Jefferson Airplane

Bless Its Pointed Little Head (1969)

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1. 3/5 of a Mile in 10 Seconds (Balin) - 4:50

2. Somebody to Love (Slick) - 4:03

3. Fat Angel (Donovan) - 7:35

4. Rock Me Baby (Traditional) - 7:45

5. The Other Side of This Life (Neil) - 6:45

6. It's No Secret (Balin) - 3:30

7. Plastic Fantastic Lover (Balin) - 3:55

8. Turn Out the Lights (Dryden) - 1:21

9. Bear Melt (JA) - 11:21

Note / Jefferson Airplane Page

3/5's Of A Mile In 10 Seconds

Do away with people blowing my mind
do away with people wasting my precious time
take me to a simple place
where I can easily see my face
baby, baby I can see that you're fine
know I love you baby, yes I do
know I love you baby, yes I do

do away with people laughing at my hair
do away with people climbing on my precious prayers
take me to a circus tent
where I can easily pay my rent
and all the other freaks can share my cares
know I love you baby, yes I do
know I love you baby, yes I do

do away with things that come on obscene
like hot rods real clean real fine nicotine
sometimes the price is 65 dollars
prices like that make a grown man holler
'specially when it's sold by a kid that's only 15
know I love you baby, yes I do
know I love you baby, yes I do
3/5's of a mile in 10 seconds...

When the truth is found to be lies
and all the joys within you dies
don't you want somebody to love
don't you need somebody to love
wouldn't you love somebody to love
you better find somebody to love

When the garden flowers baby are dead yes
and your mind is full of red
don't you want somebody to love
don't you need somebody to love
wouldn't you love somebody to love
you better find somebody to love

your eyes, I say your eyes may look like his
but in your head baby I'm afraid you don't know where it is
don't you want somebody to love
don't you need somebody to love
wouldn't you love somebody to love
you better find somebody to love

tears are running ah running down your breast
and your friends baby they treat you like a guest
don't you want somebody to love
don't you need somebody to love
wouldn't you love somebody to love
you better find somebody to love

(trascritta da Johnny Blasi)

Fat Angel

He will bring happiness in a pipe,
He'll ride away on his silver bike
And apart from that he'll be so kind
In consenting to blow your mind.
Fly Translove Airways, get you there on time.
Fly Translove Airways, get you there on time.
He will bring orchids for my lady,
The perfume will be of an excellent style
And apart from that he'll be so kind
In consenting to blow your mind.
Fly Translove Airways, get you there on time.
Fly Translove Airways, get you there on time.
He will bring happiness in a pipe,
He'll-a ride away on his silver bike
And apart from that he'll be so kind
In consenting to blow your mind.
Fly Jefferson Airplane, get you there on time.
Fly Jefferson Airplane, get you there on time.
He will bring happiness in a pipe,
He'll ride away on his silver bike
And apart from that he'll be so kind
In consenting to blow your mind.
Fly Translove Airways, get you there on time.
Fly Translove Airways, get you there on time.
We'll be flying at an altitude of thirty-nine thousand feet
Captain High at your service.

Rock me baby
Rock me all night long
I said rock me baby
Rock me all night long
I said rock me baby
Rock me all night long
I said roll me baby
Like a wagon wheel
Oh, roll me baby
Like a wagon wheel
I said roll me baby
Just don't know how good you make me feel

I said rock me baby
Rock me all night long
I said rock me baby
Rock me all night long
I said rock me baby
Rock me all night long
Won't you roll me baby
Like a wagon wheel
I said roll me baby
Like a wagon wheel
I said roll me baby
Just don't know how good you make me feel.

Would you like to know a secret, just between you andme.
I don't know where I'm goin' next, don't know where I'm gonna be.

Refrain:
But that's another side to this life, I've been leadin',
But that's another side to this life.

I think I'll go to Nashville, down to Tennessee,
The ten cent life I've been leading here,
Is gonna be the death of me.

