Jefferson Airplane

Crown Of Creation (1968)

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  1. Lather (Slick)
  2. In Time (Balin/Kantner)
  3. Triad (Crosby)
  4. Star Track (Kaukonen)
  5. Share a Little Joke (Balin)
  6. Chushingura (Dryden) (strumentale)
  7. If You Feel (Balin)
  8. Crown of Creation (Kantner)
  9. Ice Cream Phoenix (Kaukonen, Charles Cockey)
  10. Greasy Heart (Slick)
  11. House at Pooneil Corners (Balin/Kantner)

Notes / Jefferson Airplane

 

 

LATHER

 

Lather was thirty years old today,

They took away all of his toys.

His mother sent newspaper clippings to him,

About his old friends who'd stopped being boys.

There was Harwitz E. Green, just turned thirty-three,

His leather chair waits at the bank.

And Sergeant Dow Jones, twenty-seven years old,

Commanding his very own tank.

But Lather still finds it a nice thing to do,

To lie about nude in the sand,

Drawing pictures of mountains that look like bumps,

And thrashing the air with his hands.

 

But wait, oh Lather's productive you know,

He produces the finest of sound,

Putting drumsticks on either side of his nose,

Snorting the best licks in town,

But that's all over...

 

Lather was thirty years old today,

And Lather came foam from his tongue.

He looked at me eyes wide and plainly said,

Is it true that I'm no longer young?

And the children call him famous,

And the old men call him insane,

And sometimes he's so nameless,

That he hardly knows which game to play...

Which words to say...

And I should have told him, "No, you're not old."

And I should have let him go on...smiling...babywide.

(©   1968 RCA Records)

 

IN TIME

 

Long time since I climbed down this mountain before

Things I've seen here make me want to go running home

 

Lean close put your lips next to my face

Look further on past the surface

 

Orange, blue, red & green

Are the colors of what I feel

And my mind y'know it starts to reel in time

 

To know your flesh layin' by my skin

And I wonder whenever I'm in

Warm, soft, nice & now

Are the word things of what I know

And my body y'know it's so in time

 

I see you at the same place that I play

Ah darlin' tell me what can I say

Dance, sing, sleep& dream

Is the music of what I feel

Among the many things whenever you're near in time

 

Come with me my friend

Come on now and take my hand

You can be my friend

Soon be in another country

 

(©   1968 RCA Records)

 

TRIAD

 

You want to know how it will be

Me and him and you and me

You both stand there your long hair flowing

Your eyes alive your mind still growing

Saying to me--"What can we do now that we both love you",

I love you too-- I don't really see

Why can't we go on as three

You are afraid--embarrassed too

No one has ever said such a thing to you

Your mother's ghost stands at your shoulder

Face like ice--a little bit colder

Saying to you--"you can not do that, it breaks

All the rules you learned in school"

I don't really see

Why can't we go on as three

We love each other--it's plain to see

There's just one answer comes to me

--Sister--lovers--water brothers

And in time--maybe others

So you see--what we can do--is to try something new--

If you're crazy too--

I don't really see

Why can't we go on as three.

 

(© Sandlewood Music)

  

STAR TRACK

 

If your head spins round try to see the ground if you can
My busy eyes missed her path through the air as she ran
My sensory mind is too old to cry
Not ready to live and too strange to die
So stop your doubt push the world on by
With your hand

It takes time to love and open minds to love
And who's got time on their hands
Well life can be hard when you're holes in a card
In some electronic hand
You'll wander around from place to place
Disappear without a trace
And someone else will take your place
In line

You can fool your friends about the way it ends
But you can't fool yourself
Take your head in hand and make your own demands
Or you'll crystallize on the shelf
The freeway's concrete way won't show
You where to run or how to go
And running fast you'll go down slow in the end

Running fast you'll go down slow in the end

 

(©   1968 RCA Records)

 

SHARE A LITTLE JOKE

 

A friend of mine asked me
Where has he been
Where is he now?
I said he's been set free
Shares a little joke with the world somehow

Sounded like he'd make a halo
When I heard his laughter floating
It's all for fun you know
He said he just let go
Shares a little joke with the world

How can I make you as happy as I am
I feel like you're running
I know we could fly
Your eyes are never tired
Your mind is on fire
Your heart has never been satisfied

World around you
Never catches up with you

Some people are in love
Some people know everything can be done
I think you're joking
I believe in half of you
I want to journey
I want to laugh with you
But after you
Share a little joke with the world

World around you
Never catches up with you

(©  1968 RCA Records)

 

TURN MY LIFE DOWN

 

When I see you next time round in sorrow
Will you know what I been going through
My yesterdays have melted with my tomorrow
And the present leaves me with no point of view
When I see you next time round look into my eyes
Where we'd be never could decide
Borrowed moments they cannot fill the moments of our lives
And wishful thinking leaves me no place to hide
No place to hide
No place to hide
I see the shadows softly coming
Taking me into a place
Where they turn my life down
Leaving mourning with myself
And nothing to say

Turn My Life Down

 

(©  1968 RCA Records)

 

IF YOU FEEL

 

If you feel like china breaking
If you feel like laughing
Break china laughing
Break china laughing, laughing, laughing

If you feel like leaves falling
If you feel like smiling
Fall leaves smiling
Fall leaves smiling, smiling, smiling

If you feel like love making
If you feel like flying
Make love flying
Make love flying, flying, flying

Bridge:

Got down
Not the first time you know
Got down
Got up to go

(©  1968 RCA Records)

 

CROWN OF CREATION

 

You are the Crown of Creation

You are the Crown of Creation

and you've got no place to go.

