Jefferson Airplane - Two Heads Lyrics

Bought this when it came out - so vastly different from Surrealistic Pillow - but that was the whole idea. Loved "Takes Off" album in '66, too. Privileged enough to have been a teenager during this period in Southern California and saw them in concert ( along with dozens of other bands over those years). What a time to be young.

This drums!!!

I heard them play this at the Fillmore in September 1967. A dark song with a sound that reverberated through the decades of my life.

This song inspired cartoons. The whole album is super freaky, if you want to fly away

Lyrics:

You want two heads on you body
And you've got two mirrors in your hand.
Priests are made of brick with gold crosses on a stick
and your nose is too small for this land.
Inside your head is your town
inside your room your jail
inside your mouth the elephants trunk and booze,
the only key to your bail

Two heads can be put together.
And you can fill both your feet with sand.
Noone will know you've gutted your mind
but what will you do with your bloody hands?
Your lions are fighting with chairs,
your arms are incredibly fat;
Your women are tired of dying alive
if you've had any women at that.

Wearing your comb like an ax in your head
List'ning for signs of life;
Children are sucking on stone and lead
And chasing their hoops with a knife;
New breasts and jewels for the girl,
Keep them polished and shining;
Put a lock on her belly at night, sweet life,
For no child of mine

Want two heads on your body
and you've got two mirrors in your hand.

a keen intellect married to a wealth of compassion that stands implacable before the horror/ spectacle of human suffering

No, no ,no you've gutded your mind...

Reflections in the door of a green Volkswagen.

Reflections run all together...

Enigmatic song. Spencer did some incredible things on this, strange time signatures

Sounds Muslim like in the description of a powerful male

Does anyone know the name of the rattling percussion instrument at 2:25?

I believe it's called a Vibra-slap

You want two heads on you body
And you've got two mirrors in your hand.
Priests are made of brick with gold crosses on a stick
And your nose is too small for this land.
Inside your room your jail
Inside your mouth the elephants trunk and booze,
Inside your head is your town
The only key to your bail
Coda:

Want two heads on your body
And you've got two mirrors in your hand
Two heads can be put together.

And you can fill both your feet with sand.
No one will know you've gutted your mind
Your lions are fighting with chairs,
But what will you do with your bloody hands?
Your women are tired of dying alive
Your arms are incredibly fat;
If you've had any women at that.
Wearing your comb like an ax in your head

List'ning for signs of life;
Children are sucking on stone and lead
And chasing their hoops with a knife;
Keep them polished and shining;
New breasts and jewels for the girl,
For no child of mine. (Go to CodaPut a lock on her belly at night, sweet life,

Ohne diese Band würde ich es auf dieser ekelhaften Erde nicht mehr aushalten

anthem of the times,resonant and clear

When I was four this album was just out and my hip parents had it; I was absurdly into it and put it on on the KLH turntable repeatedly – I'd figured out how to set the needle down and turn the thing on. One afternoon, after listen number thirty-seven or so, my mother had had enough and told me not to play it again that day. Of course I played it again. More stern words from Mom – but I put it on again. Finally I got sent to my room. I snuck back down and put it on again. Aggravated, my mother hustled me back into my room with a spanking (a very rare occurrence) and up I went, crying. Still crying, I immediately returned to the record player and put the needle on yet again, tears dripping on the vinyl. At this point my poor exacerbated mother was also crying, not knowing what the heck to do with me!

But the music is incredible and we listen to it joyfully to this day.

Two heads... Republican and Democrat. We need thirty parties. "Same as it ever was..."

i bought this 45 when i was 9 or 10.
Kinda bummed the flip side of The Ballad Of You Me and Poniell made it to The Worst (edited) and not the A side.
Thank you for posting this.

Most savage diss track ever.

Who is here from ... Wikipedia?

And booze the only key to your bail...

Why did they edit out the ending?

