I Just Don’t Know

‘Cosmic Charlie’ is a Grateful Dead song written by Jerry Garcia and Robert Hunter that was recorded on Aoxomoxoa, which was their third studio album released in 1969 and it was originally titled Earthquake Country.  The American electronics company Ampex manufactured and released its new 16-track multitrack recording machine MM-1000 in 1968, and Blood, Sweat & Tears used this to record their second album.  Betty Cantor, Dan Healy, the acid king Owsley Stanley were all consulting engineers on this album along with Ron Wickersham who worked at Ampex as a design engineer.  The Grateful Dead were eager to try it out this new technology because it would double the number of tracks available to them, allowing them to go deeper and experiment with things that no other band had done yet.  This arrived just as they were reaching the apex of their experimental stage in psychedelic music.  The title Aoxomoxoa is pronounced “ox-oh-mox-oh-ah” and it is a meaningless palindrome that was created by cover artist Rick Griffin and lyricist Robert Hunter.

‘Cosmic Charlie’ appeared in concert about 20 times in both 1969 and 1970 till it was dropped from their repertoire at the start of 1971, but it was played again a few times in 1976.  ‘Cosmic Charlie’ with its largely unrelated lyrics may have been written about a Dead Head who was the original space cadet because he took too much acid and was strung out on LSD.  According to Robert Hunter, ‘Cosmic Charlie’ is not based on Charles Bosch, a psychedelic inhabitant of the SF Summer of Love who was one of the characters on the scene in the Haight.  The Grateful Dead may have been giving out advice to their fans, telling them that tripping on acid all the time was making them lose their grip on reality.  They probably didn’t want all their fans to be burn outs with fried brains, but at the same time hoping that they come back whenever their airplane happens to land.  They might be telling this tripped out person to relax and that things will get better for him when he gets back home.  The song mentions “Kalico Kahlia” which is thought to be Calliope the Muse of epic poetry, and chief of the Muses and the mother of Orpheus by Apollo.  Calico could also be a reference to a type of cat.

Cosmic Charley, how do you do?
Truckin’ in style along the avenue
Dum dee dum dee doodley doo
Go on home, your mother’s calling you

Kalico Kahlia, come tell me the news
Calamity’s waiting for a way to get to her
Rosy red and electric blue
I bought you a paddle for your paper canoe

Say you’ll come back when you can
Whenever your airplane happens to land
Maybe I’ll be back here too
It all depends on what’s with you

Hung up waiting for a windy day
Kite on ice since the first of February
Mama keeps saying that the wind might blow
But standing here, I say I just don’t know

New ones coming as the old ones go
Everything’s moving here, but much too slow now
A little bit quicker and we might have time
To say “How do you do?” before we’re left behind

Calliope wail like a seaside zoo
The very last lately enquired about you
It’s really very one or two
The first you wanted, the last I knew

I just wonder if you shouldn’t feel
Less concern about the deep unreal
The very first word is “How do you do?”
The last “Go home, your mama’s calling you”

Calling you
Calling you
Calling you
Calling you

Go on home your mama’s calling you
Go on home your mama’s calling you
Go on home your mama’s calling you

Written for Thursday Inspiration #186 All for Love where the prompt word is know.

Thursday Inspiration #186 All for Love

Respond to this challenge, by either by using the prompt word know, or going with the above picture, or by means of the song ‘All for Love’, or by going with another song by Bryan Adams, or anything else that you think fits.  ‘All for Love’ was written by Bryan Adams, Robert John “Mutt” Lange a South African record producer and songwriter, and Michael Kamen an American composer, arranger, conductor, songwriter, and session musician.  It was recorded for the soundtrack The Three Musketeers: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack, which was a 1993 action-adventure comedy film from Walt Disney Pictures staring Charlie Sheen, Kiefer Sutherland, Chris O’Donnell, Oliver Platt, Tim Curry, Rebecca De Mornay and Gabrielle Anwar.  This was an adaptation of the 1844 Alexandre Dumas novel which was based on four high-ranking French soldiers of Louis XIII elite Black Musketeer regiment.  The power ballad was performed by Adams, Rod Stewart, and Sting in 1993, becoming a worldwide hit, reaching #1 on the US Billboard Hot 100 and it got to #2 on the UK Singles chart.  ‘All For Love’ was the longest-reigning #1 hit from a Disney movie until the 2021 song ‘We Don’t Talk About Bruno’ replaced it.

