After Bathing at Baxter's | ||||
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Studio album by | ||||
Released | November 27, 1967 | |||
Recorded | 26 June – 31 October 1967 | |||
Studio | RCA Victor (Hollywood, California) | |||
Genre | ||||
Length | 43:38 (original) 67:53 (2003 reissue) | |||
Label | RCA Victor | |||
Producer | Al Schmitt | |||
Jefferson Airplane chronology | ||||
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Singles from After Bathing at Baxter's | ||||
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After Bathing at Baxter's is the third studio album by the San Francisco psychedelic rock band Jefferson Airplane, released in 1967 as RCA Victor LSO-1511 (stereo) and LOP-1511 (mono). The cover art is by artist Ron Cobb.
Writing for the Airplane's third album began in the spring of 1967, just as the group's star began to soar with the top 5 success of "Somebody to Love" and its parent album, Surrealistic Pillow . The group appeared regularly on TV to promote the record and demand for its live appearances soared; by summer the group had become the highest-paid American live act, playing a hectic schedule of shows around North America including a lauded appearance at the Monterey Pop Festival that June. [4]
Guitarist Jorma Kaukonen had worked up a cover of a traditional blues on stage, provisionally titled "Jorma's Blues", which was subsequently recorded at RCA on March 7 as "Come Back Baby". Despite being a regular in the group's set list, it would not see release on record until its appearance on Hot Tuna's sophomore effort First Pull Up, Then Pull Down in 1971. Three more new songs made their live debut in May: Kantner's "Won't You Try" (his glowing tribute to the Human Be-In that January) and "The Ballad of You and Me and Pooneil" (an ode to LSD with several lines taken from the A.A. Milne poem "Spring Morning") plus "Young Girl Sunday Blues", co-written with Marty Balin about Sally Edelstein, a 14-year old who often attended the band's shows and later became the wife of Israeli ambassador Michael Oren. [5] "Pooneil", "Young Girl Sunday Blues", and another new Kantner composition, "Martha", were first recorded at RCA in late May; "Martha" was a folk-inspired song with Slick on recorder about Martha Wax, the daughter of the mayor of Sausalito who had run away from home and befriended the band. [6]
These early sessions were scrapped, however, after the group heard the new Beatles album, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band , which encouraged them to go in an even further experimental direction. After the success of Surrealistic Pillow RCA was willing to let them do whatever they wanted in the studio, with new producer Al Schmitt lending a more sympathetic ear to their experimentation. [7] Kaukonen and Casady were also inspired to take the group's music in a heavier direction after hearing Hendrix and Cream, with Kaukonen applying more fuzz, feedback, and distortion to his guitar sound. [8]
The band held an unannounced live show in mid-June to record songs meant for the album; an expansive 11-minute version of "Pooneil" was taped and further overdubbed in the studio but ultimately rejected for release, later appearing on the Jefferson Airplane Loves You box set. However, a version of "Young Girl Sunday Blues" from the show did make the new album after further overdubs. [9] "The Ballad of You and Me and Pooneil" was attempted for a third time on June 26 and 27, where a succinct four-and-a-half-minute version was finally captured along with a new Slick composition, the stream-of-consciousness psychedelia of "Two Heads", recorded directly after. These two tracks were released as the group's next single in August, although their dense, uncommercial sound proved a commercial disappointment, reaching #42 on the Billboard chart (although "Pooneil" performed considerably better on Cash Box , where it peaked at #24).
Recording for the album continued throughout the summer, stretching over five months into the fall. The group rented a mansion with a pool and underwater shooting range in Beverly Hills while recording at RCA, where wild, drug-fueled partying ensued. [7] Members of The Grateful Dead, Buffalo Springfield, The Monkees and The Byrds would often drop by, and Kaukonen even brought a motorcycle into the recording studio one night. Marty Balin began to withdraw from the group, reporting disgust at the self-indulgent behavior and "star trips" he thought his band mates now exhibited, where "everybody was in their little shell." [9] He wrote and recorded two more songs for the album, the soft ballad "Things Are Better in the East" (a bonus track on the CD reissue) and the funky "Don't Let Me Down" (later included on the box set), but neither made the final cut, leaving "Young Girl Sunday Blues" his sole credit on the album after having contributed five songs to Surrealistic Pillow .
