Jefferson Airplane’s “White Rabbit” – The Story Behind The Song
You are not incorrect if you think Jefferson Airplane’s “White Rabbit” is about drugs, but the song is much more than that. “Feed your head” with this story behind the song. Grace Slick got the idea for the song while tripping on LSD and listening to Miles Davis. She based the lyrics on Lewis Carroll’s 1865 children’s book, Alice In Wonderland. (songfacts)
In an interview with Q some years ago, Grace said the song wasn’t directed at children. It was directed at parents. “They’d read us all these stories where you’d take some kind of chemical and have a great adventure. Alice in Wonderland is blatant; she gets literally high, too big for the room, while the caterpillar sits on a psychedelic mushroom smoking opium. In the Wizard of Oz, they land in a field of opium poppies, wake up and see this Emerald City. Peter Pan? Sprinkle some white dust cocaine on your head and you can fly.”
The Missing Keys Of “White Rabbit”
I wrote White Rabbit on a red upright piano that cost me about $50. It had eight or 10 keys missing, but that was OK because I could hear in my head the notes that weren’t there.
— Grace Slick (@GraceSlick_JA) September 26, 2022
The Guardian has a great interview with Grace Slick where she expounds more on how the song came about, “The 1960s resembled Wonderland for me. Like Alice, I met all kinds of strange characters, but I was comfortable with it. I wrote White Rabbit on a red upright piano that cost me about $50. It had eight or 10 keys missing, but that was OK because I could hear in my head the notes that weren’t there.”
Grace continues, “In the 60s, the drugs were not ones like heroin and alcohol that you take to blot out a terrible life, but psychedelics: marijuana, LSD, and shroomies. Psychedelic drugs showed you that there are alternative realities. You open up to things that are unusual and different, and, in realizing that there are alternative ways of looking at things, you become more accepting of things around you.”
Grace also spoke about the lyrics saying, “The line in the song “feed your head” is both about reading and psychedelics. I was talking about feeding your head by paying attention: read some books, pay attention.”
Jefferson Airplane’s “White Rabbit” Was A Song BEFORE Grace Joined
Grace Slick was in a band with her first husband, Jerry Slick, called The Great Society. Grace first recorded “White Rabbit” and “Somebody To Love” while she was with The Great Society. The band broke up in 1966 and Grace joined Jefferson Airplane. The group recorded “White Rabbit” and “Somebody To Love” for their first album with her, Surrealistic Pillow. Both songs hit big their second time around.
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