Artist: Spirit Genre(s):
Drum & Bass
funk
Discography:
Out of Control Vinyl Year: 2005
Tracks: 2
InnerActive (INNALP104) Year: 2005
Tracks: 2
InnerActive (INNALP103) Year: 2005
Tracks: 2
InnerActive (INNALP102) Year: 2005
Tracks: 2
InnerActive (INNALP101) Year: 2005
Tracks: 2
Transit Vertigo Year: 2003
Tracks: 2
REVOLVER002 Year: 2003
Tracks: 2
Inna006 Vinyl Year: 2003
Tracks: 1
Twelve Dreams of Dr. Sardonicus Year: 1996
Tracks: 16
Spirit was a highly regarded rock stripe that achieved lowly commercial success, charting 11 albums in the U.S. between 1968 and 1977. Founded in Los Angeles in 1967 by musicians world Health Organization had a smorgasbord of rock, pop, tribe, blues, classic, and jazz backgrounds, and wHO ranged in old age from 16 to 44, the mathematical group had an eclecticist musical style in holding with the early years of progressive john Rock; they were as likely to act a tribe ballad featuring fingerpicked acoustic guitar, a malarkey implemental full of imaginative improvisation, or a driving rhythm air dominated by blistering rock galvanizing guitar playing. The various tastes of the original quintet produced a loan-blend manner that delighted a nucleus audience of fans merely proven also wide-ranging to pull in a mass next, and at the like time the musicians' acknowledged talents brought them other opportunities that lED to the breakup of the original lineup afterward four days and four albums, then kept them from committing fully to regroupings as their medicine began to be recognized in by and by eld. While two bandmembers, singer/guitarist Randy California and drummer Ed Cassidy, maintained the Spirit name, the others came and went as their schedules allowed, such that the group ne'er fulfilled its early predict, although, as a vehicle for California's songwriting and guitar playing, it continued to get worthwhile music until his destruction.
Ruttish California was natural Randolph Craig Wolfe on February 20, 1951, in Los Angeles, CA. His female parent, Bernice Pearl, was the sister of Ed Pearl, wHO owned the Ash Grove, a nightclub in Hollywood, and California, wHO began playing guitar as a kid, grew up listening carefully to the family, megrims, and malarky musicians wHO performed there. In early 1965, the Rising Sons, a folk-blues mathematical group featuring Taj Mahal and Ry Cooder, played the Ash Grove; the band's drummer was Ed Cassidy (natural May 4, 1923, in Chicago, IL), wHO met and married California's late divorced mother, comely his stepfather. Cassidy had been drumming professionally since his teens in almost every imaginable style, though recently largely in jazz groups before he united the Rising Sons. He left the isthmus after injuring his radiocarpal joint during a solo.
Meanwhile, California had met two wishful musicians from the San Fernando Valley, singer/percussionist Jay Ferguson (natural John Arden Ferguson, February 5, 1947, in Burbank, CA) and bassist Mark Andes (natural February 19, 1948, in Philadelphia, PA) at a folk music camp, and in September 1965, on with Cassidy and a arcsecond guitarist, they formed a band called the Red Roosters that played the Ash Grove.
The Red Roosters bust up when Cassidy touched his home to New York in search of ferment in the spring of 1966. There California had a fateful encounter with another guitar player at a music store in Manhattan; he met the then-unknown Jimi Hendrix, wHO was departure by the nominate Jimmy James, and wHO invited him to get together his band, Jimmy James & the Blue Flames, which was appearance at the Café Wha? in Greenwich Village. Since thither was already a instrumentalist named Randy in the lot, bass player Randy Palmer, Hendrix magisterial the two by their home states, calling Palmer "Ruttish Texas" and Randy Wolfe "Ruttish California," which he afterward retained as a stagecoach call. California played with Hendrix that summer, which was when Hendrix was patched by Animals bassist Chas Chandler, wHO became his managing director and took him to England to form the Jimi Hendrix Experience. Hendrix asked California to go to England with him, simply at 15 he was excessively young. Instead, California touched indorse to his home state with his mother and stepfather.