Kantner filled the songwriting void in Balin's increasing absence; new versions of "Martha" and "Won't You Try/Saturday Afternoon" were recorded along with his "Wild Tyme" and "Watch Her Ride", both intense acid-rock numbers celebrating the freewheeling hippie lifestyle. Spencer Dryden contributed the Zappa-inspired lysergic sound collage "A Small Package of Value Will Come to You, Shortly" (featuring nonsensical vocal improvs from manager Bill Thompson and band friend Gary Blackman) while Kaukonen wrote "The Last Wall of the Castle", a showcase for his brittle fuzz guitar work put to tape on August 30. On September 22 Grace Slick contributed a second composition, the jazz-inflected "Rejoyce", with free-form lyrics that referenced James Joyce's Ulysses and the Vietnam War over a complex arrangement that included piano, harpsichord, horns, and recorder. [10] Finally, Kaukonen, Casady, and Dryden came up with "Spare Chaynge", meant to represent the Airplane's jam-oriented live improvisations, its 9 minutes pruned from a massive 24-minute take taped on Halloween. The album ultimately cost over $80,000 to record, ten times that of Surrealistic Pillow . [11]
The album's title was derived from a poem written by the band's friend Gary Blackman. Kantner explained that the title translates to "After Taking LSD", "Baxter" being the group's code word for the drug. [12]
The cover art was designed by Ron Cobb, then a political cartoonist for the Los Angeles Free Press . [12] The front cover depicts the band as a World War I-era triplane with the body of a San Francisco townhouse. [13] [14] Cannabis plants are shown growing out of the house's flower boxes. [14] [15] The artwork is framed with a red bar on the bottom and a blue bar with white stars on the top, signifying the United States flag. [13] The plane, painted in full color, dispenses confetti [15] while flying over a black and white landscape – embodying the white of the flag – with billboards reading messages such as "CONSUME!" and "DRINK IT" [13] as parodies of American consumerism. [16] The illustration continues onto the back cover, revealing a scrapheap followed by a pile of empty beverage cans. A banner attached to the plane displays the album's title. [13] In 2008, Cobb's original painting sold at auction for $24,000. [17]
John Hartford referenced the cover art from After Bathing at Baxter's as the inspiration for his song "Steam Powered Aereo Plane" from his album Aereo-Plain .
The gatefold artwork consists of a handwritten track listing and photographs taken by Alan Pappé of each band member. [18] Author Ken Bielen writes the lack of a group portrait highlights the members' individuality. [13] The inner sleeve features Blackman's poem and drawings by the band and their friends, one of which was almost rejected by RCA on fear it would be misinterpreted as a vulva. [19] [nb 1]
The album was released on November 27, 1967. RCA was reportedly not happy when the experimental work only peaked at #17 on Billboard , failing to attain an RIAA gold certification, although it was able to reach #9 on the Cash Box chart. A second single, "Watch Her Ride" backed with "Martha", could only climb to #61 (#37 Cash Box ). The band's singles never again crossed the halfway mark in the Hot 100. [21]
Review scores | |
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Source | Rating |
AllMusic | [22] |
The Daily Vault | A− [23] |
The Encyclopedia of Popular Music | [24] |
The Great Rock Discography | 7/10 [25] |
Music Story | [26] |
MusicHound Rock | 2/5 [27] |
Record Mirror | [28] |
The Rolling Stone Album Guide | [29] |
Despite its commercial shortcomings, After Bathing at Baxter's received high praise from a number of critics. [30] One of its most positive reviews came from Jann Wenner in the newly founded Rolling Stone magazine, proclaiming that Jefferson Airplane "could be the best rock and roll band in America today" and that the album was "probably the best, considering all the criteria and the exceptions, rock and roll album so far produced by an American group." [31] [30] A review in Hit Parader called the album "excellent" and "a good follow-up to Surrealistic Pillow"; [32] in a later interview with the same magazine, the Moody Blues' keyboardist Mike Pinder named it one of his favorite albums, along with Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band by the Beatles, Younger Than Yesterday by the Byrds, and Bookends by Simon & Garfunkel. [33] Cash Box hailed it as a "magnificent, wailing, driving package", [34] remarking in another issue that the single "Watch Her Ride" had a "hard rock beat with a backup centering on electrified workouts from lead guitar, grand imagery and fine vocals." [35] Record World called the single "one of [Jefferson Airplane's] sinuous, contemporary melodies", [31] while Billboard said it has "weird, groovy sounds throughout." [36]
Conversely, Paul Nelson gave a negative review in Hullabaloo magazine, writing: "The Jefferson Airplane never even get off the ground with After Bathing at Baxter's. How a great group like this can go down in flames after two fine albums is a real puzzle." [37] The review prompted a reader to send a letter to the magazine saying that the album was "more important than Mr. Nelson thinks it is" and that it "must be graded on a curve, just as Sgt. Pepper was." [38]
After Bathing at Baxter's did not chart in the United Kingdom, [39] but it nevertheless received attention from several British music journals. Chris Welch of Melody Maker praised the instrumental and vocal work and deemed it the "most consistent album yet" from one of the "most mature of America's West Coast groups". [40] Writing for Beat Instrumental , John Ford felt it was a "slight disappointment" compared to the band's earlier material, although he praised the production and "feel" of the album and concluded, "Airplane have good ideas which will flourish, eventually." [41] Norman Jopling and Peter Jones wrote in Record Mirror that the album was "pretentious" and failed to match "Somebody to Love" and "White Rabbit" or contemporary albums by the Byrds and Country Joe and the Fish. [28]
The album was voted number 352 in Colin Larkin's All Time Top 1000 Albums 2nd Edition (1999).
