SPIRIT with Randy California-the first four, album by album

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by lemonade kid, Apr 9, 2019.

  1. lemonade kid

    lemonade kid Forever Changing Thread Starter

    Victim Of Society is a fave from Spirit Of '76

    A wonderful video containing just about everything Randy & Cass recorded.
     
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  2. Luvtemps

    Luvtemps Forum Resident

    Location:
    P.G.County,Md.
    I had a Spirit lp and it wasn't bad,way back in the day-wish I still had it.
     
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  3. Sear

    Sear Dad rocker

    Location:
    Tarragona (Spain)
    My favourite is The family that plays together.
    Now Im listening the first album and it's fantastic too.
     
  4. Chemically altered

    Chemically altered Forum Resident

    Location:
    Ukraine in Spirit
    Yup, two great albums!
     
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  5. qm1ceveb

    qm1ceveb Forum fanatic

    Location:
    Fort lauderdale
    Spirit is a wonderful band and yes, these four records are sublime.
    My preferred is the second, one of the top 10 albums all-time. Anybody noticed that the original vinyl pressing misspelt *She smiled*? I am unsure if it was on the back cover or on the label.
     
  6. lemonade kid

    lemonade kid Forever Changing Thread Starter

    Hmmmm..no. Never noticed. I better check. So instead of "She Smiles" is says "She Smiled"?
     
  7. FillmoreGuy

    FillmoreGuy Forum Resident

    Location:
    springfield nj
    Any hope that Clear & 12 Dreams will be released on SACD? I thought they were mastered for release but AF folded before they could be put out.
     
  8. qm1ceveb

    qm1ceveb Forum fanatic

    Location:
    Fort lauderdale
    Yes.
     
  9. Manapua

    Manapua Forum Resident

    Location:
    Honolulu
    I thought Clear was issued but went OOP? Could have sworn I saw it on Amazon for a time.
     
  10. lemonade kid

    lemonade kid Forever Changing Thread Starter

    My understanding is that Steve remastered them all, but AF went under after just the first two were released, leaving Clear and 12 Dreams lost in limbo...forever?
     
  11. pbuzby

    pbuzby Senior Member

    Location:
    Chicago, IL, US
    Yes, on my copy it's correct on the label but misspelled on the back cover.
     
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  12. Manapua

    Manapua Forum Resident

    Location:
    Honolulu
    I guess I would've known that if I'd bothered to check the comment section. Someone took them to task about putting it for sale when it didn't even exist.
     
  13. lemonade kid

    lemonade kid Forever Changing Thread Starter

    I have two vinyl originals, and yes, both have "She Smiled" on the back cover, with "She Smiles" on the record label.

    Funny that I've had this LP since it was released in 1969 and never noticed!

    :tiphat:

    Love the song, a lot!

    She Smiles


     
  14. Sear

    Sear Dad rocker

    Location:
    Tarragona (Spain)
    Are later albums as good as the first four?
     
  15. qm1ceveb

    qm1ceveb Forum fanatic

    Location:
    Fort lauderdale
    They are not, Jay is essentially absent and times changed. I like some of Feedback.
     
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  16. cdb3

    cdb3 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Milton Keynes, UK
    I have only just caught up with this thread and am very pleased to be reading it - just got to The Family.... Spirit were not well served by their UK record company. The first album I heard was Clear, which was on sale in Smiths - English readers of a certain age will remember the lottery that was the Smiths record department. I thought it was wonderful and strange, but it took me years searching in record stores to find a second-hand copy of the first album. Now, here I see something entirely new - the Family album was a gatefold! Not in Europe at all according to Discogs. And my copy, which is a US reissue is a single sleeve.

    So, I see that the Music on Vinyl reissue is a gatefold - has anyone got it and care to comment on the SQ?
     
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  17. Hootsmon

    Hootsmon Forum Resident

    Location:
    clackmannanshire
    The first four are the cream of the crop. Spirit of '76 is a really good album once you get into it but it's a different band, in truth a Randy California solo album with Ed on the drums.
     
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  18. Sear

    Sear Dad rocker

    Location:
    Tarragona (Spain)
    I have listened Spirit of 76. Not good enough IMHO
     
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  19. Siegmund

    Siegmund Vinyl Sceptic

    Location:
    Britain, Europe
    Randy could have been Danny Kirwan to Jimi’s Peter Green!

    Probably best that he didn’t, perhaps, in view of what happend to the above.
     
    lemonade kid likes this.
  20. pbuzby

    pbuzby Senior Member

    Location:
    Chicago, IL, US
    Feedback has some of the same sound of Sardonicus (with Locke, Cassidy and producer David Briggs returning) but Al Staehely's songwriting takes most of the album in quite a different direction.

    After that, as others have mentioned the albums are basically all Randy with little or no input from the other originals other than Ed Cassidy.
     
