Spirit, part 2

Spirit ventured on for a while in various line-ups until Randy fell from a horse and had to quit the group as well. Ed Cassidy and John Locke re-formed the band with two brothers, Al (bass, lead vocals) and Chris Staehely (guitar, vocals), for one more album, Feedback, released in 1972.

Spirit: Feedback (1972)

Chelsea girls / Cadillac cowboys / Puesta del scam / Ripe and ready / Darkness / Earth shaker / Mellow morning / Right on time / Trancas fog-out / Witch

It's probably never a very good idea for a band to keep its original name after most of its members have gone, especially when you bring in some new guys and let them do most of the songwriting. I've never heard of a band that got away with this trick without losing many of its fans. In my case it meant I could not be bothered to even listen to Feedback. Why I ever changed my mind about this I can't remember, but I eventually did give this album the benefit of the doubt and found it to be, much to my surprise, actually quite good. To be fair, there was no reason why it couldn't be in the first place. The main problem with Feedback is that it most of the times completely fails to sound as Spirit and really should not have been released under that name. Of the ten songs, seven are written by newcomer Al Staehely, and three by John Locke. Chris Staehely's guitar playing reminds in nothing of Randy's, and there's plenty of female background vocals. Overall, the album sounds more like Lynyrd Skynyrd, the Doobie Brothers or Jo Jo Gunne. It's only in the John Locke compositions that some of the old Spirit sound is resurfacing. Of these I especially like Darkness, which reminds me of Dave Mason in his best days. Trancas fog-out had been performed live by the original band, and can be heard on the Texas Festival bootleg.

After the release of this album, there were some further changes to the line-up until the band finally broke up. By that time, both Ed Cassidy and John Locke had already left. The Staehelys later recorded another album under their own name.

Jay Ferguson and Mark Andes had formed Jo Jo Gunne, which was more a straightforward blues/hard rock kind of a band. It would take a bit longer for Randy to release anything again.
 

Randy California: Kapt. Kopter and the (fabulous) Twirly Birds (1972)

Downer / Devil / I don't want nobody / Day tripper / Mother and child reunion / Things yet to come / Rain / Rainbow CD bonus tracks : Walkin' the dog / Live for the day / Rebel

For his first solo-album, Randy only used two of his own compositions (of which Downer would become a Spirit live-favorite) and apparently had some fun playing hard rocking cover versions of other, more famous, people's songs for the rest of the album. His guitar playing is much rougher than it used to be. Made with the help of various others, amongst whom ex-Jimi Hendrix bass-player Noel Redding (called Clit McTorius here for contractual reasons), Ed Cassidy and future Spirit-member Larry "Fuzzy" Knight, this is a very spontaneous sounding album. Nothing genius, but very enjoyable.

After this album,  Randy moved to England  to play with Peter Hammill for a while. His guitar playing can be heard on the album Chameleon in the shadow of the night, in the song Red shift. An accident prevented Randy from touring with Hammill. Meanwhile, there were plans for new projects under the name of Spirit. The first of these, Potatoland, wasn't released until 1981. In 1974 a Spirit line-up consisting of Randy California, Ed Cassidy and Barry Keene started recording on a new album and signed a contract with Mercury Records, that eventually would release some of the bands best work. In fact, this is my favorite period in the band's history.
 

Spirit : Spirit of '76 (1975)

Side 1: America the beautiful / The times they are a'changing / Victim of society / Lady o' the lakes / Tampa jam (pt. 1) / Maunaloa / What do I have / Sunrise

Side 2: Walking the dog / tampa jam (pt. 2) / Joker on the run / When? / Like a rollimg stone

Side 3: Once again / Feeling in time / Happy / Jack Bond / My road / Tampa jam (pt. 3) / Thank you Lord

Side 4: Urantia / Guide me / Veruska / Hey Joe / Jack Bond (pt. 2) / The star spangled banner

Randy California's first album after his return under the Spirit banner was this atmospheric double album. Line-up included, besides Ed Cassidy, Barry Keene on bass. This is my all time favorite Spirit album. It has some great cover versions of other people's songs, like the coupled America the beautiful / The times they are a'changing, Like a rolling stone and Hey Joe, and a lot of Randy's own stuff of which Victim of society, My road, Veruska (an older version of which can be found as a bonus-track on the most recent CD-release of the first album), Sunrise and Once again are just some of my favorites. Not all songs are equally great, in fact there is some filler, but the sum of them all makes one very impressive album that for some reason reminds me a bit of George Harrison's excellent All things must pass. It's a real shame that this album still hasn't been released on CD, although almost all of it is on disc 1 of The Mercury years. But that really is hardly a replacement.

