The most daring frontman Grace Slick ever saw: “Who’s to say which is the preferable reality?”
The original psychedelic rock movement that emerged in the 1960s may have been exciting from a musical perspective, but a large amount of its merits were overshadowed by the debauched goings-on happening around the acts that were a part of the scene.
Jefferson Airplane, perhaps one of the earliest examples of an act that gained mainstream attention for delving into this territory, couldn’t avoid courting controversy at the same time, especially given how their second major hit, ‘White Rabbit’, while heavily borrowing lyrical themes from Lewis Carroll’s novel, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, was ostensibly all about drug use.
As much as this may have caused uproar among the supposedly more upstanding members of society, the California group were far from the worst offenders when it came to losing their inhibitions or indulging in chaos as a result of their substance intake. While the band’s vocalist, Grace Slick, may have had a slight proclivity for using LSD recreationally, she was certainly able to vouch for the fact that one of their contemporaries had a much greater tendency to debase themselves.
During the early years of their success, Jefferson Airplane found themselves touring with The Doors, another Californian band who were slowly developing a reputation courtesy of their animalistic frontman, Jim Morrison, and according to Slick, she was treated to the full extent of the singer’s crazed antics when they first shared a hotel together on the road.
Out on the balcony, knelt on all fours without any clothes on and howling at the moon, Morrison was discovered by Slick and guitarist Paul Kantner in a state that they could hardly believe, presumably aided in part by the intake of copious quantities of drugs.
According to Slick’s accounts, Kantner was forced to step around the barking mad frontman, who appeared to be entirely unaware of his surroundings and unable to comprehend that he was exposed to the world in his canine state. In her memoir, Slick recalled that she asked Kantner if he’d said anything to Morrison as he passed him, to which he responded: “What do you say to a guy who’s becoming a dog; nothing”.
While obviously perturbed by Morrison’s antics on that evening, she continued to recount her memories of the late frontman, noting how it was this detachment from reality that made him so intriguing as a performer. “Jim was so willing to take himself completely to the edge of human experience,” she continued, “I found his performances both fascinating and frightening”.
There haven’t been many in the years since who have been able to replicate what Morrison was able to do as a performer, simply because nobody has been brave or unhinged enough to want to go to the same lengths. “I tried to imagine what kind of curiosity could take someone to those extremes, without the overwhelming fear of ‘Maybe I’ll never get back’.” Slick added, “But back to what? Who’s to say which is the preferable reality?”
Slick may have known how to create subversive art herself, but not to anywhere near the same extent that Morrison did. Upon reflection, given everything that’s known about Morrison, maybe it’s for the best that she never delved this far.
