Ballad Breakdown: Jefferson Airplane’s ‘White Rabbit’ Draws Literary Inspiration to Create a Sonic Acid-Trip
The pop-rock band drew inspiration from Lewis Carroll’s “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland,” with recurring themes of the freethinking movement, love, peace, drugs, and even education – each are cleverly displayed in the riddle-like lyricism.
A song can range from seconds to more than 10 minutes, but every song, no matter the length, tells a story through its lyrics, instruments, and/or vocals. In Ballad Breakdown, our writers dissect your favorite songs to display the intricacy and care put into every seemingly minuscule aspect.
Written by Jencie Tomasek
Illustrated by Grace Xu
An era where it was easier for kids to exhibit their mood rings instead of their feelings and activists speaking out against injustices ranging from the environment to the raging wars, the ’70s was a time to be alive. There was an entire culture surrounding drugs that perpetuated the glamorization and legalization of it. Rockers, hippies, and even everyday suburban Joes were experimenting with various psychedelics and spending their days chasing highs. For this reason, it came as no surprise drugs played a role in the music and media of the time — one such band utilizing the popularity of drugs to appeal to the masses — Jefferson Rabbit.
One of Jefferson Rabbit’s most popular songs, “White Rabbit,” embeds hidden messages about the rise of hallucinogens, psychedelics, and recreational drug use in the 1960s and 70s into its hypnotizing melody. The California band was inspired by Lewis Carroll’s 1865 novel “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland,” which tells the tale of a young girl named who falls down a rabbit hole and lands in a fantasy world that is full of wonder-filled people and animals. The song’s title originates from one of the fable’s main characters: the white rabbit. While the metaphors flew over many people’s heads during their heyday — going as far as blacklisting the song from a few radio stations — they helped produce a snapshot of life during the 1960s. While the themes seem to be exclusively about drugs, songwriter Grace Slick created a tune about a society she wished to escape due to its outdated rules.
Photo courtesy of Michael Ochs Archives
Trippy imagery is immediately apparent in the first verse: “One pill makes you larger / And one pill makes you small / And the ones that mother gives you / Don't do anything at all / Go ask Alice / When she's ten feet tall.” This lyric refers to the titular character, Alice, changing size after ingesting mysterious pills and drinking an unknown liquid. In the original fable, Alice eats a cake to receive these changes, but Jefferson Airplane altered the cake to pills in order to allude to drugs rather than some mysterious potion. When you’re under the influence of drugs, your perception of the world and your senses are skewed, causing some users to either over exaggerate or downplay their actions.
The double entendres don’t stop there. Verses two and three are riddled with literary allusions: “When the men on the / Chessboard / Get up and tell you / Where to go” refers to police officers and authority figures cracking down on drug users and driving the hippie crowd out of major cities like the band’s hometown of San Francisco. The next two lines concentrate on the mindset when someone has consumed drugs and the gradual haziness of the mind and loss of clear cognitive function, and says “mushroom” to potentially reference the drug “shrooms”: “And you’ve just had some kind of mushroom / And your mind is moving low.”
Slick goes on to name-drop the White Knight, Red Queen, and Dormouse in the final verse, with a haunting line repeated twice as it fades out: “Feed your head / Feed your head.” This repetition supposedly means others will try to get you to take more drugs to feel better and expand your consciousness, even after feeling the negative side effects mentioned in the earlier verses. However Slick cleared up the lyrics, later stating, “The line in the song 'feed your head' is both about reading and psychedelics… feeding your head by paying attention: read some books, pay attention.”
With further messages among the lyrics carrying similarities to ones in the novel, the listener is urged to follow our curiosities, no matter where they might take us. The 1960s were a big time for experimentation in order to find oneself through unconventional means and mind expansion, transcending to the point of trying to reach God or godlikeness. Its eerie lyricism is masked by the free and untethered beat meant to get people swaying with careless abandon. The drums are hypnotic, and Slick employs a mesmerizing incantation that pulls you in, mirroring the drugs she sings about.
Drummer Jerry Peloquin enters with a slow and steady beat reminiscent of militia marching, which is most likely a nod to the Vietnam War that took place during the song’s writing Slick draws out the end of the last word on each phrase, notably in a lower and more menacing tone than she utilizes in the beginning — and the vibrato adds another layer to the song as Slick sings alone with no backing vocals. This tonal shift suggests much like Alice, she too, is falling down the proverbial rabbit hole further and further — perhaps due to drugs or being an outcast of society with her freethinking spirit and progressive ideals. Overall it's lulling and draws the listener in a little closer to the edge, quickly finding themselves falling in right after her.
The drumming and vocals become increasingly aggressive as the song goes on, never changing pace. It’s sure of itself and subtle, simultaneously packing a unique punch. Music was, and still is, used as a way to share political messages. Civil rights, racial tension, and the rise of rock groups appealed to the younger generations as they felt heard and had a voice that mattered within the songs of the 70s. Musicians used their platforms to take a stand, and being outspoken was encouraged. "White Rabbit" might not be perfectly applicable in today's world, but there are lessons we can extract from it no less: Don't be afraid to take a stand or go against the status quo and certainly don't hesitate to use your voice in the face of injustice. However, Jefferson Rabbit takes it a step further by making “White Rabbit” a call to encourage widespread simultaneous defiance and peace — two things our modern world can still resonate with.