  21. Chris Schoen

    Chris Schoen Rock 'n Roll !!!

    Location:
    Maryland, U.S.A.
    Funny I just noticed this thread, I was going through the excellent "It Shall Be" set this weekend. "Twelve Dreams" is better than Sgt. Pepper (imo).
     
  22. Chris Schoen

    Chris Schoen Rock 'n Roll !!!

    Location:
    Maryland, U.S.A.
    How does "Son Of Spirit" rate? (I have a vinyl copy somewhere...)
     
    lemonade kid likes this.
  23. lemonade kid

    lemonade kid Forever Changing Thread Starter

    This should answer yuour question...well worth pulling out.

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    AllMusic Review by Joe Viglione

    After the high experimentation of 1975's double LP Spirit of '76 comes a single album from that same year, and, next to 1990's Tent of Miracles, it is the most focused of the Spirit trio albums as led by Randy California. Barry Keene is again the bassist prior to Mark Andes coming to the party for the Farther Along semi-reunion in 1976.

    All of side one works extremely well, from "Holy Man" to "Family" and everything in between. The tunes have more pop substance than some of California's other wandering minstrel etchings, and the band sounds more full than the three-piece unit that they declare on the album jacket. Rather than re-create more songs that Jimi Hendrix covered, which was becoming a trend on Spirit outings, California and company do a mesmerizing version of the Beatles' "Yesterday" that clocks in at one minute, 58 seconds. "Magic Fairy Princess" is a good title to lead off side two, as it is a very magical side.

    California's production work is top notch, sounding not unlike John Lennon's "Mind Games," with much high end on the drums and all sorts of density to the mix. As Spirit of '76 is one of this pared-down band's most satisfying gambles, Son of Spirit brings it together -- it's the kind of chapter to the story that Ian Anderson would develop for Jethro Tull, very musical, and shying from the commercial side of things.

    Definitely for the fans, and for those hardcore Spirit fans who are out there, the acoustics and precise vocals are a treat. "Circle" is a superb work of art and a beautiful statement. As Tent of Miracles combines the old format of the original group within the three-piece ensemble, Son of Spirit is very much like a successful spinoff à la Jo Jo Gunne or Firefall. Had they gone out on the road booked as Son of Spirit, it may have opened doors closed by the perception of the group being on the oldies/classic rock circuit. This album is refreshingly new, exciting, and a direction that deserved far more attention than it received.
     
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  24. lemonade kid

    lemonade kid Forever Changing Thread Starter

    This is definitely worth checking out...

    Spirit Salvation...The Spirit of '74
    Various live sets and sessions recorded a couple years before Spirit of '76 that never made it to vinyl.

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    Plain and Fancy: Spirit - Salvation... The Spirit Of '74 (1974-75 us stunning hard psych, 2007 release)

    Any acquisition of live recordings from the late 'sixties and/or early 'seventies is fraught with danger as you never really know what the quality is going to be like. But as it turned out, there was no need for me to be apprehensive about this collection. The two live CD's offer excellent sound which is quite acceptable played in the car. Sometimes with these type of "newly discovered" tapes the only way you can listen is on a good domestic sound system cranked up to 11, close your eyes and pretend you were there. In fact I certainly wish I had been at Ebbetts Field Denver or the Agora Ballroom in Cleveland when these gigs happened in '74 & '75.

    Spirit were down to a trio by this time but that trio did consist of three original members - Mark Andes, Ed Cassidy and of course Randy California. These three guys go back a ways and they know intuitively what each other is going to do. The playing is quite simply sublime with a plenty of invention from all three. Andes and Cassidy do a lot more than just keep the beat behind Randy's solos and special effects. The spirit of the west coast circa '67 is very much in evidence in the feel of the music, and yes they do play a lovely version of "Fresh Garbage" from that classic first album. This one clocks in at just over 4 minutes - longer than the original studio version but well short of the extended rendition on "Live from the Time Coast" - still great though. However, if its improvisation you're looking for we are treated to 9 minutes of "Like a Rolling Stone" and over 13 minutes of "All Along the Watchtower". There are also some fine Randy California originals I'd never heard before and a few covers - "Satisfaction", "Happy" and "On the Road Again" - I'd never heard them play either. The way they do the intro to Canned Heat's "On the Road Again" you'd swear they were going to break into the Norman Greenbaum number 1 hit "Spirit in the Sky". They'd probably have done a killer version of that as well come to think of it.

    The third CD is all studio material and in effect fills in a gap of several years during which we had no official releases from Randy California prior to "Spirit of '76". We are treated to all of 25 tracks on this CD and most of them are simply beautiful regardless of whether they're uptempo or more laid back. Randy California was going through a distinctly spiritual phase and that is reflected in the music and lyrics. Several tracks are predominately acoustic but there is tasteful and creative use of special effects and a couple of whimsical dialogues featuring a conversation with a "visitor" from the planet Neptune, and an interview with a bogus Indian guru which segues into one of the best cuts on the CD entitled "Holy Man".

