Music / Crown of Creation

Crown of Creation.

Crown of Creation is the fourth studio album by Jefferson Airplane, released in 1968 through RCA Records. The album marked the band's psychedelic peak, for they would begin to move away from the genre subsequently, as evident on Volunteers from the following year.

Hits and fan favourites include the title track, "Lather" and "Triad".

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Tracklist:

Side One

1. "Lather" (2:57)
2. "In Time" (4:14)
3. "Triad" (4:55)
4. "Star Track" (3:11)
5. "Share a Little Joke" (3:09)
6. "Chushingura" (1:20)

Side Two

7. "If You Feel" (3:21)
8. "Crown of Creation" (2:54)
9. "Ice Cream Phoenix" (3:02)
10. "Greasy Heart" (3:26)
11. "The House at Pooneil Corners" (5:54)

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Bonus Tracks (2003 Reissue):

12. "Ribump Ba Bap Dum Dum" (1:32)
13. "Would You Like a Snack?" (2:40)
14. "Share a Little Joke (Single Version)" (3:09)
15. "The Saga of Sydney Spacepig" (7:55)
16. "Candy Man" (2:25)

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Principal Members:

• Marty Balin - lead vocals, guitar
• Jack Casady - bass
• Spencer Dryden - drums, piano, organ, steel balls, vocals
• Paul Kantner - guitar, vocals
• Jorma Kaukonen - guitar, vocals, electric chicken
• Grace Slick - lead vocals, piano, organ

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Share a Little Trope:

• Alliterative Title: "Crown Of Creation".
• Atomic Hate: Implied by the album cover, which depicts a mushroom cloud. The picture was taken during one of the US army nuclear tests in the desert.
• Avant-Garde Music: "Chushingura" is a short experimental electronic composition.
  • To say many of the bonus tracks (i.e. "Would You Like a Snack?") are avant-garde would be an understatement. Simply put, there's a reason why these bonus tracks went unreleased for years.
• Cover Version: "Triad", which was originally by The Byrds, although their version went unreleased for several decades and David Crosby ended up being given to Jefferson Airplane.
  • Also, the bonus track "Candy Man", originally by Reverend Gary Davis.
• Epic Rocking: The bonus track "The Saga of Sydney Spacepig".
• Face on the Cover: The band can be seen in the mushroom cloud on the cover.
• Electronic Music: "Chushingura" is an experimental electronic composition, surprisingly enough written by their drummer Spencer Dryden.
• Instrumentals: "Chushingura" and the bonus track "Ribump Ba Bap Dum Dum".
• Hope Spot: "House at Pooneil Corners" has a musical one. The song is primarily built around a two-chord vamp meant to sound ominous and tense, with lyrics describing a post-nuclear Crapsack World. At the 0:55 mark, however, the progression shifts to an all-major-chord typically-rock chord progression before plunging back into the vamp at 1:10 and staying there for the rest of the song.
• Manchild: "Lather" was mainly inspired by Spencer Dryden, who was Grace Slick's lover at the time and the first of the band's members to turn 30. Yet, despite his old age, many perceived him as child-like.
  • "Lather" isn't just about Dryden either. It is also said to be partially about Jack Casady as well, particularly with these lines (which were based on an actual incident with Casady):
  But Lather still finds it a nice thing to do
  To lie about nude in the sand"
• Miniscule Rocking: "Chushingura", which only goes for 1:20.
• New Sound Album: The sound of this album moves away from the more progressive sound found on After Bathing at Baxter's. "Chushinguta" in particular was arguably the first electronic music sound on a rock album.
• One-Word Title: "Lather", "Triad" and "Chushingura".
• Questioning Title?: The bonus track "Would You Like a Snack?".
• Rule of Three: "Triad" is about a ménage à trois.
• Shout-Out:
  • The lyrics of the title track were taken (with permission) entirely from the novel The Chrysalids by British SF author John Wyndham.
  • "Triad" contains a couple of references to Robert A. Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land, with references to "sister lovers" and "water brothers". But it was actually written by David Crosby.
• Special Guest: David Crosby appears as a guitarist and wrote the lyrics to "Triad" and was originally intended for The Byrds, but was rejected for being too risqué. So it ended up on this album instead.
  • Also, Frank Zappa and several members of The Mothers Of Invention (Don Preston, Art Tripp and Ian Underwood) appears on the bonus track "Would You Like A Snack?", with Zappa being credited as co-writer along with Slick. Zappa would release a song of the same name on 200 Motels, but is an otherwise completely different song.
• Spiritual Successor: "The House at Pooneil Corners" to "The Ballad Of You and Me and Pooneil" from After Bathing at Baxter's.
• War Is Hell: The mushroom cloud in the cover implies this.
• Who Names Their Kid "Dude"?: "Lather", which is about a 30 year old man with that name.

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