Artists
Musicians featured in this piece are:
Grace Slick – lead vocals, piano
Craig Chaquico – lead guitar
Peter Kaukonen – mandolin
Jack Casady – bass
Ron Carter – bass
Paul Kantner – backing vocals
David Crosby – backing vocals
David Freiberg – backing vocals
John Barbata – drums
London Symphony Orchestra – orchestration (arranged by Steven Schuster)
Written by Grace Slick. Produced by David Freiberg, Grace Slick & Paul Kantner, recorded at Wally Heider Studios, San Francisco, with orchestral sessions in London, 1973.
The 15-minute title track is the album’s centerpiece — a multi-part symphonic epic featuring a 42-piece orchestra alongside rock instrumentation, with Grace Slick singing in both English and phonetic Spanish. The left-hand piano figure was reportedly borrowed from an improvisation by Slick’s father, and the track ultimately involved over 50 performers.
Grace Slick – Manhole Lyrics
Sometimes it’s easy to believe it
Sound may be the warmest thing he’s found
He just starts playing, then he says to me:
“Ready your body for love, there is no gravity here?
Look up – the roof is gone and the long hand moves
Right on by the hour
Look up – the roof is gone
The roof is gone, the roof is gone
La musica de España es para mi como Ia libertad
Canta como si la libertad es suiyo
Convenir resuena para escapar
Escuche viento norte escuche
Como corneta nevada corneta cantar
Alrededor vient oriente vient oriente
Enroyar disenroyar
Querdas que gritan
Querdas que cantan
Spanish wind keeps telling me
How it feels to sing free
It keeps blowing on me, and it’s showing me
Another way, another way to listen
And if you hear, if you hear the wind singing like
Someone singing for your love
The more it sings the more you know
Horns and strings and time will show you
Show – show you, show you freedom
To listen to other songs from the Teleskop 10 program and the full program, click here.