Spirit – Twelve Dreams Of Dr. Sardonicus [Gatefold] - New LP

While I'm sure many others feel the opposite, I've always enjoyed 1960s LA more than SF, with the Seeds, Standells, Leaves, Electric Prunes, Beefheart, Monkees, Byrds, Love... (of course there are exceptions, like Blue Cheer sounds more like LA to me, even though I think they were from SF), and while I always assumed Spirit was a SF band (they seem so stoned!) but it should come as no surprise that they are actually an LA band as I've always placed them a few notches above some of the most well-known bands from SF in the 1960s, especially when I listen to this standout fourth album.  While you have to admire them for the diversity of sounds on this album, this diversity likely prevented them from finding widespread commercial success, even though along with sounds that sort of bridge acid rock to head rock (while doing their own thing), this houses many cuts perfect to blast on the radio airwaves. The band would splinter after this album, but even with just this album (and Randy California's great 1972 LP!), they earned their place in the books.  Click off the lights, light up and crank it. -- winch

 

Spirit Biography by William Ruhlmann: Spirit was a highly regarded rock band that achieved modest commercial success, charting 11 albums in the U.S. between 1968 and 1977. Founded in Los Angeles in 1967 by musicians who had a mixture of rock, pop, folk, blues, classical, and jazz backgrounds, and who ranged in age from 16 to 44, the group had an eclectic musical style in keeping with the early days of progressive rock; they were as likely to play a folk ballad featuring fingerpicked acoustic guitar, a jazz instrumental full of imaginative improvisation, or a driving rhythm tune dominated by acid rock electric guitar playing. The diverse tastes of the original quintet produced a hybrid style that delighted a core audience of fans but proved too wide-ranging to attract a mass following, and at the same time the musicians' acknowledged talents brought them other opportunities that led to the breakup of the original lineup after four years and four albums, then kept them from committing fully to regroupings as their music began to be recognized in later years. While two bandmembers, singer/guitarist Randy California and drummer Ed Cassidy, maintained the Spirit name, the others came and went as their schedules allowed, such that the group never fulfilled its early promise, although, as a vehicle for California's songwriting and guitar playing, it continued to produce worthwhile music until his death. Randy California was born Randolph Craig Wolfe on February 20, 1951, in Los Angeles, California. His mother, Bernice Pearl, was the sister of Ed Pearl, who owned the Ash Grove, a nightclub in Hollywood, and California, who began playing guitar as a child, grew up listening carefully to the folk, blues, and jazz musicians who performed there. In early 1965, the Rising Sons, a folk-blues group featuring Taj Mahal and Ry Cooder, played the Ash Grove; the band's drummer was Ed Cassidy (born May 4, 1923, in Chicago, Illinois; died December 6, 2012, in San Jose, California), who met and married California's recently divorced mother, becoming his stepfather. Cassidy had been drumming professionally since his teens in almost every conceivable style, though lately largely in jazz groups before he joined the Rising Sons. He left the band after injuring his wrist during a solo. Meanwhile, California had met two aspiring musicians from the San Fernando Valley, singer/percussionist Jay Ferguson (born John Arden Ferguson, February 5, 1947, in Burbank, California) and bassist Mark Andes (born February 19, 1948, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) at a folk music camp, and in September 1965, along with Cassidy and a second guitarist, they formed a band called the Red Roosters that played the Ash Grove. The Red Roosters broke up when Cassidy moved his family to New York in search of work in the spring of 1966. There California had a fateful encounter with another guitarist at a music store in Manhattan; he met the then-unknown Jimi Hendrix, who was going by the name Jimmy James, and who invited him to join his band, Jimmy James & the Blue Flames, which was appearing at the Café Wha? in Greenwich Village. Since there was already a musician named Randy in the band, bass player Randy Palmer, Hendrix distinguished the two by their home states, calling Palmer "Randy Texas" and Randy Wolfe "Randy California," which he subsequently retained as a stage name. California played with Hendrix that summer, which was when Hendrix was spotted by Animals bassist Chas Chandler, who became his manager and took him to England to form the Jimi Hendrix