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"...My Love Talks To Winking Windows..."
Popping more than balloons
in the public parks of Sixties San Francisco – I'm sure she did mate. A
visionary time – genius – indulgent knob – take your pick. I suppose in the
52-year comfort-zone of 2019, it's so easy to be pass-remarkable about the year
1967 and its hallucinogenic words, third-eye thinking and peaceful ideals. The
Summer of Love – Flower Power – letting it all hang out – rebelling against the
man, man - and all that. And yet if you ever wanted proof-positive of how to
argue that 'experimentation and drug-taking indulgence will produce brilliance'
– then a listen to the Airplane's out-there third album "After Bathing At
Baxter's" from November of that astonishing year will settle it for you.
It's bonkers – it's brill – it's gobbledegook (try listening to the second
track "A Small Package Of Value Will Come To You, Shortly" and not
laugh/cringe). For better or worse "After Bathing At Baxter's" is a truly
evocative time capsule into that musically explosive year – echoes that still
inform our listening peccadillos to this day.
Let’s frame the picture
first. Jefferson Airplane had exploded onto the East Coast music scene in 1965
and their cutesy Byrds-like debut "Jefferson Airplane Takes Off" had
hit the shops in August 1966 to critical acclaim and a respectable debut chart
position. But the second platter "Surrealistic Pillow" and its two
top-ten smash singles "Somebody To Love" and the trippy "White
Rabbit" made them cultural icons and commercial stars (the LP shifted a
million copies) with a public and record company eager for more come album
number three – more hits – more controversy – more madness. But already feeling
artistically strangled and deliberately eschewing the perceived commercialism
of the day (consolidate your fan base and simply give them more of what they
want) – the San Francisco band holed up in the studio for nearly six months and
on RCA’s dime made the music they wanted without the boffins in ten-gallon hats
and Crimplene slacks knowing what was going on. Probably just as well they
weren’t listening to the nine-minute hippy-fest that is "Spare
Chaynge" where Bassist Jack Casady, Guitarist Jorma Kaukonen and Drummer
Spencer Dryden have a wee bit of an instrumental wig-out while blissfully
unaware RCA Victor hick-types foot the not inconsiderable bill. Even the LP
sleeve was cryptic – you had to turn over the front cover to see what words the
cartoon-drawn Fred Flintstone Whacky Races Jefferson Airplane was hauling on
its trailing banner - "After Bathing At Baxter's" (the LP’s title is
words from a Gary Blackman poem reproduced on the inner sleeve of original
albums) – complete with an environmental message amidst the modern-day detritus
splattered about the city below – ‘Every Litter Bit Helps’. And its eleven
songs were also broken up into five thematic bits with weirdly-worded
banner-headings like "Streetmasse" and "Shizoforest". Yeah
man…
Co-founder Marty Balin and
leading songwriter light on the "Takes Off" debut and its follow-up
"Surrealistic Pillow" allegedly found the experimental jams and
sessions gruelling and even distasteful - leaving Grace Slick and Paul Kantner
to step forward and provide seven of the eleven songs with the remainder of the
band improvising the rest (Balin has only one credit on the LP – a co-write
with Kantner on "Young Girl Sunday Blues)". When it hit Billboard in late December 1967 -
the public were amused and disinterested in equal measure with
"…Baxter's" stalling at No. 17 whereas "Pillow" had busted
No. 3 with ease. But time and distance has shown that their artistic freak-out
had merit – especially when you take into account the equally cool and
brilliant "Crown Of Creation" album that followed in 1968. Let’s get
stuck into those wild tymes of the year before…here are the pooneils…
UK released August 2003 (July
2003 in the USA) - "After Bathing At Baxter's" by JEFFERSON AIRPLANE
on RCA/BMG Heritage 82876 53225 2 (Barcode 828765322522) is an Expanded Edition
'Original Masters' CD Reissue with Four Bonus Tracks (three of which are
Previously Unissued) and pans out as follows (68:30 minutes);
"Streetmasse"
[Side 1]
1. The Ballad Of You &
Me & Pooneil
2. A Small Package Of Value
Will Come To You, Shortly
3. Young Girl Sunday Blues
"The War Is Over"
4. Martha
5. Wild Tyme (H)
"Hymn to an Older
Generation"
6. The Last Wall of the
Castle
7. rejoice
"How Suite It Is"
[Side 2]
8. Watch Her Ride
9. Spare Chaynge
"Shizoforest Love
Suite"
10. Two Heads
11. Won't You Try/Saturday
Afternoon
Tracks 1 to 11 are their
third studio album "After Bathing At Baxter's" - released November
1967 in the USA on RCA Victor LOP-1511 (Mono) and December 1967 in the UK on
RCA Victor RD 7926 (Mono) and SF 7926 (Stereo). The STEREO Mix is used for this
CD reissue.
