Music Blog Two

The Jefferson Airplane

Of all The Jefferson Airplane’s albums, Jefferson Airplane Takes Off is probably the most appealing to me. In my opinion, this album has a slightly edgier tune than The Beatles despite their parallel characteristics. “Let’s Get Together” emphasizes these similarities. While there are somewhat sing-y lyrics and vocals, there is more of a swing and underground feel.

The later albums produced by The Jefferson Airplane had been my initial introduction to their music, including Crown of Creation, which left me not very interested in hearing more. The waling between the vocalists and heavy streams of guitar strokes created a very ominous musical style, so when I heard their earlier work from Jefferson Airplane Takes Off I was shocked at the shift that took place within a few years time. The in-class discussion regarding this shift was particularly interesting to me because it reflects the changes in the counterculture during the same time period. The lyrics had arguably the most dramatic change, with lyrics from Jefferson Airplane Takes Off, released in 1965, consisting of themes such as “Hey people smile one another” and “Love one another right now” (taken from “Let’s Get Together”) switching to lyrics from After Bathing At Baxter’s consisting of “Mulligan stew for Bloom/The only Jew in the room/Saxon’s sick on the holy dregs/Their constant getting throw up on his leg” (taken from “Rejoice”) finally to “In loyalty to their kind/They cannot tolerate our minds/ In loyalty to our kind/ We cannot tolerate their obstruction” (taken from “Crown of Creation). This progression tracks their mindset from free love hippiedom to LSD experimentations and finally their rejection of society as a whole and desire to escape.

After Bathing At Baxter’s i a very interesting album to me because of its nature as an experimental album. With a highly detailed and metaphorical album cover, it seems to me that this one the point in time that The Jefferson Airplane truly came into their own rather than changing simply to fit the desires of the counterculture. With Surrealistic Pillow, it was obvious that their album art was a blatant attempt at surrealism, but that of After Bathing At Baxter’s takes it to a whole new level and is one the most interesting album covers I have ever seen. The music to go along with it is interesting to say the least. It’s not exactly my cup of tea, but to me this album was created for the musicians themselves. The lyrics are hard to follow and often completely random (or apparently highly influenced by LSD), the music is sporadic and there’s not really a theme, all on top of the complexity and time that went into the album art, including the sleeve of the record.

Later records, including Crown of Creation and Volunteer push the limits of The Jefferson Airplane and the hippie ideology by bring out profanity in “We Can Be Together” and by developing an ultimatum of escape due to what they believe to be the apocalypse of the Earth. Their beliefs that the industrial era had ruined the world and that the apocalypse was now inevitable really astounds me in a way. I can’t help but to think that these reflections and ideologies on the part of the counterculture and its musicians were a result of building so much hype around creating a new culture and society, realizing they didn’t know what the hell they were doing and pouting about it acting as though the world was now over. I think this is especially true due to the fact that many hippies were now flat out getting old. The Jefferson Airplane themselves make note of the fact that one of their band members had reached the age of 30 in their song “Lather,” an age that you weren’t supposed to trust people beyond. With the counterculture literally growing up and realizing they were now their own enemies, they needed a new stance and the post-apocalyptic mindset was that stance.

Jimi Hendrix

Not everyone would be able to tell you who the artist is, but if you played the introduction to “Purple Haze,” everyone has heard it. I’m no guitar player, but obviously I’ve heard that he’s one of the greatest guitar players of all time. I can’t say that I agree or disagree, but from listening to Are You Experienced I can say that the roots of modern rock music are very defined throughout his music. Notably so, his music and guitar is generally louder than his vocals, something that I believe to be unique to him. For instance, when listening to The Beatles I noticed that sometimes I could hardly hear the guitar riffs, but in Hendrix’s work there’s no missing it. With that I think he definitely brought the loud musical rock style to the scene on top of his countercultural lyricism.

Interestingly, I noticed despite being released in 1967 Are You Experienced’s lyrics involve a lot of content regarding girls and love, “Purple Haze” and “Manic Depression” to note a couple. The Beatles had written a lot about relationships and girls in their earlier records, Rubber Soul (1965) and Revolver (1966), but shifted away from those themes with Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band in 1967, the same year Hendrix released Are You Experienced. Therefore, I wonder if Hendrix was a little behind the curve on this shift or had he simply not made that musical decision.

