Spirit - 1968 - Spirit

 

Spirit was an American jazz/hard rock/progressive rock/psychedelic band founded in 1967, based in Los Angeles, California. The original lineup of the group evolved from an earlier Los Angeles band, The Red Roosters, which included Randy California (guitars, vocals), Mark Andes (bass) and Jay Ferguson (vocals, percussion). With the addition of Ed Cassidy (drums) and keyboard player John Locke the new band was originally named the Spirits Rebellious (after a book by Khalil Gibran) but was soon shortened simply to Spirit. Randy California had also played with Jimi Hendrix (then known as Jimmy James) in Jimmy James and the Blue Flames in 1966. Spirit's self-titled debut album is one whose multifarious experimentalism owes a lot to the contemporary successes of The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band and Pink Floyd's The Piper at the Gates of Dawn. It marked the humble beginnings and grand aspirations of its eponymous authors. While the mindset required to produce Spirit was ubiquitous, the endeavour itself was far from clichéd. The eclecticism of Randy California's writing coupled Barrett's psychotropism with Morrison's West Coast bohemianism; and although the result proved somewhat inaccessible to the masses, it made the project ripe for underground FM airtime. The band would later curtail its psychedelia, focusing on a broader array of genres. This release was published first by Ode records in 1968.

01 - Fresh-Garbage
02 - Uncle Jack
03 - Mechanical World
04 - Taurus
05 - Girl In Your Eye
06 - Straight Arrow
07 - Topanga Windows
08 - Gramophone Man
09 - Water Woman
10 - The Great Canyon Fire In General
11 - Elijah
12 - Veruska [Bonus]
13 - Free Spirit [Bonus]
14 - If I Had A Woman [Bonus]
15 - Elijah [Alternate Take - Bonus]

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Spirit - 1968 - The Family That Plays Together   The Family That Plays Together, the second of four albums released by the original Spirit lineup, was marketed by Ode Records in 1968. Unlike its predecessor, Spirit, their self-titled and surreal debut, The Family That Plays Together evinces more greatly the band's ability for playing beyond the genre of psychedelic rock than within it. Tracks "It Shall Be" and "Silky Sam" demonstrate the ease with which the ensemble can incorporate jazz into their idiosyncratic form of rock, while "Jewish" and "Aren't You Glad" evidenced the band's competence in exploiting, to their advantage, both world music and jam rock respectively. "Poor Richard" and "Its All the Same" feature glorious double track lead breaks from guitarist California. The inspiration behind entitling The Family is alleged to have derived from the stepson-stepfather relationship guitarist Randy California and percussionist Ed Cassidy shared. 01 - I Got A Line On You 02 - It Shall Be 03 - Poor Richard 04 - Silky Sam 05 - Drunkard 06 - Darlin' If 07 - It's All The Same 08 - Jewish 09 - Dream Within A Dream 10 - She Smiles 11 - Aren't You Glad 12 - Fog 13 - So Little To Say 14 - Mellow Fellow 15 - Now Or Anywhere 16 - Space Chile LINK

Spirit - 1970 - Twelve Dreams of Dr. Sardonicus   This, the last album from the original lineup, is to me one of the the greatest albums ever made. It's got everything- fantastic songs-great production-competent and inspired musicians! The sound is more psychedelic with guitars zooming between the speakers and a lot of backwards tapes. The songwriting is more consistenly mature than on the previous albums. The album was initially a failure commercially, and this sadly led to the group breaking up. Ed Cassidy said in the Time Circle booklet: "There was frustration (...) we had had what we thought was going to be successful, and I think everybody started to think, 'Maybe it's not working. Maybe it's time to move on.' This was sort of like 'The last hurrah', so to speak, and I think that's one of the reasons why it became a classic album. It was advanced for it's times, doing a lot of things electronically that were not being done, and the arranging of songs and how we had initiated the blending of one song into another." 01 - Prelude - Nothin' To Hide 02 - Nature's Way 03 - Animal Zoo 04 - Love Has Found A Way 05 - Why Can't I Be Free 06 - Mr. Skin 07 - Space Child 08 - When I Touch You 09 - Street Worm 10 - Life Has Just Begun 11 - Morning Will Come 12 - Soldier LINK

Spirit - 1968 - Model Shop (2005)   Model Shop is a 2005 album by the Los Angeles group, Spirit, which collects the material they recorded in 1968, for the soundtrack to Jacques Demy's film Model Shop. Chronologically, the album's material falls in between their second and third albums, The Family That Plays Together (1968) and Clear (1969). For his film, director Jacques Demy wanted a band that captured the vibe of Los Angeles as he saw it. After hearing Spirit perform in an L.A. club, he decided that they would be the perfect group for his film's soundtrack. However, the film itself was considered a failure and no soundtrack album was released at the time. Most of the material remained unreleased until 2005, following the discovery of a master tape of the original mono mixes. Model Shop differs from other Spirit albums of the era, in that most of the songs were written collaboratively. Also, with the exception of "Now or Anywhere" and "Green Gorilla", the pieces are exclusively instrumental and hilight the Jazz leanings of the band. 01 - The Moving Van 02 - Mellow Fellow 03 - Now Or Anywhere 04 - Fog 05 - Green Gorilla 06 - Model Shop I 07 - Model Shop Ii (Clear) 08 - The Rehearsal Theme 09 - Song For Lola 10 - Eventide 11 - Coral 12 - Aren't You Glad LINK

Spirit - 1973-76 - The Mercury Years

 

The "Mercury years" of Spirit were not their early, formative years which were spent with CBS/Columbia. By 1975, the band had effectively ceased to exist. Randy California and Ed Cassidy however decided to give it another go. They resurrected the band name and self funded their comeback album "Spirit of '76", intended as part of the American bicentennial celebrations. Mercury Records picked up the band and further albums were recorded and released over the next couple of years.

Disc 1

01 - Jack Bond
02 - America Bautifultimesy Are A'changing
03 - Victim Of Society
04 - Lady Of The Lakes
05 - Tampa Jam
06 - My Road
07 - Sunrise
08 - Urantia
09 - Maunaloawhat Do I Have
10 - Feeling In Time
11 - Happy
12 - Walking The Dog
13 - Tampa Jam
14 - Joker On The Run
15 - When
16 - Like A Rolling Stone
17 - Veruska
18 - Once Again
19 - Tampa Jam
20 - Thank You Lord
21 - Guide Me
22 - Hey Joe

Disc 2

23 - Farther Along
24 - Atomic Boogie
25 - World Eat World Dog
26 - Don't Lock Up Your Door
27 - Colossus
28 - Phoebe
29 - Mega Star
30 - Once With You
31 - Diamond Spirit
32 - Stoney Night
33 - Pineapple
34 - Looking Into Darkness
35 - Holy Man
36 - Would You Believe
37 - Detroit City
38 - Circle
39 - Other Song
40 - Yesterday
41 - Family
42 - Maybe You'll Find
43 - Magic Fairy Princess
44 - Gorn Attack
45 - Stars Are Love
46 - It's Time Now
47 - Green Back Dollar

LINK Part 1

 

     LINK Part 2