Soon you'll attain the stability you strive for

in the only way that it's granted

in a place among the fossils of our time.

In loyalty to their kind

they cannot tolerate our minds.

In loyalty to our kind

we cannot tolerate their obstruction.

Life is Change

How it differs from the rocks

I've seen their ways too often for my liking

New worlds to gain

My life is to survive

and be alive

for you.

 

(©  1968 RCA Records)

GREASY HEART

 

Lady, you keep asking why he likes you how come

Wonder why he wants more if he just had some

Boys, she's got more to play with in the way of toys

Ladies eyes go off and on with a finger full of glue

Lips are drawn upon her face in come-to-me tattoo

Creamy suntan color that fades when she bathes

Paper dresses catch on fire & you lose her in the haze

Don't ever change lady, he likes you that way because

He just had his hair done and he wants to use your wig

He's going off the drug thing cause his veins are getting big

He wants to sell his paintings but the market is slow

They're only paying him two grams now for a one-man abstract show

Don't ever change people even if you can

You are your own best toy to play with remote control hands

Made for each other made in Japan

Woman with a greasy heart automatic man

Don't ever change people your face will hit the fan

Don't ever change people even if you can

Don't change before the empire falls

You'll laugh so hard you'll crack the walls

 

ICE CREAM PHOENIX

 

You don't know just when to stop and when to go
City streets in the dead of winter stop your mind with dirty snow
Walk at night and touch your hand to the golden tights and let them show
You the shadows disappearing I'll smile and say I told you so
Tell me wily if you think you know why people love when there's no tomorrow
And still not cry when it's time to go
And still not cry when it's time to go
And still not cry when it's time to go
The wall of your memory will echo your sorrow
The pictures of sadness are not what they seem
So hold out your smile take my hand and be happy
These pictures of sadness are not all they seem
Are you so old that you've no childhood - is your time line so unreal
That all your sunsets come in the morning - baby tell me how do you feel
Shelves of books in your mirror reflecting the sidewalks & alleys
That you've seen
Show colors change as the images fade in my al vanishing baby
Tell me how If you think you know how people love if there's be

Do people love if there's no tomorrow
And still not cry when they have to go
And still not cry when they have to go
And still not cry when they have to go

(©  1968 RCA Records)

 

THE HOUSE AT POONEIL CORNERS

 

You & me we keep walkin' around & we see
All the bullshit (1) around us
You try & keep your mind on what's going down
Can't help but see the rhinocerous around us
& you wonder what you can do
& you do what you can
To get
balled & high (2)
& you know I'm still goin' need you around

You say it's healing but nobody's feeling it
Somebody's dealing - somebody's stealing it
You say you don't see & you don't
You say you won't know & you won't let it come

Everything someday will be gone except silence
Earth will be quiet again
Seas from clouds will wash off the ashed of violence
Left as the memory of men
There will be no survivor my friend
Suddenly everyone will look surprised
Stars spinning wheels in the skies
Sun is scrambled in their eyes
While the moon circles like a vulture

Someone stood at a window & cried
'One tear I thought that should stop a war
But someone is killing me'
& that's the last hour to think anymore
Jelly & juice & bubbles - bubbles on the floor

Castles on the cliffs vanish
Cliffs like heaps of rubbish
Seen from the stars hour by hour
As splintered scraps & black powder

From here to heaven is a scar
Dead center - deep as death
All the idiots have left

Epitaph
The cows are almost cooing
Turtle doves are mooing
Which is why a poo is pooing
In the sun
Sun.

(©  1968 RCA Records)

 
 Note:
   

See also: Jefferson Airplane & Family

1,2,3,8,10: Transcription by  Johnny Blasi (internet)

11: Transcription by Dan Paolino (newsgroup)

About "The House at Pooneil Corners"
Censored lyrics on original album cover (1)(2)
(1) Bullshit
(2) "balled & high"

Personnel
Paul Kantner:  Vocals, Guitar  
Jack Casady:  Bass  
Spencer Dryden:  Drums, Vocals, Organ, Piano  
Marty Balin:  Vocals, Guitar  
Jorma Kaukonen:  Vocals, Guitar  
Grace Slick:  Keyboards, Vocals  

David Crosby:  Guitar  
Charles Cockey:  Vocals, Guitar 
Tim Davis:  Conga 
Bill Goodwin:  Drums  

Al Schmitt:  Producer Engineer  
Richie Schmitt:  Engineer  
Gene Twombly:  Sound Effects  
Dan Woody:  Bongos  
Joe Lopes:  Engineer 

   

Lyrics ©  1968 RCA Records / Sandlewood Music / Notes © Alberto Truffi / Reproduction for commercial use not permitted

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