Artists
Musicians featured in this piece are:
Grace Slick – lead vocals
Mickey Thomas – vocals
Craig Chaquico – guitar
Donny Baldwin – drums
Bill Cuomo – keyboards, bass
Alan Pasqua – keyboards
Larry Williams – keyboards
Tommy Funderburk – backing vocals
Written by Grace Slick, Tommy Funderburk & Larry Williams. Produced by Keith Olsen, recorded 1986–87 at sessions across California (Lighthouse Studios, Soundcastle Recording, Fantasy Studios, among others). Released on No Protection (Grunt/RCA Records, June 1987).
“Babylon” draws on the biblical fall of Babylon as a metaphor for a crumbling relationship, and is one of only a handful of tracks on the album with a Starship band member (Grace Slick) in the writing credits — most of No Protection leaned on outside songwriters. It’s also cited by several retrospective reviews as one of the stronger deep cuts on an otherwise single-driven record. This was the last Starship studio album to feature Grace Slick before her 1988 departure from the band.
Starship – Babylon Lyrics
Here I am now, somewhere on the highway
I just checked into some low-lit room
I call my service back in San Francisco
Tell my landlord, I’ll be home by June
But what about me, boy, back in California
What about the blue-eyed girl, you’re but a child
You held me for ransom, like some beautiful bandit
Going down for the third time, drowning in your life
Love rusts when it rains on romance
Thunder rolls in on a clear blue day
We used to shine like the eye of a diamond
But something happened, the weather changed
I should have known better
you read just like a roadmap
Staying in one place
doesn’t interest you at all
Maybe I don’t move
as fast as I used to
But youth is something
we can’t hold on to long
Love rusts when it rains on romance
Hailstones heavy on this empty heart
It crowds the window where I used to watch you
Down by the shoreline in the dark
Love rusts when it rains on romance
Thunder rolls in on a clear day
We used to shine like the eye of a diamond
But something happened and the weather changed
Something happened and the weather changed
Something happened
Then the weather changed
Ooh, I tell you we used to shine
(We used to shine,oh,how love rusts)
(We used to shine,oh,how love rusts)
Ooh,we used to shine
Ooh, we used to shine
you know
(We used to shine,oh, how love rusts)
(We used to shine,oh, how love rusts)
(We used to shine,oh, how love rusts)
(We used to shine,oh, how love rusts)
To listen to other songs from the Teleskop 10 program and the full program, click here.