I’ve never heard After Bathing at Baxter’s, the album between Jefferson Airplane’s Surrealistic Pillow and Crown of Creation, but I hear that it was a marked departure from the folksy noodling on Surrealistic Pillow in favor of for straightforward rock. But, one rock album must have been enough for them, because Crown of Creation is nowhere near the acid rock fest you might expect from Jefferson Airplane’s reputation (or the album cover–they’re inside of a nuclear blast! Come on!).
jefferson airplane
Record #243: Jefferson Airplane – Surrealistic Pillow (1967)
1967 was a banner year for the psychedelic movement. The Beatles released Sgt. Pepper’s AND Magical Mystery Tour, the Stones released Their Satanic Majesty’s Request, the Who Sold Out, the Jimi Hendrix Experience debuted, and the hippies all moved into Haight-Ashbury.
And out of Haight-Ashbury came Jefferson Airplane, the soundtrack to the Summer of Love, and one of the hardest rocking bands in the world at that point–let alone the hardest rocking rock band with a female vocalist (in a world without Jefferson Airplane, there is no Heart, no Joan Jett, no Raveonnettes).