After Bathing at Baxter's

After Bathing at Baxter's is the third studio album by the San Francisco psychedelic rock band Jefferson Airplane, released in 1967 as RCA Victor LSO-1511 (stereo) and LOP-1511 (mono). The cover art is by artist Ron Cobb.
Due to the lack of a breakout hit, the experimental album was significantly less successful than its predecessor from a commercial standpoint, peaking at number 17 on the Billboard album chart and failing to attain a RIAA certification. Paul Kantner's composition "The Ballad of You and Me and Pooneil" was released as a single in August 1967, with him as lead singer and Grace Slick and Marty Balin harmonizing, and reached number 42 on the Billboard charts. The band's singles never again crossed the halfway mark in the Hot 100. It was voted number 595 in Colin Larkin's All Time Top 1000 Albums 3rd Edition (2000).
John Hartford referenced the cover art from After Bathing at Baxter's as the inspiration for his song "Steam Powered Aereo Plane" from his album Aereo-Plain.
Cash Box said that the single "Watch Her Ride" had a "hard rock beat with a backup centering on electrified workouts from lead guitar," "grand imagery" and "fine vocals." Record World called it "one of [Jefferson Airplane's] sinuous, contemporary melodies." Billboard said it has "weird, groovy sounds throughout."
Title and artwork
The album's title was derived from a poem written by the band's friend Gary Blackman. Kantner explained that the title translates to "After Taking LSD", "Baxter" being the group's code word for the drug.
The cover art was designed by Ron Cobb, then a political cartoonist for the Los Angeles Free Press. The front cover depicts the band as a World War I-era triplane with the body of a San Francisco townhouse. Cannabis plants are shown growing out of the house's flower boxes. The artwork is framed with a red bar on the bottom and a blue bar with white stars on the top, signifying the United States flag. The plane, painted in full color, dispenses confetti while flying over a black and white landscape – embodying the white of the flag – with billboards reading messages such as "CONSUME!" and "DRINK IT" as parodies of American consumerism. The illustration continues onto the back cover, revealing a scrapheap followed by a pile of empty beverage cans. A banner attached to the plane displays the album's title. In 2008, Cobb's original painting sold at auction for $24,000.
The gatefold artwork consists of a handwritten track listing and photographs taken by Alan Pappé of each band member. Author Ken Bielen writes the lack of a group portrait highlights the members' individuality. The inner sleeve features Blackman's poem and drawings by the band and their friends, one of which was almost rejected by RCA on fear it would be misinterpreted as a vagina.
Critical reception
Despite its commercial shortcomings, After Bathing at Baxter's received high praise from a number of critics. One of its most positive reviews came from Jann Wenner in the newly founded Rolling Stone magazine, proclaiming that Jefferson Airplane "could be the best rock and roll band in America today" and that the album was "probably the best, considering all the criteria and the exceptions, rock and roll album so far produced by an American group." A review in Hit Parader called the album "excellent" and "a good follow-up to Surrealistic Pillow." In a later interview with the same magazine, the Moody Blues' keyboardist Mike Pinder named it one of his favorite albums, along with Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band by the Beatles, Younger Than Yesterday by the Byrds, and Bookends by Simon & Garfunkel. Conversely, Paul Nelson gave a negative review in Hullabaloo magazine, writing: "The Jefferson Airplane never even get off the ground with After Bathing at Baxter's. How a great group like this can go down in flames after two fine albums is a real puzzle." The review prompted a reader to send a letter to the magazine saying that the album was "more important than Mr. Nelson thinks it is" and that it "must be graded on a curve, just as Sgt. Pepper was."
After Bathing at Baxter's did not chart in the United Kingdom, but it nevertheless received attention from several British music journals. Chris Welch of Melody Maker praised the instrumental and vocal work and deemed it the "most consistent album yet" from one of the "most mature of America's West Coast groups". Writing for Beat Instrumental, John Ford felt it was a "slight disappointment" compared to the band's earlier material, although he praised the production and "feel" of the album and concluded, "Airplane have good ideas which will flourish, eventually." Norman Jopling and Peter Jones wrote in Record Mirror that the album was "pretentious" and failed to match "Somebody to Love" and "White Rabbit" or contemporary albums by the Byrds and Country Joe and the Fish.
Track listing
Side one
Side two
Notes
Personnel
Jefferson Airplane
Grace Slick – piano, organ, recorder, vocals, lead vocals on "rejoyce" and "Two Heads"
Marty Balin – rhythm guitar, vocals, lead vocals on "Young Girl Sunday Blues"
Paul Kantner – rhythm guitar, vocals, lead vocals on "The Ballad of You & Me & Pooneil", "Martha", "Wild Tyme", "Watch Her Ride" and Won't You Try / Saturday Afternoon"
Jorma Kaukonen – lead guitar, sitar, vocals, lead vocals on "The Last Wall of the Castle"
Jack Casady – bass
Spencer Dryden – drums, percussion, horn arrangement
Additional personnel
Gary Blackman – vocals
Bill Thompson – vocals
Production
Jefferson Airplane – design, notes, song arrangement
Al Schmitt – producer
Richie Schmitt – engineer
Ron Cobb – album cover, artwork
The Walking Owls – album title
Alan Pappé – photography
Recorded at RCA, Hollywood
Charts
Notes
References
Citation
Bibliography
1967 albums
Albums arranged by Spencer Dryden
Albums produced by Al Schmitt
Jefferson Airplane albums
RCA Victor albums