White Rabbit (song)

White Rabbit (song)
"White Rabbit" is a song written by Grace Slick and recorded by the American rock band Jefferson Airplane for their 1967 album Surrealistic Pillow. It draws on imagery from Lewis Carroll's 1865 book Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and its 1871 sequel Through the Looking-Glass.
It was released as a single and became the band's second top-10 success, peaking at number eight on the Billboard Hot 100. The song was ranked number 478 on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time in 2004, number 483 in 2010, and number 455 in 2021 and appears on The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll.
History
"White Rabbit" was written and performed by Grace Slick while she was still with The Great Society. Slick then left The Great Society to join Jefferson Airplane to replace their departing female singer, Signe Toly Anderson (who left the band to give birth to her child). The first album Slick recorded with Jefferson Airplane was Surrealistic Pillow, and Slick provided two songs from her previous group: her own "White Rabbit" and "Somebody to Love", written by her brother-in-law Darby Slick and recorded under the title "Someone to Love" by the Great Society. The Great Society's version of "White Rabbit" was much longer than the more aggressive version of Jefferson Airplane. Both songs became top-10 hits for Jefferson Airplane and have ever since been associated with that band.
Lyrics and composition
"White Rabbit" is one of Grace Slick's earliest songs, written during December 1965 or January 1966. It uses imagery found in the fantasy works of Lewis Carroll—1865's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and its 1871 sequel Through the Looking-Glass—such as changing size after taking pills or drinking an unknown liquid.
Slick wrote the lyrics first, then composed the music at a red upright piano she had bought for US$50 with eight or ten keys missing—"that was OK because I could hear in my head the notes that weren't there"
—moving between major chords for the verses and chorus. She said that the music was heavily influenced by Miles Davis's 1960 album Sketches of Spain, particularly Davis's treatment of the Concierto de Aranjuez (1939). She later said: "Writing weird stuff about Alice backed by a dark Spanish march was in step with what was going on in San Francisco then. We were all trying to get as far away from the expected as possible."
Slick said the composition was supposed to be a wake-up call to parents who read their children novels such as these and then would wonder why their children used drugs. She later commented that all fairytales read to little girls have a Prince Charming who comes and saves them. But Alice did not; she was "on her own...in a very strange place, but she kept on going and she followed her curiosity – that's the White Rabbit. A lot of women could have taken a message from that story about how you can push your own agenda." Slick added that "The line in the song 'feed your head' is both about reading and psychedelics...feeding your head by paying attention: read some books, pay attention."
Characters Slick referenced include Alice, the White Rabbit, the hookah-smoking caterpillar, the White Knight, the Red Queen, and the Dormouse. Slick reportedly wrote the song after an acid trip.
For Slick, "White Rabbit" "is about following your curiosity. The White Rabbit is your curiosity." For her and others in the 1960s, drugs were a part of mind expansion and social experimentation. With its enigmatic lyrics, "White Rabbit" became one of the first songs to sneak drug references past censors on the radio. Marty Balin, Slick's former bandmate and co-founder of Jefferson Airplane (and later Jefferson Starship), regarded the song as a "masterpiece". In interviews, Slick has related that Alice in Wonderland was often read to her as a child and remained a vivid memory well into her adulthood.
In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, Slick mentioned that, in addition to Alice in Wonderland, her other inspiration for the song was Ravel's Boléro. Like Boléro, "White Rabbit" is essentially one long crescendo. The music combined with the song's lyrics strongly suggests the sensory distortions experienced with hallucinogens, and the song was later used in pop culture to imply or accompany just such a state.
The song was first played by the Great Society in a bar in San Francisco in early 1966, and later when they opened the bill for bigger bands like the Grateful Dead. They made a series of demo records for Autumn Records, for which they were assisted by Sly Stone. Grace Slick said: "We were so bad that Sly eventually played all the instruments so the demo would sound OK." When Slick joined Jefferson Airplane later in 1966, she taught the song to the band, who recorded it for their album Surrealistic Pillow. "White Rabbit" is in the key of F-sharp which Slick acknowledges "is difficult for guitar players as it requires some intricate fingering".
Reception
Cash Box called it "a real strong outing guaranteed to get lots of attention." Record World said it has "a little bolero sound and a haunting lyric."
Chart history
Weekly charts
Year-end charts
Cashbox (11 weeks): 59, 45, 23, 14, 12, 11, 8, 6, 7, 22, 41
Personnel
Grace Slick – vocals
Jorma Kaukonen – lead guitar
Paul Kantner – rhythm guitar
Jack Casady – bass
Spencer Dryden – drums
In popular culture
A version of the song performed by Eliot Sumner was used as the theme music of the 2022 German television series 1899.
A lyric from the song was used as the title of the 1971 novel Go Ask Alice.
The song was used in episode 9 "The Blue Scorpion" of The Twilight Zone (2019 TV series).
The song was used in the debut episode of Stranger Things, when Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) escapes the diner.
The song was used in episodes "Mona Leaves-a", D’oh-in’ in the Wind, and Midnight RX of The Simpsons
The song was used in episode "Down Neck" of The Sopranos (S01E07); time: 14'40 in the year 1999
The song appeared in the 1986 film Platoon, when Chris Taylor (Charlie Sheen) visits a hut of marijuana-smoking soldiers.
An a cappella version of the song was used during WWE live events and during commercial breaks of televised shows in September 2022, while QR codes were also hidden in various locations on episodes of Raw and SmackDown. Each code led to websites containing imagery, minigames, and riddles that were seemingly connected to the upcoming Extreme Rules event on October 8. At the closure of the event, Bray Wyatt returned to WWE, accompanied by live-action versions of his Firefly Fun House characters and a new mask, revealing himself as the person behind the "White Rabbit" teases.
The song, in the orchestral remixed version, was used in the trailer for the 2021 movie The Matrix Resurrections.
The song was used in the 1998 film Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.
References
External links
1967 singles
Jefferson Airplane songs
Blue Man Group songs
1980 singles
1983 singles
Music based on Alice in Wonderland
Songs written by Grace Slick
Songs about drugs
Songs about fictional male characters
Songs about fictional female characters
Songs about rabbits and hares
Song recordings produced by Rick Jarrard
Grammy Hall of Fame Award recipients
1967 songs
RCA Victor singles
RPM Top Singles number-one singles