SPIRIT

important work in white

1968: Spirit. 1969: Clear * The Family That Plays Together. 1970: The Twelve Dreams of Dr. Sardonicus. 1972: Feedback. 1973: The Best of Spirit. 1975: Spirit of '76. 1976: Son of Spirit * Farther Along. 1977: Future Games (A Magical Kahauna Dream). 1981: Journey to Potatoland. 1984: spirit of '84. 1989: Rapture in the Chambers. 1990: Tent of Miracles. 1991: Time Circle (1968 - 1972) * Chronicles (1967 - 1992). 1997: Mercury Years.

Spirit deserves a special commendation for perseverance. The original band - Jay Ferguson (guitar), Randy California (guitar), Ed Cassidy (drums), John Locke (keyboards) and Mark Andes (bass) - broke up after their finest record - The Twelve Dreams of Doctor Sardonicus - but the band, in one form or another, would reunite for various projects during a span of thirty years. Tenacity paid off with records on Mercury in the seventies and, as late as 1989, releases from IRS records (IRS also resuscitated The Animals career). 1991 brought Time Circles, a lively compilation on Epic Records. When all else failed, the band put out records on their own. This has been an endearingly quixotic endeavor for a band of Spirit's stature.

Robert Christgau pointed out the Doug Sahm, of the Sir Douglas Quintet and the Texas Tornados, has used "hippie" as an aesthetic and it’s a good way to describe early work by bands as diverse as the Move, Steppenwolf, the psychedelic Temptations and the Steve Miller Band. As an aesthetic, it's not necessarily a personal approach, but it is vari-colored, playful, broad and experimental in form, with a sensitivity towards matters of import as well as matters of the heart. Three of the first four Spirit albums are successful representations of this sixties' pop stylization.

The pleasure of the early band is their texture. John Locke and Ed Cassidy were trained musicians - you could hear it in Locke's unusual chordal landscapes and Cassidy's dexterous rhythm approach to a variety of music. Randy California had a singular lead guitar tone; he had a slippery, floating way of playing unbroken lines that he thickened with double-tracked unison or harmony lines. The seminal Spirit had a knack for vocal harmonies as well. The result was a dense, dreamy harmonic stew that had verve and hooks. Jay Ferguson was responsible for the majority of tunes on Spirit's debut album, and he played an important role in The Family That Plays Together and Twelve Dreams. Even some of their goofiest songs are aurally enticing. With its Marty Paich horns and Lou Adler production, Family has an almost kitschy beauty. Twelve Dreams is less dreamy, but there is a livelier kineticism in the playing.

If they knew then what they know now, maybe the band would have stayed together, but Twelve Dreams brought the departure of Andes, California and Ferguson. The follow up - Feedback - was a sudden transformation into a mediocre rock and roll band with Spirit's usual kookiness buried under boogying guitars. It would take subsequent albums with Randy California to confirm that it was Jay Ferguson who provided the backbone and structure to the band's eclectic imagination. Without Ferguson, Spirit of 76 is an everything-but-good-tunes double album that never grooves. Future Games is Randy California's project: it sounds like the work of someone who takes marijuana transcendence a little too seriously and the songs fade in and out of the cluttered production without making an impact on into normal consciousness.

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