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SteveG 
Forum Senior Member 
Joined: April 11 2014 Location: Kyiv In Spirit Status: Offline Points: 20616 |
 Topic: Spirit: SpiritPosted: February 24 2015 at 09:25 |
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Spirt's s/t debut still knocks me off my feet. There's nothing particularly inventive on this album but it still sounds so fresh to as the day I first purchased it. How do you feel about Spirit's s/t debut?
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HolyMoly
Special Collaborator 
Retired Admin Joined: April 01 2009 Location: Atlanta Status: Offline Points: 26138 |
Posted: February 24 2015 at 13:18 |
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Darn it, I like this album a lot. I wrote a fairly decent review of it, and can't think of anything to add to that right now.
http://www.progarchives.com/Review.asp?id=985637 |
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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. -Kehlog Albran |
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hellogoodbye
Forum Senior Member
VIP member Joined: August 29 2011 Location: Troy Status: Offline Points: 7251 |
Posted: February 24 2015 at 13:25 |
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An excellent album. Great beginning and great end. Some weaker songs in the middle.
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Toaster Mantis
Forum Senior Member
Joined: April 12 2008 Location: Denmark Status: Offline Points: 5898 |
Posted: February 25 2015 at 11:25 |
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I've never actually listened to this band, but I've always imagined them as rather heavy for their time on account of them supposedly being an influence on Deep Purple. Didn't DP actually get hit by a plagiarism lawsuit from the Spirit members at some point?
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"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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dr wu23
Forum Senior Member
Joined: August 22 2010 Location: Indiana Status: Offline Points: 20631 |
Posted: February 25 2015 at 11:30 |
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A very good album.....and a band that never received enough acclaim imho...to this day the songs Fresh Garbage and Mechanical World still blow me away for their originality and style. Kind of a darker version of Love or at least a more rocking version....? Dunno... but Spirit and Love both felt like they had something unique going on.
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One does nothing yet nothing is left undone.
Haquin |
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HolyMoly
Special Collaborator
Retired Admin Joined: April 01 2009 Location: Atlanta Status: Offline Points: 26138 |
Posted: February 25 2015 at 11:30 |
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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. -Kehlog Albran |
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Toaster Mantis
Forum Senior Member
Joined: April 12 2008 Location: Denmark Status: Offline Points: 5898 |
Posted: February 25 2015 at 11:31 |
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Okay, so I got DP and LZ confused with each other... a sign it's a really long time ago I listened to either!
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"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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earlyprog
Collaborator 
Neo / PSIKE / Heavy Teams Joined: March 05 2006 Location: . Status: Offline Points: 2134 |
Posted: March 06 2015 at 11:45 |
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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.
Edited by earlyprog - March 06 2015 at 12:03 |
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SteveG
Forum Senior Member
Joined: April 11 2014 Location: Kyiv In Spirit Status: Offline Points: 20616 |
Posted: March 06 2015 at 13:37 |
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^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, Mechanical World 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 Bitches Brew by Miles Davis, we're talking about. 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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This message was brought to you by a proud supporter of the Deep State.
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aapatsos
Special Collaborator
Honorary Collaborator Joined: November 11 2005 Location: Manchester, UK Status: Offline Points: 9226 |
Posted: March 06 2015 at 14:53 |
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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
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SteveG
Forum Senior Member
Joined: April 11 2014 Location: Kyiv In Spirit Status: Offline Points: 20616 |
Posted: March 06 2015 at 14:57 |
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^Agreed, perhaps it's just a matter of one's perception. Just like everything else in life.
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This message was brought to you by a proud supporter of the Deep State.
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HolyMoly
Special Collaborator
Retired Admin Joined: April 01 2009 Location: Atlanta Status: Offline Points: 26138 |
Posted: March 06 2015 at 15:05 |
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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.
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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. -Kehlog Albran |
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SteveG
Forum Senior Member
Joined: April 11 2014 Location: Kyiv In Spirit Status: Offline Points: 20616 |
Posted: March 06 2015 at 15:09 |
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^Wow, your old man was cool! My father used to play me Italian opera records!
I think that's why I was never that impressed by Queen. They just sounded too familiar to me!
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earlyprog
Collaborator
Neo / PSIKE / Heavy Teams Joined: March 05 2006 Location: . Status: Offline Points: 2134 |
Posted: March 07 2015 at 08:38 |
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.
Edited by earlyprog - March 07 2015 at 08:44 |
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SteveG
Forum Senior Member
Joined: April 11 2014 Location: Kyiv In Spirit Status: Offline Points: 20616 |
Posted: March 07 2015 at 09:04 |
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^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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This message was brought to you by a proud supporter of the Deep State.
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dr wu23
Forum Senior Member
Joined: August 22 2010 Location: Indiana Status: Offline Points: 20631 |
Posted: March 08 2015 at 13:33 |
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Shows how talented these guys were.......
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One does nothing yet nothing is left undone.
Haquin |
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dr wu23
Forum Senior Member
Joined: August 22 2010 Location: Indiana Status: Offline Points: 20631 |
Posted: March 08 2015 at 13:48 |
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Added as an extra track on Clear...their 3rd album....great live performance....
 Edited by dr wu23 - March 08 2015 at 13:50 |
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One does nothing yet nothing is left undone.
Haquin |
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HolyMoly
Special Collaborator
Retired Admin Joined: April 01 2009 Location: Atlanta Status: Offline Points: 26138 |
Posted: March 08 2015 at 14:05 |
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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. -Kehlog Albran |
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Intruder
Forum Senior Member
Joined: May 13 2005 Status: Offline Points: 2206 |
Posted: July 24 2015 at 21:05 |
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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.
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I like to feel the suspense when you're certain you know I am there.....
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AreYouHuman
Forum Senior Member
Joined: April 12 2013 Location: Michigan Status: Offline Points: 470 |
Posted: June 25 2016 at 18:34 |
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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. |
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Caption: We tend to take ourselves a little too seriously.
Silly human race! Yes is for everybody! |
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Spirit: Spirit
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Toaster Mantis wrote: