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Joined: June 20 2014
Location: MN
Status: Offline
Points: 318
Topic: Spirit: Spirit Posted: August 30 2016 at 20:00
I adore early Spirit. Their first four LPs are all must haves. Anyways, Twelve Dreams of Dr. Sardonicus used to be my favorite but now their 1st first LP is my fav. My two personal fav. tracks are Fresh Garbage and Elijah. Also, does anyone else get Fresh Garbage vibes when they listen to Poor Richard from their 2nd LP?
Absolutely an American band.....you can almost see the blonde California girls and smell the Mexican ditch weed that followed that whole 60s LA scene wherever it went. They had a unique sound - that jazzy rhythm section with Randy's playing all over, under and in between (he was Hendrix-like minus the histrionics and more serving the song), but they're so southern California.....crisp waves, a cool buzz and the first Spirit album. Man, would've loved to been hanging around Venice about that time.....Spirit, Love, the Byrds, Zappa's Mothers, Capt Beefheart, Tim Buckley, Neil Young and CSN, the Doors, the Beach Boys.....and that sunny California sun before it got all exploited, overdeveloped and expensive.
I like to feel the suspense when you're certain you know I am there.....
Joined: April 15 2014
Location: St.Petersburg
Status: Offline
Points: 173
Posted: August 01 2016 at 12:58
It's shame but I just listened the first Spirit album for a first time. Great feelings! This is a wonderful album. It's hard to believe that it was recorded in 1967 and that Spirit is American band - some things sounds so British.
Joined: August 22 2010
Location: Indiana
Status: Offline
Points: 20631
Posted: June 26 2016 at 13:49
I still play Spirit on a fairly regular basis (12 Dreams is one of my favorite albums.... period)........I've always liked the west coast bands from that time period including The Doors, Jefferson Airplane, Quicksilver, and Love who are usually overlooked.
One does nothing yet nothing is left undone. Haquin
Joined: September 26 2010
Location: USA
Status: Offline
Points: 1281
Posted: June 25 2016 at 20:54
Maybe next Record Store Day, they can release a "Taurus" single (maybe back it with the outtake "Veruska").
On a related note, they had my curiosity with the "Taurus" fiasco, but the song that got my attention was "Uncle Jack". The opening drum part, ooh boy.
Edited by KingCrInuYasha - June 25 2016 at 20:56
He looks at this world and wants it all... so he strikes, like Thunderball!
Joined: April 12 2013
Location: Michigan
Status: Offline
Points: 470
Posted: June 25 2016 at 18:34
A band and an album that always
deserved greater recognition.And recently
one that’s been in the news with the lawsuit filed by Randy California’s estate
alleging that Led Zeppelin had ripped off their song Taurus in the opening of
Stairway to Heaven.I’d say I’m at least
as much a fan of Spirit as I am of Zep, but personally I’m glad they ruled in
Zep’s favor.Much as I love Spirit and
that particular song, they couldn’t have invented that chord sequence. It has gotten a lot of mileage, e.g. in Summer
Rain by Johnny Rivers.
Hopefully there’ll be enough people
made curious by all this publicity to regenerate interest in this album.
Caption: We tend to take ourselves a little too seriously.
Excellent debut.....maybe their most diverse album. Spirit doesn't get the ink but they were at the forefront of THE most exciting era of rock - '66-'73.
I like to feel the suspense when you're certain you know I am there.....
Joined: April 01 2009
Location: Atlanta
Status: Offline
Points: 26138
Posted: March 08 2015 at 14:05
SteveG wrote:
^Good points Dan. It seems that Spirit were not at the right place at the right time. Perhaps if it was released 6 months earlier, the s/t debut would have been one of the sixties mega hits.
it also so happens that Spirit were invited to play at Woodstock, and turned it down. That would most certainly have raised their profile. They regretted their decision afterwards.
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It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle if it is lightly greased.
Joined: April 11 2014
Location: Kyiv In Spirit
Status: Offline
Points: 20616
Posted: March 07 2015 at 09:04
^Good points Dan. It seems that Spirit were not at the right place at the right time. Perhaps if it was released 6 months earlier, the s/t debut would have been one of the sixties mega hits.
