Somebody to Love (Jefferson Airplane song)

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“Somebody to Love”
“Somebody to Love” cover
Single by Jefferson Airplane
from the album Surrealistic Pillow
Released March, 1967
Format Vinyl record (7") 45 RPM
Recorded 1966/1967
Genre Rock, psychedelic rock
Length 3:01
Label RCA Victor
Writer(s) Darby Slick, Grace Slick
Producer Rick Jarrard
Jefferson Airplane singles chronology
"Somebody to Love" "White Rabbit"
This article is about the song by the Great Society as well as Jefferson Airplane. For other uses, see Somebody to Love.

"Somebody to Love" is a rock song that was originally written and recorded by 1960s folk-psychedelic band the Great Society and later by the psychedelic rock band Jefferson Airplane. Rolling Stone magazine ranked Jefferson Airplane's recording #274 on their list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.

Contents

[edit] Great Society Version

Written by Great Society guitarist Darby Slick and first performed by that band, which included his then-sister-in-law Grace Slick on vocals, the song made little impact outside of the club circuit in the Bay Area. The song was released in 1966 as a single on the North Beach subsidiary of Autumn Records and received minimal circulation outside of San Francisco.

[edit] Jefferson Airplane Version

When Grace Slick departed to join Jefferson Airplane, she took this song with her, bringing it to the Surrealistic Pillow sessions, along with her own composition "White Rabbit." Subsequently, the Airplane's more ferocious rock and roll version became the band's first and biggest hit; the single by Jefferson Airplane peaked at #5 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Somebody to Love also appeared as a track on their influential album released in February of 1967, Surrealistic Pillow. Driven by Slick's forceful vocal, the song's hard-rock sound stood out among the group's more folk-oriented psychedelia that made up most their previous sound and some of the album. The lyrics, unusually, are in the second person, with each two-line verse setting a scene of alienation and despair, and the chorus repeating the title of the song, with slight variations such as: "... / Don't you need somebody to love? / Wouldn't you love somebody to love? / ..." Like the album on which it appeared, this song was instrumental in announcing the existence of the Haight-Ashbury counterculture to the rest of the United States.

[edit] Other Versions

The Lambrettas (a British mod-revival band) released Somebody to Love as a single on Elton John's Rocket Records label in 1982. Covered by Angry Samoans on their 1986 EP, Yesterday Started Tomorrow (with some lyric changes). The song also received cover versions by Mother's Finest, W.A.S.P. in 1995, the Ramones on their 1993 cover album Acid Eaters, by Jim Carrey on the soundtrack of the movie The Cable Guy, in 2003 by Boogie Pimps with the music video featuring Natasha Mealey, by Kasabian on BBC Radio 1's Live Lounge and also by the Austrian band saint privat in 2006.

[edit] Cultural references