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Blows Against The Empire (1970) |
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1. Mau
Mau (Amerikon) (Covington/Kantner/Slick) - 6:35 |
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1. Mau Mau |
TOP | NOTE |
Put your old ladies back
into bed
Your old men back in their graves
Cover their ears so they can't hear us sing
Cover their eyes so they can't see us play
Get out of the way
Let the people play
We're gonna get down on you
Come alive all over you
Dancin' down into your town
Tyrannosaurus Rex was destroyed before
By a furry little ball that crawled along
The primeval jungle floor
And he stole the eggs of the dinosaur
CLOSE YOUR EYES &
CREATE THE SOUND
OPEN YOUR HAN DS & REBUILD THE GROUND
We are egg snatchers
Flashin' sunshine children
Diamond thieves
You unleash the dogs
Of a grade B-movie star governor's war
While you sit in the dark
Insane with the fear of dying
We'll all ball in your parks
insane with the flash of living
I AM ALIVE
I AM HUMAN
I WILL BE ALIVE AGAIN
So drop your fuckin'
bombs
Burn your demon babies
I WILL BE ALIVE AGAIN
The rabid lover - feelin' the starch in your grin
Callin' for acid cocaine and grass
And receiving your homemade gin
PUSH THE BUTTON
PULL THE SWITCH
CUT THE BEAM
C'MON MAKE IT MARCH
Sign me up as a diplomat - my only office is the park
You need to be out
before you come in
And after you come to go
In the midst of Yang is a smaller part of Yin
And when it happens you know -
THE DAWN COMES
HEY DICK
Whatever you think of us
is totally irrelevant
Both to us now and to you
We are the present
We are the future
You are the past
Pay your dues and get outta the way
'Cause we're not the way you used to be
When you were very young
We're something new
We don't quite know what it is
Or particularly care
We just do it - You gotta do it
Open your eyes there's a
new word a-coming
Open your eyes there's a new world today
Open your hearts people are lovin'
Open it all we're here to stay
OPEN THAT DOOR
| TOP | NOTE |
There's an island way
out in the sea
Where the babies they all grow on trees
And it's jolly good fun
To swing in the sun
But you gotta watch out if you sneeze - sneeze
You gotta watch out if you sneeze
Yeah you gotta watch out
if you sneeze
For swingin' up there in the breeze
You're liable to cough
You might very well fall off
And humble down flop on your knees - knees
Tumble down flop on your knees
And when the stormy
winds wail
And the breezes blow high in a gale
There's a curious dropping and flopping and plopping
And fat little babies just hail - hail
Fat little babies just hail
And the babies lie there
in a pile
And the adults they come after awhile
And they always pass by
All the babies that cry
And take only babies that smile - smile
Even triplets and twins if they'll smile
| TOP | NOTE |
Wherever I go I see you
people
I see you people just like me
And whatever you do I want to do
And the Pooh and you and me together make three
Let's Go Together
Let's Go Together
Let's Go Together
Wave goodbye to Amerika
Say hello to the garden
You know I see - I see
the way you feel
And I know that your life is real
Pioneer searcher refugee
I follow you and you follow me
Let's Go Together
Let's Go Together
Let's Go Together
Wave goodbye to Amerika
Say hello to the garden
| TOP | NOTE |
Last electric Sunday
mornin' waitin' in the park for the dawn
Listenin' to all the animals in the Park and in the city beyond
Flashin' with my lady. Sky goin' back to blue
She sad I got a surprise for you
A child is coming
A child is coming
A child is coming
What you gonna do when
Uncle Samuel comes around
Askin' for the young one's name
And lookin' for the print of his hand for the files in their number game
I don't want his chance for freedom to ever be that slim
Let's not tell 'em about him
IT'S GETTING' BETTER
LIKE A MORNIN' TO BE BORN
I won't carry the
government's child
I want to see my young head
Rising from the water chamber warm with love
To the clear air
Light
Bright
And getting higher
Rain forest born
Born desert warm
No processed child in hiding
It's none of the
government's
Business who comes to or
From my body
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5. Sunrise |
TOP | NOTE |
Surprise
Civilized man
You were keeper to me
Now your animal is free
And you're free to die
Die
You're old and your hand is gray
Your old go home
We've all heard your dirty stories
Two thousand years
Two thousand years
Two thousand years
Of your god damn glory
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6. Hijack |
TOP | NOTE |
The summer was dry like
your nose when you've born behind cokl for a day & a season
We sail out into the grasshopper nite & we seek the righteous poison
Sunday morning' in speedway you know the people come around for a reason
Sunday morning'
The land is green &
you make it grow go to the forest & move
The sound of thundering electrical energy calls us to the park in the noon
C'mon anybody - now fill my pipe - to the park - to the forest and move
When I feel you comin'
round me - kidding in the sun
Going home move your mind - towards Mars and then beyond
Genesis is not the answer: two which we had before
It was - altogether in you
You know I remember the
23rd of November
To the abyss of Chicago you can see the barbed wire - pigs around a lot of
nothing
The witch hunters wail & they bark & they wheeze & they try to turn
us onto their poison
You know - a starship
circling in the sky - it ought to be ready by 1990
They'll be building it up in the air ever since 1980
People with a clever plan can assume the role of the mighty
Hijack The Starship
Carry 7000 people past the sun
And our babes'll wander
naked thru the cities of the universe - C'mon
Free minds free bodies free dope free music
The day is on its way to the day of ours
You breathe out you
breathe in
And the glow of the machines'll get you on
Grace fully growing - as wild as we can be
Only the sun knows what we really need to know
Only the sun holds the secret
And more than human can we be
'Cause human is truly locked
To this planetary circle
You gotta ride - said
the doctor of space
I have lived here once before
The lites in the nite are a village of stars
Of stars that I have explored
Beyond the … of beyond the void
And beyond that and more
Parallel links in this village of stars
Will lead you to the second door
And time won't wait the doctor of space from the city of the sun to come
Where do we go from here?
