Sunfighter Inner Liner with “Pets” by Jack Traylor

The remarkable 1971 album “Sunfighter” by Paul Kantner & Grace Slick of Jefferson Airplane includes a booklet created by Slick and a poem by Jack Traylor. The inner vinyl album sleeve contains “Pets” by Traylor:

Pets

We keep bugs in boxes and bottles just to see how they behave,

And we watch them live their lives out from the egg into the grave,

No, we don’t care to make things better in the prison where they are bound

And they don’t know that they are prisoners as they wander all around.

But if they’d turn their eyes to heaven, they’d see lights away so far

They’d never know that what they’re seeing was just a light upon a jar.

What if we too are prisoners, and are helplessly observed

And the probes of some super power have us caged upon the Earth

And they don’t care to make things better in this prison of our birth

For they find us of casual interest and of very little worth.

And if you turn your eyes to heaven, and see those lights away so far

Those lights you see, not the Milky Way. It’s just the label on a jar.

They watch us crawl upon each other; they watch us live and breed and die.

We are but toys to teach their children of their universe so wide.

And they won’t care when we have vanished; they’ll throw the cage away.

Replace us with some other object and go along their own way.

And if you turn your eyes to heaven, and see those lights away so far

Those lights you see; they’re not the Milky Way. It’s just the label on a jar.

Look who is on this album!

• Paul Kantner – vocals, rhythm guitar
• Grace Slick – vocals, piano
• Jack Traylor – guitar on “Earth Mother”, vocals on “Earth Mother”
• Jerry Garcia – guitar on “When I Was a Boy I Watched the Wolves”, “Million”, and “Holding Together”
• Papa John Creach – electric violin on “Silver Spoon” and “Earth Mother”
• Craig Chaquico – lead guitar on “Earth Mother”
• Bill Laudner – vocals on “Million”
• Jack Casady – bass on “Silver Spoon” and “China”
• Spencer Dryden – drums on “Earth Mother”
• David Crosby – vocals on “Look at the Wood”, “When I Was a Boy I Watched the Wolves”, and “Diana 2”, tambourine on “Look at the Wood”
• Jorma Kaukonen – lead guitar on “Look at the Wood”
• Graham Nash – ARP synthesizer on “Look at the Wood”, vocals on “When I Was a Boy I Watched the Wolves” and “Diana 2”
• Chris Wing – drums on “China”
• Pat Gleeson – moog on “Universal Copernican Mumbles”, piano on “Universal Copernican Mumbles”
• John Vierra – synthesizer on “Universal Copernican Mumbles”, keyboards on “Universal Copernican Mumbles”
• Phill Sawyer – sound effects on “Titanic”
• Peter Kaukonen – guitar on “Sunfighter”, mandolin on “When I Was a Boy I Watched the Wolves”
• Shelley Silverman – drums on “When I Was a Boy I Watched the Wolves”
• Joey Covington – drums on “Silver Spoon”, “Sunfighter”, “China”, and “Holding Together”
• Edwin Hawkins Singers (Edwin Hawkins, Walter Hawkins, Tramaine Davis Hawkins, Elaine Kelley, Norma J. King, Barbara Gill, Ruth Wyons, Daphne Henderson, Shirley Miller, Eddie Bayers) – vocals on “Sunfighter”
• Steven Schuster – flute on “Silver Spoon” and “Sunfighter”, saxophone on “Sunfighter” and “China”, horn arrangements on “Sunfighter”, and “China”
• Tower of Power (Greg Adams, Mic Gillette) – horns on “Sunfighter” and “China”

Jack Traylor wrote the song “Earth Mother” for Sunfighter. He sings and plays the guitar on this track. Here are the lyrics to “Earth Mother”:

Earth Mother

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p class=”b_paractl”>Earth mother your children are here
High and feeling dandy
Earth mother your children are here
Ripped on coke and candy

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p class=”b_paractl”>Once the earth was a garden
It gave us all we need
Then it grew so barren
All because of greed

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p class=”b_paractl”>Once the air was for breathing
And clouds caused rain to fall
Then it filled with poisons
Strangling us all

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p class=”b_paractl”>Earth mother your children are here
High and feeling dandy
Earth mother your children are here
Ripped on coke and candy

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p class=”b_paractl”>Water was once for drinking
And giving life to the land
Then it was used for cooling
The machinery of man

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p class=”b_paractl”>Earth mother your children are here
High and feeling dandy
Earth mother your children are here
Ripped on coke and candy

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p class=”b_paractl”>It’s not your fault you’re ill now
It’s the men who went before
Your children are at your side now
Don’t worry anymore

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p class=”b_paractl”>Your children are your salvation
They see your life as their own
They recognize no nation
They dance around your throne

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p class=”b_paractl”>Dancing in the meadows
To the sound of a living tree
In and out of the shadows
Laughing with the breeze

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p class=”b_paractl”>Earth mother your children are here
High and feeling dandy
Earth mother your children are here
Ripped on coke and candy