Issue No. 14 of Johnny Be Good features one of 45 songs from the book, Anatomy of a Song: The Oral History of 45 Iconic Hits That Changed Rock, R&B and Pop, by Marc Myers. Read John Pearson's review here. Order from Amazon here. Listen to the book on Libro (9 hours, 34 minutes). Each blog will spotlight a song from the book and a guest blogger’s color commentary. Click here to subscribe. Each issue of Your Weekly Staff Meeting will highlight the latest blog.
Grace Slick's "Alice Moment"
Today’s guest blogger is "Production Guy."
Song: #14 of 45
Title: “White Rabbit”
Musicians: Jefferson Airplane
Released: June 1967
Editor’s Note: Today’s guest blogger prefers to remain anonymous. This is his second blog. (Read his commentary on “You Really Got Me” from Feb. 19, 2024.)
I APPRECIATED THIS:
Hey! I’m back! Pearson tracked me down and asked me for my thoughts on what many people think was a song about drugs in the 60s. (I’m still writing incognito as “Production Guy.” I don’t need the PR. I’m not an “influencer.” Just a behind-the-scenes guy on our production team at church. And yes…we’re still exhausted a week after Easter. Our senior pastor is on spring break now—but we’re not. No comment.)
No surprise, “White Rabbit” will never be sung at our church—and probably not at your church or house of worship. John Pearson emailed me that he was tempted to skip this one because of the LSD and psychotropic drug references in the song, but I suggested we could write a redemptive commentary on Grace Slick’s song for Jefferson Airplane.
Yes—it’s about drugs, but says Slick, it was inspired by “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.” I had never read the background on the song (very interesting), and if you read this chapter in Marc Myers’ book, you’ll understand the White Rabbit reference.
Here’s the real deal: What I love about my church is that we’re a refuge for women and men who are battling their addictions. So we understand the drug culture and we’re not afraid of talking about it—and how it has touched some of our people (older and younger). By the way, Grace Slick is 84 this year!
I was pleased to read this from Slick, who was interviewed for the book at age 76. “I no longer drink and I don’t use marijuana, because it makes me paranoid.”
For more, read Marc Myers’ column from the WSJ, May 31, 2016, “How Jefferson Airplane’s Grace Slick Wrote ‘White Rabbit.’” According to the article, it became a “touchstone of psychedelic rock.” (The song was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1998.)
Listen to “White Rabbit,” by Jefferson Airplane.
MY FAVORITE NOTES & QUOTES:
• When the San Francisco Chronicle interviewed Grace Slick, she says that she “argued in favor of marijuana and LSD, and somehow the article got back to my parents. It was painful for them, but I didn’t care whether they minded or note. Parents were criticizing our generation’s choices while sitting there with their glasses of scotch.”
• “To this day, I don’t think most people realize the song was aimed at parents who drank and told their kids not to do drugs.”
• “My only complaint is that the lyrics could have been stronger. If I had done it right, more people would have been annoyed.”
WHERE WERE YOU WHEN YOU FIRST HEARD THIS SONG?
Growing up in the 60s exposed me to both the good stuff and the bad stuff. I thought “Jefferson Airplane” was a cool name for a band. And what’s cooler than a singer named “Grace Slick?” Just those two names prompted me to listen to the song. (I hid the album from my parents!)
While writing this column—and watching the U.S. media obsess over the total solar eclipse yesterday (April 8, 2024), I wondered what kind of song Grace Slick would have written to describe that experience? (Maybe she wrote a song yesterday!)
JOHNNY BE...GOOD, BETTER, OR BEST?
• GOOD (in 1965, before Grace Slick joined Jefferson Airplane): “That fall, I found a small upright piano for $80 at a warehouse in San Francisco. It was painted about 90 coats of bright red and was missing about 10 keys in the upper register.”
• BETTER: “The music I came up with was based on a slow Spanish march or bolero that builds in intensity. I’ve always had a thing for Spanish folk music.” (Grace Slick especially enjoyed the “Sketches of Spain” album by Miles Davis.)
• BEST: “I identified with Alice. I was a product of ‘50s America in Palo Alto, Calif., where women were housewives with short hair and everything was highly regulated. I went from the planned, bland ‘50s to the world of being in a rock band without looking back. It was my Alice moment, heading down the hole. ‘White Rabbit’ seemed like an appropriate title.”
We can't verify that this is a photo of "Production Guy," but this is the photo he submitted.
THIS ISSUE'S COMMENTARY BY "Production Guy"
TODAY’S GUEST BLOGGER (aka “Production Guy”) says he never experimented with drugs, but had plenty of friends who did. He serves part-time on the production team at his church—setting up for services (he labels his work, “lights, camera, action”). He’s not a professional musician (never made the cut at his megachurch), but says he did dabble in music (drums, songwriting, and more) in his school years.
He especially appreciates his band teacher who recognized his talent (and lack of it!) and pointed him in the right direction. (Three cheers for band, choir, and orchestra teachers, right?)
“Production Guy” also mentioned that in reading Luke 3 last week, he was blessed to see that John the Baptist referred to himself as “a mere stagehand.” John says that the “main character in this drama” is Jesus. (Not a bad reminder for all of us.)
NEXT UP!
Song #15 of 45, “Different Drum,” by The Stone Poneys.
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It all started in 2023, when John Pearson read and reviewed a "fun" book, Anatomy of a Song: The Oral History of 45 Iconic Hits That Changed Rock, R&B and Pop, by Marc Myers. Read John's review here. Order from Amazon here. Listen to the book on Libro (9 hours, 34 minutes).
If you'd enjoy being one of 45 guest bloggers, along with John Ashmen, Dick Nelson, Suzy West, Dave Barton, Paul Palmer, Bill Butterworth, Jim West, Melinda Schmidt, Jason Pearson, Gary Rea, Callista Dawson, John Walling, Ed Barrett, Larry Beatty, and others, read more here and contact John Pearson. Click here to subscribe to this blog and enjoy the toe-tapping musicians in each weekly blog post—reminding you of these iconic songs of yesteryear.