Spirit!!!!!

The first time I heard Spirit was on Classic Rock Radio. I did not know what to think, but I loved it and wanted to hear it again. It's mix of Psychedelic Rock and Jazz was a completely different way of what music was supposed to be in the late 1960's. The guitar playing was out of this world and the keyboard playing was really great as well. I had to get my hands on some. I looked everywhere for this stuff. I got lucky rather quickly. My co-worker was cleaning out her house and had a bunch of records she did not want. In the collection was the first Deep Purple, a Moody Blues record, and a Spirit record. I had no idea what this was. I looked at and saw the song I heard was not on it, but for the hell of it I would give it a listen. I grabbed the headsets and went to the turntable and gave it a listen. The cover art was interesting with all the band members creating one face. I put it on and was immediately blow away but what I heard. This too was something I could go find at a record store and buy.

I grabbed my 1960's music book and looked them up. They too agreed on what I heard. They said that this music was coming out of no where and should be listened with the greatest of attention. They talked about how it was Randy California that got Hendrix to play guitar. A bold statement, but true. The book gave two must listens. The one I had in my possession at the time and an album called Twelve Dreams of Dr. Sardonicus. Both albums are really top notch stuff. Even finding more information about them later on proved how great they really were. In the book The Ambient Century by Mark Perendergast the mention of Spirit is clear; "The music of Spirit stood the test of time to be reappraised in the 1990's as 'Classic'." "They even blueprinted the chord sequence for one the most successful songs of all time 'Stairway to Heaven'." It continues to tell the same feeling I get when I listen to them. The great sonic sounds, the twists and turns and sound explosions are great.



Spirit's debut unveiled a band that seemed determine to out-eclecticize everybody else on the California psychedelic scene, with its melange of rock, jazz, blues, folk-rock, and even a bit of classical and Indian music.(AM) If you listen closely to their music their hooks are amazing every album has a great song that will just get you to realize that you might have missed something in picking up your classic rock of The Who, Hendrix, Jefferson Airplane and others. I used to listen to think that the music such as this was not my thing, but looking back it really was. It made me broaden my musical spectrum.

Now the problem was took tell what album to get. The first four is a great place to start. Actually, its the only place to go. If you are going to start somewhere, then start where I started. I think the first album is a wonderful masterpiece. Each song has it's only feel and more then likely only Spirit could probably do it too. They made with every song they did. Even when they had Led Zeppelin open for the here in the states, you could see the effects that they had. Led Zeppelin took the musical openings of a simple song like "Taurus" and integrated it into "Stairway to Heaven." I mean if that is not giving some kind of credit then I really don't know what is. A song like "Uncle Jack" is even more classic and gets close to genius.



Well this is another must own for the collection. I used to ruin peoples lives with this stuff, because this is the stuff that should have been talked about in the world of classic rock. Spirit is something that might take a while to grow on you, but it's music is something that is still talked about today. I have friends who tell me all the time that if they could relive the sixties they would make sure they saw Spirit. Have loads of fun with this one and make sure to pass it on to your friends. Enjoy!