Lather (song)

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Lather is a song by the American rock band Jefferson Airplane. It is the opening track on the 1968 album Crown of Creation. Its lyrics are about a man, given the name "Lather," who just turned 30 years old and realizes he can no longer act childish…. The song was written for the Airplane's drummer Spencer Dryden's 30th birthday. However, the lines

"But Lather still finds it a nice thing to do,
To lie about nude in the sand,
Drawing pictures of mountains that look like bumps,
And thrashing the air with his hands."

actually refer to the occasion when bassist Jack Casady was arrested nude on a beach in Santa Cruz, California, after taking said drug.

The composer, Grace Slick, was actually poking fun at Dryden, her lover at the time, because he was the first person in the band to reach that milestone age. Thirty years was considered to be a "boring" age by contemporaries, as a person had now grown up and could no longer have fun. The song has a very distinct and exotic arrangement.