Later reversive west, California and Cassidy formed a isthmus called Spirits Rebellious, after a book by the religious mystic Kahlil Gibran, too featuring pianist John Locke (natural September 23, 1943, in Los Angeles, CA), wHO had played with Cassidy antecedently in the New Jazz Trio. In the saltation of 1967, California and Cassidy ran into Ferguson and Andes, wHO had continued to crop as musicians piece attendance UCLA. After the death of the Red Roosters, they had a lot called Western Union, too including Andes' guitar-playing blood brother, Matt Andes, then Ferguson had tried and true to establish a solo calling while Mark Andes served brief tenures with Yellow Balloon and Canned Heat. Now, they joined Spirits Rebellious, a appoint presently cut to Spirit. By June, they were playing gigs and looking for a criminal record contract. With Barry Hansen (after known as Dr. Demento, the novelty-song radiocommunication host) producing, they cut a demonstration tape that finally plant commercial liberation 24 years by and by on the anthology
Chronicles (1967-1992). They besides auditioned for record executive and manufacturer Lou Adler. Adler, best known for his ferment with the Mamas & the Papas and his company Dunhill Records, had sold Dunhill to ABC Records and formed a new label, Ode Records, which had a distribution deal with Epic Records, an imprint of the major label CBS Records. Adler signed Spirit to Ode in August 1967.
Adler produced Spirit's self-titled debut album, which was released in January 1968. (Most of the songs were written by Ferguson, though California contributed a delicate instrumental called "Taurus" that would prove inspirational to Led Zeppelin, which based the unveiling to the 1971 standard "Stairway to Heaven" on it.) Spurred by the unmarried "Mechanical World," which had some regional success, the LP entered the Billboard chart in April and exhausted more than six-spot months in that location, peaking in the Top 40 in September. Spirit toured extensively spell functional on their s album and preparing a score for French theater director Jacques Demy's film
Model Shop (January 1969), in which they too appeared. (Sundazed Records belatedly released a soundtrack album from the moving-picture show in 2005.) In October 1968, they issued a unmarried, "I Got a Line On You," a drive rocker written by California. Peaking at number 25 in the Hot hundred in March 1969, it was the group's only Top 40 unmarried. The second base album,
The Family That Plays Together, followed in December 1968. With the hit individual goad sales, it peaked at number 22 in March 1969. (Ferguson again dominated the songwriting, composition sestet of the 11 tracks, although California wrote or co-wrote the other basketball team.)
With the accelerated schedules typical of record releases in the sixties, Spirit had to take another album ready quick, and
Shed light on appeared in July 1969. The album light-emitting diode off with the California/Ferguson musical composition "Dark Eyed Woman," another rocker in the "I Got a Line on You" mold that was released as a individual only did not attain; the LP besides contained material written for the
Mannikin Shop score that, not amazingly, sounded like background music.
Clear was a disappointment after the success of
The Family That Plays Together, peaking at number 55 in October. In December, the band released a one-off unmarried, California's "1984," and it gave early indications of decorous a hit, rising to numeral 69 by March 1970 earlier tuner became insubordinate to its baleful lyrics, which referred to the dystopian novel of the same appoint by George Orwell. Produced by the band itself, it was their last handout on Ode. Adler had negotiated a split from CBS in order to run his label to A&M Records, and in so doing he in agreement to leave Spirit with Epic. The band then leased David Briggs, wHO had worked on Neil Young's albums, to bring forth its fourth LP. Sessions for that album commenced in April 1970, but they were interrupted when California suffered a fractured skull due to a fall from a knight and exhausted a month in the hospital. A single, Ferguson's "Fauna Zoo," emerged in July and grazed the bottom of the charts, merely it in the end took captain Hicks months to complete the LP, released as
12 Dreams of Dr. Sardonicus in November.
Disembodied spirit toured in support of the album during the winter and spring of 1971, but Epic failed to break a successful single from the LP, and it peaked at figure 63 in February. Ferguson and Andes, thwarted at the band's want of across-the-board commercial success, foreswear Spirit to form a new band, Jo Jo Gunne, with Matt Andes and drummer Curly Smith. Initially, Spirit leased bassist John Arliss and played as a quartette. Then, California throw in the towel to launch a solo calling. Remaining members Cassidy and Locke brought in two new musicians, brothers Al Staehely (bass) and Chris Staehely (guitar), and in November they began transcription a new Spirit album. It appeared in February 1972 under the title
Feedback. Like
12 Dreams of Dr. Sardonicus, it peaked at figure 63 in the charts. When Cassidy left the band, followed by Locke, the Staehely brothers brought in a drummer and briefly toured as Spirit. They didn't pay off forth with that for long, just it was easy to ensure wherefore promoters were concerned in having a Spirit band on the route, no issue world Health Organization was in it.
