Featured Playlist
- 25 Songs
- Surrealistic Pillow · 1967
- Surrealistic Pillow · 1967
- Surrealistic Pillow · 1967
- Volunteers (Bonus Track Version) · 1969
- Cleared For Take-Off · 1966
- Cleared For Take-Off · 1966
- Surrealistic Pillow · 1967
- Surrealistic Pillow · 1967
- Surrealistic Pillow · 1967
- Iconic Performances from the Monterey International Pop Festival · 2017
Essential Albums
- The twin juggernauts of “White Rabbit” and “Somebody to Love” ensured its place in rock history, but Jefferson Airplane’s 1967 album isn’t just a vehicle for show-stopping new singer Grace Slick. Marty Balin lends vulnerable lead vocals to the medieval folk twinges of “Comin’ Back to Me” and The Mamas & The Papas-esque “How Do You Feel” and “Embryonic Journey” shows off the fluid fingerpicking of future Hot Tuna guitarist Jorma Kaukonen. As playful as its title, Surrealistic Pillow is the sound of campfire love-ins turned trippy and ambitious.
Albums
Music Videos
Artist Playlists
- San Francisco's countercultural warriors took psychedelia to the mainstream.
- An unpredictable flight path beyond blues, rock and psych.
- Pop-rockers and moody goths have carried on their inventiveness.
Singles & EPs
About Jefferson Airplane
San Francisco rock band Jefferson Airplane pioneered the psychedelic rock sound with their platinum-selling, genre-defining 1967 album, Surrealistic Pillow. ∙ Their 1967 singles “Somebody to Love” and “White Rabbit”—signature songs of the ’60s counterculture—are ranked among Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. ∙ Appearing on the cover of LIFE magazine in 1968, they were hailed as the face of “The New Rock.” ∙ Despite controversies about the band’s antiwar sentiments and use of profanities, the 1969 Gold-selling LP Volunteers became their first to chart in both the US and the UK. ∙ Jefferson Airplane was the only band to play all three historic late-’60s US festivals: Monterey Pop, Woodstock, and Altamont. ∙ After a ’70s-era split into Hot Tuna and Jefferson Starship, the group reunited in 1989 to make Jefferson Airplane and go on a highly successful reunion tour. ∙ The band’s “classic lineup” was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1996 and awarded a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2016.
- ORIGIN
- San Francisco, CA, United States
- FORMED
- 1965
- GENRE
- Rock