After Bathing at Baxter's [Bonus Tracks]

Performer: Jefferson Airplane
Engineer: Richie Schmitt
Producer: Al Schmitt; Bob Irwin (Reissue)
Distributor: BMG (distributor)

Notes: Jefferson Airplane: Paul Kantner, Jorma Kaukonen (vocals, guitar); Grace Slick (vocals, recorder, piano); Marty Balin (vocals); Jack Casady (bass); Spencer Dryden (drums). Recorded at RCA, Hollywood, California. Originally released on RCA (4545). Includes liner notes by Jeff Tamarkin. This newly remastered 2003 deluxe edition contains bonus tracks. Jefferson Airplane: Paul Kantner, Jorma Kaukonen (vocals, guitar); Grace Slick (vocals, recorder, piano); Marty Balin (vocals); Jack Casady (bass); Spencer Dryden (drums). Recorded at RCA, Hollywood, California. Originally released on RCA (4545). Includes liner notes by Bill Thompson and Jeff Tamarkin. Liner Note Authors: Jeff Tamarkin; Jefferson Airplane; Bill Thompson. Recording information: RCA, Hollywood, CA (06/14/1967-10/31/1967). Photographers: Alan Papp�; Don Paulsen. Arranger: Jefferson Airplane. Bitten by the '60s San Francisco bug of extended musical explorations, the Jefferson Airplane flew into song-suites on AFTER BATHING AT BAXTER'S. But rather than being an organic jam-fest, BAXTER'S took the Airplane's singular white R&B jams and bled them into one another. The "Streetmasse" suite, for instance, combines two typically electrifying Airplane performances--"The Ballad Of You & Me & Pooneil" and "Young Girl Sunday Blues," both of which give off the adrenaline of an Americanized early Who with female harmony vocals--through a warped pastiche of vocal and percussive noodling ("A Small Package Of Value Will Come To You, Shortly"). San Francisco's cultural evolution didn't just affect the structure of the songs on AFTER BATHING AT BAXTER'S. No longer hiding behind the metaphors of the first two albums, the Airplane were now openly voicing the thoughts of their constituency--"There is a new way of thinking," sings Paul Kantner on his "Wild Tyme," and the very title of the "Hymn To An Older Generation" suite speaks for itself. "Spare Chaynge" is a nearly ten-minute instrumental led by Jorma Kaukonen's spaced-out guitar, the closest the Airplane had yet come to the musical free-for-all of their San Francisco brethren. Of all the reissues to date of the Jefferson Airplane's classic catalog, the 2003-vintage expanded version of After Bathing at Baxter's is the most rewarding. The most ambitious album ever recorded by the band, and one of the finest psychedelic albums ever released, the reissue enhances its value, not only with a better transfer than the 1996-vintage upgrade, but some highly significant bonus tracks. First and foremost, and one of the great bonus cuts to have turned up to date in the entire CD era, is the live, long version of "The Ballad of You and Me and Pooneil," 11-plus minutes of some of the best psychedelic music ever committed to tape by anyone, and significantly different from the four-and-half-minute studio version finally used; this track by itself is worth the price of the CD. The other labeled bonuses are the single edit of "Martha" (which isn't that special); a leaner, less ambitious, smoother alternate version of "Two Heads" (which reveals a potential lost single); and Marty Balin's never-used "Things Are Better in the East" (originally resurrected for the 2400 Fulton Street box). But the producers have also included a hidden bonus track, an alternate instrumental track for "Young Girl Sunday Blues," that is well worth hearing. The historical notes by Bill Thompson and group biographer Jeff Tamarkin give a full account of the evolution of each song as well as the entire album, and the excellence of the sound makes the 2003 reissue an essential acquisition for any fan of the group, or of psychedelic music in general. ~ Bruce Eder

Rolling Stone (9/18/03, p.77) - 5 stars out of 5 - "...An acid symphony full of extended pieces conjoined into suites, with highflying hymns to liberated times delivered forcefully by the Airplane's vocal troika..."

One of the quintessential San Francisco psychedelic bands, the Jefferson Airplane brought together interests in acoustic blues, folk, and rock music. Add political topicality and modal improvisations, and you have an inspired, mind-bending sound that could have only sprung forth from the late '60s. In their initial, most beloved phase, they were powered by the powerful dual lead vocals of Grace Slick and Marty Balin and the serpentine guitar of Jorma Kaukonen. They went through a traumatic series of personnel and name changes over the decades (they ventured into commercial AOR in the late '70s and early '80s) but their early work retains its seminal power.

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