BONUS TRACKS:
12. The Ballad Of You &
Me & Pooneil [Live – Long Version]
13. Martha [Mono]
14. Two Heads (Alternate
Version)
15. Things Are Better In The
East (Demo Version)
Tracks 12, 14 and 15 are
PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED
Track 13 is the B-side of
the US 7” single to "Watch Her Ride" released December 1967 on RCA
Victor 47-9398
JEFFERSON AIRPLANE was:
GRACE SLICK – Lead Vocals,
Keyboards
JORMA KAUKONEN - Lead
Guitars and Vocals
PAUL KANTNER – Lead, Rhythm
Guitars and Vocals
MARTY BALIN – Lead and
Backing Vocals
JACK CASADY - Bass
SPENCER DRYDEN – Drums,
Vocals, Piano, Organ and Percussion
The 12-page liner notes are courtesy of band-expert and uber-fan JEFF TAMARKIN who authored "Got A Revolution! The Turbulent Flight Of Jefferson Airplane" issued on Atria Books the same year as the CD reissues (2003). The colour photo and handwritten song list that adorned the inner gatefold is spread across the two centre pages - but the cartoons-and-poem inner that came with original LPs is rather sloppily absent and without explanation. There are a couple of black and white photos of the band (from the sessions) and the usual reissue credits. Pieced together from insider interviews - his explanation of the album's recording history across six crazy months is affectionate and genuinely informative - even if he rather conveniently omits that other cultural sensation happening across the sea in Blighty (Sgt. Peppers released 1 June 1967 and dominating the rest of that year right into December) – an LP that would surely have had an impact on the band’s working process and thinking. Page 11 of the booklet also seems to want us to believe the album's US catalogue number was LSP-4545 - when it wasn't (that's a Seventies repress as I recall). But apart from these glitches mostly Tamarkin makes a good argument as to why fans love "…Baxter's" so much – it's true 'Plane' – dancing to the piper at the gates of their own SF dawn (with less smog and rain). But the big news here is a BOB IRWIN Remaster from original tapes – bringing the STEREO mix to life – and for me the amazing quality of the four Extras which feel like just that – like actual bonus material (three are unreleased).
Edited down to a more
manageable 4:35 minutes from what now appears to have been a near 12-minute
session - the album opens on the wailing guitar of Paul Kantner's "The
Ballad Of You & Me & Pooneil". Both Kantner and Slick trade oohs
and aahs as the song finds its strange guitar groove. RCA tried it as a 45
prior to the album's release in September 1967 on RCA Victor 47-9297 with Side
2's "Two Heads" as the flipside - but it only managed a No. 42
placing on the American singles charts. It's followed by the mad voices of
"A Small Package..." probably the most insufferable track on the
album - a one and half minute indulgence of 'no man is an island' wit (he's a
peninsula). Things pick up big time with the Balin/Kantner offering "Young
Girl Sunday Blues" - a wicked groove you wish would go on longer (nice
solo from Kaukonen).
Part 2 of 5 offers us
"Martha" - another winner from Kantner - all acoustic guitars and
collaborative vocals - it's one of my favourites on the record (the Mono
version used on the 45 is one of this CD's bonus tracks). The band starts to
really cook on "Wild Tyme" - a guitar-hooky Kantner rocker where
everything is changing around them and singer Grace Slick reliably informs us
that "...I'm doing things they haven't even named yet..." (nice).
Jorma Kaukonen provided the 'teach me how to love' guitar-bop that is "The
Last Wall of the Castle" - where halfway through he lets rip on a seriously
gnarly solo (maybe Neil Young was listening to this over in the ranks of
Buffalo Springfield). Grace then discusses "Ulysses" by James Joyce
in her decidedly weird yet wonderful "rejoice" - a piano-jaunt that
somehow manages to be sinister as she sings words like 'throw up on his leg'
and a 'crotch that amazes'. I can only imagine what RCA executives must have
made of "Spare Chaynge" - a nine-minute Avant Garde Prog Rock moment
complete with its own funny spelling and deliberate difficulty. The final two
"Two Heads" and "Won't You Try/Saturday Afternoon" must
have offered solace in that they might be called actual 'tunes'. And off the
Bonus Cuts - I'm loving the demo-delicacy of "Things Are Better In The
East" - an original take of a song that would eventually morph into
"Two Heads".
Studio set No. 4 "Crown
Of Creation" was delivered in September 1968 and again featured an even
more breathtaking leap forward (rightly revered back in the day and still is
now). They really had lived up to that space-age-music moniker foisted on them
by RCA Records on the rear cover of their 1966 debut album – here comes the
'Jet Age Sound'.
But despite many five-star
appraisals other than mine – I’m fairly certain that re-listening to Jefferson
Airplane and their "After Bathing At Baxter's" album in 2018 will
have the now-generation scratching their heads and fearing for our sanity and
judgement - an acquired taste – like Balsamic Vinegar Crisps or the Metric
System. But as the poster on the original US album cover proclaimed -
"Consume!" – and for once I’m with the cartoonist…
