This song isn't about what you think it is. It was written by Marty Balin as an ode to his new stereo system, which was a novelty item at the time. At the time this was recorded, "Plastic" referred to people that were fake, poseurs, materialistic consumers. Zappa also used the term in his song Plastic People. He went as far as telling the listener "Go home/and check yourself/you think we're singing 'bout someone else?".
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, Bob Dylan, The Yardbirds, and The Beatles, among other mid-1960s rock bands. "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. Subsequent 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.
Some controversy exists as to the role of Grateful Dead guitarist Jerry Garcia in the making of the album "Surrealistic Pillow", which this is on. His reputed presence on several tracks is denied by producer Rick Jarrard, but he is credited on the RCA label copy and received credits on the Flight Log compilation and the "Jefferson Airplane Loves You" box set. In his sleeve notes for "Early Flight", a 1974 compilation album of previously unreleased material, manager Bill Thompson writes only that Garcia was "listed as 'spiritual advisor' on the album cover [and] played one of the guitars" on "In The Morning," a Kaukonen composition that was released on "Early Flight" and subsequently included on the 2003 reissue of "Surrealistic Pillow". Garcia himself recalled in a mid-1967 interview that he played the high lead on "Today" in addition to playing guitar on two other songs ("Plastic Fantastic Lover" and "Comin' Back to Me") and rearranging "Somebody to Love." He also played on "J.P.P. McStep B. Blues" (included on "Early Flight" and the 2003 reissue) and may have played on "How Do You Feel." Kaukonen has opined that Garcia was essentially the producer who arranged the songs for the group. A comment by Garcia about the music being "as surrealistic as a pillow" also reportedly inspired the album title.
This song isn't about what you think it is. It was written by Marty Balin as an ode to his new stereo system, which was a novelty item at the time. At the time this was recorded, "Plastic" referred to people that were fake, poseurs, materialistic consumers. Zappa also used the term in his song [Plastic People](https://hooktube.com/watch?v=SVEqxSlaQ64). He went as far as telling the listener "Go home/and check yourself/you think we're singing 'bout someone else?".
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, Bob Dylan, The Yardbirds, and The Beatles, among other mid-1960s rock bands. "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. Subsequent 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.
Some controversy exists as to the role of Grateful Dead guitarist Jerry Garcia in the making of the album "Surrealistic Pillow", which this is on. His reputed presence on several tracks is denied by producer Rick Jarrard, but he is credited on the RCA label copy and received credits on the Flight Log compilation and the "Jefferson Airplane Loves You" box set. In his sleeve notes for "Early Flight", a 1974 compilation album of previously unreleased material, manager Bill Thompson writes only that Garcia was "listed as 'spiritual advisor' on the album cover [and] played one of the guitars" on "In The Morning," a Kaukonen composition that was released on "Early Flight" and subsequently included on the 2003 reissue of "Surrealistic Pillow". Garcia himself recalled in a mid-1967 interview that he played the high lead on "Today" in addition to playing guitar on two other songs ("Plastic Fantastic Lover" and "Comin' Back to Me") and rearranging "Somebody to Love." He also played on "J.P.P. McStep B. Blues" (included on "Early Flight" and the 2003 reissue) and may have played on "How Do You Feel." Kaukonen has opined that Garcia was essentially the producer who arranged the songs for the group. A comment by Garcia about the music being "as surrealistic as a pillow" also reportedly inspired the album title.
This song isn't about what you think it is. It was written by Marty Balin as an ode to his new stereo system, which was a novelty item at the time. At the time this was recorded, "Plastic" referred to people that were fake, poseurs, materialistic consumers. Zappa also used the term in his song Plastic People. He went as far as telling the listener "Go home/and check yourself/you think we're singing 'bout someone else?".
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, Bob Dylan, The Yardbirds, and The Beatles, among other mid-1960s rock bands. "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. Subsequent 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.
Some controversy exists as to the role of Grateful Dead guitarist Jerry Garcia in the making of the album "Surrealistic Pillow", which this is on. His reputed presence on several tracks is denied by producer Rick Jarrard, but he is credited on the RCA label copy and received credits on the Flight Log compilation and the "Jefferson Airplane Loves You" box set. In his sleeve notes for "Early Flight", a 1974 compilation album of previously unreleased material, manager Bill Thompson writes only that Garcia was "listed as 'spiritual advisor' on the album cover [and] played one of the guitars" on "In The Morning," a Kaukonen composition that was released on "Early Flight" and subsequently included on the 2003 reissue of "Surrealistic Pillow". Garcia himself recalled in a mid-1967 interview that he played the high lead on "Today" in addition to playing guitar on two other songs ("Plastic Fantastic Lover" and "Comin' Back to Me") and rearranging "Somebody to Love." He also played on "J.P.P. McStep B. Blues" (included on "Early Flight" and the 2003 reissue) and may have played on "How Do You Feel." Kaukonen has opined that Garcia was essentially the producer who arranged the songs for the group. A comment by Garcia about the music being "as surrealistic as a pillow" also reportedly inspired the album title.