{"id":1072638,"date":"2026-07-06T19:53:23","date_gmt":"2026-07-06T19:53:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1072638\/"},"modified":"2026-07-06T19:53:23","modified_gmt":"2026-07-06T19:53:23","slug":"the-one-1970s-band-grace-slick-couldnt-enjoy-for-a-second","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1072638\/","title":{"rendered":"The one 1970s band Grace Slick couldn’t enjoy for a second"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Grace<\/p>\n

Credit: Far Out \/ Noord-Hollands Archief \/ Fotoburo de Boer<\/p>\n

Mon 6 July 2026 20:00, UK <\/p>\n

For many, Grace Slick<\/a> and Jefferson Airplane were the absolute epitome of the counterculture movement. During a time when society was championing peace and freedom of expression, Slick\u2019s music provided the perfect soundtrack, reflecting the defiant, free-spirited nature of the time. <\/p>\n

Joining the band in 1966, Slick\u2019s claim over the entire movement began with Surrealistic Pillow, Airplane\u2019s second record, which the group started recording just two weeks after she joined. The first recordings included many that anchored the album\u2019s message, including \u2018She Has Funny Cars\u2019, \u2018My Best Friend\u2019, and \u2018Today\u2019, featuring Grateful Dead\u2019s Jerry Garcia on guitar.<\/p>\n

Following those sessions, Slick brought a composition from her time in her previous group, The Great Society, called \u2018White Rabbit\u2019. Inspired by Lewis Carroll\u2019s Alice\u2019s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass, \u2018White Rabbit\u2019 ruminates on generational hypocrisy in the context of the drug-altering landscape of \u201860s counterculture, using the white rabbit as a metaphor for curiosity and discovery of a world beyond what is presented<\/a>.<\/p>\n

As Slick later explained, the white rabbit itself was viewed as an alternative source of power, almost a symbol for all the women who weren\u2019t yet aware that breaking the mould was an option. As such, the white rabbit was her essentially suggesting a different portal of escapism, presenting a message to women \u201cabout how you can push your own agenda\u201d.<\/p>\n

The lyrics also play on this duality and the blending of intellect and mind-altering drugs, with characters and multiple drug references (a first at the time, at least on a mainstream level) that place mental or societal distortion as a magical reality<\/a> accessed through a secret tool or source of knowledge (the rabbit or, in reality, the psychedelic drugs). \u201cThe line in the song \u2018Feed your head\u2019 is both about reading and psychedelics,\u201d Slick later explained, \u201c[It\u2019s about] feeding your head by paying attention: read some books, pay attention.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was for this reason that Airplane always seemed like one of the most authentic groups out there, especially with their ability to hold up an accurate mirror to the world around them in ways that didn\u2019t seem to do it for any reason other than the fact that that\u2019s precisely what they wanted to do at the time. <\/p>\n

However, when the band transitioned into Jefferson Starship because of a line-up reshuffling and subsequent rebrand<\/a>, Slick suddenly left behind her gritty, psychedelic roots in favour of a more chart-topping, commercial phenomenon, with hits like \u2018We Built This City\u2019 and \u2018Nothing\u2019s Gonna Stop Us Now\u2019 topping the Hot 100 and cementing her position in pop music history.<\/p>\n

Further reading: From The Vault<\/strong><\/p>\n

And yet, while many musicians would have celebrated this shift, the frontwoman had mixed feelings about it, feeling like she\u2019d somehow disobeyed her own creative authenticity in favour of selling out. As she later reflected, \u201cStarship was a whole different thing. It was pop rock. It made more money and had more hit songs than Airplane\u201d.<\/p>\n

She added, \u201cThere was no cultural or social ethic behind it. For me, it was like selling out. I was the only one selling out. The rest enjoyed doing what they were doing\u201d.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

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