Side one
No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
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1. | "The Ballad of You & Me & Pooneil" | Paul Kantner | 4:29 |
2. | "A Small Package of Value Will Come to You, Shortly" | Spencer Dryden, Gary Blackman, Bill Thompson | 1:39 |
3. | "Young Girl Sunday Blues" | Marty Balin, Kantner | 3:33 |
No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
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4. | "Martha" | Kantner | 3:26 |
5. | "Wild Tyme (H)" | Kantner | 3:08 |
No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
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6. | "The Last Wall of the Castle" | Jorma Kaukonen | 2:40 |
7. | "Rejoyce" ( [n 1] ) | Grace Slick | 4:01 |
Side two
No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
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8. | "Watch Her Ride" | Kantner | 3:11 |
9. | "Spare Chaynge" (instrumental) | Jack Casady, Dryden, Kaukonen | 9:12 |
No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
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10. | "Two Heads" | Slick | 3:10 |
11. | "Won't You Try / Saturday Afternoon" | Kantner | 5:09 |
2003 CD reissue bonus tracks
No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
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12. | "The Ballad of You & Me & Pooneil" (long version from Jefferson Airplane Loves You ) | Kantner | 11:04 |
13. | "Martha" (single version B-side RCA #9389) | Kantner | 3:26 |
14. | "Two Heads" (alternate version) | Slick | 3:15 |
15. | "Things Are Better in the East" (demo version) | Balin | 2:31 |
16. | "Young Girl Sunday Blues" (instrumental; hidden track) | Balin, Kantner | 3:59 |
Production
Chart (1967) | Peak position |
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US Billboard 200 [42] | 17 |
Jefferson Airplane was an American rock band formed in San Francisco, California in 1965 that became one of the pioneering bands of psychedelic rock. The group defined the San Francisco Sound and was the first from the Bay Area to achieve international commercial success. They headlined the Monterey Pop Festival (1967), Woodstock (1969), Altamont Free Concert (1969), and the first Isle of Wight Festival (1968) in England. Their 1967 breakout album Surrealistic Pillow was one of the most significant recordings of the Summer of Love. Two songs from that album, "Somebody to Love" and "White Rabbit", are among Rolling Stone's "500 Greatest Songs of All Time".
Surrealistic Pillow is the second studio album by the American rock band Jefferson Airplane, released on February 1, 1967, by RCA Victor. It is the first album by the band with vocalist Grace Slick and drummer Spencer Dryden. The album peaked at number three on the Billboard 200 and has been certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). It is considered to be one of the most influential and quintessential works of the early psychedelic rock era and 1960s counterculture.
Martyn Jerel Buchwald, known as Marty Balin, was an American singer, songwriter, and musician best known as a member of Jefferson Airplane and Jefferson Starship.
John William Casady is an American bass guitarist, best known as a member of Jefferson Airplane and Hot Tuna. Jefferson Airplane became the first successful exponent of the San Francisco Sound. Singles including "Somebody to Love" and "White Rabbit" charted in 1967 and 1968. Casady, along with the other members of Jefferson Airplane, was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1996.
Paul Lorin Kantner was an American rock musician. He is best known as the co-founder, rhythm guitarist, and a secondary vocalist of Jefferson Airplane, a leading psychedelic rock band of the counterculture era. He continued these roles as a member of Jefferson Starship, Jefferson Airplane's successor band.
Crown of Creation is the fourth studio album by the San Francisco psychedelic rock band Jefferson Airplane, released by RCA Victor in August 1968. The album saw the band continuing their development of psychedelic music, emphasizing acid rock with science fiction themes.
