Jefferson Airplane - Somebody To Love

Through the years, I can't count the number of times I was subjugated by a composition, convinced that it was the absolute master piece of a career. Till I discover by inadvertence that it was eventually a cover, a simple adaptation of an already fully-written song. But I also understood that a cover could be a way to appropriate it and make it a completely personal work.

Covers are an institution in music. There's plenty of them. It can concern The Byrds, Yes or Linda Ronstadt. What we can say is, no matter how good the original song was, bunch of covers that have been made also got their part of credibility and recognition.

From today, we'll introduce you all the ones we're sensitive to, or the ones that marked the ordinary mortals.

Jefferson Airplane (1967) - Somebody To Love, by The Great Society (1966)

"Somebody To Love" was originally played by The Great Society and composed by Darby Slick. When his sister-in-law Grace left to play with Jefferson Airplane, believe it or not, she just took in her bag. I must say the original version was already quite an impressive song, but Jefferson Airplane added a faster psychedelic feel (uuh, the secretive guitar lines!), with a taking-off chorus and a strong linear and binary drums section.

This song was the main success of the band, scoring the fifth rank at Billboard Hot 100. Now, watch the two versions and make up your mind: what's your favorite one? Oh, don't forget to smoke a banana while watching the 3rd video!

Someone To Love, first version of the song.

Live versions of White Rabbit & Somebody To Love.