When I was 14 and lived in Berkley California in the summer of 1967 they used to play "Two Heads" on the local radio (and of course "White Rabbit"), I was awe struck, such exotic otherworldly sounds! They used to play "The End" by the Doors as well (and "Crystal Ship") Simon and Garfunkels "I am a Rock" was popular, and The Mamas and Papas "12:30" and "Go where you wanna go". The Stones Album "wildflowers" was frequently heard.The Monkeys sang the subversive critique of suburban conformity "pleasant Valley Sunday" and Bobby Gentry sang "Od to Billy Joe". The Beatles "Sergent Peppers" album was everywhere

All of these songs were intensely emotional and passionately suggested a deep longing for a new culture, a new reality, something different from the soul numbing conformity that saw everyone militaristicly ordered into rank and file at home, in school and at work, a conformity that kept the battle field in Vietnam filled with draftees.

Every one of these songs suggested life could be about something more, something beyond total conformity to the everyday cut throat struggle for status. We have not heard the like since, rather the competitive struggle for status has only intensified since then until .001% own the entire country and foreign conflict is perpetual, where music rails against the staus quo and provides a template for struggle but never suggests a new status quo without the need for struggle.

Instead of 1967 being the beginning of a new world it saw the onset of decline in the spirit of adventure that dared to hope for a culture dedicated to creative enlightenment.

are u. sure?? check out some of the kiddie bands today like twiddle or phish....some good continuity from '67 till now.....me, i was there too (new yrok, greenwich village, not Berkeley) but i've been doing hippie festivals the last 25 years, and there IS a sub- culture!

Well we didn't want it to be a subculture we wanted it to be THE culture.

It was naive.

A very sinister song. It impressed the hell out of me when I was a kid. Venomous isn't the word!

An amazingly good song, one of the best! There sure isn't anything like this around any more. This was the flip side of a single I bought when I was thirteen, and I was totally blown away by it. I played it again and again!

Commercially sale-able only in some weird alternate psychedelic dimension. Sort of like an Alice In Wonderland girl critic doing Miles Davis...

-Vanessa

my favorite fucking song bitchesss 2016!!!!!

Beyond acid...magnificent...

One of my all time TreeHugginCommieHippiePinkoFag albums.

To be an older lover of Jefferson Airplane I am very glad to see so many recent coments.One of my favorite bands of all time.

I waslooking at thrends in youtube..nobody seems to belisteing to songs or bands such as such...i found it strange

Best rock singer ever, male or female. Sorry if you disagree, you are wrong. ;)

Grace rules! She is The One!

Totally agree

JA kicked ass!

This one of my favourite vocals from Grace. It's so intense and piercing.

Nobody could take the piss like Grace Slick and John Lennon. They wrote songs so venomous that you were glad they weren't about you.

Agree, and I would Bob Dylan to that list.

humdinger lmao. True

John was actually an abusive cheating asshole...google it.

NIGHTCORE

Grace Slick at her weird, absolutely inimitable, malevolent best. Unforgettable, for any songwriter/artist who wishes to express their inner mojo with no boundaries. Lesson to be learned by example!! Jorma's tiny lead guitar twiggly bits contribute so much. Everyone was very stoned on this. Inspiring.

My all time favorite Grace Slick, closely followed by "Rejoyce".

are you?

Where's the sitar?

excellent, top notch,great song

Are you Jewish?

Can't stop listening to "Two Heads"! What an astounding song! Grace is really powerful on this. I like the alternative recording of this a little better as they clean up the ending a bit.

(corrected) personnel: 

Grace Slick - Lead Vocals, Electric Harpsichord
Jorma Kaukonen - Lead Guitar
Paul Kantner - Rhythm Guitar
Jack Casady - Bass Guitar
Spencer Dryden - Drums, Percussion
Marty Balin - Vocals

Wow....Didn't know Grace Slick played electric harpsichord. (She'd played electric guitar in an early band pre-Jefferson Starship.)