Chaos or community
Can't you see - on this future Sundays
7000 gypsies swirling together
An offering to the sun in the name of the weather
Gonna Hijack - Hijack the Starship
| TOP | NOTE |
Have you seen the stars
tonite
Would you like to go upon "A" deck and look at them with me
Have you seen the stars tonite
Would you like to go up for a stroll and keep me company
Do you know
We could go
We are free
And place you can think of
We could be
Have you seen the stars
tonite
Have you looked at all the family of stars
Let the children lead
you
Let the children feel you
Let the children be you
Whatever happens to Tim Leary will happen to Amerika
Become your own Woodstock you ain't gonna find it
In a no dope movie show
Don't think I'm on your
side
I'm on nobody side
I'm a battlefield
Burn me or mark me
Explode me and beat me
I we you will live
I'm gonna go
I won't run
Past Uranus and Pluto
We break through
Moving on out of the cool and the dark
We open our hands and build a Park
And (that's all) Amerika … apart
For her children to return with their starship
If you lived only on earth you've never seen the sun
Or the promise of a thousand other suns that glow beyond
If you care to see the
future
Look into the eyes of the young dancing children
Don't be afraid of what we do
We share our hope
We share our dope
Our music is yours
And you are the magic
There really is
something going on
Were not just putting you on
It really is magic
And each … takes us
father from all humanity
You hear more
You see farther
You feel the planets in your body
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10. Starship |
TOP | NOTE |
What you gonna do when
you feel your lady rolling
How you gonna feel when you see your lady strolling
On the deck of the starship
With her head hooked in Andromeda
C'mon Hijack
Gotta get back and ahead to the things that matter
Amerika hates her crazies
And you gotta let go you know
gotta let go you know
gotta let go you know or else you stay
SPILLING OUT OF THE
STEEL GLASS
GRAVITY GONE FROM THE CAGE
A MILLION POUNDS GONE FROM YOUR HEAVY MASS
ALL THE YEARS GONE FROM YOUR AGE
Hydroponic gardens and
forest
Glistening with lakes in the Jupiter starlite
Room for babies and Byzantine dancing astronauts of renown
The magician and the pantechnicon
Take along the farmer and the physician
We gotta get out and
down
Back into the future
Beyond our own time again
Reaching for tomorrow
It's so fine
Starshine
THE MELTING ACID FEVER
STREAKING THRU MY MIND
MAKES IT AH SO DIFFICULT TO SEE YOU
AND AH SO EASY TO TOUCH YOU
I MELT WITH YOU
FEEL WITH YOU
MAKE LOVE FOR YOU
AT YOU
AROUND YOU
I LOVE YOU
Dear Brumus, the ship'll
be ours and you got to roll with it
And tho' your masters head's blown off you got to go with it
Roll with the natural flow
Like water off spinning ball
Out the one remaining way to go
Free - the only way to fall
The light in the night
is sun
And it can carry you around the planetary ground
And the planetary whip of the sun
Will carry well past Gideon
And the people you see will leave you be
More than the ones you've known before
Hey - rollin' on
We come and go like a comet
We are wanderers
Are you anymore
The land is green and you make it grow
And you gotta let you know
You gotta let go you know
You gotta let go you know
Or else you stay
Mankind gone from cage
All the years gone from your age
At first
I was iridescent
Then
I became transparent
Finally
I was absent
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Personnel |
Paul Kantner - guitar,
vocals, banjo, bass machine
Grace Slick - piano, vocals
Harvey Brooks - bass
Jack Casady - bass
Joey Covington - drums, congas
David Crosby - guitar, vocals
David Freiberg - vocals
Jerry Garcia - guitar on "XM" and "Starship", banjo on
"Let's Go Together", pedal steel on "Have You Seen The Stars
Tonite"
Mickey Hart - percussion on "XM", drums on "Have You Seen The
Stars Tonite"
Peter Kaukonen - guitar
Bill Kreutzmann - drums on "Let's Go Together"
Graham Nash - congas, vocals
Phil Sawyer
| Note |
Altre notizie sui Jefferson Airplane & family
| 1. Mau Mau (Amerikon) | |
