![\"\"](\"http:\/\/tralfaz-archives.com\/coverart\/J\/Jefferson_Airplane\/jefferson_afterf.jpg\" "\\"After")
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By the time I discovered punk with ‘White Riot’ in 1977, I had soaked up a fair bit of previous counter-culture history and music. History never really repeats itself, but as Nic has commented many times on these pages, sub-cultures and counter- cultures seem to have a recurring arc or trajectory, rising up then falling back to earth with a crash. There is a bit of such an arc here, although for dramatic effect I will start\u00a0 like this:<\/p>\n
Look what\u2019s happening on the streets
\nGotta revolution got to revolution<\/p>\n
We are all outlaws in the eyes of amerika
\nIn order to survive we steal cheat lie forge fuck hide and deal
\nWe are obscene lawless hideous dangerous dirty violent and young<\/p>\n
All your private property is
\nTarget for your enemy
\nAnd your enemy is
\nWe<\/p>\n
We are forces of chaos and anarchy
\nEverything they say we are we are
\nAnd we are very
\nProud of ourselves<\/p>\n
Up against the wall
\nUp against the wall motherfucker
\nTear down the walls
\nTear down the walls<\/p>\n
And the human name
\nDoesn\u2019t mean shit to a tree<\/p>\n
All from Jefferson Airplane\u2019s 1969 \u2018Volunteers of America\u2019 .There is a live clip (only 3.37) of the band playing ‘Volunteers’ here<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0<\/p>\n But it wasn\u2019t the Airplane\u2019s revolutionary rhetoric that first got me interested in the band. It was their reputation for excess of a rather different kind, which I discovered in the school library of all places. It must have been early 1974 and I had been reading my way through every interesting book in Kirkcudbright Academy library when I found one about rock\u2019 n\u2019 roll. How It got their I will never know, but there it was so I read it. Discussing cutting edge rock, the author reckoned that the best \u2018acid rock\u2019 album was ‘After Bathing at Baxters’ by Jefferson Airplane and explained how the group had spent the summer of love (1967) in San Francisco taking lots of LSD and then going into the studio and experimenting with psychedelic sounds to produce a masterpiece – far superior to the Beatles ‘Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band’. Far out!<\/p>\n So I got a copy Easter 1974 and over a few hot sunny days played it over and over again. Even without the aid of any form of drug, it sounded amazing, the music just soared and flew out of the speakers. It still does sound amazing and the music still soars.<\/p>\n I have replaced the 1974 vintage vinyl with a cd copy. This gives a bit more background to the recording. The band did not spend all their time in the studio. They were managed by Bill Graham and he insisted they\u00a0 played gigs every weekend , whilst recording during the week. This was\u00a0 unlike the Beatles who had become a studio only group by the time they recorded ‘Sgt Peppers’.<\/p>\n The previous Airplane album was \u2018Surrealistic Pillow\u2019. It had been recorded in 13 days in 1966 and sold a million copies, staying in the top 5 of the US album charts through the summer of 1966. The singles ‘Somebody to Love\u2019 and \u2018White Rabbit\u2019 had been top ten hits. Both are now pop classics.<\/p>\n No doubt getting bored with having to belt out White Rabbit yet again every weekend, the Airplane wanted to do something different, to make an experimental uncommerical record. So Grace Slick (a psychedelic Siouxsie) wrote a song inspired by James Joyce\u2019s Ulysses called \u2018Re-Joyce\u2019. Here are part of the lyrics:<\/p>\n There, are, so many of you. Mulligan stew for Bloom, Molly’s gone to blazes, And here<\/a><\/strong> is the song itself\u00a0<\/p>\n I still rate ‘After Bathing at Baxter\u2019s’ as one of the best records of\u00a0 all time. Although if you just read lyrics like these:<\/p>\n If you were a bird and you lived very high, You would probably disagree. Even if you hear the song here<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0 <\/a><\/p>\n
\nWhite shirt and tie, white shirt and tie,
\nwhite shirt and tie, wedding ring, wedding ring.<\/p>\n
\nthe only Jew in the room
\nSaxon’s sick on the holy dregs
\nand their constant getting throw up on his leg.<\/p>\n
\nBoylan’s crotch amazes
\nany woman whose husband sleeps with his head
\nall buried down at the foot of his bed.<\/p>\n
\nYou’d lean on the wind when the breeze came by,
\nYou’d say to the wind as it took you away,
\n\u201cThat’s where I wanted to go today”.
\nWill the moon still hang in the sky when I die,
\nWhen I die, when I’m high, when I die?
\nIf you were a cloud and you sailed up there,
\nYou’d sail on water as blue as air,
\nYou’d see me here in the fields and say,
\n“Doesn’t the sky look green today?”<\/p>\n