I hear Marty Balin's voice on this song.  Please consider adding him to the list of credits :-)

I hear Kaukonen's guitar, Cassady's bass and Dryden drums too. Come on, it's totally Grace song (lyrics and music!)

Didn't they end up as slick corporate AOR behemoth, Starship?

@CHris Henniker Who's the "they" you're referring to?

+Hyde Park Director Jefferson Airplane, of course.

@CHris Henniker . By the time of the Starship's most commercial period, Grace was the only original member, so I wouldn't say you could tar the whole band with one "slick" brush. If you have an argument, it's probably solely with Grace--who might not even disagree with you (but whose songs were always the most interesting on any album she was on. Check out "Bablylon," for example from the last Starship record she appeared on NO PROTECTION.

i read somewhere that Grace was a little shocked at the success of Somebody to Love and White Rabbit and this song along with 'rejoyce' were her attempts to dive back down into the underground.

Think I drove my parents nuts with this album . . .

I look at Grace (Slick) now and muse at the possibilities.

I'm sure future generations will look upon her with respect and awe.

To me . . .

She will always be the personification of Grace (we love you).

I don't think most people realize how mult-talented Grace was -- the writing, the playing, the singing that no one's come close to....

Great music

Best trip listening to this vinyl on a friend's turntable during Vietnam War- one sunny morning in Cambridge. Yes.

same for me but 50+ years later :)

They were cool kids.

They were unique.

Nagy.  Egy kicsit részeg, de nem baj.

Great stuff.  I'm a bit drunk, but it doesn't matter.

SO  AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!

Nope, You are right!

I love her expression !!!

Grace is The Best Singer Female for al the time

5 years ago

wheres the LSD???!!! that stuff needs to make a major comeback

Grace, what a Joy to watch and hear

god blessed with great pipes. would stand above in any genre.

Thanks for that post!

I can't :).

thanks for posting.
just to clarify who did what -
jorma plays guitar - the "sitar" sound is grace on harpsichord
it may also be grace on acoustic guitar
+ there is marty's under-appreciated counterpoint vocal

just bein a geek - thanks

You know who has a voice similar to hers nowadays (and even looks are rather similar)?

Katy Perry. Yes, I am not kidding.

That said, i'd love to see her doing a JA cover. Her contralto voice is wonderfully beautiful, though not as Grace's, but still...

that song is crazy. totally surrealistic or maybe about mushrooms or lsd. But really really really brilliant!

nico maybe....

The last 2 seconds are cut off of the song! What a shame!!!!!

@angeliqueve Is there anyone else? She defines it.

at 1:59, does she say "chasing their hoots with a knife", referring to hotknifing?

"Chasing their hoops with a knife" is correct.

@angeliqueve
Not joplin

@angeliqueve I love Janis Joplin, they dont really have comparable voices. But I love them both!

@necr086 What are you talking about, man? 45, 723 people haven't forgotten this kind of music, 186 just love this kind of music and I'm sure there are more people in the world that would dig this music, too.

the first time i did acid I insisted on hearing this song. It played strange little head tricks on me and i was in psychedelic heaven. Trip on Grace.

Thumbs up for being in love (and wanting to fuck) Grace Slick in her 20s.

i'll have her even, now

I truly believe that Grace Slick is the greatest Female Psychedelic Rock Vocalist ever to have lived !
Can anyone think of any one to better her ?

Dorothy Moskowitz...in the band United States of America. She's the ONLY other contender.

Flo from Florence and the Machine said she owes a lot to Grace.

@TumbrelJockey LOL! That's a perfect description.

@1bichon1 Grace sang strong and in a "no bullshit" way.
She has heart and courage; I admire courage
There never will be another like her!

My favorite airplane album. very underrated

@pbrucpaul When their arms got incredibly fat, they lumbered back together and made the clunky "We Built This City," which ironically was their biggest smash hit! Fat Elvis Time.

@54markl They pretty much "tripped' away from the fray. Marty Balin just rather survived this drama.

