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Jilly_in_VA

(9,931 posts)
Mon Aug 23, 2021, 02:10 PM Aug 2021

Grace Slick and Jack Casady of Jefferson Airplane: how we made White Rabbit

Grace Slick, singer and songwriter
All fairytales that are read to little girls feature a Prince Charming who comes and saves them. But Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland did not. Alice was on her own, and she was 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.

The 1960s resembled Wonderland for me. Like Alice, I met all kinds of strange characters, but I was comfortable with it. I wrote White Rabbit on a red upright piano that cost me about $50. It had eight or 10 keys missing, but that was OK because I could hear in my head the notes that weren’t there. I used that piano to write several different songs. When I started making money I bought a better one.

In the 60s, the drugs were not ones like heroin and alcohol that you take to blot out a terrible life, but psychedelics: marijuana, LSD and shroomies. Psychedelic drugs showed you that there are alternative realities. You open up to things that are unusual and different, and, in realising that there are alternative ways of looking at things, you become more accepting of things around you.

The line in the song “feed your head” is both about reading and psychedelics. I was talking about feeding your head by paying attention: read some books, pay attention.

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2021/aug/23/grace-slick-and-jack-casady-of-jefferson-airplane-how-we-made-white-rabbit
7 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
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Grace Slick and Jack Casady of Jefferson Airplane: how we made White Rabbit (Original Post) Jilly_in_VA Aug 2021 OP
K&R 2naSalit Aug 2021 #1
Grace Slick is an icon of the 60's. Those of us that walkingman Aug 2021 #2
Grace Slick Casady1 Aug 2021 #3
I love her voice moose65 Aug 2021 #5
you missed her flashing the audience Casady1 Aug 2021 #7
Heard it first as a sailor on a tin can out of New York.. Permanut Aug 2021 #4
This. PoindexterOglethorpe Aug 2021 #6

walkingman

(7,571 posts)
2. Grace Slick is an icon of the 60's. Those of us that
Mon Aug 23, 2021, 02:18 PM
Aug 2021

were fortunate enough to have lived in that era were so lucky if you were able to avoid the draft. Sad that the youth of today do not have a collective message to rally around like.......Sex, Drugs, and Rock & Roll.

 

Casady1

(2,133 posts)
3. Grace Slick
Mon Aug 23, 2021, 02:24 PM
Aug 2021

the greatest woman rock singer of all time. Intellectual, funny and great hard rock songs. The Airplane set the stage for American music in 1967 and really was about the most important American band. She was model good looking and completely outrageous. They were extremely creative.

moose65

(3,166 posts)
5. I love her voice
Mon Aug 23, 2021, 03:16 PM
Aug 2021

Strong, powerful, angry, piercing - her voice is hard to define.

I'm too young to have been a fan of hers in the 1960's. The first time I remember even being aware of her was in 1978 when Jefferson Starship's album "Earth" came out.

I did become a big fan in the 80's during the Starship era (I know - don't hate me) and then I went back and discovered a lot of her earlier stuff. She is an icon of rock and roll.

 

Casady1

(2,133 posts)
7. you missed her flashing the audience
Mon Aug 23, 2021, 04:33 PM
Aug 2021

She would wear a minidress that was a fishnet on top with patches covering her boobs. She would then pull her skirt up and flash the audience. she was a hoot.

Permanut

(5,538 posts)
4. Heard it first as a sailor on a tin can out of New York..
Mon Aug 23, 2021, 03:15 PM
Aug 2021

We had one crappy little radio, but this song still sounded like a masterpiece.

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