Experience. Hendrix asked California to go to England with him, but at 15 he was too young. Instead, California moved back to his home state with his mother and stepfather. After returning west, California and Cassidy formed a band called Spirits Rebellious, after a book by the religious mystic Kahlil Gibran, also featuring pianist John Locke (born September 23, 1943, in Los Angeles, California; died August 4, 2006, in Ojai, California), who had played with Cassidy previously in the New Jazz Trio. In the spring of 1967, California and Cassidy ran into Ferguson and Andes, who had continued to work as musicians while attending UCLA. After the demise of the Red Roosters, they had a band called Western Union, also including Andes' guitar-playing brother, Matt Andes, then Ferguson had tried to launch a solo career while Mark Andes served brief tenures with Yellow Balloon and Canned Heat. They joined Spirits Rebellious, a name soon shortened to Spirit. By June, they were playing gigs and looking for a record contract. With Barry Hansen (later known as Dr. Demento, the novelty-song radio host) producing, they cut a demo tape. They also auditioned for record executive and producer Lou Adler. Adler, best known for his work with the Mamas & the Papas and his company Dunhill Records, had sold Dunhill to ABC Records and formed a new label, Ode Records, which had a distribution deal with Epic Records, an imprint of the major-label CBS Records. Adler signed Spirit to Ode in August 1967. Spirit Adler produced the self-titled debut album Spirit, which was released in January 1968. (Most of the songs were written by Ferguson, though California contributed a delicate instrumental called "Taurus" that would prove inspirational to Led Zeppelin, which based the introduction to the 1971 standard "Stairway to Heaven" on it.) Spurred by the single "Mechanical World," which had some regional success, the LP entered the Billboard chart in April and spent more than six months there, peaking in the Top 40 in September. Spirit toured extensively while working on their second album and preparing a score for French director Jacques Demy's film Model Shop (January 1969), in which they also appeared. (Sundazed Records belatedly released a soundtrack album from the film in 2005.) In October 1968, they issued a single, "I Got a Line on You," a driving rocker written by California. Peaking at number 25 in the Hot 100 in March 1969, it was the group's only Top 40 single. The second album, The Family That Plays Together, followed in December 1968. With the hit single spurring sales, it peaked at number 22 in March 1969. (Ferguson again dominated the songwriting, penning six of the 11 tracks, although California wrote or co-wrote the other five.) Clear With the accelerated schedules typical of record releases in the '60s, Spirit had to have another album ready quickly, and Clear appeared in July 1969. The album led off with the California/Ferguson composition "Dark Eyed Woman," another rocker in the "I Got a Line on You" mold that was released as a single but did not hit; the LP also contained material written for the Model Shop score that, not surprisingly, sounded like background music. Clear was a disappointment after the success of The Family That Plays Together, peaking at number 55 in October. In December, the band released a one-off single, California's "1984," and it gave early indications of becoming a hit, rising to number 69 by March 1970 before radio became resistant to its ominous lyrics, which referred to the dystopian novel of the same name by George Orwell. Produced by the band itself, it was their last release on Ode. Adler had negotiated a split from CBS in order to move his label to A&M Records, and in so doing he agreed to leave Spirit with Epic. The band then hired David Briggs, who had worked on Neil Young's albums, to produce its fourth LP. Sessions for that album commenced in April 1970, but they were interrupted when California suffered a fractured skull due to a fall from a horse and spent a month in the hospital. A single, Ferguson's "Animal Zoo," emerged in July and grazed the bottom of the charts, but it ultimately took six months to complete the LP, released as Twelve Dreams of Dr. Sardonicus in November. Feedback Spirit toured in support of the album during the winter and spring of 1971, but Epic failed to break a successful single from the LP, and it peaked at number 63 in February. Ferguson and Andes, frustrated at the band's lack of broad commercial success, quit Spirit to form a new band, Jo Jo Gunne, with Matt Andes and drummer Curly Smith.  Meanwhile, California had signed a solo contract with Epic and in the fall of 1972 he released his debut album, Kapt. Kopter and the (Fabulous) Twirly Birds.