    Some Spirit purists may argue that Randy's vocals aren't up to Jay Ferguson's standard, or that they miss John Locke's keyboards. That may be true, but their absence certainly does allow for more of California's wondrous guitar work (both electric and acoustic) so that's okay by me. In fact if you play this and then slip on an album by Jo Jo Gunne it will be all too clear why Ferguson and California were no longer interested in working together on a permanent basis. To be honest I'd happily take the Spirit trio's amazing reworking of Dylan's "Positively 4th Street" in exchange for Jay Ferguson's entire post Spirit output - but that's just me.

    If I have a criticism it might be that there are two or three acoustic numbers after track 21 which sound a bit muddy and distinctly unfinished, and that's why I'm knocking off a star. A couple of those could perhaps have been omitted but I guess Randy California completists wouldn't want to be deprived of even these slightly substandard offerings.

    Anyone who ever enjoyed anything by Spirit in any of their incarnations will love this 3CD set, and it's very reasonably priced right now so a good opportunity to grab a bargain. Also any younger students of psychedelic guitar who don't know about one of the genre's unsung heroes really need to hear Randy California in his prime. When the music magazines compile those lists of "top 50 guitarists of all time" he rarely figures, yet he should be permanently in the top 3 at the very least.
    by Michael Pearson-Smith Melbourne,Australia

    As of 2007, ten years had passed since the accidental death of singer/songwriter and guitarist Randy California, the primary musician in Spirit. California left behind an extensive, if disorganized, cache of unreleased live and studio recordings that producer Mick Skidmore has been working through ever since, emerging periodically with albums of previously unheard material. Salvation...The Spirit of '74 is a three-CD set that, as Skidmore notes in his annotations, helps to fill in a gap in the band's history. The original quintet of California, drummer Ed Cassidy, bassist Mark Andes, keyboardist John Locke, and singer/songwriter Jay Ferguson splintered in the early '70s, after which various configurations, including one that featured none of them, toured the country.

    California, who had left the group for a solo career, rejoined Cassidy for a European tour in 1973, then left again. In 1974, the two reconnected and again performed as Spirit, sometimes adding Andes and occasionally Locke. In May 1975, a trio of California, Cassidy, and bassist Barry Keene finally released a new Spirit album, Spirit of '76. Salvation...The Spirit of '74 chronicles the band's live and studio work during a period of about a year, from the summer of 1974 to the summer of 1975, including preliminary work on a never-completed album intended to be called Spirit of Salvation.

    On the first two discs, drawn from live performances given in October and November 1974 (with Andes) and in June 1975 (with Keene), Spirit play some of their familiar songs ("Fresh Garbage," "Mr. Skin," "It's All the Same," "I Got a Line on You") along with covers that emphasize California's debt to his mentor, Jimi Hendrix ("Like a Rolling Stone," "All Along the Watchtower," "Hey Joe"); some songs California probably picked up while hanging around the Ash Grove folk club in Los Angeles as a child ("Old Blue," "Run Sinner Run," "Cripple Creek"); some one-off oddities (seemingly impromptu readings of the Rolling Stones hits "[I Can't Get No] Satisfaction" and "Happy," a version of Canned Heat's "On the Road Again" that apparently was a nod to Andes' brief tenure in that group); and some of the new songs California was writing at the time. More of those new songs, along with novelties and more covers, are included on the third disc, which consists of studio recordings.

    That all adds up to 56 tracks running more than three and a half hours. It doesn't entirely fill in the gap between the releases of California's solo album Kapt. Kopter & the (Fabulous) Twirly Birds in the fall of 1972 and Spirit of '76 two and a half years later, but California spent much of that period musically inactive or working on the subsequently released Potatoland album, and his return to Spirit, the band he would lead for much of the next two decades, is now well documented here. As Skidmore notes, this is an album for loyal, even die-hard Spirit fans, but it contains enough strong performances to make the case for California and his bandmates as what an MC calls them at the outset: "one the greatest names in the history of rock & roll."
    by William Ruhlmann



