Spirit (band)

Spirit

Spirit was an American jazz/hard rock/psychedelic band founded in 1967, based in Los Angeles, California.

The original lineup

The original lineup of the group evolved from an earlier Los Angeles band, The Red Roosters, which included Randy California (guitars, vocals) and Mark Andes (bass) and Jay Ferguson (vocals, percussion). With the addition of California's stepfather 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.

A notable feature of the new group was drummer Ed Cassidy (b. 1923); more than twenty years older than the other members, he was a highly experienced jazzz drummer who had played with Cannonball Adderly, Gerry Mulligan and Thelonious Monk, as well as briefly being a member of The Rising Sons with Taj Mahal and Ry Cooder

1960s

The group's first album, Spirit, was released in 1968. "Mechanical World" was released as a single (it lists the playing time merely as "very long"). The album was a substantial underground hit, reaching #31 and staying on the charts for over eight months. The album displayed jazzy influences, as well as elaborate string arrangements, not found on their subsequent albums.

They capitalized on the success of their first album with another single, "I Got A Line On You". Released in November of 1968, a month before their second album, The Family That Plays Together , it became their biggest hit single, reaching #25 on the charts. The album matched its success, reaching #22. They also went on tour that year with Led Zeppelin, who were obviously listening to Spirit, as Zeppelin played an extended medley during their early 1969 shows that featured "Fresh Garbage" among other songs. Jimmy Page's use of a theremin could also be attributed to his seeing Randy California use one which he had mounted to his amplifier, and it is often claimed that Page 'borrowed' from Spirit's instrumental "Taurus" when writing Led Zeppelin's signature tune "Stairway To Heaven".

After this success, the group was asked by French film director Jacques Demy to record the soundtrack to his film, Model Shop. They also made a brief appearance in the film. Their third album, Clear, released in 1969, rose to #55 on the charts. Spirit were offered the spot right before Jimi Hendrix at Woodstock, but they were advised to turn it down and concentrate on a promotional tour for their third album. Record company managers felt that the festival would not be significant, which it did not seem so at that time.

Drummer Ed Cassidy was instantly recognizable by his shaven head (hence his nickname "Mr. Skin") and his fondness for wearing black. He was considerably older than the rest of the group (born in 1923). His earlier career was primarily in playing jazz, and included stints with Cannonball Adderley, Gerry Mulligan, Roland Kirk and Lee Konitz. He was a founding member of Rising Sons with Taj Mahal and Ry Cooder.

"1984" and the Sardonicus era

After the release of Clear, California was called upon again to give the group a hit single. With the group producing the record on their own, they recorded a song California had written called "1984". Though the title echoed the George Orwell book of the same name, it was one of California's finest, and it boasted an excellent production job (and was one of the most ferocious things that Spirit would ever record). And it looked at first like it would be the group's biggest hit yet. Soon after being released, it raced up the charts to #69.

In retrospect, nobody is completely sure why the single had such a brief chart life, but there are several possibilities. It is no secret that Lou Adler's alliance with Epic Records was uneasy at best, and at the time that the single was released, Adler's distribution deal with Epic came to an end. He had been eager to move distribution of the label to A&M Records, which he did as soon as the deal with Epic ended, which might have killed the commercial availability of the single (though Adler ended up giving Spirit's contract to Epic in the process). It has also been said that there was a tip sheet distributed to radio stations outlining the song's supposed political and social views, and opining that it might not be appropriate for air play . The song would finally see general release on The Best Of Spirit in 1973.

In 1970, Spirit started working on what is widely considered to be their best LP, Twelve Dreams of Dr. Sardonicus. It was a prolific time for the group's writers and the album was finally released in late 1970. Especially memorable was Randy California's poignant "Nature's Way." Everybody involved felt that they had created a great album. Epic released an early mix of "Animal Zoo" as a single, which made it to #97 on the charts. Time would tell, however, and it is now regarded by many as one of the finest rock albums ever made. Not unlike The Who's Tommy and Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon, it is regarded as a masterpiece of art-rock, with a tapestry of literary themes about the fragility of life and the complexity of the human experience; this is best illustrated by recurring lyric "life has just begun." However, the album is also appreciated for its songwriting quality and performances. Its inventive production and effective integration of the Moog synthesizer belied nearly every group in rock who tried using the instrument (apart from possibly The Doors and The Monkees, who used a Moog on Strange Days and Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones, Ltd. respectively).