In the Sixties, they were considered one of the world's greatest Rock 'n Roll bands, much more famous than the Grateful Dead. But they disappeared rather suddenly. Their legacy should be as famous as the Who's, if there was justice in the world.

@Lolledape True, these days they are friends. But all of Scandinavia used to belong to the Finns in ancient days. The Norwegians and Swedes stole a big part of it from them.

Off with 2 people's heads!!!

Upon a renewed perusal of these rather odd lyrics, which I have known since I was a child in the Sixties, I have come to the belated conclusion that this song is a rant against Grace's dad. "Put a lock on her bed at night, Sweet life, but no child of mine." Maybe her dad was a cold man with incredibly fat arms. This is still one of the best songs ever written. This site cuts off the echoing, receding cymbal crash at the end. I have the 45.

I love Grace's nonsense songs!

Grace is part Norwegian, part Mayflower. Jorma is second-generation Finnish-American. Marty is American Jewish, German or Polish roots, I think. Paul Kantner is a Kraut, obviously. ;-) Jack is an Irish-American, Spencer was -- I'm not sure what, but he was a great-nephew of Charlie Chaplin. And Jefferson Airplane were and ARE the greatest rock and roll band EVER !!!

@shymama8 Thank you.

@54markl naw, its all good, and you're right, great song :)

@54markl During our dinner, my cousin Jerry Lee lewis came over and chatted with us. Poor man, he was all ready bloated from too many Schlitzes. After he left, Grace said "His arms are incredibly fat." " He hangs out with Don Kirschner," I explained. "That hedonist!" Grace was startled "Don Kirschner?" she exclaimed. "I thought that was Ed Sullivan!" Then the Smothers Brothers came over and cast a pall over our whole dinner. It made me want to sin, but I resisted Temptation. Praise Jeebus!

This is Jim Swaggart. Yes, it's true, I went on a very chaste date with Grace once. we had egg salad sandwiches and root beers. She pecked my cheek at the door, that's the last I saw of her. While we were eating at the diner, children were sucking on stones and lead at the next table. One of them chased a hoop with a knife. I think that's what she's talking about here. She had just broken up with spencer, she got back together with him the next day. Ah, bittersweet Finnish memories!

@shymama8 Thank you. My bad, for stirring flighty people up over nothing. It's a wonderful song, that's all that matters. Ms. Slick's life is pristine compared to most others.

@alezander666 they are not norwegians. they were based out of San Fransisco, CA, USA. Jorma was, indeed, Finnish. he was born in Finland, his family moved here when he was just a boy.

as for the rest of the band, they are all american, with varying nationalities. .

@54markl they are not norwegians. they were based out of San Fransisco, CA, USA. Jorma was, indeed, Finnish. he was born in Finland, his family moved here when he was just a boy.

You're all confused about this song. Grace is just recalling her date with Jimmy Swaggart..... :)

Maybe Marty just bogarted her joint, it was all so innocent in those days.

@alezander666 I see. They're Norwegians, so they couldn't possibly have affairs. And here I was thinking Jorma was Finnish (they don't like Norwegians). You on the other hand are obviously from TURKEY, turkey. And you mistook that Magic Mushroom for a banana peel, you're trippin.

Don't think she's mad in this son -- or that she was involved with Marty, ever.

Grace was in a relationship with Spencer Dryden both before and after this song.

It has been said, jokingly, that Marty was the only straight guy in SF who didn't sleep with Grace. He refused.

This is just another about being in an altered state. Who knows what she meant to say? Grace hasn't given out many clues about any of her lyrics, and it's been a long time.

God bless you, Grace. No one compares.

this is such a great song when on mind expending substances

@knownonsense99 She's pissed because she caught Marty cheating on her with a groupie! She wanted to kill him, but instead she took up with Paul Kantner. Marty left the group in a rage. It's about her wanting to chop Marty up into pieces because he cheated on her.

@rustribbonwizz We younger kids looked up to you mean older teenagers. Because you were high on banana peels, oh yes, we had to crane our necks!