Grace Slick — Acid Opens the Mind
By: Justin Arter
Tags: Music, Acid Rock, Psychedelics

Grace Slick was the epitome of the Acid Rock era within rock and roll. She was an avid used of LSD, or acid, throughout her time as an artist and with the different bands she performed with. Using the psychedelic as a muse for her music, she was able to create anthems for the masses of the psychedelic community, driving the point of an open mind, sexual exploration, and of course, the use of drugs. Grace Slick’s White Rabbit is a prime example of Acid Rock with a focus on the timbre of Grace’s voice, emphasis on distorted guitar, and the crescendo effect throughout the song, we can see how she connected her music to the effects of LSD, primarily the disassociation with reality; the growing use of psychedelic drugs like LSD and the political and social unrest as a result of the Vietnam war, resulted in this shift in music, like Grace Slick’s “White Rabbit”, towards a more abstract or psychedelic sound in order to mimic the use of drugs like Acid.

A defining social factor of the acid rock genre is related to the namesake of the music, psychedelic drugs. Drugs like acid were used by many of the artists of the genre and their music was created in an attempt to mimic the effects of the drug. The popularity of the drug grew from the sort of psychedelic enlightenment of the era. Many individuals, at the time, were protesting social norms like sexuality and the basic familial structure. In doing so, people were moving away from the norm, hoping to find happiness in alternative views of the world. Acid or LSD gave many people this opportunity, to look at the world in a much different manner, and artists were no different than the crowd they performed for. The goal of many of the artists were to create a sort of disassociation with reality, and in order to achieve this, the artists started using musical traits that would align themselves with this idea of disassociation. Grace Slick, and many of the bands that she performed with, attempted to promote drug use using their distorted and disassociated sound (Gale, 195–198). To do this, they often used non-western instruments and the distorted sounds of electric guitars. In the song White Rabbit, we can hear the use of an electric guitar throughout. Although, the electric guitar is a key layer to the song, we can note how it does not play the role of a dominant sound, rather the guitar creates a background of electric noise. This is different than most other music using the electric guitar, as they often are used as a focus for the melody or rhythm of the song. In Grace Slick’s White Rabbit, we see that it is used to create a sort of “hazy” sound that fills the empty space of the song, as opposed to being a focus. This is aligns directly with the goal of creating a different sound in the genre of acid rock. They were able to use a popular instrument in a different manner. This “different” sound was used to develop a sort of uncomfortable or disassociated effect from the norms of music at the time. Again, this was meant to mimic the effects of actually using a psychedelic drug, like LSD or Acid, which was a key defining social factor of the genre.

Another musical trait that was heavily influenced by the social factor of psychedelic drugs like acid and the idea of sexual exploration was the timbre of Grace Slick’s voice. In a similar manner to the way different non-western instruments or the sound of a distorted electric guitar were used to create a sort of disassociation to mimic the effects of LSD, Grace Slick did the same with her voice. The different instruments that were used had so many different ways that they could be distorted artificially, whether through amplifiers or fuzz boxes, although it was much harder for Slick to manipulate her own sound. She once stated in an interview that she couldn’t sing soft notes, so she had to sing “loud and angry” (Slick). Her inability to create soft and sweet sounds is comparable to the way she viewed sexuality. Slick was unwilling and unable to stay in committed, normative relationships, and instead was the center of sexual explorations and anti-normativity, and the timbre of her voice supports this as well. In the song White Rabbit, instead of the usual timbre associated with women, we can hear how the timbre of her voice was used to create a very “different” and disassociated sound. One main thing being the way she holds her the notes at the end of each line of the song. She holds the note and brings it up and down, creating a sort of shaky and distorted sound. Another way that Slick was able to manipulate the timbre of her voice is the way that she built up the volume of her voice, in a crescendo like fashion. She was able to use her voice to build and build in sound in order to create a similar effect to the feelings of psychedelic drugs. Drugs like Acid were a key influencer in the Acid Rock genre, as many of the artists were attempting to mimic the feelings that the drug had on the human body. Slick was no different in attempting to do this with the sound of her music. She was effective in doing this with her own voice, manipulating the timbre of it in order to achieve that psychedelic effect.

As we have previously discussed, much of the aim of the Acid Rock genre, an in turn Grace Slick, was to mimic the effects of LSD or Acid, particularly the effects of disassociation on the listener or user. Much of the focus on LSD and its effects are on this disassociation or dissociative effects, although there are some other effects as well. Another key side effect of LSD is the sort of climax and associated buildup to reach this climax. There is a feeling of buildup in many of the senses of the user, until they reach this climax and then it starts to die down as the drug begins to wear off. This sort of building up of sensory inputs is very reminiscent of the political unrest and the social repercussions that are seen throughout the era that Acid Rock was popular. The Vietnam war, and protests against it were reaching their peaks. This buildup of collective emotion and unrest is comparable to the feelings many associated with LSD, making the drug even more popular. Throughout “White Rabbit” by Grace Slick, we can see the use of volume as a sort of way to attain this goal or mimic the effects of LSD and the rising social and political unrest. The song creates a sensory buildup in our sense of sound (songfacts). The song begins very quiet and without too many different components. But as the song goes on and on, we can hear more layers being added and the volume of each of the instruments build. The song continues to build and build in volume until we the layers are all at their max volume, the singer is screaming her lyrics, and the pulse of the song is locked in at a tempo similar to a heart rate, then the song cuts out completely and dies down to nothing. Effectively, the entire song is one long crescendo from the very start to the very end. This clearly aligns with the goal of mimicking the effects of acid, as a crescendo in music is literally a build up in volume, steadily getting louder and louder, matching the similar sensory buildup experienced by acid users, until they reach a climax, where the sensory overload begins to die down.

As we can see, the Acid Rock genre, and hence the music of Grace Slick, was greatly influenced by the use of psychedelics. Acid had a sometimes eye-opening or profound experience on the users. The users felt as if they were able to see more in the world and in such a way that they had never been able to. This translated to the music of the artists that were avid users of the drug, with the hopes of mimicking the effects that they felt when under the influence, so that the masses could feel the same. Grace Slick’s “White Rabbit” was a great example of this, as she wrote it after coming out of a “trip” on acid, with the goal of addressing the use of drugs with her song.

Works Cited:

“Slick, Grace.” Contemporary Musicians, edited by Leigh Ann DeRemer, vol. 33, Gale, 2002, pp. 195–198. Gale Ebooks, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/CX3495100073/GVRL?u=west41605&sid=GVRL&xid=23617fd1. Accessed 22 Oct. 2019.

“Grace Slick”. NPR, SEPTEMBER 20, 1998, SUNDAY12:47 am ET. https://advance-lexis-com.hoover2.mcdaniel.edu:2443/api/document?collection=news&id=urn:contentItem:3TS7-GS80-007F-K03K-00000-00&context=1516831. Accessed October 24, 2019.

Songfacts. “White Rabbit by Jefferson Airplane — Songfacts.” Song Meanings at Songfacts, https://www.songfacts.com/facts/jefferson-airplane/white-rabbit.