"White Rabbit" (1967) Performed Live At Woodstock (Aug 17, 1969) by Jefferson Airplane (1965-1972,1989,1996)

[DonRocks]

There's no question this was a "druggie little number," and in terms of musical value, well, it's more "cultural, historical, and powerful" than of any lasting musical significance, but it does what it does very well.

Jefferson Airplane Performs "White Rabbit" at Woodstock On Aug 19, 1969

I love this song for several reasons:

It's a miniature Bolero, with no let-up.

It's in the style of a Teutonic military march.

It's surreal, reflecting the drug culture of the time.

It's passionately sung by Grace Slick.

Grace Slick was a fine performer.

It pays homage to a great author, and makes an incredible extrapolation in doing so.

The modulation to F-Major (1:37) is powerful, moving, and brilliant. 

The whole piece is mellow, in minor, and then - Boom! - it takes off in F-Major, and becomes permanently forte

(Although, really, less so in this drug-induced version than in the brilliant. well-conceived, and superior studio version.)

I prefer the studio version musically, but performance not as much in terms of being a moving, live performance.

The rest of the piece remains in major, despite it's melancholy sound, and remains both ingenious and disturbing.

Yet, somehow, it manages to stay in a major key while "sounding like it's in a minor key" (but it isn't).

Any other comments would be most welcome. I think this is a brilliant piece of psychedellic pop.

[dcs]

For historical completeness, you should listen to the original version of the song performed by The Great Society.  It captures the psychedelic sense of San Francisco in a time before the record companies arrived full bore and tour buses cruised Haight Street.  It is decidedly less pop than the Airplane's version.  The Great Society also performed the original version of Somebody to Love (which they called Someone to Love).  Grace Slick wrote White Rabbit.  Her brother Darby wrote Someone to Love.

[DaveO]

Ah, Don, Don, Don.  Criticism, and perspective are fine ....except when one was there.  Then its experiential with its own personal unique memories.  I saw Jefferson Airplane perform and saw Gracie Slick belt out that song.  What an astonishing anthem to smoking ever more dope, rolling ever more doobies, and engaging in ever more personal efforts to experience the peace/love phenomena.  While I was at Woodstock I didn't get to see them/her.

I did see them at a phenomenal free concert at the Sheep Meadow in Central Park, right around that time.  We were astonishingly close to the stage.  Maybe 20 feet.  The height of the stage was not great at all.  Distance between performers and fans was minimal.  Jefferson Airplane and Santana, whose music was so new, powerful, driving and dramatically, favorably different was so extraordinary.   This free concert was not that crowded.    How we got the word that there would be a performance was a unique gift during hippiedom.

Gracie Slick was an iconic female rock star.  Voice, presence, attitude, some terrific songs, a drug oriented group and she was danged pretty.  (my god I feel like a bieberite).   As in the woodstock video she would cup  a hand around one ear, ostensibly to enable her to hear better.  I desperately wanted to be one of those fingers!!  

That was a great song for getting high and higher.  ....and that said from somebody who hasn't rolled a joint or smoked a doobie in 2 decades and very few times in the decade before that.

But ya know.....the song is bolero like.  I agree.  So thanks for the comments and provoking the memories.

(as an aside yesterday I was with an old compadre visiting his new granddaughter in DC.  He lives in Colorado.  In the midst of wide ranging discussions he referenced that the problem with legalized dope was with "digestibles"   The high lasts too long and longer than users anticipate.  My immediate first thought.....that is the purpose of it.

That guy and his wife have had conversations with myself and 3 others I know, all of whom anticipate traveling to Colorado to smoke dope with them.  Maybe we should all get together, Smoke some doobies, bake a cake and listen to White Rabbit.)   LOL

[Mark Slater]

I saw Jefferson Airplane perform at the Fillmore East in 1969. The smoke was thick up in the balcony.

[Steve R.]

Well, it's nice to know that we're all old.  Add me to those that saw the Airplane at the Fillmore East (& a # of other times).  The most memorable for me was outdoors at Stony Brook in early '70, when they performed Volunteers start to finish.  Loved Great Society, not so much the Airplane with Signe Anderson.  Missed Balin when he left.  Loved the beginnings of Starship, when he returned & they all stayed put for awhile.  Then it became pop crap.

Anyone for a conversation about the Dead?  

