My Top 2000 Songs #1129: Lather

The Jefferson Airplane simultaneously at their most resoundingly psychedelic and their most lovely. "Lather," the opening track on 1968's Crown Of Creation, is loaded with odd little sound effects and spoken voices; but it's really all about Grace Slick's beautiful vocals, delivering her affectionate tale of a man-child who refuses to grow up. The studio weirdness makes it arguably sound more dated than their more straight-ahead rockers, but there's something spooky about the track that gives it some added heft.

Incidentally, I think my enduring love of the tune (from a band about whom I have some mixed feelings) is also due to one of my all-time favorite authors, Harlan Ellison, exploring a similar concept for his deeply affecting short story "Jeffty Is Five," published about a decade later.

Live version from a later incarnation of Jefferson Starship, featuring Darby Gould on vocals:

Jefferson Airplane live, from a 1989 line-up with Slick in the fold (audio only):

A pretty solo acoustic cover I found on YouTube:

Interesting folkie cover: