)

 How Do You Feel TOP

Look into her eyes
Do you see what I mean
Just look at her hair
And when she speaks, oh what a pleasant surprise

How do you feel
Just look at her smile
Do you see what I mean
She is looking our way
Oh how I wish we could stay, just stay for a while
How do you feel

When I meet a girl like that
I don't know what to say
But to meet a girl like that
Brightens up my day
My day, oh
How do you feel

Just look at her walk
Do you see what I mean
She is coming our way
Oh, how my heart beats, I don't even think I can talk
How do you feel

When I meet a girl like that
I don't know what to say
But to meet a girl like that
Brightens up my day
My day, oh
How do you feel

How do you feel
Do you know how you feel
Just look at her smile
(Tell me how do you feel)
Look into her eyes
(Tell me how do you feel)
She is coming our way
(Tell me how do you feel)
Look into her eye
(Tell me how do you feel)
She is coming our way
(Tell me how do you feel)

 White Rabbit TOP

One pill makes you larger
And one pill makes you small,
And the ones that mother gives you
Don't do anything at all.
Go ask Alice
When she's ten feet tall.
And if you go chasing rabbits
And you know you're going to fall,
Tell 'em a hookah smoking caterpillar
Has given you the call.
Call Alice
When she was just small.
When the men on the chessboard
Get up and tell you where to go
And you've just had some kind of mushroom
And your mind is moving low.
Go ask Alice
I think she'll know.
When logic and proportion
Have fallen sloppy dead,
And the White Knight is talking backwards
And the Red Queen's "off with her head!"
Remember what the dormouse said;
"Keep your head! Keep your head!"

 Plastic Fantastic Lover TOP

Her neon mouth with the blinkers-off smile
Nothing but an electric sign
You could say she has an individual style
She's part of a colorful time

Secrecy of lady-chrome-covered clothes
You wear cause you have no other
But I suppose no one knows
You're my plastic fantastic lover

Her rattlin' cough never shuts off
Is nothin' but a used machine
Her aluminum finish, slightly diminished
Is the best I ever have seen

Cosmetic baby plugged into me
I'd never ever find another
I realize no one's wise
To my plastic fantastic lover

The electrical dust is starting to rust
Her trapezoid thermometer taste
All the red tape is mechanical rape
Of the TV program waste

Data control and IBM
Science is mankind's brother
But all I see is drainin' me
On my plastic fantastic lover

 Notes:

Surrealistic Pillow, released in the USA in February 1967, is unanimously considered one of the most significant albums of The Jefferson Airplane. It was their first album released in 1967, a very important year for the history of rock music (from the Beatles' Sgt Pepper onwards), and it was the album that marked the entrance as a solo singer of the singer and pianist of the Great Society, Grace Slick. She will be from this album a cornerstone of the Jefferson, either as a front-woman, both as a composer of many of the most significant songs of the Californian group, and for the human and artistic partnership with the other group's leader, Paul Kantner.

In particular, Grace Slick brings with it the two most notable songs of the album, Somebody To Love, which became a hit single in the world, consecrating Jefferson sound as one of the soundtracks of that year, which was in California also the year of hippies, flower power, and another is a mythical song, White Rabbitt. Very simple in its structure, but extremely effective, a song that reads with a psychedelic point of view the story of Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll.

In Italy, their fame was at that time minimal and restricted to a few enthusiasts. It was much more influential and neighboring the British music, that seemed much richer and more "modern" in comparison with the mock simplicity of acoustic country-blues and psychedelic American one. Nevertheless, their songs were on the radio at the time, expecially Somebody To Love (which was released as a single also in Italy) and even White Rabbitt passed episodically in radio. Later the Jefferson benefited from the long wave of their success in Woodstock and the interest in the West Coast music, born around the big success in Italy of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young.

Personnel
Marty Balin - Guitar, Vocals
Jorma Kaukonen - Guitar, Guitar (Rhythm), Vocals
Grace Slick - Organ, Piano, Keyboards, Recorder, Vocals
Paul Kantner - Guitar, Vocals
Jack Casady - Bass, Guitar (Rhythm)
Spencer Dryden - Percussion, Drums
David Hassinger - Engineer
Rick Jarrard - Producer

Lyrics © 1967 RCA Records / Notes © Alberto Truffi 2002 / Reproduction for commercial use strictly prohibited

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