Pink Floyd -- Piper at the Gates of Dawn (1967)

I’ve never enjoyed listening to Pink Floyd personally due to the fact that I feel as though they’re only a band enjoyable on drugs. In their first track, “Astronomy Domine,” something that caught my attention was the falsetto male voice combined with the production efforts to make the vocals during the bridge sound as though the were being transmitted via radio to a space ship, perhaps. This track in particular, however, is interesting because of the fact that vocals are used in order to make sound effects rather than introducing production techniques such as sound clips, even though The Beatles had been able to do so in this exact year.

Piper at the Gates of Dawn has similar characteristics of other musicians that I’ve picked up. In their song “Matilda Mother” I felt like I was listening to a strange composition between The Jefferson Airplane, The Beatles and Frank Zappa, which I suppose gives them a very unique sound. In this track there are both sing-y lyrics in each of the verses that are very abstract concepts, including “For all the time spent in that room/The doll’s house, darkness, old perfume/And fairy stories held me high/On clouds of sunlight floating by,” and strange LSD induced sounds, such as whining. There’s a lot going on throughout their album and it’s apparent why Pink Floyd was popular among the LSD influenced underground counterculture in Britain.

The Beatles -- Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967)

This album is off the start very different than their previous music. The fact that this album was produced with no intents of being performed is really interesting to me, and I think this allowed The Beatles more room to explore with production effects and techniques within the studio, including pushing the levels of their lyricism. They pushed the limits of the music industry through this album in a variety of ways. First, they took their lyrics and the words they said to a new level of shock. In “With a Little Help From My Friends,” The Beatles directly state the action of taking drugs by stating “I get by with a little help from my friends/I get high with a little help from my friends.” Also, in “A Day in the Life,” which McCartney admits they consciously decided to include, by singing “I’d love to turn you on.” “A Day In The Life,” as one of the most studied musical compositions of The Beatles, is very complex and interesting regarding the decisions they made to have a traditionally composed piece while including drugs references, an “orchestral orgasm” all while maintaining their sing-y verses and melodies promoting their worldwide popularity. In comparison, Sgt. Pepper’s was to The Beatles what After Bathing At Baxter’s was to The Jefferson Airplane.

Moody Blues -- Days of Future Passed (1967)

Right off the bat, I’m not sure if I’m listening to the right music. Moody Blues takes an entirely unique approach to the countercultural ideology, using traditional orchestral instruments and compositions combined with relatively professional vocals. The man’s voice certainly doesn’t sound like the dumbed down, lazy Bob Dylan vocals or the raspy Jimi Hendrix vocals. However, the message is the same. In “Dawn Is A Feeling,” the lyrics state “Do you understand/That all over this land/There’s a feeling/In minds far and near/Things are becoming clear/With a meaning.” The song goes on to sing “Now that you’re knowing/Pleasure starts flowing.” I’m in utter shock of the tone and technique being used by Moody Blues in the same year The Beatles and The Jefferson Airplane are both going downhill in their optimism of the counterculture. Perhaps the motive behind this uniqueness if to reach a different audience while still projecting the same message beyond the scrounge-y hippie stereotype.

Procol Harum

I can’t help but to feel as though “Conquistador” is a metaphorical story of the plight of the hippie movement, at least that’s my interpretation. The hippies believed that society needed to be completely rebuilt and had many ideas for what such a society should look like after the complete destruction of straight society, which “Conquistador” describes through “And though I hoped for something to find/I could see no maze to unwind.” This lyric foreshadows the plight of the hippies once they realize that the straight society is not going to listen to them and they must disband. This journey can be envisioned addressing the counterculture through the following lyrics: “And though I came to jeer at you/I leave now with regret/And as the gloom begins to fall/I see there is no, only all/And though you came with sword held high/You did not conquer, only die.”

I only have no idea what to make of “Whiter Shade of Pale.” The only thing I can take away from this song is the acceptance that the culture is not moving forward, which I picked up through lyrics such as “If music be the food of love/The laughter is its queen.”