Bless Its Pointed Little Head is a live album by Jefferson Airplane recorded at both the Fillmore East and West in the fall of 1968 and released in 1969 as RCA Victor LSP-4133.
Jefferson Airplane Takes Off is the debut studio album by the American rock band Jefferson Airplane, released on 15 August 1966 by RCA Victor. The personnel differs from the later "classic" lineup: Signe Toly Anderson was the female vocalist and Skip Spence played drums. Both soon left the group—Spence in May 1966, Anderson in October—and were replaced by Spencer Dryden and Grace Slick, respectively.
Bark is the sixth studio album by American rock band Jefferson Airplane. Released in 1971 as Grunt FTR-1001, the album is one of the Airplane's late-period works, notable for the group's first personnel changes since 1966. The album was the first without band founder Marty Balin and the first with violinist Papa John Creach. Drummer Spencer Dryden had been replaced by Joey Covington in early 1970 after a lengthy transitional period in which both musicians had performed with the band.
The Worst of Jefferson Airplane is the first compilation album from the rock band Jefferson Airplane, released in November 1970 as RCA Victor LSP-4459. The "Worst" in the title is ironic, as the album features all of Jefferson Airplane's hit singles up to that point. It peaked at #12 on the Billboard 200 in 1971 and has since gone platinum.
Early Flight is a 1974 compilation album by the American psychedelic rock band Jefferson Airplane, released as Grunt CYL1-0437. It features previously unreleased material from 1966, 1967, and 1970 as well as both sides of a non-album 1970 single.
"Today" is a folk rock ballad written by Marty Balin and Paul Kantner from the band Jefferson Airplane. It first appeared on their album Surrealistic Pillow with a live version later appearing on the expanded rerelease of Bless Its Pointed Little Head. Marty Balin said, "I wrote it to try to meet Tony Bennett. He was recording in the next studio. I admired him, so I thought I'd write him a song. I never got to meet him, but the Airplane ended up doing it." Jerry Garcia plays the simple, repetitive but poignant lead guitar riff on the song.
Jefferson Airplane Loves You is a three-CD boxed set of recordings by the San Francisco rock band Jefferson Airplane with extensive liner notes by Jeff Tamarkin, author of the Jefferson Airplane history Got a Revolution: The Turbulent Flight of Jefferson Airplane.
The Platinum & Gold Collection is part of Arista Records' Platinum & Gold Collection. Recorded between 1966 & 1969, this compilation serves as a primer for both the early years of Jefferson Airplane and the golden age of psychedelic rock. The songs were variously produced by Matthew Katz, Tommy Olive, Rick Jarrad, Al Schmitt, and Paul Kantner.
"She Has Funny Cars" is a song by the American rock group Jefferson Airplane. Vocalist Marty Balin wrote the lyrics, while guitarist Jorma Kaukonen supplied the music. The song appeared as the opening track on their breakthrough album, Surrealistic Pillow (1967).
"My Best Friend" is a song by the Jefferson Airplane. It was written by the band's former drummer Skip Spence. The song appeared on the band's second album, Surrealistic Pillow and was released as a single.
"Comin' Back to Me" is a psychedelic folk song by the American rock band Jefferson Airplane. It was written by Marty Balin. The song appeared on Jefferson Airplane's second album, Surrealistic Pillow. Marty Balin recalls that "the song was created while he indulged in some primo-grade marijuana given to him by blues singer Paul Butterfield." After writing the song in one sitting, he immediately went to the studio to record his composition with any available musicians at the studio. The song would later be covered by Rickie Lee Jones and Richie Havens.
Live at the Monterey Festival is a live album by the San Francisco rock band Jefferson Airplane, which was released in the United Kingdom and Europe by Thunderbolt Records in 1991. The album was authorized by the band and features the entire set from the group's June 17, 1967, performance at the Monterey Pop Festival. The album marked the first time that Jefferson Airplane's entire Monterey Pop Festival performance had been given a release by a legitimate record company.
"The Ballad of You and Me and Pooneil" is a song by the American psychedelic rock band Jefferson Airplane. Written by Paul Kantner, the song initially appeared as an RCA Victor single, and then subsequently as the first track of their third album, After Bathing at Baxter's, in a substantially remixed version.
"The House at Pooneil Corners" is a song by the American rock group Jefferson Airplane and written mainly by singer Marty Balin that first appeared as the 11th and final track on the band's 1968 album Crown of Creation. It also appeared on the compilation album The Roar of Jefferson Airplane along with the similarly named song "The Ballad of You and Me and Pooneil".