The title of this song was inspired by The Three Musketeers’ motto, “All for one, and one for all.”  The three songwriters built their song from the melody that Michael Kamen wrote for the film score.  Kamen suggested that Adams record the song with two other singers, making it seem like three musketeers were collaborating.  Adams’ first choice was Sting, and he was interested in the project and the third guy became Rod Stewart.  ‘All For Love’ became the only #1 hit that Sting had during his solo-artist years, having never gone past a #3 on the charts.  Rod Stewart hadn’t topped the Hot 100 in the 15 years, but his music always remained the pop charts.  ‘All For Love’ was Rod Stewart’s last top-10 hit and Sting never returned to the top 10.  It is a sweet song that is filled with meaningless sentimental fluff, where each singer seems worried about the possibility that they might be eclipsed by the other guys.

When there’s someone that you know
Then just let your feelings show
And make it all for one and all for love

Soaking Up Sun

Bob Weir and Mickey Hart wrote the music for ‘Corrina’ and Robert Hunter wrote the lyrics.  This song was played by Bob Weir with the Dead and Company, with Ratdog his primary band after the Grateful Dead disbanded and with The Other Ones.  The Grateful Dead played this song 77 times in concert from 1992 through 1995 and it made its way on to three Grateful Dead albums, 30 Trips Around The Sun, Road Trips Vol 2, No 4, and Ready Or Not.  It was recorded on The Other Ones album The Strange Remain and two Ratdog albums, Evening Moods and Live At The Roseland.  The Robert Hunter / Bob Weir collaboration was kind of rare in the late stages of the Grateful Dead, as they did not write together for almost 20 years after Hunter got annoyed when Weir toyed with his lyrics, and this led Weir to developing a partnership with John Barlow.  I never really listened to the lyrics of this song before, because I am not a big fan of the Vince Welnick era, but I love all of Hunter’s lyrics.

I am uncertain what this song is about, and my research did not reveal anything interesting, so I guess I will have to wing it.  It starts off with a bunch of short lines that seem to be unrelated and could be taken to mean just about anything.  Then the chorus mentions Corrina, who is probably a dancer, because they want to watch her shaking it up.  The next verse contains more short lines, and it ends with the guy saying that he will be true to Corrina.  In the last verse you realize that this is a love song when Weir sings that he would love her even if she flew away from him.  He would wait for her return because once lovers are born, they will always meet again.

Hog of a Sunday
Dog of a Monday
Get it back someday
What’d I say?
Moving in closer
Cut from a long shot
Fade on a downbeat
Ready or not, ready or not

Chorus
Corrina, shake it up baby
Corrina, shake it up now
Corrina, Corrina

Cruise through a stop sign
Logging up short time
Bird on a phone line
Soaking up the sun
Salt on the crow tail
What can I do?
I’m down by law
But I’m true to you, true to you

[chorus]

If, what, when and where and how
Told at the proper time
Big black wings beat on the wind
But they don’t hardly climb
There’s a silver ocean
Silver clouds on a silver sea
A bird on the horizon
Silver winging back to me

[chorus]

Wake it up baby
Shake it down easy
Bring it in closer
What’d I say
Moving in closer
Cut from a long shot
Fade on a down beat
Ready or not

[chorus]

Corrina, wake it up baby
Corrina, shake it down easy
Corrina, shake it on up now
Corrina, shake it back down

[chorus]

If, what, where and how
Don’t mean a thing to me
I would love you even if
You flew away from me
I’ll just stand here waiting
On the far side of the sea
There is no fear that lovers born
Can ever fail to meet

Written for Thursday Inspiration #185 Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me where the prompt is sun.

Thursday Inspiration #185 Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me

Respond to this challenge, by either by using the prompt word sun, or going with the above picture, or by means of the song ‘Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me’, or by going with another song by Elton John, or anything else that you think fits.  ‘Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me’ was written by Elton John and his lyricist Bernie Taupin.  The song was originally recorded by Elton John for his 1974 eighth studio album, Caribou.  It peaked at #2 on the Billboard Hot 100 and it reached #16 on the UK Singles Chart.  At the 1975 Grammy Awards, it was nominated for Record of the Year and Best Pop Vocal Performance – Male.  The album features backing vocals by Carl Wilson and Bruce Johnson of the Beach Boys and Toni Tennille from the 1970s duo Captain & Tennille.  A version of the song recorded live as a duet between John and George Michael reached #1 in the UK in 1991 and in 1992 it topped the charts in the US.  The pair performed the song together for the first time at Wembley Stadium for Live Aid in July 1985.

