Spirit's John Locke has died

According to the Sundazed site Spirit keyboard player John Locke died on August 4, 2006: http://www.sundazed.com/index_gfx/john_locke.html.

My favorite Spirit albums from the late 1960s:

Spirit


The Family That Plays Together


(I did a search, but couldn't find any earlier threads on this news)

 

Thanks for letting us know. I LIVED with that first Spirit album when it came out. I loved the next three as well, but I played the debut one constantly, and it still can take me right back to that time of my life. John's electric piano was an integral part of their sound.

R.I.P.

 

Very sad to hear of this...so many people whose music I (and countless others) love have died recently. Spirit is definitely one of my all-time favorite bands.

RIP John.

 

I'm not all that familiar with Spirit aside from Nature's Way and I Got A Line On You. I should check out some of their albums. In any case, this is terrible news.

 

Very sad. I also grew up with Spirit right from their start. They were played quite a bit on LA radio and I wore out their early tapes in the car. They were one of my favorite bands in the late 60's. RIP John Locke.

 

Spirit, indeed.

The first four albums are indispensable.

 

R.I.P. John. One of the original members who is seldom mentioned but some of my favorite tracks were by him. Think I'll go and put on ICE(one of his compositions) right now.

 

Thanks for all of your great music, John.

 

Sad to read this news. Man, so far 2006 has been one lousy year for good musicians shuffling off this mortal coil. May they all Rest in Peace.

 

Sorry to hear about his passing. I remember he was also a member of Nazareth in the late seventies / early eighties timeframe.

 

Aw, man...
I'm going to put on the MFSL Sardonicus and cry...

 

oh, my G*D...I have lost touch with John over the years but we were roomates for a time on the road....I can't believe this....This news makes me very epressed....does anyone have details as to how to get in touch with loved ones

 

Sad news indeed. I thought Spirit was one of the the 60s best bands.Never did get to see them though.
R.I.P. Mr.Locke

 

Yes this is sad - very sad. Spirit was simply one of the very best bands to come out of the sixties. I almost hate hearing the news these days, with the passing of Syd, Arthur, and now Locke - all of whom I hold in high esteem...
R.I.P.

 

I saw Spirit here in town in '72 circa `FEEDBACK' and it
was just Locke, Cassidy and *one* of the Staehely
brothers....a trio(!)....and it was one of the greatest
concerts I've ever seen. 'course, I was just a kid.

 

Oh man. Sad news. I always enjoyed John Locke's jazzy contributions to the Spirit albums - he had such a classy, tasteful style. And you could tell by what he played that he truly cared about music. Indeed, 2006 has witnessed such loss in the music world so far. I'm sorry I never got to hear him perform live, and I am grateful for the masters that I have been fortunate to see and hear. RIP John and thank you for all the beautiful vibrations!
-------- Chris

 

Being a huge fan of Spirit since I was a teen (looong ago), I am deeply saddened by this news. My best to his family and friends. Time to revisit my Spirit catalogue.

 

It is sad, was it out of nowhere or was he sick for a while. Spirit was a great band.

 

I don't remember ever seeing or hearing of a Spirit-type clone band

Just couldn't be done


Not even in Babylon

 

http://www.venturacountystar.com/vcs/obituaries/article/0,1375,VCS_227_4909994,00.html

Here is some additional news:

By John Mitchell, [email protected]
August 11, 2006

John Locke, a jazz/rock musician and songwriter who gained some notoriety with the group Spirit in the 1960s and 1970s, has died.

Locke died from complications caused by lymphoma. He was 62.




He died at the Oak View home of his friends Ricky and Cindy del Toro.

"He was here the last nine days of his life," said Ricky del Toro. "He had had the lymphoma 14 years ago and was given six months to a year to live then. He was divorced, but he had custody of his little boy and brought him to Oak View. The cancer went into remission and it didn't come back until late last year."

Ricky del Toro said his friend had been staying with his 92-year-old mother this summer.

"But she didn't have air conditioning and we had that terrible heat wave," he said. "He was frail and called me. My wife, Cindy, and I have air conditioning and we got him a bed and built him a hospital room in our house. And that's where he died at 8:30 in the morning on Aug. 4."

Fellow musician Jay Ferguson said he met Locke when both were students at UCLA.

"We were sitting on the lawn," said Ferguson, a resident of Montecito. "I was 19 and he was 25. In those days, UCLA was a hotbed of rockers. The Doors and other groups came out of there."

Ferguson said Locke had already established himself as a musician. He was a jazz club pianist and Ferguson was into the Beach Boys and the Beatles. Somebody thought they should get together.

"I remember John's great smile," Ferguson said. "He started calling me Fergy and, when he did, he smiled. I can still see that smile."

Spirit was formed in 1966. The original group was Randy California on guitar and vocals; Ferguson on vocals, percussion and tambourine; Mark Andes on bass; Ed Cassidy on drums; and Locke on keyboards.

"You can hear John shine in the first couple of albums. The entire center of the song ¿Fresh Garbage' was an excuse to let him take flight on the keyboard."

As time went by Spirit became tense.

"It was a tumultuous group," Ferguson said. "John truly was the balance in the band. He was the peacemaker, the one who found common ground."

According to the online source Wikipedia, the group's most popular single was "I Got a Line on You." Its best album was "Twelve Dreams of Dr. Sardonicus."

By 1971, the problems grew too big and the group began breaking up. Replacement musicians arrived. In 1975, Locke returned to help a promotional tour for the album "Son of Spirit."

"We all stayed in touch and reunited a couple of times," Ferguson said. "Everyone had long since outgrown the feuds and we enjoyed each other.

"The last time I saw John was in my studio," he said. "We played some of his recordings, which were jazz-fusion. They were excellent. They were classic John Locke, great technique, modern and very musical.

"An Englishman I knew characterized him as a most gracious man, and I believe that is a good term for him. He was very gracious."

Ricky del Toro said he and Locke became best buddies over the past seven to eight years.

"He enjoyed playing music at a small recording studio here," del Toro said. "He talked about his dreams of writing beautiful music and recording it. I had a passion for it, and he did, too."

Locke's father, Charles, was a classical violinist and his mother, Marty, sang opera and was a composer and arranger. She gave her son classical piano training.

"But he didn't go that way," del Toro said. "He wanted to do rock and roll and that's what he did."

Locke is survived by his mother, Marty, and by his son, Alex, 18.

A private memorial will be held later.

 

RIP, John Locke.

 

Always tasteful musician from one of my fave 60s bands.
R.I.P John

 

Hell, yes, you should. If you are not a total vinyl guy and TIME CIRCLE (1968-1972) is still in print, (Epic/Legacy E2K 47363) you have a convient place to start. It contains most of their first four albums and some GREAT bonus tracks. You can also hear where a certain British guitarist got the opening riff for some song about a stairway or something.

Those first four albums were also re-mastered. I hope they're still in print.

Yes, it is.

 

It seems that more of my heros leave us every day.

Can anyone ever fill the void?