Twelve Dreams of Dr. Sardonicus, though cancelled the charts, had become an FM wireless favourite and a perennial vender (it would be certified as a gold record in 1976), and Epic re-released
The Family That Plays Together, which reentered the charts in July 1972.
In the meantime, California had sign a solo sign on with Epic and in the fall of 1972 he released his debut album,
Kapt. Kopter & the (Mythological) Twirly Birds. He reconnected with Cassidy, and the two hired a bass player, Larry "Fuzzy" Knight, to spell Europe during the spring of 1973. They as well worked on a construct album called
Potatoland, just Epic spurned it, and California temporarily dropped out of the music business and moved to Hawaii. Epic released a compiling record album,
The Best of Spirit, in the summer of 1973 and sawing machine it attain the charts along with a single spill of "Mr. Skin," a song from
12 Dreams of Dr. Sardonicus that was a crafty allusion to Cassidy's shaved head. Epic as well released a twofer LP combination of
Spirit and
Clear, and it to a fault got into the charts. Responding to the resulting demands for a live represent, Cassidy, having reacquired legal right-hand to the name Spirit from the Staehely brothers, teamed up once again with Knight and added some side of meat musicians to attain the road from July 1973 to April 1974.
After the dissolution of that unit, Cassidy travelled to Hawaii and got back in stir with California. Joined by Mark Andes, world Health Organization had leftfield Jo Jo Gunne, they began playacting dates by September 1974; Locke likewise performed with them at the start out of 1975, merely neither he nor Andes stayed permanently. Instead, California and Cassidy hired some other bass player, Barry Keene, and carried on. They recorded an record album that they shopped, signing to Mercury Records, which released the double LP
Spirit of '76 in May 1975. It made the depress reaches of the charts. They cursorily followed in October with
Son of Spirit, another modest seller. For
Farther Along, released in June 1976, they were once more united by Andes and Locke, as well as Matt Andes. The album spent respective weeks in the charts, and in August Ferguson, world Health Organization had folded Jo Jo Gunne and was preparing a solo calling, rejoined for a few shows, mark the first reunification of the original quintette in five eld. He did not stay, however, and Mark Andes, world Health Organization had already launched his fresh circle Firefall, likewise bygone, as did Locke. Once once more California and Cassidy busy a bassist, John Turlep, to continue as a triple.
Future Games (A Magical Kahauna Dream), the fourth Spirit album on Mercury, released in January 1977, ground California standing only and bare-chested on the front and back up covers, and he played all the instruments on the record book. Sales once more were modest, and the Mercury compress expired. The isthmus toured as a quartette including Locke and Knight, then carried on as a triple when Locke dropped out over again. In March 1978, the group toured Europe, and their evidence at the Rainbow Theatre in London on March 11 was recorded for a live record album. The LP appeared that fall on dissimilar record labels and in different configurations in different countries. The U.K. adaptation of
Live Spirit, released by Illegal Records, contained the Rainbow evidence; the American adaptation, issued by Spirit's own Potato depression, substituted some tracks recorded in Florida; and the West German adaptation, highborn
Made in Germany, included a single lead recorded in West Germany.
Spirit became inactive in 1979, as California formed the Randy California Band and Cassidy began playacting in a grouping called the Urge, then united Rainbow Red Oxidizer. By the fall of 1980, however, they were stake together, adding bassist Steve "Liberty" Loria and later keyboardist George Valuck to perform over again as Spirit. Spurred by a fan petition sponsored by the British music mag Dark Star, they ground a label, Beggars Banquet, interested in issuing the early-'70s
Potatoland project, and they reworked it for release in April 1981, when it appeared under the title The Adventures of Kapt. Kopter and Commander Cassidy in Potatoland and briefly made the U.K. charts. Rhino Records brought the disk out in the U.S. In 1982, California once more began performing under his possess name, as he released his minute solo record album,
Euro-American, in Europe. The album featured invitee performances by the other iV original members of Spirit, though they were ne'er all together on one trail.