This song seems to be about a toxic relationship that may not be worth saving, but Elton is not ready to throw the towel in on yet.  Elton asks his partner to not let the sun go down on him, which may mean that he doesn’t want his significant other to leave, as that would be like losing everything that they have built up between them.  Elton sees darkness in his partner which he is tired of because he realizes that he is stuck in this situation.  The line, “Too late to save myself from falling” may be a reference to his previous drug and alcohol addiction.  He realizes that he can’t save himself, and someone will have to help him.  He admits that he should not have tried to change his partner, but that ship has long sailed away.  He is confused and he feels like love is the cure that he needs.  He is not ready to make a full commitment and he hopes that won’t end this relationship.

Don’t let the sun go down on me
Although I search myself, it’s always someone else I see
I’d just allow a fragment of your life to wander free
But losin’ everything is like the sun goin’ down on me

Step Out of the Driving Rain

‘Running To Stand Still’ was released on the 1987 U2 album, The Joshua Tree.  This song is about a heroin-addicted woman that is living in a run-down seven-building Dublin tenement housing projects called the Ballymun tower blocks built in the 1960s which became known as the Seven Towers where many drug users lived.  She is desperate and sick during an ‘80s drug epidemic, so she contemplates leaving Ballymun Flats.  She has a bad drug habit, so she considers going to Amsterdam or Pakistan or wherever and taking a big risk to smuggle in a bag that could make her rich quick, or she could go down for a life sentence.  When Bono was a child, he lived in a more affluent neighborhood that was adjacent to Ballymun Flats.  Bono was inspired by a story he read about a man who smuggled heroin into Dublin to feed his habit despite the possibility of being sentenced to life imprisonment if he was caught.  Bono was interested in how he got in that position, what went so wrong that this was the only alternative that he saw.  A heroin addict sees the world differently than normal people do, as most normal people will worry about paying the rent, where a heroin addict will just worry about where they will get their next fix.

On the Joshua Tree tour, Bono dedicated this to his friend, “Whose girlfriend gave him for his 21st birthday just enough heroin to kill himself, and he did.”  The song title came from Bono’s brother who once described his then financial woes, trying to keep up with his bills, as “running just in order to stand still.”  This song deals with emotional escape and hope to change a sad circumstance that someone is stuck in.  Joshua Tree was a concept album based about America.  U2 thought that America represented freedom and indulgence at its roots.  The black belly of a cloud is what you see in western states before a storm.  The lady was symbolic of the blight of indulgence that had taken over America.  Her need to have her heroin fix came at no cost.  Gold, and pearls stolen from the sea (America’s lack of ecological care) to trade in for just one more needle.

And so she woke up
Woke up from where she was lyin’ still.
Said I gotta do something
About where we’re goin’.

Step on a fast train
Step out of the driving rain, maybe
Run from the darkness in the night.
Singing ah, ah la la la de day
Ah la la la de day.

Sweet the sin, bitter the taste in my mouth.
I see seven towers, but I only see one way out.
You gotta cry without weeping, talk without speaking
Scream without raising your voice.
You know I took the poison, from the poison stream
Then I floated out of here, singing
Ah la la la de day
Ah la la la de day.

She walks through the streets
With her eyes painted red
Under black belly of cloud in the rain.
In through a doorway
She brings me white golden pearls
Stolen from the sea.

She is ragin’
She is ragin’
And the storm blows up in her eyes.
She will suffer the needle chill
She’s running to stand still.

Written for Thursday Inspiration #184 Hold On where the prompt is step.

Thursday Inspiration #184 Hold On

Respond to this challenge, by either by using the prompt word step, or going with the above picture, or by means of the song ‘Hold On’, or by going with another song by Wilson Phillips, or anything else that you think fits.  ‘Hold On’ became Wilson Phillips’ first #1 single on the Billboard Hot 100, and although it only spent only one week there, it was ranked the top song of the year by Billboard.  Their 1990 eponymous debut album was declared by Billboard as the best-selling album of all-time by an all-female group.  The pop group Wilson Phillips consisted of Chynna Phillips the daughter of the Mamas & the Papas band members John and Michelle Phillips and her childhood friends Wendy and Carnie Wilson, who were daughters of Beach Boys frontman Brian Wilson and his first wife Marilyn Rovell.  They decided to follow in their parents’ footsteps forming a band in Los Angeles in 1989, but they disbanded in 1992 when Chynna decided she wanted to go solo.  They later reunited to release an album of Christmas songs in 2010 and in 2012 they did an album that consisted of Beach Boys and Mamas and the Papas cover songs titled Dedicated, and they still tour a few times a year.