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    Disc 1

    1. Veruska (Ed Cassidy, Mark Andes, Randy California) - 5:34
    2. Storm In The Night (Randy California) - 4:48
    3. Like A Rolling Stone (Bob Dylan) - 9:01
    4. I've Got To Use My Imagination (Barry Goldberg, Gerry Goffin) - 3:57
    5. Fresh Garbage (Jay Ferguson) - 4:01
    6. Devil (Randy California) - 2:50
    7. Kristee (Ed Cassidy, Mark Andes, Randy California) - 2:30
    8. My Road (Randy California) - 1:46
    9. Old Blue (Traditional) - 3:31
    10.Joker On The Run (Randy California) - 3:38
    11.So Little Time To Fly (Randy California) - 2:26
    12.All Along The Watchtower (Bob Dylan) - 13:46
    13.I Can't Get No (Satisfaction) (Mick Jagger, Keith Richards) - 4:14
    14.Same Old Thing, Urantia (Randy California) - 5:16
    15.Downer (Randy California) - 3:14
    Tracks 1, 8, 12, 13, 14 Ebbetts Field, Denver, Colorado 10/30/74
    Tracks 3, 5 Agora Ballroom, Cleveland 6/30/75
    Tracks 6, 7, 11 Ebbetts Field, Denver, Colorado 10/31/74
    Tracks 9, 10 Armadillo World Headquarters, Austin, Texas 6/19/75

    Disc 2
    1. Hey Joe (Billy Roberts) - 7:37
    2. Guide Me (Randy California) - 3:28
    3. Electro Jam - Mr. Skin.7:38
    3a.Electro Jam (Ed Cassidy, Randy California) - 4:10
    3b.Mr. Skin (Jay Ferguson) - ) - 3:28
    4. Run Sinner Run (Mance Lipscomb) - 4:43
    5. Sunrise (Ed Cassidy, Randy California) - 3:01
    6. Cripple Creek (Traditional) - 0:56
    7. It's All The Same (Ed Cassidy, Randy California) - 5:34
    8. I Got A Line On You (Randy California) - 3:09
    9. Ebbetts Crowd (Applause) (Randy California) - 2:29
    10.Doin' Fine (Randy California) - 2:19
    11.Veruska (Ed Cassidy, Mark Andes, Randy California) - 4:45
    12.Victim Of Society (Randy California) - 4:54
    13.On The Road Again (Alan Wilson) - 4:46
    14.Happy (Mick Jagger, Keith Richards) - 5:33
    15.Goin' Down (Don Nix) - 4:46
    16.All Along The Watchtower (Short Version) (Bob Dylan) - 5:27
    Tracks 1, 2, 12, 13, 14 Agora Ballroom, Cleveland 11/18/74
    Track 3 Agora Ballroom, Cleveland 6/30/75
    Tracks 4, 5, 6 Ebbetts Field, Denver, Colorado 10/30/74
    Tracks 7, 8, 9, 10, 11,16 Ebbetts Field, Denver, Colorado 10/31/74
    Track 15 Armadillo World Headquarters, Austin, Texas 6/19/75

    Disc 3 Unreleased Studio Material
    1. Sunrise (Ed Cassidy, Randy California) - 6:45
    2. Kathy (Randy California) - 2:17
    3. I've Got To Use My Imagination (Barry Goldberg, Gerry Goffin) - 3:13
    4. Looking Into Darkness (Ed Cassidy, Randy California) - 2:54
    5. Neptune Caper (Ed Cassidy, Randy California) - 2:57
    6. Positively 4th Street (Bob Dylan) - 3:46
    7. Jimmy Brown (Traditional) - 1:36
    8. Wake Up America (Randy California) - 3:00
    9. Family (Randy California) - 3:10
    10.Magic Fairy Princess (Randy California) - 3:17
    11.Cass Drums (Ed Cassidy, Randy California) - 1:50
    12.Salvation (Randy California) - 1:21
    13.The Maharaji Speaks (Dialouge) (Randy California) - 1:19
    14.Holy Man (Randy California) - 2:55
    15.Maybe You'll Find (Randy California) - 2:57
    16.Future In My Hands (Randy California) - 3:05
    17.You're So Beautiful (Going Away) (Randy California) - 3:01
    18.Circle (Randy California) - 3:13
    19.It's Time Now (Randy California) - 4:45
    20.So Happy Now (Randy California) - 1:20
    21.Miss Lani (Randy California) - 2:31
    22.Sparkling Sands (Randy California) - 2:48
    23.High With You (Lani Pidot, Randy California) - 2:19
    24.Seven Fires (Randy California) - 2:26
    25.Bad Luck And Troube (The Stars Are Love) (Randy California) - 3:17

    The Spirit
    *Randy California - Guitar, Vocals, Bass , Harmonica, Keyboards
    *Ed Cassidy - Percussion , Drums,
    *Mark Andes - Bass

    *John Locke - Keyboards
    *Barry Keene - Bass, Vocals
     
    Last edited: Mar 3, 2020
    E_Braunn_Fan, iggyd and Hootsmon like this.
  25. lemonade kid

    lemonade kid Forever Changing Thread Starter

    The first four are must-haves for Spirit lovers...cheers to you, Sear!
     
    Sear likes this.

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