After Bathing At Baxter’s – JEFFERSON AIRPLANE***

The Ballad Of You & Me & Pooneil/A Small Package Of Value Will Come To You Shortly/Young Girl Sunday Blues/Martha/Wild Thyme/The Last Wall Of The Castle/Rejoyce/Watch Her Ride/Spare Chaynge/Two Heads/ Won’t You Try/Saturday Afternoon

After the critical and commercial success of their previous album the Airplane were given a free hand in the studio. Unfortunately, with After Bathing at Baxter's, they squandered the opportunity by demonstrating self indulgence on a grand scale. (US:17)

"The album is indeed a self-indulgence, from people who were self-indulgent, especially in the chemical department. It's another big sonic jump - the band sounds virtually nothing like the group that made Takes Off. And they have to be admired for not taking the easy way out and making Pillow 2."

"The bulk of Baxter's is overblown, self indulgent and plain boring. Unless you are an avid Airplane fan or have a specific interest in the music of this period, don't bother."

"Listening to After Bathing At Baxter's is literally a trip. Bizarre lyrics are wedded to experimental recording techniques, sound montages, off-centre tempos and rhythms to provide the listener with an auditory hallucination. Everything goes, and so it went at Baxter's. It was all new, avant-garde to excess, and it largely failed to reach its fullest potential."

"This is certainly one trippy record, maybe the trippiest to date, and as such it has a horrendous load of historical importance. However, trying to sit through this bunch of 'songs' in one sitting is like trying to audition a half-professional band whose members didn't get acquainted until half an hour earlier."

''After Bathing At Baxter's is an ideal depiction of the 60s psychedelic scene craze for combining rock 'n' roll with eastern music influences. It is also a great portrayal of what was going around at San Francisco with the hippies. This may not have aged well, but if you give it some time, it will grow on you for sure."

"I know that Baxter's was thought of as self-indulgent and even anti-pop music, due to its somewhat rambling cuts with what now sounds like soft psychedelic guitar work, but I think that overall this record represents what many musicians and listeners were into during the year of 1967."