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Joined: March 05 2006
Location: .
Status: Offline
Points: 2134
Posted: March 07 2015 at 08:38
SteveG wrote:
^The reason why I said that the material on Spirit was not inventive as the change in rock music from 1967 over to 1968 was extremely rapid and marked. By the time of Spirit's s/t debut, many of the album's songs showed musical motifs and styles of sound that had already become dated.
Agreed.
Music was developing at a quick pace in that period and Spirit was not the only band unfortunate to have an album released a few months too late to receive the recognition they perhaps deserved though in retrospect I think s/t has received that recognition. In order to properly analyze the novelty and inventive step of the music - especially from this period -, the time of recording rather than the time of release/'publication' is important. Publicly, new releases will be compared to the prior art of the music at the time of release not at the time of recording so their s/t may have been judged unfavorably (at least in Europe). With proper timing of the release of s/t,Spirit could very well have claimed to be the inventor of some of prog's ingredients.
Joined: April 01 2009
Location: Atlanta
Status: Offline
Points: 26138
Posted: March 06 2015 at 15:05
My dad first played it for me when I was a teenager. He thought I would appreciate the humor of "Fresh Garbage" ans "Straight Arrow", and he was right.
My other avatar is a Porsche
It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle if it is lightly greased.
Joined: November 11 2005
Location: Manchester, UK
Status: Offline
Points: 9226
Posted: March 06 2015 at 14:53
Mixed feelings - I rated it quite poorly in my review but can see some excellent and innovative moments in there. I can see why it can be rated low by some and high by others at the same time
Joined: April 11 2014
Location: Kyiv In Spirit
Status: Offline
Points: 20616
Posted: March 06 2015 at 13:37
^The reason why I said that the material on Spirit was not inventive as the change in rock music from 1967 over to 1968 was extremely rapid and marked. By the time of Spirit's s/t debut, many of the album's songs showed musical motifs and styles of sound that had already become dated.
For a quick example, MechanicalWorld had a very strong blues-like Doors vibe, Girl In your Eye had faux sitar tones, and the album closer Elijah was a jazzy jam. How new and innovative is rock jam with jazz accents. This was not BitchesBrew by MilesDavis, we'retalkingabout.
Please reconsider my statement that there was nothing really innovative going on here, no matter how fresh sounding the record is. And I left out the folkish songs!
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Joined: March 05 2006
Location: .
Status: Offline
Points: 2134
Posted: March 06 2015 at 11:45
This album contains songs that range from poor to excellent quality, the former being sandwiched between the latter.
The former (non-prog) category has the particularly annoying UK psychesque Uncle Jack, Girl in your Eye, and Topanga Windows which reveal the album was (composed and) recorded around the time that UK psyche initiated publicly (in recording) in '67. At the time of the release in January '68 these excursions were already getting dated (thank god!).
(We recall that at the time of recording, the debuts of Captain Beefheart, Iron Butterfly, The Nice, The United State OF America, Traffic and Fifty Foot Hose (and an abundant of other great proto-prog)as well as The Zombies' sophomore Odessey And Oracle were also being recorded. Simply one of the greatest periods in music history. In passing we also note that Veruska predates most of the earliest proto-prog.)
In the same category, Straight Arrow and Gramophone Man are added some jazz touches that help raise them above the mediocre. The folkish Water Woman? what can be said about this which is not going to sound as an offence.
The rest of the album, at least Fresh-Garbage, Mechanical World, Taurus, Elijah, Veruska, Free Spirit represent some of the best, perhaps even innovative (contrary to Steve's opinion), of '67. Speaking of innovation, Elijah is one of the first studio offerings almost reaching the 10 minute mark.
A highlight of '67 and a quintessential proto-prog album.
Joined: April 12 2008
Location: Denmark
Status: Offline
Points: 5898
Posted: February 25 2015 at 11:31
Okay, so I got DP and LZ confused with each other... a sign it's a really long time ago I listened to either!
"The past is not some static being, it is not a previous present, nor a present that has passed away; the past has its own dynamic being which is constantly renewed and renewing." - Claire Colebrook
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Spirit: Spirit
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SteveG wrote:
