Spirit (Spirit-Album)
Occupation
- Vocals, Percussion, Keyboards: Jay Ferguson
- Guitar, Vocals: Randy California
- Bass, Vocals: Marc Andes
- Keyboard: John Locke
- Drums, percussion: Ed Cassidy
Spirit is the name of the first album by the American rock band Spirit, which was released in January 1968 on Ode Records. It was produced by Lou Adler, who should produce the following two albums of the band. The album reached # 31 on the Billboard 200
Music Style and Instrumentation
The album is the first of four albums from 1968 to 1970, which were included in the five-member original members of the band. The musical style of the debut album is often described as prog rock and is shaped by influences from different genres such as rock, jazz, blues, folk and classical music, which correspond to the different musical backgrounds of the band members. Pianist John Locke and drummer Ed Cassidy had already experienced jazz musicians. Cassidy, with already 44 years at least 20 years older than his bandmates had also played in a folk - blues band called The Rising Sons with Taj Mahal and Ry Cooder, before he became the stepfather of the only 16 -year-old guitarist Randy California, the had played in the summer of 1966 in New York already in Jimi Hendrix 'Band Jimi James & The Blue Flames. The singer and percussionist Jay Ferguson and bassist Marc Fernandes had in 1965 met at a folk music workshop in California and can win for a common bond California. However, the Red Roosters broke up when California moved with his stepfather for a year in New York.
Prehistory
This band of seasoned musicians who had come together again in the spring of 1967, came soon to live and produced in the summer of the same year, with the help of Barry Hansen, a demo tape, in order to apply for a record deal can (5 pieces of this demo tapes were 24 years later on the anthology Chronicles ( 1967-1992 ) published). They finally convinced the successful music producer Lou Adler, who founded after selling his successful label Dunhill Records, a new production company called Ode Records and collaborated with Epic Records for distribution purposes. After the contract was signed in August 1967, the band retired to a house in Topanga Canyon to work on her debut album.
The songs
The majority of the song material contributed singer Jay Ferguson. Exceptions are the almost eleven-minute, jazzy final piece Elijah with solos all instrumentalists, which comes from the pen of keyboardist John Locke, and the song Taurus, written by Randy California. This song is often considered as a possible source of inspiration for this Led Zeppelin classic, due to its similarity to the introduction of the resulting later songs Stairway to Heaven. The contribution to California's songwriting was compared to the following albums, so still low.
The song Mechanical World, a composition of Andes and Ferguson, was previously released as a single and achieved satisfactory response. Californias incisive guitar playing characterizes this song, which was written by Marc Fernandes, when he was seriously ill with a flu and was inspired by the experience.
Title list
The original version of 1968 contained only the tracks 1-11, the new edition in CD form, which appeared at Sony, includes four additional tracks ( Tracks 12-15):
Reception
Spirit rose in April 1968 on the Billboard 200 and stayed there for over 6 months. His highest ranking reached the album number 31 in September 1968. It was therefore one of the most successful albums of the band, only surpassed by the second album, The Family That Plays Together with number 22 the following year. Richie Unterberger of the All Music Guide rated the album favorably with 4.5 stars out of 5 and highlights the musical diversity of the band members and finds some "interesting" songs, but sees weaknesses in the songwriting.