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Lovingly color-corrected from original source. You don't care.
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All albums enhanced from raw FLAC files to @193©, using IoF©'s patented Human Ear™ process. You'll discover a new world of sound excitement listening to these swell LP recordings, pre-adjusted for RIAA curve!
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Tweaked so subtly [above - Ed.] you didn't notice!
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Copyright© law makes this [above - Ed.] impossible in the real world, but th' IoF© ain't that.
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Tweaked so subtly you didn't notice!
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This crappy quality [above - Ed.] is the best available. Gee whiz. So much for th' internet.
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A change of pace for a while. Spirit have been guests on th' IoF© intermittently, but they deserve their own dedicated timeshare accommodation. They're just a magical magic band I've loved forever, always found time to listen.
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hahaha--was lit-er-al-ly talking about them today with a (sweriously) random dude at the pharmacy who asked if I knew who was on my shirt (uhm, Porter Wagoner....) and then asked me what my favorite Steely Dan song was (interesting segue) and when I allowed as how if I could only pick one, being a Philistine and all, I'd go with "Reeling in the Years" for the solo to which his response was, wait for it, "not as good as 'I've Got a Line on You,'" which is not exactly wrong but felt a bit like a non sequitur...turns out this guy saw the band I was in 1979 in Austin, which is no mean feat, since we were not, erm, exactly chartbusters (though we were loud...very, very loud andopened for some folx), though the punk scene at that point was pretty small, confined to a coupla clubs on a good day, 21st Street co-op, and the Lazy Daisy...
ReplyDeleteTh' 4/5G© are invited to guess the name of Eric. S's band.
DeleteEric S And His S-Types! (featuring the Ericettes)
They began as Amyl Nitrate & The Whippets, segued into Donna Bondage & The Whippets, by the time of my 15 minutes they were The Whippets and I was in a one-off that played a few times (wait a minute, does that make it a few off) called Vacation Bible School...our xerox posters said "Come Dressed to Prey"...we were McPunks, as a visiting Britlish punk once said with some bemusement/bewilderment. He wasn't wrong.
DeleteMcPunks is a great band name.
DeleteFirst album: https://workupload.com/file/cY3392TD9jP
ReplyDeleteI well remember my older brother coming home with Randy California – Kapt. Kopter And The (Fabulous) Twirly Birds. I learned very soon, he was in Spirit before that and went searching. Great stuff. Though the very first time I hear Rain from that album....first cut etc.
ReplyDeleteOne of my all time favourite bands from when I first heard them .. oh, back in the day!! Though always managed to never hear about UK tours until they'd left!! Doh!!
ReplyDeleteIt's the only band I can think of offhand that trimmed down to basically just a duo (plus after-market bass) and kept on making great records.
Deletemucho thanks, comrade.
ReplyDeleteMuchachas graniolas, compadore!
DeleteI thought (and still do) their version of Like a Rolling Stone from Spirit of 76 album was one of the best covers ever
ReplyDeleteHis cover of Positively 4th St. is a little-known gem.
DeleteSecond album: https://workupload.com/file/qyvYRgkdLy4
ReplyDeleteJay Ferguson is still alive aged 78, which is a bit of a surprise given that on "Water Woman" he sings "Think I'm going to drown myself " and on "A Dream Within A Dream " he sings "Stepping off this mortal coil will be my pleasure".
ReplyDeleteHe had a disappointing career after Spirit, which tells me at least that Mr. Wolfe was the pivot of the band. And Jo Jo Gunne? Lawd knows I tried, and that's the problem. One blisteringly great single.
DeleteI liked "All Alone in the End Zone". Snakes on the Run.
DeleteYes, but "liked" is the word. I liked JoJo Gunne, too. But not Firefall *shudder*.
DeleteI remember driving down Sunset Boulevard back then, and looking over to see the Sunset Highland Motel. For quite a while, it still had the "$6 a night"!
ReplyDelete"... and up" (in smaller print). It was opposite a high school, I think?
DeleteThat, I cannot recall. Prolly.