Brian Wilson and John Phillips were close friends that used to play basketball together, and this led the young girls that lived in Southern California into developing a friendship with each other.  The girls are all close in age with Chynna Phillips being the oldest born on February 12, 1968, Carnie Wilson born on April 29, 1968, and Wendy Wilson on October 16, 1969.  When they were 4 or 5 years old, they performed shows and skits together for their parents.  They were playmates, but they all shared pain as they grew into teenagers struggling to find their place.

John Phillips lived a life filled with drug problems and there are allegations of him being involved in a decade long incestuous relationship with his daughter Mackenzie Phillips.  Michelle Phillips was a liberated woman who believed in free love, and she was fired from the Mamas and Papas for having an affair with Gene Clark of the Byrds.  She had a very brief marriage to Dennis Hopper and her liaisons with Jack Nicholson and Warren Beatty are legendary.  Brian Wilson’s life was taken over by Dr Landy after he suffered a major nervous breakdown from anxiety.  Wendy turned inward, Carnie turned to food, and Chynna turned into a wild child.  In 1983, Chynna and the Wilson Sisters formed a band called The Satellites and they recorded a demo of the 1908 Jack Norworth and Albert Von Tilzer song ‘Take Me Out to the Ball Game’.  They spent hours harmonizing together singing their favorite songs (from artists such as Heart, Fleetwood Mac, the Eagles and Electric Light Orchestra).  They fell out of touch for a few years as they grew up; however, they reunited when Owen Elliot, daughter of ex-Mama Cass Elliot, suggested that they do a charity album uniting the children of ‘60s musicians together.  Michelle Phillips had a friend named Richard Perry and Wendy, Carnie, Chynna, and Owen all went to his house and sang for him.  Perry hooked them up with producer Glen Ballard while they were still fresh out of high school.  Owen Elliot was never really part of the group, and she departed to pursue a solo career.

Chynna Phillips struggled with drug and alcohol addiction throughout her high school years being at a real crossroads in her life when she wrote the lyrics for ‘Hold On’.  She was still in a lot of pain over her ex-relationship, while struggling to navigate through some of her painful childhood experiences in therapy, being depressed and anxious and trying to find herself as a young adult and figure out who she was.  She was familiar with the phrase “one day at a time” that is used as part of the 12 Step Program in Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) and other recovery groups, and she figured that if she could just hold on for one more day, then she could do this.  She wanted to get through her life by taking it one day at a time and hold on for one more day.  This is a song of encouragement that is addressed to a person who is going through some rough times.  It’s tough love as no one can change your life except for you, but it also contains compassion where things can go your way if you hold on for one more day.

I know there’s pain (I know there’s pain)
Why do you lock yourself up in these chains? (These chains)
No one can change your life except for you
Don’t ever let anyone step all over you

Forty-One Nights

‘Little Sadie’ is a 20th-century American folk ballad that was also known by variously other names, such as ‘Bad Lee Brown’, ‘Penitentiary Blues’, ‘Cocaine Blues’, ‘Transfusion Blues’, ‘East St. Louis Blues’, ‘Late One Night’ and it had some other titles.  Versions of this traditional song were found throughout the south, particularly in Appalachia and the Ozarks.  This song tells the story of a man named Lee Brown who runs away after shooting his wife, or girlfriend named Sadie.  He is caught, tried, and gets a very long sentence by a judge.  He has no remorse, other than that he is in jail and must wear that heavy ball on his ankle and those striped clothes.  In the Bible, the number 40 is used to represent a long time.  In the story of Noah, rain fell on the earth for forty days and nights and after the Israelites fled Egypt, they wandered in the wilderness, for 40 years eating quail and manna before they were allowed to enter the Promised Land.  Lee Brown gets sentenced to forty-one days, forty-one nights and forty-one years in prison, which is beyond Biblical.

