Psychedelic scholars have long tried to pin down just what the Grateful
Dead's Jerry Garcia did on this album (he is credited as "musical
and spiritual adviser"). But the real trip is the Airplane's concise
sorcery, a hallucinatory distillation of folk-blues vocals, garage-rock
guitar and crisp pop songwriting. The effects were felt nationwide. Grace
Slick's vocal showcases, "White Rabbit" and "Somebody to
Love," made Surrealistic Pillowa commercial smash during San Francisco's
Summer of Love, and Marty Balin's spectral "Today" is still
the greatest ballad of that city's glory days.
(Rolling Stone)
Total album sales: 500,000 / Peak chart position: 3
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