Jefferson Airplane - Crown of Creation

Remember how i joked that David Crosby would show up at your gig and play any instrument not being held by a band member at the moment? Well, i honestly don't know why he wasn't considered an official member of Jefferson Airplane.

I've been bouncing albums off each other lately and coincidentally lacking a context to talk about Crown of Creation. Luckily, it's basically BS&T4 with much better results.

They're in San Fransisco, finding time between gigs to record a new 4th album. David Crosby tripped, fell through the west bay window, and spilled chocolate all over Grace's peanut butter, i mean handed them Exhibit F in his divorce proceedings with The Byrds, "Triad."

Anyone can be on the passenger list of whatever flying vehicle they're using that day, but if Grace Slick isn't giving us the safety briefing, i'm not really paying attention.

I tell you all that, to tell you this: i like a lot of female vocalists regardless of the genre. I don't think that's a sexual (or sexist) thing, i think it's a real acoustic phenomenon. My ears prefer the blend of assertive female vocals. Grace Slick, Cyndi Lauper, Cher, Donna Summer, Laura Nyro, Bjork, and on and on and on.

It's also a semiotic thing. For whatever reason, the incidental sounds of the vocal apparatus convey much more meaning and emotion from women. A stifled giggle, or warble, or breath, or belted note can drastically change the meaning of a phrase in a way that a male voice doesn't.

I don't have much to say about the album, though. Like BS&T4, these are songs for the sake of songs, and one or several can be quite enjoyable. Blows Against the Empire is much better, and there's just too many other people singing lead here to really get me excited.

Next

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The 4 Seasons - The Genuine Imitation Life Gazette

Image
This might be my longest  album review ever. But i swear a couple times, so it's worth the read ;) How could i possibly mention Jefferson Airplane, The 4 Seasons, and Frank Zappa in the same context? Zappa said "this is rediculous" and a few years later The 4 Seasons said "you know what, Frank is right. This IS ridiculous." To which Jefferson Airplane said, "Oh. Ok. Got it." The real question is: which one is the most transgressive? Zappa said stop fighting, you look like idiots. Jefferson Airplane said i guess if love and community is a bad thing, then sure we're criminals and we'd be happy to move out into the fields and live peaceful lives without your garbage, let us go already. The 4 Seasons said hold my champagne for a moment. In 1969, The 4 Seasons released the single most ironic, acidic, extravagant, and downright befuddling album ever created, The Genuine Imitation Life Gazette. Zappa was accused of writing "shitty doo-w
Read more

Welcome to my blog, and my record collection.

This is a blog about my love of listening to albums. It started off as a nightly perusal of my dad's record collection (which sadly became mine) on my personal facebook page. Over the last two months it has become quite an enjoyable process of simply ranting about what i think is a real art form, the album. It needs a more permanent home. Some of my reviews are positive, some negative. They might not be what you expect from album reviews, but i hope you at least find them entertaining. For the most part i do very little research, and they tend to be train of thought reactions rather than calculated essays. If nothing else, know that i'm really listening to them and whether they are amazing or abysmal i want you to go listen to them too.  I'll start migrating the 60+ i've written so far over here in the next few days, and hopefully get to the point where i just start writing them here. I'd probably even take suggestions if you're just dying to know my tho
Read more

Pat Benatar - Seven The Hard Way

Image
I don't know about you, but i love Pat Benatar. Yes, that's also her debut album with the single most underrated song in the universe (My Clone Sleeps Alone) in the background, but that's just a generic non-self-titled debut album. We're jumping ahead to her 6th album, Seven The Hard Way, because that, ladies and gentle germs, is how you kalaidescope a concept. Not one, not two, not three, but 4 protien-packed layers to this metaphor. You don't really need to know the overly complicated rules of Craps to know that A) it's gambling, B) "the hard way" refers to rolling doubles, so good luck rolling two 3.5s, and C) you're going to lose, one way or another. It's a joke, but more importantly, it's Pat Benatar and the roll out is Sex As A Weapon, so the innuendo is not intended to be subtle. Wait wait wait, that's only 3, Bottle, where's 4? You're right, last but not least, side B opens with Seven Rooms of Gloom, a Holland-Dozier-Hol
Read more