What do classic rock and children’s literature have in common? Jefferson Airplane, that’s what. As most fans know, one of their biggest hits, “White Rabbit,” drew inspiration from Lewis Carroll‘s Alice in Wonderland. But here’s a lesser-known fact: Another Jefferson Airplane song, performed live at Woodstock, was an ode to Winnie-the-Pooh.
Released originally as a single and then as the first track on Jefferson Airplane’s 1967 album Bathing at Baxter‘s, “The Ballad of You & Me & Pooneil” mentions the beloved A. A. Milne character right in the title, as “Pooneil” is a combination of “Pooh” and “Neil” (the folk singer Fred Neil). Paul Kantner, who wrote the song, also took some of the lyrics from Milne’s poem, “Spring Morning.” For example, the following verse:
If you were a cloud, and sailed up there,You’d sail on water as blue as air,And you’d see me here in the fields and say:‘Doesn’t the sky look green today?’
In a 1984 interview with Tony Traguardo for Eurodisc Agenda, Kantner called Milne a “strong psychic influence.”
“There is a certain element of returning to the innocence of children,” the guitarist explained.
“I mean every philosopher, from Jesus to Mohammed, speaks of having the purity of a child to enter the kingdom of heaven,” Kantner continued. “On the other hand, Milne is quite vicious on some levels. Every character in Milne represents a certain weakness in the structure of mankind. From the overabundant ‘amphetamine rock’ of Tigger, to the sort of shy, humble, self-disparaging Eeyore…I don’t know if you know the books but Eeyore’s line is always ‘Well, thanks for noticing.’ He’s just this little guy that sort of struggles through it all somehow, almost a Walter Mitty type. They all illustrate various weaknesses as well as strengths in the human animal. As a whole, I think it’s a real neat allegory.”
Kantner, who also wrote the song “The House at Pooneil Corners” (about the “chaos and the apocalypse of nuclear war”) went on to say that he was writing a new song called “Pooneil Goes to America.”
Related: 1966 Rock Hit, Ranked Among ‘Greatest Songs of All Time,’ Initially Flopped—Then Changed Music History
When asked how the character of Pooneil would survive in modern-day America, Kantner quipped, “God only knows.”
“But having looked all over the world, as we have, and gone through all the various philosophies and religions and countries, ideologies…there is something to be said for what we are,” he said. “For all the railing we did against it in the sixties, there is a quality in America that transcends even the mystical. There’s something here that’s real…magical. We were fighting against people who abused it, like fighting against those preachers who used Jesus to their own ends, there are people…I mean the world is full of nasty a—holes…who mis-abuse and do things not necessarily in the name of good.”
“There’s a certain quality here that I think if fostered and helped in the right direction will take this experiment that’s been going on for two hundred or so years and go forward with it…make it better. And I’ve got about two hundred or so pages of lyrics now…and if Icould narrow it down somehow to one three or four minute song … I’m looking forwardto it. So, Pooneil lives.”
Indeed. Sadly, Kantner died in 2016 at the age of 74…but “The Ballad of You & Me & Pooneil” (along with the rest of Jefferson Airplane’s catalogue) lives on.
Related: 1967 Rock Classic, Ranked Among ‘Greatest Songs of All Time,’ Was Written in an Hour on a Broken Piano
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