Embryonic Journey by Jefferson Airplane

Album: Surrealistic Pillow (1967)

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Songfacts®:

This song is an acoustic instrumental showcasing guitarist Jorma Kaukonen's formidable fingerpicking style. According to the album's liner notes, Kaukonen composed the tune in 1962 as part of a guitar workshop in Santa Clara and included it on Surrealistic Pillow at the band's behest. >>>
Suggestion credit:
Mark - Hot Springs, CA
In "Embryonic Journey," Jorma Kaukonen captures optimism in an instrumental. "I wish I could tell you how that came to pass," he told Mojo magazine. "I was obviously in an in-the-moment process that I was able to capture it as it happened. I was fooling around in a drop D tuning in a workshop I was giving. A friend said 'you oughta check that out.' So I made it into a song. It just made sense to me."
"Embryonic Journey" plays at the end of the credits for the 1980 documentary Berkeley in the Sixties. Other uses of the song in movies include:

1982 dramedy Purple Haze
1999 drama A Walk on the Moon
2002 sports drama The Rookie

"Embryonic Journey" also played in the final Friends episode (titled "The Last One"), and in Ken Burns' 2017 TV documentary series The Vietnam War.

Comments: 4

Johann from Buenos AiresFact: this melancholic song sounds on the last scene of the sitcom "Friends", as the camera pans through the empty apartment.
Airplane Fan from St PetersburgHi all, Does anyone know what guitar Jorma used to play Embryonic Journey? Thanks in advance.
Apsa from AfricaBrilliant finger-picking guitar playing.
I heard that it actually was Rick Jarrard himself (RCA producer) who insisted for it to be included in the LP. Because he was too impressed.
Kerry G. from Detroit Rock City, MiTo drive just werever with my head out the window, with the wind in my hair, listening to this song, is just truly magic.

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