The first sound recording of ‘Penitentiary Blues’ was made by Buddy Baker in 1928 who was a Hillbilly singer and guitarist from Mobile, Alabama.  The Appalachian guitarist and banjo player Clarence Ashley recorded ‘Little Sadie’ in 1929.  The next recording of ‘Little Sadie’ was from 1962 by Doc Watson and Clarence Ashley.  Clarence Ashley was a North Carolina-based banjoist, guitarist and singer of traditional music who was born in Bristol, Tennessee.  He was raised by his mother’s parents and her surname was Ashley.  He was nicknamed Tom as a child, although many of his recordings were released as Clarence.

Johnny Cash sang a closely related version called ‘Transfusion Blues’ and other notable covers of ‘Little Sadie’ were done by Bob Dylan and Jerry Garcia.  Arthel Lane “Doc” Watson shares my birthday, except he was born 30 years earlier than I was.  Doc was an American guitarist, songwriter, and singer of bluegrass, folk, country, blues, and gospel music who was a legendary master at both flatpicking and fingerstyle guitar.  Watson won seven Grammy awards as well as a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.  Doc Watson died on May 29, 2012 in Winston-Salem, N.C. at the age of 89.

Went out last night to take a look around
Met little Sadie and I blowed her down
Went right home, went to bed
Forty-four smokeless under my head

Woke up the next morning about half past nine
The hacks and the buggies all standing in line
The gents and the gamblers standing all around
Taking little Sadie to her burying ground

Well I began to think what a deed I’d done
Grabbed my hat and away I run
Made a good run, but a little too slow
They overtook me in Jericho

I’m standing on the corner reading a bill
Along came the sheriff from Thomasville
Says “Young man, is your name Brown?
Remember the night you blowed Sadie down?”

Oh, yes sir, my name is Lee
I murdered little Sadie in the first degree
First degree and the second degree
Got any papers would you read ‘em to me

Well they took me downtown all dressed in black
Put me on the train and sent me back
Sent me back to the county jail
I had nobody for to go my bail

The judge and the jury they took the stand
The judge held the paper in his right hand
Forty-one days, forty-one nights
Forty-one years to wear the ball and stripes

Written for Thursday Inspiration #183 Un-Break My Heart where the prompt is nights.

Thursday Inspiration #183 Un-Break My Heart

Respond to this challenge, by either by using the prompt word nights, or going with the above picture, or by means of the song ‘Un-Break My Heart’, or by going with another song by Toni Braxton, or anything else that you think fits.  Diane Warren wrote ‘Un-Break My Heart’, David Foster produced the song and Toni Braxton hit #1 with this when she recorded it in 1996 on her second studio album, Secrets.  Toni stayed on top of the US Billboard Hot 100 for 11 weeks and she held the #1 spot on the Adult Contemporary chart for fourteen weeks.  The song was later ranked as the fourth most popular song of the decade on the 1990-1999 Decade-End Hot 100 chart.  In July 2008, ‘Un-Break My Heart’ was listed as the tenth most popular song of all time by Billboard.  The platinum-selling single was acknowledged with a Grammy for Best Female Pop Vocal in 1997, and it also peaked at #2 on the UK Singles Chart.  Originally Toni didn’t want to record it, because she thought she’d already made too many sad, melodramatic relationship songs, but it easily became the biggest hit of her entire career.  Braxton has won seven Grammy Awards, nine Billboard Music Awards, seven American Music Awards, and she has numerous other accolades.

Braxton was able to turn what might have become a waiting-room tune, or something that you are forced to listen to when you are put on hold by a customer-service representative, into something that could make you forget the deep unpleasantness of whatever you’re doing.  One day, the title popped into Diane Warren’s head, and she wrote the song around that title.  She recorded a demo version of the song, using a keyboard to mimic the Spanish-guitar sounds.  Diane played the song for Clive Davis, who didn’t like the way Warren rhymed “pain” with “rain”, but he thought this could work for Toni Braxton.  Braxton was signed to the Arista subsidiary LaFace, and Warren’s friend David Foster took the song to LaFace boss Babyface at a video shoot.

‘Un-Break My Heart’ has been called a Hallmark-card song, because it is a collection of clichéd phrases that could apply to just about any sad relationship involving a romantic devastation.  There is a total lack of specificity for this heartbreak, making it too adult contemporary, sounding too much like what Whitney Houston was doing.  Despite the domination by Whitney Houston, Janet Jackson and Mariah Carey in the early ’90s, Toni Braxton broke through and established herself as a diva to be reckoned with.  Bille Woodruff directed the video and he pleaded with LaFace to give it a shot, saying just put the video in rotation for a week and let the people decide.  Toni was able to put something very special into this song and everyone loved it.  It became one of the longest consecutive runs on the charts among women in R&B.  Braxton is not sad in the video because she got dumped.  She’s sad because her main squeeze who is played by the supermodel Tyson Beckford dies in a motorcycle wreck.