1971-1973

After the group undertook a promotional tour to support the album Twelve Dreams of Dr. Sardonicus Ferguson and Andes left the group, forming Jo Jo Gunne.

Bass player John Arliss initially took Andes' place, and California was still in the line-up, but he soon left the group and attempted a solo career. Eventually, two brothers named Al and John Staehely joined the band, and with Cassidy and Locke, recorded the 1972 album Feedback. It was a different turn for the group, showing more of a country-rock influence pervading their jazzier tendencies, but it also met with a mild commercial response, reaching #63 in the charts (the same position, ironically, that Sardonicus reached). The tour for Feedback eventually found both Cassidy and Locke leaving the lineup, with the Staehely brothers recruiting other musicians to fill their roles. While the tour was well received critically, Spirit disbanded in early 1973. The brothers would release their own album, Sta-Hay-Lee, in 1973.

California, meanwhile, had recorded and issued his first solo album, Kapt Kopter And The (Fabulous) Twirly Birds, in late 1972. It featured appearances by Noel Redding (as 'Clit McTorius'), Leslie Sampson (the drummer from Noels band Road, as 'Henry Manchovitz') and Cassidy and had a hard rock sound. After launching a brief tour to support the album, a follow-up album was recorded with Cassidy, entitled The Adventures Of Kaptain Kopter And Commander Cassidy In Potato Land. Though Locke made a guest appearance, it was not intended as a Spirit album at the time. Epic however rejected the completed album, and California moved to Molokai, Hawaii.

Epic Records decided to re-issue the group's first and third, and second and fifth, albums as two-fers in 1973, in response to Sardonicus continuing to sell well, despite being off of the charts. They also issued a compilation album, The Best Of Spirit, that year, as well as releasing the Sardonicus track "Mr. Skin" as a single. Surprisingly, "Mr. Skin" became a minor hit, and one of the two-fers hit the charts (along with The Best Of Spirit), and there was new demand for the group. Cassidy decided to capitalize on this and put together an entirely new group for touring purposes which lasted throughout the year.

The Mercury years (1974-1979)

In 1974 Cassidy made it a point to find California and re-establish contact. He eventually persuaded California to return to the mainland and give the band another shot. Andes worked with the duo for a while, but never intended to stay, as he was in the process of working with the group Firefall at the same time. Sound engineer/bassist Barry Keene, who had been a personal sound engineer for Frank Zappa, joined the band as its bass player.

In early 1975, the group was supposed to be the opening act for Ten Years After at a show in Florida, but when Ten Years After backed out at the last minute, Spirit was granted permission to take over the theatre for the evening. After going around to local radio stations to promote the show and setting a low ($3) ticket price, Spirit managed to sell out the 3,000 seat theatre. Using the profits from the show, they blocked out as much time as they could at a Tampa studio, "Studio 70".

After recording a huge amount of material at the studio, their manager at the time, Marshall Berle (the nephew of Milton Berle), offered the material to Mercury Records. On the basis of the material, the group was offered a contract, and a double-album entitled Spirit of '76 was culled from the material and released in May 1975. The album garnered a bit of FM airplay, so they quickly followed it up with Son of Spirit, released in October of that year and featuring many songs taken from the same sessions.

For the tour in support of Son of Spirit, Locke re-joined the group. Eventually, Andes returned to the line-up as well, and though Ferguson declined to participate in the group reunion at first, the band (with the addition of Mark's brother Matt Andes as a second guitarist) recorded an album entitled Farther Along.

The album returned the group to the U.S. charts one last time, peaking at #179. For a few shows at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium, Ferguson re-joined the group. Disaster struck, however, when an inebriated Neil Young walked onto stage to join the band during the final show's encore of "Like a Rolling Stone". Sporting a new haircut, California did not recognize Young, and thinking that he was just a drunk, California pushed him away from his microphone. Ferguson and Locke did recognize him, and thinking that California's ego was flaring, promptly walked off stage. Cassidy initially quelled the situation by leaving his kit and joining both California and Young at the microphone to close out the song, but the damage had already been done, and the reunion ended that night.