[DaveO]

Well, it's nice to know that we're all old.  Add me to those that saw the Airplane at the Fillmore East (& a # of other times).  The most memorable for me was outdoors at Stony Brook in early '70, when they performed Volunteers start to finish.  Loved Great Society, not so much the Airplane with Signe Anderson.  Missed Balin when he left.  Loved the beginnings of Starship, when he returned & they all stayed put for awhile.  Then it became pop crap.

Anyone for a conversation about the Dead?  

Some are old here and most aren't as old as us.  Fortunately!!!!

The Dead!!!   Count me in.  

[DaveO]

Listening to different versions of the song brought back a flood of memories.  It is a good song.  Nice choice, Don.  I certainly remember it during my own drug oriented days of the 70's and recall seeing it performed by the Jefferson Airplane.  An ode to the drug environment.

Its musicality is excellent.  It was reintroduced to the broader American public in the 1980's with various movies about Vietnam.  Supposedly while popular in the States it was also popular among soldiers in Vietnam who were struggling in a killing war, and had great access to alcohol and drugs to kill the pain.  Certainly its strongest movie application was in the film Platoon where that bolero like teutonic feel was well juxtaposed with the events in the field with the war.

[dcs]

The Dead!!!   Count me in.  

Indeed.  This is where it all began.

[DonRocks]

For historical completeness, you should listen to the original version of the song performed by The Great Society.  It captures the psychedelic sense of San Francisco in a time before the record companies arrived full bore and tour buses cruised Haight Street.  It is decidedly less pop than the Airplane's version.  The Great Society also performed the original version of Somebody to Love (which they called Someone to Love).  Grace Slick wrote White Rabbit.  Her brother Darby wrote Someone to Love.

The Great Society's is the earliest version? This is very Indian/Pakistani sounding (which is ironic since Woodstock introduced the great (*) Ravi Shankar to the masses in America).

(*) And yes, he most certainly was great. Coming from an unabashed classical music snob, Ravi Shankar was a fantastic musician and technical sitar player (**), and is highly revered by native Indians who love Indian classical music and know a lot more about it than I do.

(**) The sitar is a beast of an instrument to play, even passably, much less master. In a way, it's like the bagpipes: It should be played exquisitely, or not at all (God help the poor parents in the children's developmental stages - they're also both rather expensive instruments). Indian classical music is beautiful, but it's got to be played with the greatest of expertise, or it sounds very ugly.

[Steve R.]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wlUj64evoN0

Have fun.

[dcs]

The Great Society's is the earliest version? This is very Indian/Pakistani sounding (which is ironic since Woodstock introduced the great (*) Ravi Shankar to the masses in America).

The Great Society was Grace Slick's band before she left to join the Airplane to replace Signe Anderson.  White Rabbit and Someone to Love were first played by the Great Society.  Indian influences could be found in pop music in the mid-1960s.  The Beatles, obviously, but also elsewhere, such as in the Butterfield Blues Band classic East-West.

[Steve R.]

The Great Society was Grace Slick's band before she left to join the Airplane to replace Signe Anderson.  White Rabbit and Someone to Love were first played by the Great Society.  Indian influences could be found in pop music in the mid-1960s.  The Beatles, obviously, but also elsewhere, such as in the Butterfield Blues Band classic East-West.

Just catching up on this thread:

add  The Incredible String Band & The Electric Flag to that. ("A Long Tome Comin'", their 1st album, had Mike Bloomfield, Buddy Miles, Nick Gravenites, Harvey Brooks"¦ & had sitar.  Anyone wanna guess who the sitarist was?

ok: Richie Havens

[DaveO]

Just catching up on this thread:

add  The Incredible String Band & The Electric Flag to that. ("A Long Tome Comin'", their 1st album, had Mike Bloomfield, Buddy Miles, Nick Gravenites, Harvey Brooks"¦ & had sitar.  Anyone wanna guess who the sitarist was?

ok: Richie Havens

This has become a thread for old f*rts. I'm one of them. I'm pretty confident I saw Bloomfield, Miles, Gravenites, and Havens at different times. don't recall seeing Harvey Brooks.

Dang...the sitar. I was at Woodstock. Didn't get to stay long. Bad weather, rain, mud, rain, mud, etc. Friends with the car were determined to leave. The only performer I saw was Ravi Shanker on the sitar.  We got to the edge of the natural amphitheater on one edge of the stage. Incredibly crowded.

Best party of the year.  .....and I had to leave early and all I heard was a sitar.  oh well.  LOL

[susan]

Indeed.  This is where it all began.

Just finished watching this video. Thank you so much for posting it. I loved it, loved it loved it!