White Rabbit (song) explained

White Rabbit
Cover:White Rabbit label.jpg
Type:single
Artist:Jefferson Airplane
Album:Surrealistic Pillow
B-Side:Plastic Fantastic Lover
Released:[1]
Recorded:[2]
Studio:RCA Victor (Hollywood, California)
Label:RCA Victor
Producer:Rick Jarrard
Prev Title:Somebody to Love
Prev Year:1967
Next Title:The Ballad of You and Me and Pooneil
Next Year:1967

"White Rabbit" is a song written by Grace Slick and recorded by the American rock band Jefferson Airplane for their 1967 album Surrealistic Pillow. It draws on imagery from Lewis Carroll's 1865 book Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and its 1871 sequel Through the Looking-Glass.

It was released as a single and became the band's second top-10 success, peaking at number eight[3] on the Billboard Hot 100. The song was ranked number 478 on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time[4] in 2004, number 483 in 2010, and number 455 in 2021 and appears on The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll. In 1998, the song was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.[5]

History

Background

"White Rabbit" was written and performed by Grace Slick while she was still with her previous band, the Great Society. Slick then left the Great Society to join Jefferson Airplane to replace their departing female singer, Signe Toly Anderson (who left the band to give birth to her child). The first album Slick recorded with Jefferson Airplane was Surrealistic Pillow, and Slick provided two songs from her previous group: her own "White Rabbit" and "Somebody to Love", written by her brother-in-law Darby Slick and recorded under the title "Someone to Love" by the Great Society.[6] The Great Society's version of "White Rabbit" was much longer than the more aggressive version of Jefferson Airplane. Both songs became top-10 hits[7] for Jefferson Airplane and have ever since been associated with that band.[8]

Composition, lyrics and inspiration

"White Rabbit" is one of Grace Slick's earliest songs, written from December 1965 to January 1966.[9] It uses imagery found in the fantasy works of Lewis Carroll — 1865's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and its 1871 sequel Through the Looking-Glass — such as changing size after taking pills or drinking an unknown liquid.

Slick wrote the lyrics first, then composed the music at a red upright piano she had bought for US$50 with eight or ten keys missing — "that was OK because I could hear in my head the notes that weren't there"[10] — moving between major chords for the verses and chorus. She said that the music was heavily influenced by Miles Davis's 1960 album Sketches of Spain, particularly Davis's treatment of the Concierto de Aranjuez (1939). She later said: "Writing weird stuff about Alice backed by a dark Spanish march was in step with what was going on in San Francisco then. We were all trying to get as far away from the expected as possible".[9]

Slick said the song was supposed to be a wake-up call to parents who read their children novels such as these and then would wonder why their children used drugs.[11] She later commented that all fairytales read to little girls have a Prince Charming who comes and saves them. But Alice did not, she was "on her own... in a very strange place, but she kept on going and she followed her curiosity – that's the White Rabbit. A lot of women could have taken a message from that story about how you can push your own agenda". Slick added that "The line in the song 'feed your head' is both about reading and psychedelics...feeding your head by paying attention: read some books, pay attention".[10]

Characters Slick referenced include Alice, the White Rabbit, the hookah-smoking caterpillar, the White Knight, the Red Queen, and the Dormouse.[12] Slick reportedly wrote the song after an acid trip.[13] For Slick, "White Rabbit" "is about following your curiosity. The White Rabbit is your curiosity".[14] For her and others in the 1960s, drugs were a part of mind expansion and social experimentation. With its enigmatic lyrics, "White Rabbit" became one of the first songs to sneak drug references passing censorship on the radio. Marty Balin, Slick's former bandmate and co-founder of Jefferson Airplane (and later Jefferson Starship), regarded the song as a "masterpiece". In interviews, Slick has related that Alice in Wonderland was often read to her as a child and remained a vivid memory well into her adulthood.[4]

