Crown of Creation [ORIGINAL RECORDING REMASTERED]

Jefferson Airplane

Product Details

• Audio CD (January 27, 1998)
• Original Release Date: September 1968
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Original recording remastered
• Label: RCA
• ASIN: B000002X4S
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (25 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #214,572 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
Japanese pressing. Reissue of the 1968 original release will include the bonus tracks 'Ribumo Ba Bap Dum Dum', 'Would You Like A Snack', 'Share A Little Joke' (mono single version) and 'Saga Of Sydney Spacepig'. This limited edition comes packaged in a paper sleeve. RCA. 2005. --This text refers to the Audio CD edition.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Continues the work of 'Baxters', further raising the bar, July 3, 2002

By	Phil Rogers (Ann Arbor, Michigan) - See all my reviews

The Airplane's fourth album literally picked up where #3 ('After Bathing at Baxters') left off. 'Baxters' was brilliant with its suite-like format, and almost exclusively electric, whereas their earlier work (especially 'Surrealistic Pillow') had been a bountiful mix of electric and acoustic songs. 'Crown of Creation' re-visits the mixture of electric/acoustic elements, but with a thicker reverberant sound such that the helpings of acoustic guitar are presented as a highly charged urban electro-apocalyptic sound space. All the songs are stunningly original.

Those vestiges of folk rock that had been expunged from the sound of 'Baxters' again flicker in 'Crown', but this is still their new sound. JA changed engineers after 'Pillow'; the new guy (who lasted at least through the 5th album, 'Volunteers') was seriously enamored of a higher horsepower feel, which here (whether the group is playing hard or acoustic rock) never lets up. From the vantage of his control room ('conning tower'), he sonically crafted the Airplane into a different sort of band, quite likely at their behest.

Here JA continued to make a strong case for being the greatest of the 'revolutionary' bands [the MC5, and CJ & the Fish notwithstanding]. They plumbed a wider gamut of emotion, invoking a deeper sense of tragedy, also rejoicing in the [somewhat tarnished?] beauty of it all, than probably any similar band, other than [possibly] the United States of America. [The USofA album, amazing as it is, was but a one-off'er.]

The youthful exuberance and idealism of 'Pillow' and 'Baxters' is still present here in transfigured form. With 'Crown', the Airplane gain greater mastery [to paraphrase Blake*] of the craft of metaphorically using corrosives to cleanse the doors and windows of perception, thereby revealing and reveling in a world beyond our customary boundaries [and not just those prevalent around 1969]. "Don't change before the Empire falls . . . you'll laugh so hard you'll crack the walls!" ["Greasy Heart"]

*[E.g. see "Auguries of Innocence" and "The Marriage of Heaven and Hell", in 'William Blake: Complete Writings', edited by Geoffrey Keynes.]

"Lather" Satire that is both biting and tearful. The lead guitarist approaches genius in his ability to mirror the mournfulness of the moment via his instrument's tone settings and his expressive playing. Slick's vocal manages to convey the private sort of horror of the events taking place.

"In Time" Not necessarily a drug song . . . it could be meditation, lovemaking, the beginnings of a waking dream . . . this one progresses slowly, passionately, beautifully. "Look further on past the surface . . . orange, blue, red & green are the colors of what I feel, and my mind you know it starts to reel in time."

"Triad" A Byrds' song which never made it onto their albums, with wondrous, slow acoustic guitar accompaniment; singer Grace really shows us the love.

"Star Track": "If your head spins 'round, try to see the ground if you can". 'Nuff said.

"Share A Little Joke" Exceedingly mournful song [sung by Balin]. Recollection of loss of innocence begins its recovery.

"Chushingura" Short, marvelous space-rock instrumental, rivaling the Stones' "2000 Light Years from Home".

"If You Feel" Great up-tempo [acid-dance] tune. Things turn optimistic on this one, though destructive at the same time [as in the idea that one thing must be destroyed, that the 'new' might emerge]. This song is a strange and stunning psychological mix, as lead singer Marty Balin simultaneously conveys mournfulness with a sense of overarching joy. Revel in this one if you will, as things really let loose from the get-go.

"Crown Of Creation" Begins the Airplane's own miniaturized 'Book of Revelation': a brilliant song drenched to the bone with their own brand of counter-cultural, apocalyptic imagery.

"Ice Cream Phoenix" More hints of an impending apocalypse [personal or universal?].This one is a little ponderous melodically, the lyrics are a bit prosaic in spots; but the messages they lay on us glow with a seeming immense importance.

"Greasy Heart" Grace gets funky and very satirical! "Woman with a greasy heart . . . automatic man!"

"The House At Pooneil Corners" Pithy, probing psychological tour de force. Steps up the tone of "Crown of Creation" in terms of the massiveness of its message, but here it's turning more personally hopeful at junctures. As tremendous an ending as was "Lather" a great beginning.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Crown Jewels, December 10, 2002

By	William Wood (Sydney, New South Wales Australia) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Ok you Baxter's Fans Consider This, September 11, 1999

By A Customer

I am reading all the great "Bathing at Baxter's" reviews so I decided to replay both Baxter's and "Crown of Creation" and, sorry folks, but Crown IS the crown of JA's creations. Baxter's has the music, indeed, but Crown has BOTH the music and the definite lyrical edge. It's dark, and deep...very very deep..."soon you'll attain the stability you strive for in the the only way that it is granted, in a place upon the fossils of your time." Is this not just as relevant today as it was back then? Is that not the mark of great lyrics? Check this out, "You and me we keep walking around and see all the bull(bleep) around us...try to keep our minds on what's going down, can't help but see the rhinoceros around us...." The reference to Ionesco and the whole absurd choo-choo train is unmistakable. "Lather" DEFINES Jung's Puer Aeturnus ( eternal child ), and turns it on its head. "Greasy Heart" may be the only really dated song ( along with the cover, maybe - there are still alot of those mushroom makers floating around, maybe in less secure hands now ), but Gracey's ascerbic rantings against the shallowness of our relationships is perhaps even more relevant today. And then they throw in the weirdness of "Triad" and the hum-this-tune-all-day-in-your-head "If You Feel" just for good measure. I hate to burst your bubble Baxter bretheren, but "Waiting" ( as great as it was ) was just a warm up for what was to come next.