Woodstock 1969 Was Defined by This Surreal Performance From the Band You’d Least Expect

The dawn had just begun to break over the writhing mass of bodies. Packed – full of energy and as tight as sardines – and grooving relentlessly, as if they hadn’t just partied straight through the night. People, as far as the eye can see, spilling out across the field and over the hill, all eyes turned toward the stage – where, at last, a woman had appeared. Dressed all in white, bell-bottoms and fringe swaying as she walked, barefoot, towards the microphone. “Alright, friends, you have seen the heavy groups,” Grace Slick said into the microphone. “Now, you will see morning maniac music. Believe me, yeah. It’s a new dawn.” And with that, Jefferson Airplane began their much-delayed performance at the legendary 1969 Woodstock Music and Art Fair.

Woodstock is perhaps the most famous music festival of all time. There are countless legendary performances, innumerable moments that will never be forgotten. A then-unknown Santana appeared prior to the release of their debut album. Jimi Hendrix performed a psychedelic rendition of “The Star-Spangled Banner.” Pete Townshend of The Who chucked his guitar into the crowd. It is hard to choose a single set that stands out amongst so many inimitable live performances. That being said, Jefferson Airplane’s chaotic Sunday morning appearance just may be a cut above the rest.

Jefferson Airplane (Almost) Headlined at Woodstock

Image via Warner Bros

The Woodstock Music and Art Fair was marketed as “An Aquarian Exposition in White Lake, N.Y. – Three Days of Peace & Music.” With an attendance of nearly half a million people, it is one of the largest music festivals to date. Packed to the gills with hippies and free spirits, the festival was the pièce de résistance of the 1960s counterculture movement. It is no surprise that Jefferson Airplane, an unequivocal pioneer of psychedelic rock, was one of the most highly anticipated acts on the set list.

Initially scheduled to headline on Saturday night, Jefferson Airplane did not take the stage until around eight am the following morning. The festival was famously loose, with shoddy infrastructure and inclement weather affecting the schedule as the days rolled on. The lackadaisical approach to event planning reflected the cultural liberalism in which the fair was so deeply entrenched. It wasn’t about logistics – it was all about the music, man! While the constant delays were annoying, Jefferson Airplane and the other bands at the festival were committed. They were going to perform, come hell or high water.

However, there were other obstacles that made performing a bit more difficult. The members of Jefferson Airplane, worn out from a night of smoking and drinking and waiting around, went looking for a pick-me-up. In doing so, they unintentionally ingested LSD just fifteen minutes before they were finally due to perform. Fresh morning light, hundreds of thousands of people, psychedelic rock, psychedelic substances. They had waited all night for their moment in the sun, and they weren’t about to let a little mix-up get in the way.

It was well worth the wait. Despite the relentless stream of setbacks, their performance was breathtaking. Psychedelic rock had never been as fully embodied as it was at that very moment – and never has been since. Hypnotic and powerful, they had the crowd in the palm of their collective hand as they performed songs off of their wildly popular 1967 album Surrealistic Pillow. The album featured two of the band’s top hits, “Somebody to Love” and “White Rabbit”, both of which they performed on that bizarre Sunday morning.

Jefferson Airplane’s Most Successful Album

Image via Herb Green

Surrealistic Pillow was a keystone of the San Francisco Sound, a harbinger of the Summer of Love. The record is Jefferson Airplane’s second studio album, but their first to include the hauntingly beautiful vocals of Grace Slick. The album’s title was rumored to be provided by Jerry Garcia of the Grateful Dead – he used the term to describe the band’s nascent sound during the album’s conception. Garcia was credited as “Musical and Spiritual Advisor” on the back of the record sleeve.

While their Woodstock performance is inarguably iconic, singer Grace Slick definitely had her qualms. She criticized her own sound during their Woodstock set, stating, “If you’ve been up all night smoking, your voice is not spectacular. I mean, I didn’t get up with a big bunch of sleep the night before. So, your attention span, a bunch of things, are not working as well as they should.” While Slick may not have been completely satisfied with every aspect of their sound that morning, given the circumstances, it was a raging success.

The Jefferson Airplane Crash

A few months later, Jefferson Airplane performed at another hugely famous music festival – but perhaps “infamous” is a more apt adjective, in this case. The Altamont Speedway Free Festival was expected to be a second iteration of Woodstock. This festival, headlined by The Rolling Stones, took place in December 1969. It was shoddy and slapdash – plans fell through, poor decisions were made. Inexplicably, the outlaw motorcycle club Hells Angels had been hired for security. The Altamont Free Concert is remembered today not for the music, but for the superfluous violence that took place there. There were stabbings, drownings, and fights. The Angels, paid with bottomless beer, became increasingly aggressive in their handling of the unruly crowd. At one point, Jefferson Airplane singer/founder Marty Balin leapt off the stage mid-performance in an attempt to intervene in the jarring violence. He was knocked unconscious by one of the Angels.

This unfortunate and traumatic festival – a far cry from the “Woodstock West” they had envisioned – was the beginning of the end for Jefferson Airplane. The first flake in what would snowball into messy relationships, disagreements, and lifestyle changes, eventually leading to the band’s dissolution in the early ‘70s. Their fleeting existence as the Jefferson Airplane that graced the stages and mud-pits of Woodstock makes their Summer of Love performance all the more powerful.

While Jefferson Airplane’s popularity may not share the longevity of bands like the Grateful Dead, they had just as big (if not bigger!) of an impact on psychedelic rock music. They brought the counterculture into the mainstream, shone a spotlight on the anti-war movement and the push for social change. Jefferson Airplane was both musically and culturally significant, and they had never been more impactful than during their performance at the Woodstock Music and Art Fair in 1969.