Bueno, pero lejos de ser un clásico

En casi todas las listas de los mejores discos de los 60's Surrealistic Pillow aparece al lado de Sgt. Pepper, Are you Experienced, Astral Weeks, Pet Sounds, Forever Changes o el debut de los Doors, pero en mi opinión ni siquiera es el mejor trabajo de los Airplane (After Bathing... lo supera con creces y Crown of Creation por poco. Aún asi seguirá siendo la obra maestra del grupo y contra eso poco se puede hacer. Ahora mis razones.

Pocas canciones de la época me parecen tan sobrevaloradas como Somebody to Love, un tema sin fuerza y mejor logrado en el original de Great Society. Al contrario, White Rabbit es lo mejor del disco y donde Grace Slick demuestra que aparte de ser apta para estar al frente cantando también puede componer. Los pastorales My Best Friend y How do you Feel no resisten repetidas escuchas, aunque en el mismo contexto Comin' Back to Me y Today son dos puntos altos. Lo cierto es que con contadas excepciones el disco no logra sonar sicodélico, la instrumentacion es demasiado ortodoxa para una de las bandaras líderes de San Francisco y en ese sentido parece más cercano al folk y no al revolucionario estilo que ese mismo año con distintos matices mostraban entre otros Moby Grape o Country Joe & The Fish. A lo mejor no pretendían sonar aventureros y ácidos, y el probema es que no siendo compositores muy dotados tienen que echar mano a otros recursos, algo que en Surrealistic evitaron, pero cuando quisieron hacerlo en sus siguientes entregas los resultados mejoraron ostensiblemente, aunque al respecto las opiniones seguirán estando divididas.

Good Tunes But The Psychedlic Tone Could Vary A Little

Don't get me wrong. There are some very strong tracks on this release. The Grace Slick sung Somebody To Love and White Rabbitt are excellent mesmerizing tunes with some awesome instrumentation. She Has Funny Cars and Your My Best Friend are fairly catchy as well. And the instrumental Embryonic Journey is certainly quite ear pleasing with some nice guitar effects.

However ther psychedelic tone could vary a little. The arrangements sound fairly similar and the drums don't kick hard in any one song. Whereas there are some very good guitar solos, there are some moments when the guitars don't do anything special for me. And tracks like Commin' Back To Me, Today, and How Do You Feel are really quite dull. There is very little tune to any of them. I prefer the live version of Plastic Fantastic Lover to the one included on Surrealistic Pillow(although this version is certainly not bad).

Diehard fans of the Airplane should pick this one up, but moderate fans should consider a compilation such as Worst Of which really has all the essential songs.

One masterpiece made for the Summer Of Love...

It's an album that gave a generation some amazing music to listen to. It's an amazing album, with those 2 big hits from the Airplane; "Somebody To Love", and "White Rabbit", which were probably two of the many tunes being played on radios in San Francisco during the summer months of 1967, or better known as the Summer of Love, mind you the Airplane were not-so-much-competing but on the same plane (no pun intended) with the likes of The Beatles, Pink Floyd, The Greatful Dead, etc. when this record came out. But it gave people something to think about, how could a rock and roll band incorporate so much different types of music into their sound, like folk, acid rock, pop, jazz, and psychedelia? It's an amazing mix, folk musicians Marty Balin and Paul Kantner, rock vocalist Grace Slick, Blues enthusiasts Jorma Kaukonen and Jack Casady, and jazz-influenced drummer Spencer Dryden, add a little drugs, some long hair, and a little peace, and what do you get, The Jefferson Airplane. If you are a person who enjoys folk, rock, or psychedelic music, buy this album it will make love to your ears, and make you ears wanting to come back for more.

Here's a list of some more music for your ears to make love to:

Jefferson Airplane:
Takes Off
After Bathing At Baxter's
Crown Of Creation
Volunteers

Pink Floyd:
The Piper At The Gates OF Dawn
A Saucerful Of Secrets
Ummagumma
Any Live Bootlegs from '68-'71 you can find

The Beatles:
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
Revolver

The Greatful Dead:
Aoxomoxoxo
Anthem Of The Sun
Live/Dead

The Velvet Underground:
The Velvet Underground & Nico