RS500 #471: Jefferson Airplane — Surrealistic Pillow
Year Released: 1967
Have I Heard This Before?: I definitely gave this a listen back when Rolling Stone’s first list came out, on which this album was placed considerably higher. I remember liking some of it, but I also remember finding it to be a little too much of a relic from the Summer of Love.
High Points: I’m not going to disagree with this album’s place in pop history. This is the album that introduced psychedelia to the pop charts, and part of what makes Surrealistic Pillow work is that it’s a good pop album. The songs are approachable, inviting, and hooky as shit. Yes, a few of them have been overplayed to the point of nausea, but lesser-known tracks like Marty Balin’s ethereal folk pair “Today” and “Comin’ Back To Me” are striking in their beauty. And while I don’t especially need to hear “Somebody to Love” again, it absolutely works in the context of the album as an attention-grabber following the more conventionally rocking opener “She Has Funny Cars.”
Low Points: Unfortunately, one of the reasons why Surrealistic Pillow was such a chart success is that it presents a pretty tame version of psychedelic rock. In comparison to what so many of their contemporaries released in the same year — as well as their own dynamic live act — Surrealistic Pillow feels insubstantial at times. It is, by design, a version of psychedelic rock made for squares, which I think makes it feel dated by today’s standards. For comparison’s sake: it’s easy to see how the likes of Sgt. Pepper’s, Are You Experienced, Disraeli Gears, and so many other like-minded albums influenced generations of musicians afterwards. I can’t say that the same is true of Surrealistic Pillow. It’s an album that belongs squarely in the time and place that it was made, and while it’s an enjoyable relic of the past, it’s a relic nonetheless.
Loose Thoughts: If any music supervisors for film and TV happen to read this: stop using “White Rabbit” to soundtrack drug freak-out scenes. It’s not clever, it’s not subversive in the way you think it is, and it makes an already silly song unbearable to listen to in any context.
I will not talk about Starship. No one should talk about Starship.
In my past career in music journalism, I worked with someone who rated Surrealistic Pillow as an essential album on the level of Pet Sounds and Sgt. Pepper’s, which I think said a lot on what they really valued about the Sixties. This person also thought that Crosby, Stills & Nash were better without Neil Young, which is just wrong.
Rating: Look, I’m not saying that Surrealistic Pillow is bad; it’s a Good album with lots to enjoy on it. However, it presents an image of the Psychedelic Sixties that feels like a caricature now, and as a piece of art and pop, it feels more and more shallow in the time since its release.