Say you’ll love me again
Undo this hurt you caused
When you walked out the door
And walked out of my life
Un-cry these tears
I cried so many, many nights

The Heart Of You

‘From The Heart Of Me’ was written by Donna Godchaux and it was recorded on the Grateful Dead’s tenth studio album Shakedown Street that was released in 1978 and this was the last album with Keith and Donna.  This Grateful Dead played the song 27 times in concert, and it was the second Donna Godchaux’s second composition for the group, the first one being ‘Sunrise’ a ballad that Garcia encouraged her to write for their Terrapin Station album.  This is a very poetic love song that contains vivid images of sunsets, riding horses and being in the mountains.  Donna allows the twilight to personify the mountains as she looks at their faces and feels their eyes upon her.  She sees this as a dawn of hope that allows her to reach out to her lover, so she can feel safe and warm in his arms having the love that is in his heart.  Whatever it takes, she wants to give him her heart.  She hears love’s call and takes that as a signal that her dreams will come true.  She dreams about being held tight, in tomorrow morning’s light.  She wakes up early when the stars are still out, and she thinks that they are shining for her and her lover.

Horses slide down off the mountain
Sunlight turning red
Falls on the earth and it spreads
Even the families lower their head
As they ride

Age old faces of the mountains
Looming naturally
I wonder if they’re looking at me
Their monumental eyes I can feel
And the glow in the twilight
The dawn of hope
Reminds me
Now I’m reaching out to you
Anything I can do
To be safe and warm
In your arms
All I have is the heart of you

I’d meet you anywhere in the country
Or anywhere on the sea
All over the world it could be
I would follow you
With the heart of me

Love calls echo in the valley
Dream come true tonight
Remembering you hold me tight
In tomorrow morning’s light
I will find you
When I awoke the stars were out
And shining, shining for you and me
All I ever want to be
Safe and warm
In your arms
All I have from the heart of me

Written for Thursday Inspiration #182 Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now where the prompt is heart.

Thursday Inspiration #182 Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now

Respond to this challenge, by either by using the prompt word heart, or going with the above picture, or by means of the song ‘Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now’, or by going with another song by Starship, or anything else that you think fits.  Starship recorded this song on their 1987 No Protection album and this song charted #1 in both the UK and the US.  Jefferson Airplane started out in in mid-65 while the British Invasion was happening.  They were led by singer, songwriter, and musician Marty Balin, rhythm guitarist, and vocalist Paul Kantner, vocalist Signe Toly Anderson, lead guitarist Jorma Kaukonen, bassist Bob Harvey, and drummer Jerry Peloquin, but Peloquin would soon be replaced by Skip Spence, and Jack Casady took over for Harvey.  Skip Spence was then replaced by Joey Covington and Grace Slick took over for Signe Anderson.  Violinist Papa John Creach joined the band and Balin elected to leave the group.  After 1972, Jefferson Airplane effectively split into two groups.  Kaukonen and Casady moved on full-time to their own band, Hot Tuna.  Slick, Kantner, and the remaining members of Jefferson Airplane recruited new members and regrouped as Jefferson Starship in 1974, with Marty Balin eventually joining them.  The Airplane’s lineup was frequently in a state of flux, and it was with the same with Starship, substance abuse, personal conflicts, and constant disagreements over the musical direction contributed to lineup changes.

In 1984, Kantner left Jefferson Starship feeling the group had become too commercial, they ditched the ‘Jefferson’ and named the group ‘Starship’ to avoid legal disputes with Kantner.  No Protection was the second studio album by Starship and the group consisted of Mickey Thomas and Grace Slick singing lead vocals with Craig Chaquico on guitar and Donny Baldwin playing electronic drums.  ‘Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now’ was written by Diane Warren and Albert Hammond and recorded with Thomas, Slick and Chaquico and some veteran session players for the additional personnel.  Hammond drew inspiration for writing this song after he lived with his Argentinian model girlfriend Claudia Fernández for seven years waiting to get divorced from his first wife.  He felt like he was being stopped from marrying this woman for seven years, and now nothing was going to prevent him from doing it.

Baby, we can make it
If we’re heart to heart

And we can build this dream together
Standing strong forever
Nothing’s gonna stop us now