Spirit : Son of Spirit (1975)

Holy man / Looking into darkness / Maybe you'll find / Don't go away / Family / Magic fairy princess / Circle / the other song / Yesterday / It's time now

It seems the band spend so much talent and energy at the majestic Spirit of '76 that its successor could be little else than very disappointing. No less than four of its ten songs are truly horrible; I could well have done without Holy man, Looking into darkness, Family and It's time now, a leftover from the Potatoland-sessions. The rest of the songs are okay, although the only real highlights on this album for me are Don't go away and The other song, the latter being a sort of bluesy kind of song (without being boring!) co-written by Barry Keene.
 
 
Spirit : Farther along (1976)

Side 1: Farther along / Atomic boogie / World eat world dog / Stoney night / Pineapple / Colossus

Side 2: Megastar / Phoebe / Don't lock up your door / One with you / Diamond spirit / Nature's way

This is really much better. For Farther along Mark Andes and John Locke rejoined the band, together with Mark's brother Matt, who also played in Jo Jo Gunne and adds a second guitar to the line-up. "Tasteful" and "laid back" or "atmospheric" again are the best words I can find to describe the sound of the album, which, so I've heard, does not appeal to all fans however. With the exception of Atomic boogie, which is amusing at best, I think this is a collection of great songs Definitely one of my favorite Spirit-albums, perhaps second only to Spirit of '76. I especially like Colossus, Megastar and Matt's instrumental Phoebe. It's a real shame this excellent album is still unavailable on cd, although again most of it can be found on the The Mercury years-compilation. The only ommission here is the orchestral version of Nature's way.
 
 
 
Spirit : Future games (1977)

CB talk / Stars of love / Kahauna dream / Buried in my brain / Bionic unit / So happy now / All along the watchtower / Would you believe / Jack Bond speaks / Star Trek dreaming / Interlude XM / China doll / Hawaiian times / Gorn attack / Interlude 2001 / Detroit city / Freakout frog / The Romulan experience / Monkey see monkey do / Mt. Olympus / The journey of Nomad / Ending

Imagine a collection of songs, some of which are really only fragments while others aren't allowed to finish properly, with interludes of flashes from Star Trek, Hawaiian music, bits from Sesame Street and a lot of silly noises and you may well see that this is the strangest (or if you prefer: experimental) album ever released under the Spirit-banner. Even stranger is that it works very well. Definite highlight is a song that's featured twice on the album, first as Jack Bond speaks, where it's ruthlessly abandoned to continue later as Ending. I have the feeling Randy's trying to make a point with this album but I still haven't figured out what. Anyway, I liked this album immediately but still wonder why....
 
 
 
Spirit : The Mercury years (compilation rel. 1997)

Disk one: Jack Bond / America, the beautiful/The times, they are a'changing / Victim of society / Lady of the lakes / Tampa jam (pt. 1) / My road / Sunrise / Urantia / Maunaloa / What do I have / Feeling in time / Happy / Walking the dog / Tampa jam (pt. 2) / Joker on the run / When? / Like a rolling stone / Veruska / Once again / Tampa jam (pt. 3) / Thank you lord / Guide me / Hey Joe

Disk two: Farther along / Atomic boogie / World eat world dog / Don't lock up your door / Colossus / Phoebe / Mega star / Once with you / Diamond spirit / Stoney night / Pineapple / Looking into darkness / Holy man / Would you believe / Detroit city / Circle / The other song / Yesterday / Family / Maybe you'll find / Magic fairy princes / Gorn attack / Stars are love / It's time now / Green collar man

The four Mercury-albums are represented on this 2-CD compilation, with a couple of extra's, released only a few months after Randy California's tragic death in January 1997. Randy compiled it himself: he chose the songs for this compilation, rearranged the playing order and wrote the liner notes. And I'm sure he did his very best at this job but still I have some critical notes to make. First, I would have preferred to see the two missing albums, Spirit of '76 and Farther along, released on CD separately and in their entirety. In the current form some songs are sadly missing, notably The star spangled banner from Spirit of '76 and the lovely orchestral version of Nature's way from Farther along. Apart from that the rearranging of the playing order spoils most of the original atmosphere, especially in the case of Spirit of '76. As for the other two albums represented here, and that both are available on CD already, why include all those horrible songs from Son of Spirit and leave out one of its few highlights, Don't go away? As for the tracks from Future games I can be more forgiving as it's actually impossible to take these out of their normal environment, although I would have loved to hear some of these songs as they were before final mixing of the album. All summed up I'm disappointed by this release, even though most of the music on it really is fabulous and it's the only way to get that music on CD. The only legal way, that is, as I wouldn't be surprised to find out that illegal CD-versions of Spirit of '76 and Farther along are on the market. But then, at least The Mercury years has made it much easier to make good quality illegal CD's. A missed opportunity really.