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Questo pezzo, un
country particolarmente lieve, è chiaramente legato alla prossima nascita
della figlia dei due leader dei Jefferson Airplane, Paul
Kantner e Grace Slick, che
si erano da poco sposati. Alla nascita è dedicato anche il successivo
"A Child Is Coming". |
| 3. Let's Go Together | |
| 4. A Child Is Coming |
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Per saperne di più: www.airplane.freeserve.co.uk/china.htm |
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| 5. Sunrise | |
| 6. Hijack |
E' il brano dove viene lanciata per la prima volta la metafora dell'astronave, che sostituisce quella dell'aereo usata nel primo nome del gruppo (Jefferson Airplane). Viene citata la costruzione di una stazione spaziale orbitante per partire in un viaggio interstellare che coinvolgerà più generazioni. L'astronave avrebbe trasportato una nuova comunità con regole diverse, in fuga dalla realtà dell'epoca, poco digeribile per gli psichedelici Jefferson. E se anche non era quello lo scopo iniziale della stazione orbitante, lo sarebbe diventato, perché il titolo della canzone significa "dirottamento" e quindi la vicenda immaginata è quella di un dirottamento spaziale. La stazione orbitante era in realtà allora effettivamente in costruzione, era la stazione russa MIR, che ha concluso il suo ciclo nel 2000. Non era però la base di partenza per altri mondi favoleggiata nel brano, ispirato forse al classico libro di fantascienza "Incontro con Rama" di Arthur C. Clarke ("Rendez-vous with Rama"), che è stato fonte di suggestione anche per il Battiato di "Mondi lontanissimi". |
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Lo stesso tema della fuga era anche presente nella canzone di David Crosby "Wooden Ships", contenuta nell'album Volunteers del 1969 (quindi dell'anno prima). Solo che in quel caso il mezzo per la fuga era più ecologico: "navi di legno". |
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| 7. Home | |
| 8. Have You Seen the Stars Tonite |
Il Tim Leary citato nel brano è Timothy Leary, profeta della controcultura giovanile anni '60 e '70 (e dell'uso libero di droghe), recentemente scomparso. |
| 9. XM |
Un brano solo strumentale che in realtà è una rassegna di effetti speciali da film di fantascienza, in linea con il tema fantascientifico dell'album. |
| 10. Starship |
Nell'ultimo brano,
cantato coralmente da tutti, ritorna il tema dell'astronave (che
probabilmente si chiama Hijack, cioè "dirottata", termine
citato più volte in vari brani), sulla quale i vagabondi (wanderers), gli
zingari, i pazzi invisi alla società fuggono verso Andromeda ed oltre,
una umanità in fuga da una gabbia (mankind gone from the cage), con
descrizione della astronave autosufficiente, grazie a culture idroponiche
e foreste artificiali (come la mitica astronave - pianeta Rama). |
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Il nome Jefferson Starship decolla con questo brano, pervaso di cultura "alternativa"; curioso notare che proprio con questo nome gli originali Jefferson Airplane approderanno ai grandi numeri di vendita, al rock da FM, alla affermazione commerciale, negli anni '80 e '90. |
Per integrazioni o
correzioni ai testi trascritti: webmaster@musicaememoria.com
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Lyrics © 1970 RCA Records / Notes © Alberto Truffi 2002 / Reproduction for commercial use strictly prohibited |
Testi © 1970 RCA Records / Note © Alberto Truffi 2002 / Riproduzione per usi commerciali assolutamente proibita |
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Memoria is a for free web site targeted to the musical culture diffusion.
Comments and translations in Italian are included in order to improve the
knowledge in Italy of the selected artists. |
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Memoria è un sito totalmente gratuito, dedicato alla diffusione della cultura
musicale. Note critiche e traduzioni sono inserite allo scopo di far
meglio conoscere in Italia gli artisti trattati. |