Undaunted, California assembled what was basically a solo album as a Spirit album under the name Future Games: A Magical Kahuana Dream. Mercury released it in early 1977, but it received no promotion, and it ended what little bit of commercial momentum the group might have regained. It also (initially) ended their contract with Mercury. At the same time, former bandmate Jay Ferguson was having success in his solo career in late 1970s with the hits "Thunder Island" & "Shakedown Cruise".

The group, now down to a trio with new bassist Larry "Fuzzy" Knight, did extensive touring throughout 1978, recorded a live album which was released (in slightly different configurations) in several different countries by different independent labels. It was not a commercial success, and following the touring, California left the group again.

The 1980s and beyond

After Spirit's demise, California put together another group with the intent of re-starting his solo career. This was short-lived, but while in England, a fan presented him with a petition of 5,000 signatures, requesting the release of the Potato Land album from 1973. In 1981, California put out a half-hearted version of the album, featuring only part of the original album (and what was there featured overdubbing done after the fact) with the addition of a few unrelated songs that were recorded in the late 1970s. It was released in the U.S. by Rhino Records (being one of the first albums that they released) and in England by Beggars Banquet Records, where it actually reached #40 in the UK Albums Chart (the only time they would chart in England), possibly due to the album being played by BBC Radio 1.

California's second solo album, Euro-American, was released in 1982 by Beggar's Banquet. He would release two more solo albums during the decade.

In December 1982, the original Spirit line-up reformed and recorded several songs from their first four albums (as well as a few new tracks) live on a soundstage. Though the album Spirit of '84 was initially recorded for an audiophile label, Mercury Records re-signed the band (and gave California a solo deal) and released the album in 1984. Despite the fact that all five original members were on the recording, and MTV played the video, the album was only a moderate success. Some of the original members went to do other projects, but California and Cassidy continued touring with new members Scott Monahan on keys and Dave Waterbury on bass.

California headed to England and recorded his third solo album, the contemporary hard rock Restless, in late 1985. Following a few live dates in England, California returned to the United States and resumed touring extensively with Cassidy, Monahan and Waterbury.

There was one more solo album from California; a collection of material entitled Shattered Dreams that was released in 1986. California secured a deal with IRS Records, and Locke re-joined the band. They recorded an album in 1988 entitled Rapture in the Chambers, but it failed to return them to the charts.

The group self-released Tent Of Miracles in 1990 and set off on almost continually working for the next six years. Though they would release very few albums of new material during the decade, the group was always either recording or touring. California had his own home recording studio since the early 1980s, though he had been making home recordings for years prior to that. Sadly, this renewed vigor came to an end on January 2, 1997, when California drowned off the coast of Hawaii. He had been surfing with his son, who ended up getting caught in a riptide. He managed to push his son to safety, but ended up losing his own life.

Though Cassidy did play a few dates with some former Spirit alumni under the name "Spirit Revisited" in 1998, California's death was effectively the end of the group.

Locke died from complications due to lymphoma on 4 August 2006, although the date is sometimes given as 9 August.

Posthumous

California's passing, however, did not mark the end of the emergence of Spirit material. Starting in 2000, there have been five collections of previously unreleased studio and live material, four of which were two-CD sets. California had also prepared an anthology of material from the group's first stint with Mercury Records before he died entitled The Mercury Years. The two-CD set was released in early 1997, though it raised the ire of some fans who did not care for the fact that some of the material had been re-edited or featured overdubbing that was not present on the original releases.

Likewise, nearly all of Spirit's original albums are currently in print in CD. This is thanks to the efforts of Sony Records (with the Epic catalog, though Collector's Choice Music was the first to reissue Feedback on CD in the U.S., following a brief release on disc in France in the late 1990s) and Beat Goes On alongside Edsel, both UK labels (with the Mercury catalog, some of which had made it to CD prior to Beat Goes On and Edsel reissuing all of their Mercury albums). Their later independent albums are available through the group's website. The one album that is unavailable at this time is Rapture In The Chambers, which has not been reissued since the original release, though it was released on CD at that time.

Spirit has also found its work sampled by modern artists several times. The most notable of these was the "Extra P. Remix" of the song "Resurrection" by Common (which samples "Ice" from Clear) and "Feel Good Time" by Pink (which samples the track "Fresh Garbage").

