Notes & Comments

Released: 10/27/92
3CD (RCA 09026-61110-2)
3CS (RCA 09026-61110-4)

From disc 2, track 12:

Would You Like A Snack? 2:38
(Frank Zappa/ Grace Slick)

Produced by Al Schmitt
Engineered by Mark Linett & Pat Ieraci
Recorded June 5, 1968 at RCA Studios, Hollywood, CA
WPA3-0864, 61110-2/4 * Frank Zappa Music Co., Inc. (BMI)
1992 BMG Music

Patrick Neve

June 5th, 1968—RCA studio session with Mothers, "Would You Like A Snack?"

Frank is credited as "leader", my guess is that means "conductor". This track is apparantly unrelated to the song of the same name that appears on 200 Motels.

Charles Ulrich

I wouldn't quite say they are unrelated. In addition to sharing lyrics with the 200 Motels "WYLAS?" (namely the title phrase), the Jefferson Airplane "WYLAS?" shares piano riffs with the next 200 Motels track, "Redneck Eats".

Pauline Butcher, Freak Out!—My Life With Frank Zappa, 2011, p. 114

[Tuesday, June 4, 1968] late afternoon, Frank, in full creative mode, was composing the prettiest piece of music, "Would You Like a Snack," especially for Grace Slick, the lead singer of Jefferson Airplane. He asked for a recording session to be set up starting at midnight.

[...] Just after Grace Slick and Frank left for the studio, some mad person shot Robert Kennedy in downtown LA. [...] Desperate to be the first to tell Frank, PamZ dragged Ray Collins and me to the recording session, where we found him seated at the control panel with Grace.

[...] Seeing Frank in the studio was a new experience. I watched spellbound while the beautiful piece he'd written that afternoon gradually metamorphosed into something else. After Ian and Art had laid down piano, vibes and drum tracks, Spence Dryden, drummer with Jefferson Airplane, added extra drum rolls and then Grace Slick wailed and half-spoke her part with a clarinet accompaniment. Then, naturally, Frank had to add his weird noises, making us all laugh with his funny hand signals conducting a chorus of grunts, snorts, burps and snarls. I felt privileged to see the complete creative process, even though what had started as a very pretty piece that afternoon ended up sounding like no music at all.

Other editions

Magnus Delle(Fri, 03 May 2002)

Today I found "Would You Like Snack?" as a bonus track on Jefferson's "Crown of Creation". The CD is apparently an import from ...Spain (RCA—BMG España 74321847882, 2001). I thought that song was only available on the "Jefferson Airplanes Loves You" CD box. Yet another piece in the big puzzle.

Michael Gula (August 23, 2003)

The new CD remasters of Jefferson Airplane's Crown of Creation now include "Would You Like a Snack?".

Biffy the Elephant Shrew (August 23, 2003)

The Crown of Creation remaster also includes an 8-minute track titled "The Saga of Sidney Spacepig". Although there is no credit to Zappa on this track, a substantial part of it consists of "The Air" being played on a piano.

M. Delle (August 23, 2003)

On my copy of Crown Of Creation (RCA 74321847882, issued 2001 by BMG Music, Spain), there are two bonus tracks: "Ribump Ba Bap Dum Dum", which is a 1.32 min percussion piece with some unorganised vocals included, and the Zappa-Slick piece "Would You Like A Snack?". I don't have "The Saga of Sidney Spacepig". Obviously, there are different issues with different track listings.

Biffy the Elephant Shrew (August 23, 2003)

The new reissue includes all of the above mentioned tracks plus the alternate single version of "Share a Little Joke" and a hidden track of "Candy Man."

GuruKenn (December 28, 2003)

I would like to report that I have found some Zappa related music on the recent Jefferson Airplane re-issue of the "Crown of Creation" album. Released August 19, 2003.

RCA has released this classic title yet again (under the BMG Heritage label) as part of the Jefferson Airplane Original Masters series. This time, the disc contains 5 bonus cuts (one being an untitled hidden track tacked onto the end of track 15).

One of the bonus tracks (credited to Frank Zappa / Grace Slick) is called "Would You Like a Snack". It had been released on the "Jefferson Airplane Loves You" box set in 1992 and is known to fans. But another track (not credited to Zappa but to Spencer Dryden) called "The Saga of Sydney Spacepig" is released legit here for the first time, and it contains without a doubt Zappa contributions.

You can here parts of the song "The Air" fading in and out, and Zappa type Snorts and grunts are heard throughout. "The Saga of Sydney Spacepig" has been on bootleg before, but the version on this new "Crown of Creation" CD is a very different and seems to be a more realized mix.