Jefferson Airplane - Somebody To Love

Added: Jun 16, 2008   By: blestemp

Duration: 3:1

Channel: Music

Written by Darby Slick for The Great Society a band Grace Slick also played in before Jefferson Airplane/Starship Surrealistic Pillow Studio album by Jefferson Airplane Released February 1967 Recorded October 31, 1966 -- November 22, 1966 Genre Psychedelic rock, folk rock Length 33:40 Label RCA Victor Producer Rick Jarrard Jefferson Airplane's fusion of folk rock and psychedelia was original at the time, in line with musical developments pioneered by The Byrds, The Mamas the Papas, and Bob Dylan. Surrealistic Pillow was the first blockbuster psychedelic album by a band from San Francisco, announcing to the world the active bohemian scene that had developed there starting with The Beats during the 1950s, extending and changing through the 1960s into the Haight-Ashbury counterculture. Subsequently, the exposure generated by the Airplane and others wrought great changes to that counterculture, and by 1968 the ensuing national media attention had precipitated a very different San Francisco scene than had existed in 1966. San Francisco photographer, Herb Greene photographed the band for the album's cover art. Some controversy exists as to the role of Grateful Dead guitarist Jerry Garcia in the making of the album. His reputed presence on several tracks is not corroborated by RCA paperwork and is denied by producer Rick Jarrard. But when performing Comin' Back to Me live with Jefferson Starship, Marty Balin almost always introduced the song with a reference to the Surrealistic Pillow sessions, mentioning Garcia as playing the guitar parts on the original studio version. In 2003, the album was ranked number 146 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. Track History: When Grace Slick departed to join Jefferson Airplane, she took this song with her, bringing it to the Surrealistic Pillow sessions, along with her own composition "White Rabbit." Subsequently, the Airplane's more ferocious rock and roll version became the band's first and biggest hit; the single by Jefferson Airplane peaked at #5 on the Billboard Hot 100. Somebody to Love also appeared as a track on their influential album released in February of 1967, Surrealistic Pillow. Driven by Slick's forceful vocal, the song's hard-rock sound stood out among the group's more folk-oriented psychedelia that made up most their previous sound and some of the album. The lyrics, unusually, are in the second person, with each two-line verse setting a scene of alienation and despair, and the chorus repeating the title of the song, with slight variations such as: "... / Don't you need somebody to love? / Wouldn't you love somebody to love? / ..." Like the album on which it appeared, this song was instrumental in announcing the existence of the Haight-Ashbury counterculture to the rest of the United States. Lyrics: When the truth is found to be lies and all the joy within you dies don't you want somebody to love don't you need somebody to love wouldn't you love somebody to love you better find somebody to love When the garden flowers baby are dead yes and your mind [, your mind] is [so] full of red don't you want somebody to love don't you need somebody to love wouldn't you love somebody to love you better find somebody to love your eyes, I say your eyes may look like his [yeah] but in your head baby I'm afraid you don't know where it is don't you want somebody to love don't you need somebody to love wouldn't you love somebody to love you better find somebody to love tears are running [ahhh,]running down your breast and your friends baby they treat you like a guest. don't you want somebody to love don't you need somebody to love wouldn't you love somebody to love you better find somebody to love

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Tags: jefferson  airplane  marty  balin  grace  slick  summer  of  love  1966  1967  lsd  surrealistic  pillow  alice  in  wonderland