Crown of Creation

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Customer reviews

review by: date: 2007-11-21 rating:
Supreme
Press ganged into listening to this album in my college days in 68 and I have never regretted it. Each listening always leaves me feeling privileged to hear such a masterful piece of musical brilliance. In my opinion the finest album of the 1960s and second only(just) to War Babies as my overal number one.

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review by: date: 2007-05-17 rating:
truly the crown of creation - not enough stars in the sky for this
It is what it says. Along with After Bathing at Baxter's this is truly the highest achievement of the human race. And this album doesn't sound dated at all. For anyone who wants a bit more. Great songs from everyone, Jorma's guitar is at its searing best, Jack puts most jazzos to shame. Words are superfluous. Highlights for me: Lather, In time, Share a little joke, If you feel, Greasy Heart. Spencer Dryden, an experienced jazz drummer lends to the unique feel of the music - it's rarely a straightforward rock approach; bass player Jack Casady, the best musician who ever played in a rock band is delicious all through this; Jorma Kaukonen - on acoustic guitar he's been described as John Renbourn and Bert Jansch rolled into one and these days (2007)he's more respected than ever - by the time of this album he was well on top of electric guitar and producing excitement easily to match Hendrix or Clapton; and three distinct and original singer songwriters in Paul Kantner, Marty Balin and Grace Slick - Marty and Grace being universally recognised as each being among the finest singers ever - it's worth saying again: few bands ever had one singer as good as Marty or Grace, no other band ever had 2! Imagine the Pentangle meets the Jimi Hendrix experience meets the Mamas and the Papas! They had their share of hit singles over the years but didn't have as many instantly catchy songs as the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, the Who or the Doors but when it all came together they flew higher than anyone!


review by: sound fiend date: 2005-04-19 rating:
You ARE the Crown of Creation.
Some months after 'After Bathing at Baxter's' - an often great but a bit indulgent acid-bath undermined by studio noodling and other experiments, Jefferson Airplane finally came down to earth...more or less. On this, their fourth album, JA was able to meld their full blown psychedelic sound with their commercial interests, and they put together an LP more like their second- listenable all the way through, with a number of songs that could or should have been hit singles.

Founder folk-rocker Marty Balin, missing in action for most of Baxters's, re-appeared, singing writing or co-writing some great songs. Vocalist Grace Slick, guitarists Paul Kantner and Jorma Kaukonen, bassist Jack Cassidy, and drummer Spence Dryden are all playing and singing better than ever.

Slick's odd and folky Lather- about the growing numbers of brain or otherwise damaged American youth?- and her meatier sounding Greasy Heart have her typically literate and surreal lyrics. On the group's tasteful arrangement of Triad ( David Crosby's folk-jazz ballad about free love and polygamy ) Grace's voice is controlled and expressive, and shows how good a singer she really was. And the first side of the original LP, opening with Lather, has a more mellow feel and works nicely as a chill-out antidote to what came next- the subsequent songs and lyrics are heavier stuff.

That side starts off happily enough with Balin's ode to freedom, If You Feel, fading in on little wah wah guitar licks, bouyed by Jack Cassidy's fluid electric bass. Next comes the title tune, Paul Kantner's blend of apocalyptic sci-fi and a youth revolution call to arms. The Jorma Kaukonen penned and sung Ice Cream Phoneix calms things down only a shade. Greasy Heart precedes the albums closer and highlight, the communally sung House at Pooneil Corners- more apocalyptic revolutionary sci-fi lyrics, and someway related to the band's folk hero Fred Neil. But the interplay of three or four strong vocalists, plus the stop and start changes and feedback guitars, were unlike anything by any American group at the time. They wail, and America wasn't quite ready for it, even on FM. How about you, now?

You will need the remastered version, but the bonus cuts are not up to par and diminish the effect of the original. Play side 2 first, at least sometimes.

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