Tuesday, October 15, 1968
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
5
Airplane: a minority philosophy
Bv WILL HARDESTY
By WILL HARDESTY
Those 10, Greeks who showed up at the Voice meeting, rock music fans and philosophy majors should really dig CROWN OF CREATION by the Jefferson Airplane on RCA.
This album could very well serve as the test of a course on modern American minority philosophy. Or, in the psychology department, it might be useful for a research paper on "The Missionary Ideal as Expressed by the Current American 'Hippie.'"
(For those who just like to sit back and listen to their records, CREATION is a fine album. The Jefferson Airplane has always been a creative, innovative, good group in the field of rock, and this album is of the same quality as their "Surrealistic Pillow." It is not what could truly be called "hard," but is an enjoyable album for anyone who likes rock and/or the Airplane.)
The album is, on one hand, a scathing commentary on the
modern, mindless, "straight" Establishmentan. On the other hand, it begs these persons to re-examine their values, lives, goals. The album says being hip is not necessary—just awakened.
The album begins with what seems to be a lament about a rock star-perhaps one of the Airplane. He has just turned 30. He is too old to be young; too young to be old, and he realizes he is neither. He is famous to the young; insane to the old. He is caught, trapped—dog-paddling from nowhere to nowhere.
In the second song, the group admits it may have some trouble understanding how the straighties feel. "In Time" says being in a drug-awakened in-time and marching to the sound of a different drum makes it difficult to look at the majority's world objectively.
"Triad" begins to present what the Airplane thinks are some of the answers. The problem discussed in this song is the "eternal triangle." Grace Slick
says, "... I don't really see/Why we can't go on as three . . .
What we can do—is to try something new . . ."
"Star Track" is a criticism of modern life. "You'll wander around from place to place in time . . . Take your head in hand/And make your own demands/Or you'll crystallize on the shelf . . ."
The "straight-hip" face-off is clearly described in "Crown of Creation." "In loyalty to their kind/They cannot tolerate our minds/And in loyalty to our kind/We cannot tolerate their obstruction." The idea some "hippies" express of being missionaries of a new way is reflected when the song says, "My life is to survive/And be alive/For you."
Redwoods Preserved
SAN FRANCISCO (UPI) The California Redwood Association says 142,000 acres of coast redwood land are preserved in government parks and reserves.
Purdue professor-author to be KU resident writer
A controversial professor of philosophy and author will be a KU writer-in-residence for three weeks beginning Monday.
William Gass of Purdue University will teach a class in the writing of fiction and read student manuscripts. He will give a reading of his own work at 4 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 30, in the Kansas Union Forum Room.
Gass graduated magna cum laude with an A.B. from Kenyon College in Ohio. His Ph.D. in philosophy was from Cornell University in 1954. He has taught at Purdue since 1955.
Gass has won the Longview Foundation award for fiction, the Rockefeller Foundation
grant for fiction, the Standard Oil Foundation award for undergraduate teaching and the Sigma Delta Chi Leather Medal for outstanding teacher. The Washington University Library in St. Louis has chosen Gass as one of only 15 living American authors whose total works will be collected.
Although he had written numerous short stories, his first book was not published until 1966. "Omensetter's Luck" received attention in publishing circles, although no one can agree on what the book was trying to say. His second book was published earlier this year and was titled "In the Heart of the Heart of the Country."