In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, Slick mentioned that, in addition to Alice in Wonderland, her other inspiration for the song was Ravel's Boléro. Like Boléro, "White Rabbit" is essentially one long crescendo. The music combined with the song's lyrics strongly suggests the sensory distortions experienced with hallucinogens, and the song was later used in pop culture to imply or accompany just such a state.[15]

Recording by Jefferson Airplane

The song was first played by the Great Society in a bar in San Francisco in early 1966, and later when they opened the bill for bigger bands like the Grateful Dead. They made a series of demo records for Autumn Records, for which they were assisted by Sly Stone. Grace Slick said: "We were so bad that Sly eventually played all the instruments so the demo would sound OK". When Slick joined Jefferson Airplane later in 1966, she taught the song to the band, who recorded it for their album Surrealistic Pillow.[9] "White Rabbit" is in the key of F-sharp which Slick acknowledges "is difficult for guitar players as it requires some intricate fingering".[10]

Reception

Cash Box called it "a real strong outing guaranteed to get lots of attention."[16] Record World said it has "a little bolero sound and a haunting lyric."[17]

Charts

Weekly charts

Chart (1967)Peak
position
Canada RPM Top Singles[18] 1
US Billboard Hot 100[19] 8
US Cash Box Top 100[20] 6

Year-end charts

Chart (1967)Rank
Canada[21] 48
US Billboard Hot 100[22] 81
US Cash Box[23] 60
Cashbox[24] (11 weeks): 59, 45, 23, 14, 12, 11, 8, 6, 7, 22, 41-

Personnel

In popular culture

Notes and References

  1. Book: The Great Rock Discography. 1995. 430 . 9780862415419 . Strong . Martin Charles . Canongate Press .
  2. Tamarkin . Jeff . Surrealistic Pillow . Surrealistic Pillow . . 2003 . Liner notes . . 82876 50351 2.
  3. Web site: Top 100 Music Hits, Top 100 Music Charts, Top 100 Songs & The Hot 100 . Billboard.com . July 8, 2011 . https://web.archive.org/web/20140713045930/http://www.billboard.com/charts/1967-07-29/hot-100 . July 13, 2014 . live .
  4. The RS 500 Greatest Songs of All Time . . August 7, 2011 . December 9, 2004 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20080622142703/http://www.rollingstone.com/news/coverstory/500songs . June 22, 2008.
  5. Web site: GRAMMY Hall Of Fame | Hall of Fame Artists | GRAMMY.com. grammy.com.
  6. Web site: Darby Slick Puts Original Lyrics Up For Sale. Jambands.com. March 26, 2014. February 3, 2015. https://web.archive.org/web/20150204015526/http://www.jambands.com/news/2014/03/26/darby-slick-puts-original-lyric-page-to-somebody-to-love-up-for-sale. February 4, 2015. live.
  7. Web site: Billboard – Jefferson Airplane. Billboard.com. January 31, 2015. https://web.archive.org/web/20150901125353/http://www.billboard.com/artist/304407/jefferson-airplane/chart?mobile_redirection=falsesuccesses. September 1, 2015. live.
  8. Book: Got a revolution!:the turbulent flight of Jefferson Airplane. Tamarkin. Jeff. Atria. 2003. 113. 0-671-03403-0. April 30, 2011. https://web.archive.org/web/20140701204724/http://books.google.com/books?id=TKyYNB0pGIoC&pg=PA113&dq=grace+slick+contract&hl=en&ei=X4W8TegBzZy3B-nAucEF&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=3&ved=0CEAQ6AEwAg#v=onepage&q=grace%20slick%20contract&f=false. July 1, 2014. live.
  9. Book: Myers, Marc . Marc Myers. 2016 . Anatomy of a Song . Grove Press . 92–99 . 978-1-61185-525-8.
  10. News: Grace Slick and Jack Casady of Jefferson Airplane: how we made White Rabbit . Jesudason . David . The Guardian . August 23, 2021 .
  11. Web site: Biography – Grace Slick . Jeffersonairplane.com . January 31, 2015 . https://web.archive.org/web/20170507221818/http://www.jeffersonairplane.com/the-band/grace-slick/ . May 7, 2017 . dead.
  12. Web site: White Rabbit Lyrics . Metrolyrics.com . January 31, 2015 . https://web.archive.org/web/20150216061413/http://www.metrolyrics.com/white-rabbit-lyrics-jefferson-airplane.html . February 16, 2015 . dead .
  13. Web site: Hughes . Rob . The Story Behind The Song: White Rabbit by Jefferson Airplane . . October 29, 2016 . August 2, 2017 . https://web.archive.org/web/20170802165147/http://teamrock.com/feature/2016-10-29/the-story-behind-the-song-white-rabbit-by-jefferson-airplane . August 2, 2017 . live .
  14. News: She Went Chasing Rabbits . Myers . Marc . . August 2, 2016 . https://web.archive.org/web/20150108161611/http://www.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052748703778104576287303493094530?mg=reno64-wsj&url=http%3A%2F%2Fonline.wsj.com%2Farticle%2FSB10001424052748703778104576287303493094530.html . January 8, 2015 . live .
  15. Book: Robert Dimery . 1001 Songs You Must Hear Before You Die . Cassell . First . October 1, 2015 . 978-1844038800.
  16. CashBox Record Reviews . June 24, 1967 . 22 . January 12, 2022 . Cash Box.
  17. Single Picks of the Week. Record World. June 17, 1967. 1. 2023-07-11.
  18. Web site: Item Display - RPM - Library and Archives Canada . Collectionscanada.gc.ca . August 5, 1967 . January 14, 2018 . https://web.archive.org/web/20180114093233/https://www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/discover/films-videos-sound-recordings/rpm/Pages/image.aspx?Image=nlc008388.10085&URLjpg=http%3a%2f%2fwww.collectionscanada.gc.ca%2fobj%2f028020%2ff4%2fnlc008388.10085.gif&Ecopy=nlc008388.10085 . 2018-01-14 . live .
  19. Joel Whitburn's Top Pop Singles 1955-1990 -
  20. Web site: Cash Box Top 100 8/12/67. Tropicalglen.com. May 12, 2019. https://web.archive.org/web/20181128200402/http://www.tropicalglen.com/Archives/60s_files/19670812.html. November 28, 2018. dead.
  21. Web site: RPM Top 100 Singles of 1967. Collectionscanada.gc.ca. May 12, 2019. https://web.archive.org/web/20160812082630/http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/rpm/028020-119.01-e.php?brws_s=1&file_num=nlc008388.100151&type=1&interval=24&PHPSESSID=dtlhqtcdftn9t40n27r4hds2h0. August 12, 2016. dead.
  22. Web site: Top 100 Hits of 1967/Top 100 Songs of 1967. Musicoutfitters.com. May 12, 2019. https://web.archive.org/web/20190323231319/https://www.musicoutfitters.com/topsongs/1967.htm. March 23, 2019. live.
  23. Web site: Cash Box YE Pop Singles - 1967. https://web.archive.org/web/20130907024341/http://tropicalglen.com/Archives/60s_files/1967YESP.html. dead. September 7, 2013. Tropicalglen.com. May 12, 2019.
  24. Book: Hoffmann , Frank . 1983. The Cash Box Singles Charts, 1950–1981. The Scarecrow Press, Inc. Metuchen, NJ & London. 303.
  25. Book: Hendley, Nate . 2016 . The Big Con: Great Hoaxes, Frauds, Grifts, and Swindles in American History . Santa Barbara, California . ABC-CLIO . 161–163 . 9781610695862 .
  26. News: Loebker . Terri . October 16, 1971 . Books In Review: Diary of a Young Drug Addict . The Cincinnati Enquirer . Teen-Ager–p. 3 . December 21, 2016 . Newspapers.com . subscription . "Go Ask Alice", (title adapted from Grace Slick's song, "White Rabbit",) is the anonymous diary of a 15-year-old drug user..
  27. Web site: 2016-02-06 . Paul Kalkbrenner samples Jefferson Airplane with single 'Feed Your Head' .

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