Not surprisingly, what could well be the best Airplane album since the four-year-old Volunteers consists mainly of tracks from the mid-Sixties. To be sure, there is a boring blues jam, and the rejects from Takes Off, while competent, are not on a par with the original LP. But the two outtakes from Surrealistic Pillow are hardly throwaways. Skip Spence's "J.P.P. McStep B. Blues" is a welcome reprise of the softer, acoustic Airplane, and Marty Balin's pile-driving "Go To Her" is both similar to and as excellent as its contemporary "Somebody To Love." What happened after Balin relinquished direction of the group is shown by the 1970 Grace Slick and Paul Kantner single, "Mexico" / "Have You Seen the Saucers," two of the more worthy examples of the often banal posturing they soon drifted into.

“All Along the Watchtower”

Jimi Hendrix got hold of Bob Dylan's early John Wesley Harding tapes and in late 1967 recorded a version of "All Along the Watchtower" with the Experience in London. Dissatisfied with that first development, Hendrix brought those tapes with him to New York in early 1968 when he began work on Electric Ladyland. Eddie Kramer, Hendrix's engineer at the time, told Rolling Stone that Hendrix "was still looked upon by his basically white audience as the mammoth black guitar hero. There was a constant fight within him to expand himself." Hendrix's successful take on Dylan's work has long been recognized by the songwriter. "I liked Jimi Hendrix's record of this and ever since he died I've been doing it that way," Dylan wrote in the liner notes to his Biograph box set. "Strange how when I sing it, I always feel it's a tribute to him in some kind of way."