Grace Slick and Paul Kantner released this record while they were a couple. I had not thought of this record in quite some time. As a tragic Jefferson Airplane fan, I picked it up for 99 cents and took it home sometime many decades ago
Silver Spoon has Slick wailing about cannibalism and a nod of the head to the veggies in her midst. It was 1971 and there were many living on real food. The title track comes up on Side 1. Here are some lyrics:
Sub carbon oscillation, sunshine blurring fascination
Pulsar craft, moving fast, gonna take me past the hand of man to you
The sword of the lord don’t mean nothin’ to me if he won’t get down
On the people makin’ such a mess of the land and the sea all around me...
Got to learn to leave the planet be
No more room here to fuck around like we did before
Just maybe one more chance to leave it be-Sunfighter
Titanic follows this track and it is some weird-ass instrumental
Look At The Wood has Jorma Kaukonen on guitar. That does not save the song nor the mournful vocals of Paul and Grace.
When I Was A Boy I Watched The Wolves has Jerry Garcia on guitar and lyrics like this:
Run with the wolfpack
Get down be bright go back, run with the wolfpack
We have the mountains, we have the town now
Battle cruiser, two tone silver loser
Run with the wolfpack
Million sounds so much like many bad songs that Jefferson Starship would record later in the late 70’s and 80’s.
China is about Kantner and Slick’s daughter, China Wing, and Grace sounds like a proud Mom and Jack Casady plays bass and the Tower of Power horns do their thing.
Earth Mother is another environmental song with some weird ass lyrics and some great violin from Papa John Creach. Sounds like an old English folk song through a psychedelic filter.
Water was once for drinking
Giving life to the land
Then it was used for cooling
Machinery of man
Earth Mother, your children are here
High and feeling dandy
Earth Mother, your children are here
Ripped on coke and candy
Universal Copernican Mumbles is another short musical piece. Here are the lyrics, all of them:
I am night, I am day
And we’ll help you find the way
If you help us find the way
To your heart
Shining citadel
Parallel in time
We can find the way to you
To your heart
To your heart
To your heart
Holding Together is the last track on the record and Jerry Garcia once again plays some guitar. The mix and the vocals and the song really must be listened to….once…and never again.
Sometimes the cut-out bin offers up some failures. It was interesting to go back and listen to this. I was almost certain it was crap then, and it is seriously crap now.
Even a hit of blotter would not make this release interesting.
Paul and Grace were heading off to the stars, and Jack and Jorma were jamming the blues with Hot Tuna. It would not be too long before one of the worst songs ever would be presented to us. The anti-corporate message just did not come off well and the music was dreadful.
But this happened:
“We Built This City” received a Grammy Award nomination for Best Rock Vocal Performance by a Duo or Group in 1986.
Yeah, the 80’s were not the best decade for rock if this received a nomination.
In 2011, a Rolling Stone magazine online readers’ poll named "We Built This City" the worst song of the 1980s. The song's winning margin was so large that the magazine reported it "could be the biggest blow-out victory in the history of the Rolling Stone Readers Poll".
More from the cut out bin soon….