A classic of its time

The apocalyptic vision on the album's cover is not accidental. "Crown of Creation," released in 1968, when apocalyptic visions were not uncommon, creates a musical world of angst, fear, anger and rebellion, and does so quite effectively.

This was, in my opinion, the Airplane's best album, sandwiched as it was between two other very good ones, the often overlooked "After Bathing at Baxter's" and "Volunteers." As had been true since "Surrealistic Pillow," the record is largely Grace Slick's and Paul Kantner's, not Marty Balin's, although the latter contributes one fine song, "Share a Little Joke," and the instrumentally satisfying "If You Feel." But the strength of the album is in the dark colors woven by Slick and Kantner.

Slick's "Lather" a mocking but strangely tender ode to those who refuse to grow up, and "Greasy Heart," a harsh attack on a valueless society, rank among the best songs the band produced. Kantner's "Another Country" lyrically paints a world different than the one he evidently regrets living in. One must also mention Jorma Kaukonen's angst-ridden "Star Track," with the memorably chilling line "You'll wander 'round from place to place/disappear without a trace/and someone else will take your place in line." Don't listen to that one on your way to work on Monday morning. On the other hand, its definitive wah-wah solo never loses its charm.

The album reaches a fitting conclusion with "The House on Pooneil Corners," a sequel to "Baxter's" "Ballad of You and Me Pooneil." Few songs capture the now nearly forgotten existential anxiety of the late sixties like this one, a portrait of a world ready to dissolve into fire and death. Balin's pleading vocal captures this: "From here to heaven/Is a scar/Dead center, deep as death..." and then Slick's cry, "All the idiots have left."

Some will find all of this hopelessly dated, but even if one finds the ideas to be thus, the music, for me at least, remains vibrant, the vocals stirring, and the imaginative effort compelling. Highly recommended.

El vuelo continúa a menor altura

Pasada ya su fase de máxima experimentación con After Bathing, los Airplane retoman un enfoque más convencional en Crown of Creation, logrando un sólido álbum que mezcla elementos anteriores de folk y rock con sonoridades pesadas, sin dejar a un lado los siempre bienvenidos toques lisérgicos.

El álbum arranca con 3 números con tendencia folk, donde In Time es lo mejor. De allí en adelante lo que predomina es la canción rock de 3 minutos, con ese inconfundible estilo en las guitarras y siempre respaldadas por el profundo bajo de Jack Cassidy. Una especie de vuelta hacia los días de Surrealistic Pillow, aunque el sonido es más denso y completo. Aquí vale la pena mencionar If You Feel y Greasy Heart.

Cerrando y con 6 minutos, House At Pooneil Corner muestra al grupo en su lado más sicodélico, con una insistente presencia de guitarras y órgano, un perturbador final como para demostrar que el grupo puede seguir transgrediendo fronteras, y de paso es el fondo sonoro perfecto para esa fantástica portada.

The Crown Jewels

Crown of Creation represents the high water mark of San Fransisco's Jefferson Airplane.More elegant, complex and cohesive than "After Bathing at Baxters" (although that is indeed a fine album)and simply having better songs and purpose than "Volunteers" this disc is a must have.
The thing that really seperated the Airplane from the rest was the fact that everyone in the band was exceptional at what they did ( and I have still yet to hear a better, more original and more important bass player than Jack Casady) and all were at the top of their game at the same time, and this disc was recorded just before it all began to fall apart.

Regal and majestic, instruments and voices present us with one of the most powerful documents of an era.A group of young people fired and inspired by the times they were living in producing an anthem for those times and ours.A time capsule of joy and wonder poisoned by the reality of the war in Vietnam and the war at home.