An archive of wild, weird and wonderful cover versions
Two versions of Finnish psych rock band Superfjord covering John Coltrane‘s A Love Supreme, the first taken from the 2014 split single/EP Coltrane, which also features the UK Pagan psych rock band Earthling Society covering Alice Coltrane’s Journey In Satchidananda.
A Love Supreme was originally recorded by the John Coltrane Quartet in one session on December 9th 1964, released on Impulse Records in 1965, and is widely regarded as one of the greatest albums of all time.
American guitarist George Benson’s cover of White Rabbit dates from 1972 and is taken from his album White Rabbit. Hungarian American guitarist Gabor Szabo’s version dates from 1967 and is taken from the album Wind, Sky and Diamonds.
White Rabbit was written by Grace Slick in late 1965/early 1966 and was first perfomed, though not recorded, by the Great Society. Slick left the Great Society to front Jefferson Airplane, who then recorded the song for their 1967 album Surrealistic Pillow. Slick said of the song’s conception:
“I identified with Alice. I was a product of ’50s America…where women were housewives with short hair and everything was highly regulated. I went from the planned, bland ’50s to the world of being in a rock band without looking back. It was my Alice moment, heading down the hole. ‘White Rabbit’ seemed like an appropriate title.”
Slick wrote the lyrics first and then composed the music on a cheap upright piano with multiple keys missing, taking inspiration from Miles Davis’ 1960 album Sketches of Spain as well as Ravel’s Bolero. Of composing the music, Slick said:
“Writing weird stuff about Alice backed by a dark Spanish march was in step with what was going on in San Francisco then. We were all trying to get as far away from the expected as possible.”
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