(Refrain)

I don't know what I'm doing half the time,
I don't know where I'll go,
I think I'll get me a sailin' boat
and sail the Gulf of Mexico.

(Refrain)

My whole world's in an uproar, my whole world's upsidedown,
Don't know what I'm doin' here, but I'm always hangin' round.

And that's another side to this life, I've been leadin',
And that's another side to this life.

Would you like to know a secret, just between you andme.
Don't know where I'm goin' next, don't know where I'm gonna be.

And that's the other side to this life, I've been leadin',
And that's the other side of this life.

It's no secret
how strong my love is for you
It's no secret
when I tell you what I'm gonna do
'cause I love you, yes I love you

It's no secret
everybody knows how I feel
It's no secret
when I say my love is real
'cause I love you, yes I love you

It's no secret
when you got me jumping up and down
It's no secret
'cause my heart is chained and bound
I love you, yes I love you, Yearh

It's no secret
everybody knows how I feel

As I get older
the year sake get's heavy for you
wow
It isn't any young girl
I feel like my whole life is through
yearh, when I stop feeling how strong my love is for you
wow
I know I'll be empty watching your love like I do

It's no secret (no)
when you got me jumping up and down
It's no secret
'cause my heart is chained and bound
I love you, yes I love you, Yearh

It's no secret
everybody knows how I feel
It's no secret
everybody knows how I feel
It's no secret

Her neon mouth with the blinkers-off smile
Nothing but an electric sign
You could say she has an individual style
She's part of a colorful time

Secrecy of lady-chrome-covered clothes
You wear cause you have no other
But I suppose no one knows
You're my plastic fantastic lover

Her rattlin' cough never shuts off
Is nothin' but a used machine
Her aluminum finish, slightly diminished
Is the best I ever have seen

Cosmetic baby plugged into me
I'd never ever find another
I realize no one's wise
To my plastic fantastic lover

The electrical dust is starting to rust
Her trapezoid thermometer taste
All the red tape is mechanical rape
Of the TV program waste

Data control and IBM
Science is mankind's brother
But all I see is drainin' me
On my plastic fantastic lover

Bear Melt

There are always just a few pebbles
In the middle of a stream
When it's trying to be a flowing mother

Oh she blows she blows
Nobody knows
Oh there she goes
Nobody knows

Then along comes a little tiny
Animal nipping a
Few drops out of her side
Just a few drops from her side

She can run
She could stay
But the days not right and so she's gonna move
Let me tell you gonna move
Let me tell you how I'm gonna move along
Out away

But ahhhh
There's a man come along with a jacket on
Long gun in his hand
I said there was a man coming on
With a red jacket on
And a big long gun in his hand

Got a sledge hammer
All he needs is one head
Just one sledge hammer baby and all
All them animals is dead
Yeah dead

But why not keep the little animals alive?
Why not?
I say why not?

And don't you worry 'bout being sentimental honey
They're just an animal you want to keep alive
Keep alive

And give it to you what I have
Give it to me
Give to you yeah
And give it to me
Oh

You know how good it feels when somebody gives it to you
Yeah, it feels good when somebody gives it to you
Gives it to you right here

Tell me how it feels
When somebody gives it to you good
Oh you could listen
To a thousand different reasons
Why you can't go

Altre notizie sui Jefferson Airplane & family

Fat Angel
Un brano "psichedelico" scritto dal folk-singer scozzese durante il suo tour e soggiorno californiano nel 1966, ospite di Cass Elliott, meglio nota come "Mama" Cass (Ellen Naomi Cohen) una delle due cantanti del celeberrimo quartetto vocale californiano hippy Mamas & Papas (California Dreamin', Monday Monday, ecc.). Nella canzone sono esplicitamente citati i Jefferson Airplane, che peraltro stavano solo allora proponendo il primo singolo "It's A Secret" e che hanno riproposto spesso dal vivo questo ottimo brano, fotografia e cronaca dell'epoca dei "figli dei fiori".