By the end of 1982, however, the quintuple did reform. In the meanwhile since 1976, Ferguson had enjoyed a successful solo career including the Top Ten shoot "Boom Island" and was moving into film soundtrack work; Andes had joined Heart; and Locke had joined Nazareth. Nevertheless, they reunited with California and Cassidy to make a live-in-the-studio recording at the A&M Soundstage in Hollywood that included re-recordings of old Spirit favorites and a few new songs. The album was shopped close to and eventually sold to Mercury, which released it in March 1984 in the U.K. under the title
The Thirteenth Dream. It appeared that summer in the U.S. renamed
Smell of '84, and the band played a few dates on the West Coast to promote it, simply their various commitments made the reunion transient. California and Cassidy and then recruited keyboard player Scott Monahan and bass part player Dave Waterbury and continued to tour into 1985. That spring, California released his third solo record album,
Restless, again only in Europe, and toured the continent under his possess distinguish to further it. But by late summer, Spirit was over again on the road as piece of a package term of enlistment of '60s acts raising money for the restoration of the Statue of Liberty in a lineup that included California, Cassidy, and Ferguson, along with bassist Freeman James and keyboardist Michael Lewis.
Calif. and Cassidy continued to lead configurations of Spirit over the side by side few geezerhood. After California participated in I.R.S. Records' Night of the Guitar circuit, the label signed Spirit for a new album, and
Transport in the Chambers appeared in April 1989 with California, Cassidy, and Locke listed as the bandmembers and Mark Andes, wHO played bass on two cuts, credited as a guest creative person. A year by and by, Spirit released some other new record album,
Tent of Miracles, on its have Dolphin label with a lineup consisting of California, Cassidy, and Mike Nile. By at present, the band had become an conventional U.S. club act as that also undertook annual tours of Europe. In July 1991, Epic/Legacy released the two-disc retrospective
Time Circle (1968-1972), and two months by and by, Spirit issued its have complementary ingathering,
Chronicles (1967-1992), consisting of previously unreleased recordings, on its own W.E.R.C. C.R.E.W. Records label. In October, the original lineup of California, Cassidy, Ferguson, Andes, and Locke played iI concerts opening for the Doobie Brothers, their first appearances together in sevener geezerhood and the concluding time that the group was reunited. But California and Cassidy continued to lead other configurations as Spirit for the next basketball team years, cathartic
Live at La Paloma in 1995 and complementary
CA Blues in 1996. On January 2, 1997, California was swimming with his household off the seashore of Molokai, HI, when he and his 12-year-old word Quinn were caught in a rip current. California succeeded in pushing his son to shore, but he was swept out to sea, and his torso was never recovered.
Turned on California's death meant the end of Spirit, of course, although the unflagging Cassidy, by at present in his seventies, toured with a band called Spirit Revisited. Music diary keeper Mick Skidmore, patch working on a Spirit life history, began to gather collections of unreleased recordings from California's extended archives, which were issued in the starting time decade of the twenty-first century. These included
Cosmic Smile (2000) (on the Phoenix Rising label, produced by Bruce Gary, with liner notes by Skidmore),
Sea Dream (2002),
Megrims from the Soul (2003),
Live from the Time Coast (2004),
Word of America (2005),
The Original Potato Land (2006), and
Salvation...the Spirit of '74 (2007), the utmost sise order out by the British Acadia label. Meanwhile, Sundazed Records released LPs containing outtakes from Spirit's Ode/Epic discs,
At present or Anywhere and
Eventide, in 2000, earlier issuance
Model Shop in 2005. Ode/Epic/Legacy had reissued
Smell,
The Family That Plays Together,
Straighten out, and
XII Dreams of Dr. Sardonicus, each with bonus tracks, in 1996, and Mercury had California amass the two-disc
The Mercury Years scarce in front his death. All of this assured that Spirit's music would stay to be heard for age to come.