Band members

Original lineup

• Randy California (guitar, vocals)
• Ed Cassidy (drums)
• John Locke (keyboards)
• Mark Andes (bass)
• Jay Ferguson (vocals, percussion)

Later members

Following Sardonicus, many musicians passed through the group's ranks. Most of them did not make a huge contribution to the group's sound, but some did.
The most important of the later group members are listed here:

• Larry "Fuzzy" Knight, bass, vocals
• Barry Keene, bass.
• George Valuck, keyboards
• Steve "Liberty" Loria, bass, vocals
• Scott Monahan, keyboards, vocals
• Dave Waterbury, bass, vocals
• Mike Nile, bass, vocals

Discography

• Spirit (1968)
• The Family That Plays Together (1968)
• Model Shop (Soundtrack for a Jacques Demy film, recorded in 1968 and issued in 2005)
• Clear (1969)
• Twelve Dreams of Dr. Sardonicus (1970)
• Feedback (1972; Ed Cassidy, John Locke, Al Staehely, John Staehely)
• The Best Of Spirit (1973)
• Spirit of '76 (1975; Randy California, Ed Cassidy, Barry Keene)
• Son of Spirit (1975; Randy California, Ed Cassidy, Barry Keene)
• Farther Along (1976; Randy California, Ed Cassidy, Mark Andes, John Locke, Matt Andes, Steve Larrence, Robert Lee, Michael Temple, Ian Underwood, Ernie Watts)
• Future Games (1977; Randy California, Ed Cassidy, Terry Anderson)
• Made in Germany (1978; live; Randy California, Ed Cassidy, Larry Knight)
• The Adventures of Kaptain Kopter & Commander Cassidy in Potato Land (1981; Randy California, Ed Cassidy, John Locke, George Valuck, Mike Bunnell, Joe Green, Jeff Jarvis, Michael Lee, Robert Lee, Kari Nile, Chuck Snyder, Mike Thornburgh)
• The Thirteenth Dream/Spirit of '84 (1984; Randy California, Ed Cassidy, Mark Andes, Jay Ferguson, John Locke, Matt Andes, Jeff Baxter, Neal Doughty, Bruce Gary, Alan Gratzer, Jerry Jumonville, Keith Knudsen, Joe Lala, Bobby LaKind, Howard Lesse, Gary Myrik, Curly Smith, Bob Welch)
• Rapture in the Chambers (1988; Randy California, Mark Andes, Ed Cassidy, John Locke, Curly Smith, Janet Wolfe)
• Tent of Miracles (1990; Randy California, Ed Cassidy, Mike Nile)
• Time Circle, 1968-1972 (1991); compilation with previously unreleased tracks; Randy California, Ed Cassidy, Jay Ferguson, Mark Andes, John Locke)
• Chronicles, 1967-1992; compilation with previously unreleased tracks; Randy California, Ed Cassidy, Jay Ferguson, Mark Andes, John Locke)
• Live at la Paloma (1995; live; Randy California, Ed Cassidy, John Locke, Larry Knight, Steve Loria, Scott Monahan)
• California Blues (1996; Randy California, Ed Cassidy, John Locke)
• The Mercury Years (1997)
• Cosmic Smile (2000; Randy California, Ed Cassidy, Scott Monahan, Matt Andes; 1st posthumous release)
• Sea Dream (2002; Randy California, Ed Cassidy, Scott Monahan; 2-CDs)
• Blues From the Soul (2003; Randy California, Ed Cassidy, Steve Lauria, Matt Andes, Rachel Andes, Scott Monahan; 2-CDs)
• Live From the Time Coast (2004; Randy California, Ed Cassidy, Mike Nile; 2-CDs)
• Son of America (2005); Randy California, Ed Cassidy, Scott Monahan; 2-CDs)
• The Original Potato Land (2006; Randy California, Ed Cassidy & others; reconstruction of the rejected original version of 1972)
• Salvation - the Spirit of '74 (2007; Randy California, Ed Cassidy, Mark Andes. 2 CDs live, plus one CD with unreleased studio cuts from early seventies.)
• Rock and Roll Planet...1977-1979 (2008; Randy California, Ed Cassidy, Larry "Fuzzy" Knight. 2 CDs live plus one studio.)

External links

• http://www.randycaliforniaandspirit.com/
• http://www.bostream.nu/johanb/spirit/