Rock Me Baby
Un blues tradizionale ripreso dal repertorio del grande blues-man B.B.King, a conferma delle radici blues ben presenti nella psichedelia dei Jefferson, come ben testimoniato dalla proposta nel loro primo LP Takes Off dei classici "Tobacco Road" e "Chauffeur Blues".

The Other Side of This Life
Un brano del cantautore folk progressive Fred Neil, autore tra l'altro del celeberrimo tema "Everybody's Talkin'" del film "Midnight Cowboy" (con Dustin Hoffman e John Voight). Un personaggio che ha avuto una grande influenza sulla musica americana e californiana della seconda metà dei sessanta, con brani come questo (ripreso anche da Peter, Paul & Mary), e la incondizionata ammirazione, oltre che da parte dei Jefferson, da parte dei Lovin' Spoonful di John Sebastian, da Peter, Paul & Mary (che incisero la stessa canzone) e ovviamente Harry Nilsson, che portò al successo internazionale "Everybody's Talkin'".
Il brano ripreso dai Jefferson era contenuto in uno dei dischi più significativi di Fred Neil, "A Little Bit Of Rain" del 1965, (chiamato anche  in origine "Bleecker & MacDougal"), un disco folk-blues quasi completamente acustico.
Fred Neil ha però vissuto sempre totalmente appartato, fino alla prematura scomparsa nel 1977, non capitalizzando a livello di popolarità la sua grande capacità compositiva.

Bear Melt
La canzone psichedelica per eccellenza, 11 minuti di libera improvvisazione musicale e vocale, con Grace Slick che esprime in forma di musica le sue idee sulla società del tempo e sulla liberazione.

(Dal libro Psychedelic Sixties, Dan Alford 28-6-2002:

This final track from Jefferson Airplane’s 1968 live album Bless Its Pointed Little Head is a classic of the psychedelic movement. In fact, it may be the definition of psychedelic music. At eleven minutes, it may not be as long as many standard tunes in the repertoires of Airplane’s contemporaries, but the ground covered is strange and unsteady- an altered state in and of itself.

The composition (if it can be called that) opens with creepy, widely spaced bass notes and quiet keys and guitars. Spenser Dryden taps the high hat here and there, accentuating Grace’s long moaning vocals. The plot of the song has something to do with a woman in the woods who is “nipped” by an animal and considers running away, but a man with a sledgehammer comes along and decides “all he needs is just one hit and them little animals is dead.” Yet Grace (or the woman) questions, in a pinnacle of all that is acid drenched, sixties madness, “Why not keep all the little animals alive?” An allegory for the youth of a nation in a time of strife and turmoil? Possibly. An homage to the famed chemist and master soundman Owsley, also known as Bear? Possibly. A hallucination involving a Honey Bear bottle? Possibly. Something that must be heard to be believed? Definitely.

Grace’s vocals are absolutely phenomenal, fitting the strange subject matter to perfection. As she wails and howls, the band leans in from all sides, lending weight and immediacy to the impending insanity. The movement eases to Dryden, Casady and the guitarists playing brief interlocking notes, but only for a moment. Suddenly Kantner swings out a rhythm lick that triggers Jorma and Jack, who race and then eye each other down. Put on headphones and watch it happen before your very eyes and ears! They swipe at each other, and drag the rest of the instrumentalists ino a scuffle that doesn’t quite reach the cacophonous peak that is part of so many Airplane songs, and that made Airplane so very popular. Grace’s final lines are ethereal and strange- a precursor to the quiet warbling that later became so identified with Robert Plant.)

Formazione
Paul Kantner - Chitarra e voce
Marty Balin - Chitarra e voce
Jorma Kaukonen - Chitarra solista e voce
Grace Slick -  Voce
Jack Casady - Basso
Spencer Dryden - Batteria

Data pubblicazione
Febbraio 1969

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