White Rabbit

…Slick wrote the song “White Rabbit,” which she based on the book Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (first published in 1865) by British author Lewis Carroll; it features lyrics about exploring the mind by using hallucinogenic drugs. The Great Society performed the song live, though they did not record a…

…two Top Ten singles, “White Rabbit” and “Somebody to Love,” both cowritten by Slick for her previous band, the Great Society, and drew hordes of fans to San Francisco’s Summer of Love pageantry. The city’s Haight-Ashbury neighborhood had become the center of the burgeoning hippie counterculture, but the commercialism…

…“Somebody to Love” and “White Rabbit.” Meanwhile, the 13th Floor Elevators from Austin, Texas, epitomized the darker, more psychotic frenzy of acid rock—characterized by overdriven guitars, amplified feedback, and droning guitar motifs influenced by Eastern music. Led by the wayward talent of Roky Erickson, a gifted musician who was…