DeleteFT3 - your memory is correct. The cover location shoot motel was directly across West Sunset Blvd. From Hollywood High School. The motel is still there - I think it's now called the Budget Inn.
DeleteI had forgotten how good these first two albums
ReplyDeleteOoh. Yes. If you've forgotten Clear, or never knew it, you're in for a treat.
DeleteA truly top-tier band.
My comment was poorly worded. I listened to both albums all the way through from the deliverables - cannot remember the last time I did that. So much of the listening today is fragmented - hearing the entire albums front to back was refreshing. There are some great "deep cuts" on both albums.
DeleteI got rid of most of my vinyl 20 years ago and never got the first 2 albums on CD or digitally. The only Spirit album I Now have is "Dr. Sardonicus" - which is in my all top 100. I now have a newfound appreciation for the rest of the catalog. As you noted, it is a real!y great band, even with the attrition.
Third album (clear): https://workupload.com/file/XZDHJV2Ksgt
ReplyDeleteThis one seems to get a lot of winetaster crit, but it has a dreamlike atmosphere I've always loved. Give A Life, Take A Life is just gawjuss. "Underrated" is a word I hate to use, but I guess that's what this is.
And here's "Model Shop" - the movie that not only features Spirit at this time, in all their finery, but is a good "little" movie in its own right. (.mkv file - playable on VLC):
ReplyDeletehttps://workupload.com/file/JfDDFvQnuRp
Because I bought the $6 Motel cover album, that's my go-to Spirit album (I was a high school freshman!). It's almost a perfect album for me.
ReplyDeleteThe album has a lot of fans!
DeleteIf someone has not found this https://albumsthatshouldexist.blogspot.com/2025/06/texas-international-pop-festival-dallas_13.html
ReplyDeleteSardonicus! There is no better rock album. Perfection in form, content, presentation. It didn't sell. They broke up.
ReplyDeletehttps://workupload.com/file/Y6Uy45VcuFS
What a treat! I get back online for the first time in what seems like forever, return to ye merry ol' Isle 'o Foam and the first page I see is Spirit!!
DeleteIt really is stunning to think that Sardonicus was their WORST selling album upon release. It's a true gem from beginning to end. For anyone who has never heard it, FT III is not exaggerating in saying there is no better rock album. There are other albums on its level, but there is no higher step on the podium.
Side note: "Street Worm" from side two was an essential component of my contribution to the "Thirty Minutes" series (with incredible artwork from FT III).
Hey Torgo! Word on the street was you were doing ten in Leavenworth, or was it eleven in Tenworth? Anway - great to see you looking so chipper! Is that a Sears poncho?
Delete
DeleteNo room for me in Tenworth. Due to budget cuts, it's down to Fourpence.
Legal matters were indeed part of my extended absence though. Contractual requirements kept me off of all social media outside of "approved" accounts.
Coming soon! TORGO - MAN O' MYSTERY!
DeleteYou'll THRILL to his exploits in the shadowy world of the internet!
In TODD-AO© color!
... or maybe I'll just blast off to space again on another 30 Minutes thing.
DeleteI'll re-up the first if you make a second.
DeleteThat would be fantastic! The first one had some amusing stories behind the stories (using the vintage radio opener = a recent Jack Benny post you had made, using the specific bit of Tangerine Dream behind the vintage radio thing = a connection to Nico from another one of your posts, etc) that all ended up becoming the story within the music. It would be fun to go back and revisit all of that.
DeleteWay, way back I put together a CD mix of just truly weird stuff as a sort of holiday card for friends. The speed-corrected Hindenburg broadcast that I used in the first 30 Minutes thing was something I had originally created for that CD. Some things on that disc had historical interest that way, some of it was amusing just for the absurdity (such as a version of Volare sung in Esperanto) and some was just weird/bad (e.g. it ended with about a minute of Lou Reed's "Metal Machine Music").
It might be interesting to see if I can trim that down to a 30 minute "best/worst" edition. Maybe call it something like "Thirty Minutes From The Other Side Of Hell".
