Crown of Creation
Crown of Creation
[edit]Crown of Creation is the fourth studio album by the San Francisco psychedelic rock band Jefferson Airplane, released by RCA Victor on August 18, 1968. The album saw the band continuing their development of psychedelic music, emphasising acid rock with science fiction themes. While failing to eclipse Surrealistic Pillow (1967) from a commercial standpoint, the album was a considerable success in comparison to its immediate predecessor, After Bathing at Baxter's (1967), peaking at No. 6 on the Billboard Pop Charts and earning a RIAA gold certification. It would be the last Jefferson Airplane album to be released in mono, and their second and final album to reach the Top Ten.
Background and recording
[edit]Jefferson Airplane's third album, After Bathing at Baxter's, had received warm reviews from the underground press but was a relative commercial disappointment after Surrealistic Pillow. By early 1968 the band had moved into a communal house in San Francisco — costing $73,000, the home, known as "The Airplane House" or simply "The Mansion", included a refurbished basement with a built-in recording studio. The band became a tight grouping and much of their composing began at their new headquarters.
The band returned to RCA Studios in Hollywood on February 20, 1968 with producer Al Schmitt to record two tracks for their next single, Grace Slick's "Greasy Heart" backed by Marty Balin's "Share a Little Joke". Sessions for the full album followed, with guest musicians including David Crosby, Tim Davis, Bill Goodwin, and Frank Zappa with several members of the Mothers of Invention.
Music and style
[edit]Stylistically, the album was the band's most diverse to date, combining the hard rock and studio experimentation of After Bathing at Baxter's with the more concise pop songwriting of Surrealistic Pillow. It was a true musical democracy of sorts, featuring songs written by every member of the band.
The album opens with Grace Slick's "Lather", which memorialises her then-boyfriend's thirtieth birthday while taking a jab at bassist Jack Casady's arrest for public nudity just prior to the studio sessions. The band also recorded David Crosby's "Triad", a controversial song about a ménage à trois that had been rejected by his band The Byrds the year prior; the Airplane gave it a soft acoustic arrangement featuring Slick on lead vocals.
Drummer Spencer Dryden contributed the brief, eerie electronic piece "Chushingura", whose title and musical inspiration was taken from the soundtrack to the 1939 Japanese film of the same name. Guitarist Jorma Kaukonen wrote "Star Track" and "Ice Cream Phoenix", the latter starting out as a ten-minute instrumental live jam but eventually pruned to three minutes with added lyrics.
The title track, written by Paul Kantner, draws its central imagery from John Wyndham's 1955 science fiction novel The Chrysalids, adapting passages from the book into its lyrics. Its two singles — "Greasy Heart", released in March 1968, followed by the title track in November — were modest hits on the Hot 100 chart.
Reception
[edit]AllMusic's Bruce Eder states that the album is "deliberately more accessible musically than its predecessor, even as the playing became more bold and daring within more traditional song structures", praising "If You Feel" as one of Balin's most heartfelt vocal performances and "Pooneil Corners" as the group firing on all cylinders.
The Daily Vault described the album as "almost the perfect release for 1968 and a wonderful snapshot of the era", singling out the bass work of Jack Casady as some of the best of the group's career and the decade.
It was voted number 591 in Colin Larkin's All Time Top 1000 Albums (3rd edition, 2000). When the band toured Europe and America to promote the album that autumn, many of the album's songs were included in the set list — including "Lather", "In Time", "Triad", and "If You Feel" — but were dropped within weeks, never to be performed live again.
Track listing
[edit]| # | Title | Writer(s) | Lead vocal |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | "Lather" | Grace Slick | Grace Slick |
| 2 | "In Time" | Spencer Dryden, Paul Kantner | Grace Slick |
| 3 | "Triad" | David Crosby | Grace Slick |
| 4 | "Star Track" | Jorma Kaukonen | Grace Slick |
| 5 | "Share a Little Joke" | Marty Balin | Marty Balin |
| 6 | "Chushingura" | Spencer Dryden | (instrumental) |
| 7 | "If You Feel" | Paul Kantner, Grace Slick | Marty Balin |
| 8 | "Crown of Creation" | Paul Kantner | Grace Slick |
| 9 | "Ice Cream Phoenix" | Jorma Kaukonen | Grace Slick |
| 10 | "Greasy Heart" | Grace Slick | Grace Slick |
| 11 | "The House at Pooneil Corners" | Marty Balin, Paul Kantner | Grace Slick, Paul Kantner |
Personnel
[edit]- Grace Slick — vocals, piano, recorder
- Marty Balin — vocals, guitar
- Paul Kantner — rhythm guitar, vocals
- Jorma Kaukonen — lead guitar, vocals
- Jack Casady — bass guitar
- Spencer Dryden — drums, percussion, electronics
Additional musicians
- David Crosby — backing vocals on "Triad"
Production
- Al Schmitt — producer
- Al Schmitt, Don Puluse — engineers
- J. Van Hamersveld — album design and art direction
See also
[edit]External links
[edit]- Crown of Creation at Discogs