Search - Jefferson Airplane :: Crown of Creation

Old Guy.

OLD GUY. | 06/07/2010

(5 out of 5 stars)

"In keeping with my shallow approach to reviewing...this is a smart record. It was one of the soundtracks to my ill-spent college youth. It is still an intriguing listen. Had a bit of the "Pillow" folk and some of "Baxter's" experimentation. Balin's voice was superb as was Kaukonen's electric...the whole album should be listened to as a piece and not yanked apart MP3 style. "Star Track" and "Share a Little Joke" remain personal favorites just because all the obvious favorites are always mentioned."

One of the all time greats.

Laura Todd | Oaks, PA USA | 05/17/2010

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I did not live in Haight Ashbury or see the JA live in person...I was just a regular high school kid back then. But this album was one of my favorites. I loved the beautiful songs like "Lather" and "Triad," the freakiness of "Chushingura" and the rebellious lyrics of "If you feel" (break china laughing!), the way each song created a mood... and most of all I loved the title track "Crown of Creation". This track has some of the most intricate harmonizing in all of Rock. Try singing it with your brother sometime. Musicians have lost the art of singing in 3-part harmony, and that is why a lot of people (young ones included) say that "today's music sucks" and prefer the music of the 60s.



But 'Crown of Creation' was even more than a beautiful song...it was an anthem for the people who didn't fit in (and that included most of us, of course.) It was about how the normal and complacent marginalized those who were different, and how those folks would have to find their own sanctuary as they played their part in the evolution of the human race. A few years after I heard this song, I happened to read the book 'Re-Birth' by John Wyndham. This was a science fiction novel about a post-nuclear future where the citizens try to eliminate every kind of mutation. As we know, mutation is the engine of evolution. So if there is no mutation, a species will "find a place among the fossils". I was astonished to see a quote from this book, that was nearly identical to the lyrics of the song 'Crown of Creation'. In fact only today I looked up the album in Wikipedia and learned that Wyndham had given his permission for the Airplane to use his character's words.



I'd like to remark on the nuclear mushroom cloud cover art. This sets the mood for the whole album. As a youngster in the 60s, the fear of nuclear war loomed large in my consciousness. The iconic mushroom cloud was an image of dread which inspired a sort of nihilism, "let's be free and have a good time now, 'cause tomorrow we may be nuked'. I think this subtext underlies the entire album (as well as the whole hippie culture itself). I already mentioned that "Crown of Creation' evokes post-nuclear mutants. But the last song on the album, "Pooneil Corners", evokes a much darker image of a destroyed world.



I'm glad the nightmare didn't happen and we all survived to look back on the great music of the past!





"

"Leaders of a leaderless new breed"

M. Seltzer | California High Desert | 05/18/2010

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Bill Graham once referred to the Airplane as "leaders of a leaderless new breed." Saw them myself at the Fillmore West in '69. Crown of Creation, was for me, a jumping-off point in my music listening adventures and perhaps the height of creativity of this abundantly-talented ensemble. Grace, Marty, and Paul singing, Jorma and Jack playing; wow!"