Jefferson Airplane

When vocalist Grace Slick joined Jefferson Airplane in the fall of 1966, she came with two songs from her old band, the Great Society - "Somebody to Love," written by her brother-in-law Darby, and "White Rabbit," her psychedelic translation of Alice in Wonderland - that became Top Ten hits in the Airplane's grip, dosing America with San Francisco utopia. The rest of this second album is a definitive catalog of the Airplane's acid-rock dynamics and rare composing gifts: Jorma Kaukonen's metallic-snarl guitar and Jack Casady's grumbling-funk bass; the beautiful agony of singer Marty Balin's ballads (he wrote "Today" with Tony Bennett in mind); the weave-and-soar interplay of Balin, Slick and singer-guitarist Paul Kantner. The Grateful Dead's Jerry Garcia attended the Los Angeles sessions as a "musical and spiritual advisor," suggesting arrangements, playing the delicate acoustic leads in "Comin' Back to Me" and coining the album's title when he remarked, "This is as surrealistic as a pillow."