Jefferson Airplane - Somebody To Love

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

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Jefferson
• Airplane
• Marty
• Balin
• Grace
• Slick
• Summer
• Of
• Love
• 1966
• 1967
• LSD
• Surrealistic
• Pillow
• Alice
• In
• Wonderland

[LisaSpringfield]

@ozzy2k11 What era are you living in, good sir? The whole "hip hop/gangster shit" ended in like 2007. It peaked in the early/mid 2000s.

Now it's all electronic music about clubs, alcohol and sex.

[ps3faan]

@ozzy2k11 hiphop gangster shit??? ur fucking stupid that ended ages ago back in the 90s cuz of this shitty generation they just listen to fucking crap lil wayne and drake and nikki minaj and that aint hiphop its garbage they aint gangsta's either, people nowadays listen to crap like dubstep, grime and pop which fucking sucks.

[BridgeIsSky]

nice

[MarkwhoMarkMason]

im 18 n i love this song i like all kinds of music but i since the love and freeness in 60s rock

[Werym]

Goood hippe's time's ... ochhh nostalgia ....

LSD and marijuane .... 1967 ....

[icytadbull]

battlefield vietnam

[LyriumWolf]

@AKix32296 if I could rate this more than once I would.

Thank you for having a modicum of sense and tolerance. You've taken the words right out of my mouth (or would that be off of my keyboard, lol)

Just sit back, turn up the volume and enjoy!

[AKix32296]

music never dies. genres never die. and who are we to say one genre is worse than the other? i think people fell smarter and "cooler" when they brag about how they hate mainstream music. cant we all just be fucking happy? last time i checked, we arent defined by what is on our ipod or how cool our favorite song is. music is supposed to make you happy or sad or chill. i dont give a shit if you like rap or mozart or jefferson airplane. just enjoy your own goddamn music and dont dis others.

[LSA2013]

This is epic!! Had I known that this and the Queen song of the same name were different, I probably would have found this long ago lol

[NormbrettaMod]

i actually like "hiphop gangster shit". got way more meaning and originality than stuff today.