Yeah...that works. I had long been thinking a mix of unreleased Tangerine Dream would make a good Thirty Minutes set, and I will probably still do that one at some point. Ditto for a set of Queen stuff similar to your Abbey Road post - mostly unknown but actually GOOD music by Queen to make up for the overrated crap of theirs that gets all the radio play.
But right now, the Thirty Minutes From The Other Side Of Hell idea is really grabbing me... you have all been warned...
Ooooh, Queen are one of Farqs' favorites, although he doesn't like to talk about it.
DeleteAnother Thirty Minutes sounds like a fine idea Torgo.
*runs screaming into blazing building*
Deletemucho thanx for the Spirit boxset.
ReplyDeletea little JoJo love here...they were deliberately not the smartest band, but better-than-yer-average-boogie-band. Curly Smith was a very clever drummer and the Andes Bros were great players, Matt is my favorite rock slide player.
ReplyDelete... and Mark is a sensationally great bass player.
DeleteThings got messy for a while, with the band exchanging blows, California pushing Neil Young offstage (*pearls clutched*), and a fake Spirit recording the unworthy Feedback and touring without California, who cut the fine Kapt. Kopter album.Two for the price of one, from '72:
ReplyDeletehttps://workupload.com/file/DNp3be4Vuvn
California finally gets his eyes to point in the same direction and delivers a double whammy.
ReplyDeleteSpirit Of '76: https://workupload.com/file/R58eFQgZBfu
The "Jack Bond" referred to in the album, and responsible for the cover artwork, is Burt Shonberg, LA acid-head mystic artist. From discogs:
Los Angeles, CA artist of the post-war/psychedelic eras who worked in a variety of mediums. Active from the late 50's until his death in 1977, he painted various murals adorning LA nightspots, coffee-houses, and restaurants, created album cover art for Love’s Out Here and Spirit’s Spirit Of '76, and several specially commissioned works that appeared in two of Roger Corman’s classic Poe adaptations: The Fall of the House of Usher (1960) and The Premature Burial (1962).
Aside from after-market bass from Barry Keene on a couple tracks (the "Benji" credited for harpsichord and moog has to be California, I think), this is what it says on the tin: just California and Cassidy. MIldly astonishing. The Spirit was willing ...
Delete"Son Of" was like 76-Lite, a larvely gentle little album. Too little, so I hammered in their cover of Positively 4th Street, which fit a treat. The new cover replaces the terrible, horrible original, which looked like a heavy metal album designed by a thirteen year-old with scissors and a marker pen.
ReplyDeletehttps://workupload.com/file/zMYhNeaxpyf
Such a great band! I started with the 45 of Mechanical World, had to buy the LP cuz the single faded out too soon, and wuz hooked on the band ever since. I think Spirit of 76 was the end for me. I was supposed to meet Mark Andes at a Mexican food place in Austin about 10 years ago, but he didn't show up, Too bad, cuz the comida was great!
ReplyDeletesaw Randy in a strange triple header in 73? The Outlaws, The Runaways, then Randy. 10000 seats 10% filled. Randy out mingling with crowd first 2 acts. his set he invited anyone. in. small crowd to come up on stage & me & my fellow 18 year old posse duly jumped up & hung rest of the set. tragic loss his passing
ReplyDelete1976, and the magic is still there, although Jay Ferguson's absence if felt.
ReplyDeleteFarther Along: https://workupload.com/file/8PR7zf3XjwF
Future Games: https://workupload.com/file/sgfMXz7uHxC
ReplyDeleteA subtly addictive album. Little melodies, snippets of soundtrack, musical samples worm into your brain. Massively underrated (the original cover didn't help - never give design responsibility to someone who wears a headband) and soaked in Spirit, this album will be a pal for life.
Potatoland '73 and '81. Mm - nice. There'd be more Spirit recordings, but Potatoland is the last time the unique spirit soaked into the magnetic tape. There was never a better or more appropriate band name - the subtle magic lasted a long time until generic hard rock took over. Randy California was, by all accounts, a difficult guy to work with, an egotist and control freak, but hey. If we limited our listening to personalities we find honorable and sympathetic, there'd be no rock, or indeed, roll.
