Jefferson Airplane - After Bathing at Baxter's
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CD Details
Artist: Jefferson AirplaneEdition: Music CD
Audio: English (Original Language)
Format: Extra tracks, Original recording remastered
CD Release Date: 2003-08-19
Music Label: RCA/BMG Heritage
Product features:
- Jefferson Airplane
- The Ballad Of You & Me & Pooneil
- A Small Package Of Value Will Come To Yo, Shortly
- Young Girl Sunday Blues
- Martha
- Wild Tyme (H)
- The Last Wall Of The Castle
- Rejoyce
- Watch Her Ride
- Spare Chaynge
- Two Heads
- Won't You Try/Saturday Afternoon
- The Ballad Of You & Me & Pooneil (Live - Long Version)
- Martha (Mono Single Version)
- Two Heads (Alternate Version)
- Things Are Better In The East
Music reviews of After Bathing at Baxter's
Music Review: Won't you try Jefferson Airplane's best album? Surely you will rejoyce!
Rating: 5 Stars
The first three Jefferson Airplane albums are among the best rock records of all time. While many consider the second of these, "Surrealistic Pillow", to be Airplane's best, for me that honor belongs to this their third album. It's a little more adventurous musically, it displays more interesting guitarwork, more musical complexity, but also it simply rocks a little more. "After Bathing at Baxter's" was supposedly made without consideration to commercial success, and indeed compared to "Pillow", which reached #3, Baxter's sales didn't fly as high, getting to #17 (still quite respectable when you consider that JA's fabulous debut "Jefferson Airplane Takes Off" only made it to #128, which totally baffles me).
But it's also very baffling that Baxter's opening song "The Ballad of You & Me & Pooneil" only reached #42 as a single. (Maybe that clumsy title turned people off?) In my opinion, "Pooneil" (composed by Airplane's Paul Kantner) is the greatest *original* Jefferson Airplane song. Remember "Somebody to Love" and "White Rabbit" were originally songs that Grace Slick sang with the Great Society, her pre-Airplane band. There's no other song like "Pooneil" in the JA catalog. Magnificent, complex, psychedelic proto-punk rock and roll with a pounding riff that is also sung out by several band members together, mixed in with a variety of melodic and instrumental changes. The guitarwork is Airplane at their best, and I think no group has played guitar, whether bass, lead or rhythm, as well as Airplane! Let me make it clear: this is one of the greatest rock songs of all time. Nothing less.
As "Pooneil" ends we start feeling dizzy (not only because of what we've just heard) as we hear feedback flying back and forth between our left and right speakers, and we're transported into a short -- and to me, quite enjoyable -- psychedelic sound collage that serves as a bridge to the next song "Young Girl Sunday Blues", another song that rocks, though in a more conventional way than "Pooneil". YGSB is a fine song, though Marty Balin's singing is a bit thin here as it struggles to be heard above the powerful musical engine driving the song until its delectable acid fade-out. Next we have Kantner's "Martha", an attractive ballad with a sharper edge than the two purely acoustic ballads on "Surrealistic Pillow" thanks to deftly interwoven electric guitar parts. And then come two high-powered tracks, "Wild Tyme" (Kantner) and "The Last Wall of the Castle" (composed and sung by Jorma Kaukonen) - both are showcases of Airplane's genius with electric guitars, both lead and bass, with drumming to match. Incidentally, the title of "Castle" has nothing to do with the lyrics themselves, something we see also with "Pooneil" and a number of other JA songs.
In the second half of the album, Slick comes out of the Baxter shadows with two of her best songs since the Airplane hit versions of those Great Society songs. The lyrically bizarre "rejoyce" with its James Joyce and other, more acid-inspired references is a beautiful, haunting track and a rich musical experience. Slick's singing is wonderful, as it is on her other Baxter contribution "Two Heads", whose lyrics are even more bizarre than those of "rejoyce"! Musically, both songs have strong Middle Eastern touches, and much more. Between these two, we have "Watch Her Ride" and "Spare Chaynge" which together form one of the album's five suites. While "Ride" is the only song on this album that could be considered mediocre (though the middle section is quite decent), "Spare Chaynge" is a mesmerizing 9-minute-long instrumental with superb, psychedelic, Spanish-flavored guitarwork. It may not be to everyone's taste, but I for one love it, and you might too.
The album ends with one of Airplane's best songs, the mini-epic "Won't You Try / Saturday Afternoon". If you can overlook the slightly excessive frequency of the "Won't You Try" line, you'll find it hard to deny this is a beautiful, even majestic song with nice (if at times a little chaotic) harmony singing and powerful music, especially that pounding chord that opens the song and returns at the 2:56 mark and the opening riff. But the high point of the song for me is the music that goes with the line "it's a time for growing and a time for knowing" - the melody occurs only once, but it's gorgeous and powerful. To be honest, though, I think the live Woodstock version of the song, available on YouTube, is better. It features some of Slick's greatest singing ever, even though she only has a supporting role in this song. (It's a pity it wasn't included as a bonus track.)
To paraphrase the title of Baxter's sound collage, this CD is truly a small package of great value. Let it come to you shortly!
Description of After Bathing at Baxter's
Originally released in 1967 (same year but 10 months after Surrealistic Pillow), this RCA/BMG Heritage remastered reissue adds 4 bonus tracks 'The Ballad Of You Me and Pooneil' (live-long version previously unreleased), 'Martha' (single version-mono), 'Two Heads' (alternate version-previously unreleased) & 'Things Are Better In The East' (demo version-previously unreleased). Includes 12-page booklet with extensive liner notes, detailed track listing & rare photos. 2003.Classic Rock CDs
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