Artist: JEFFERSON AIRPLANE
Album: CROWN OF CREATION REMASTERED (CD)

Year: 1968/ 2003
Media type: CD

CROWN OF CREATION is a rich and varied collection showing off the different talents of the main songwriters. Among the many memorable moments are Grace Slick's beautiful vocal on "Lather," the band's sensitive cover version of David Crosby's "Triad," and Jorma Kaukonen's stunning wah-wah solo on "If You Feel." Add to this the intense lyrics (such as the drug-themed "Greasy Heart"), Marty Balin and Paul Kantner's consistently strong vocals throughout, and Jack Casady's remarkable dexterity on bass. This is most certainly the Airplane's REVOLVER.

The group's fourth album, appearing ten months following After Bathing at Baxter's, isn't the same kind of leap forward that Baxter's represented from Surrealistic Pillow. Indeed, in many ways Crown of Creation is a more stylistically conservative album. It opens with "Lather," a Grace Slick original that was one of the group's very last forays (and certainly their last prominent one) into a folk idiom. Much of what follows is a lot more based in electric rock, as well as steeped in elements of science fiction (specifically author John Wyndham's book The Chrysalids) in several places, but Crown of Creation was still deliberately more musically accessible than its predecessor, even as the playing became more bold and daring within more traditional song structures. Jack Casady by this time had developed one of the most prominent and distinctive bass sounds in American rock, as identifiable (if not quite as bracing) as John Entwistle's was with the Who, as demonstrated on "In Time," "Star Track," "Share a Little Joke," "If You Feel," (where he's practically a second lead instrument), and the title song. Jorma Kaukonen's slashing, angular guitar attack was continually surprising as his snaking lead guitar parts wended their way through "Star Track" and "Share a Little Joke." The album also reflected the shifting landscape of West Coast music with its inclusion of "Triad," a David Crosby song that Crosby's own group, the Byrds, had refused to release. Its presence (the only extant version of the song for a number of years) was a forerunner of the sound that would later be heard on Crosby's own debut solo album If I Could Only Remember My Name (on which Slick, Paul Kantner, and Casady would appear). The overall album captured the group's rapidly evolving, very heavy live sound within the confines of some fairly traditional song structures, and left ample room for Slick and Marty Balin to express themselves vocally, with Balin turning in one of his most heartfelt and moving performances on "If You Feel." "Ice Cream Phoenix" pulses

Originally released in 1968, this RCA/BMG Heritage remastered reissue adds 4 bonus tracks 'Ribump Ba Bap Dum Dum', 'Would You like A Snack', 'Share A Little Joke' (single version-mono) & 'The Saga Of Sydney Spacepig' (previously unreleased). Includes 12-page booklet with extensive liner notes, detailed track listing & rare photos. 2003.

TRACKLIST:

1. Lather
2. In Time
3. Triad
4. Star Track
5. Share a Little Joke
6. Chushingura
7. If You Feel
8. Crown of Creation
9. Ice Cream Phoenix
10. Greasy Heart
11. The House at Pooneil Corners

12. Ribump Ba Bap Dum Dum
13. Would You Like a Snack?
14. Share a Little Joke - (mono, single version)
15. Saga of Sydney Spacepig, The - (previously unreleased)


LINE-UP:

Marty Balin (vocals)
Paul Kantner, Jorma Kaukonen (vocals, guitar)
Grace Slick (vocals)
ack Casady (bass)
Spencer Dryden (drums)

Additional personnel:
Charles Cockey (guitar, vocals)
Tim Davis (congas)
Bill Goodwin (talking drums)
Dan Woody (bongos)
Gary Blackman (nose solo)
Gene Twombly (sound effects)