ReplyDeleteThis is by no means everything I have with the Spirit name on it, but my work here is done!
https://workupload.com/file/xdryZStsErK
(There hasn't been quite the interest in Spirit that I'd hoped - maybe too familiar? If that's the reason that's fine, but the links will stay up as long as someone keeps tapping them!)
Thanks for taking the time to remind us of the magic of Spirit. Preciated.
ReplyDeleteThanks Farq!! It's been emotional!! Think I have all of these (apart from "Feedback"!!) - one of my toppest most bands of all times!!
ReplyDeleteI wasn't going to include Feedback, but there'll always be someone who hasn't heard it and suspects it might be a "lost classic" due for "critical reassessment". It ain't.
DeleteI listened to 'Seven Dreams' a little while ago and could feel it growing on me but that's as much of this lot as I know. Hopefully this bout of download-diarrohea courtesy of Farq's musical bowels will enlarge my understanding of a group whose name I barely recall even hearing back in the days of scouring rock history.
ReplyDeleteI'm afraid you're beyond the powers of medical science to redeem.
DeleteThanks for a band whose songs are sprinkled all over the place in the rock world. My first visit to Spirit was Best Of when it came out and I was blown away. I even saw them at the since demolished Sheboygan Armory from the outside. Warm night and the doors were left open, giving a clear view of the band and sound to match. Cassidy's bald head sound out in the center. Saw Blue Oyster Cult the same way back when Buck wore a white siut onstage.
ReplyDeleteForgot to mention, the guitar solo on "Darlin' If" is the best ever recorded.
ReplyDeleteAlso the 1983 reunion album is a winner
Here 'tis
https://workupload.com/file/SMQztu8wyMA
Dave, each of these opinions qualifies as unique, in many ways. A particularly brave stance re. "Thirteenth Dream", which shows them to be as great at playing musical instruments as they ever were, but totally lacking creative inspiration, with "Black Satin Nights" (shudder) foreshadowing the generic hard rock direction the b(r)and was to take. I mean, you're not obligated, but I'd be interested in why you think the album's a winner?
DeleteThere's a Grand Prize of a Pork Planet© Pigsfoot Plate Dinner for the lucky winner of this week's competition! Simply identify the little dude with his hand to his head on the Future Games cover! There's a free side order of Chutney Chitlins™ if you can tell us why he's there!
ReplyDeleteMan they ROCK!!! I was limited to a couple of their records and this broadens the picture a lot.
ReplyDeleteKudos from Argentina.
Bat
Likewise I'm shewer, Bat!
DeleteBy some distance the best of the "hard rock" b(r)and, Tent Of Miracles lacks the magic touch but has strong material, fiery playing, and the new bass player can write, too. A waste of nobody's time. Expanded/extra tracks.
ReplyDeletehttps://workupload.com/file/RUHDYZKmWP8
I appreciate the color correction, kinda puts you right there in L.A. l'm also struck by how youthful Ed Cassidy looks.
ReplyDeleteThe question why Spirit didn't break through into global massiveness with Sardonicus may be the optics: Randy California (a ratty-looking dude) was not the stunning Rock God frontman he thought he was, and Ed Cassidy was, well, weird. The only rock band musician to sport the chrome dome? Cassidy was the one with charisma, and the lookers in the band weren't in the spotlight. It was an unbalanced mix, visually.
Delete"Spirit Live" has had a confusing history, but first, let's note that it's a very sweetened live recording (as many if not most live recordings are), and to great effect.
ReplyDeleteFirst appeared in '78, then, bafflingly, as "Made In Germany" with different tracks, in '83. Fast-forward to 2012, and the confused Mick Skidmore releases it as "Two Sides Of The Rainbow" in full raw tape mode plus "Made In Germany" with a different running order, a set he "remasters" in 2019.
Deliverable is the first release plus "Made In Germany" from the 2019 set. I don't need anything else, and you probably don't either.
https://workupload.com/file/m9HRs7XWAf6