Spirit (band)

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Spirit
General information
Genre (s) skirt
founding 1967
resolution 1997
Founding members
Drums
 Ed Cassidy († 2012)
Guitar, vocals
 Randy California (until 1971, from 1973, † 1997)
Vocals, guitar
 Jay Ferguson (until 1971)
bass
 Mark Andes (until 1971)
Keyboard
 John Locke (until 1972, † 2006)
former members
bass
 Jon Arliss (1971)
Bass, vocals
 Al Staehely (1971-1973)
Guitar, vocals
 Chris Staehely (1971–1973)
bass
 Larry "Fuzzy" Knight (1978-1979)

Spirit was an American rock band that was particularly successful in the 1970s.

history

It emerged from the band Red Rooster , which was founded in 1965 by the drummer Ed Cassidy , his stepson, the guitarist Randy California , and the bassist Mark Andes. In the 1950s, Cassidy had worked with jazz greats such as Art Pepper , Cannonball Adderley , Thelonious Monk , Gerry Mulligan and Zoot Sims , among others . Andes could already look back on single releases with the Marksmen . Together with singer Jay Ferguson , the band existed until the spring of 1966. Then Cassidy and Wolfe went to New York, where the former had an engagement as a jazz drummer. There Wolfe played in Jimmy James and the Blue Flames . James, better known as Jimi Hendrix , whose style had a lasting impact on him, gave him the name Randy California, which he used until his death. Andes played at Canned Heat for a while, while Ferguson, with whose brother Matt founded the Western Union .

In 1967, the Red Rooster members teamed up with keyboardist John Locke under the name Spirits Rebellious - named after a book by Khalil Gibran . After shortening the name to Spirit , the band produced a number of highly regarded albums between 1968 and 1971. The record Twelve Dreams of Dr. Sardonicus of 1970 became her greatest success both artistically and commercially. Her only big single hit was I Got a Line on You (1968), also released on the LP The Family That Plays Together . During 1969 they played concerts with Led Zeppelin , who briefly included the Spirit title Fresh Garbage in their live program.

In 1971 Andes and Ferguson left the band to make pop music with Jo Jo Gunne . Ferguson started a solo career in the mid-1970s. Various line-up changes followed, which meant that for a time not a single founding member was on board. In the 1980s there was another album in the original line-up, which, however, could not build on the success of the earlier works.

In Germany, the band performed on March 5, 1978 in the Grugahalle in Essen as part of a Rockpalast night . Dickey Betts and Randy California spontaneously played a blues medley at the end of the concert .

The band existed in changing line-ups until Randy California's death in 1997.

Due to clear similarities of a guitar run of Spirits Taurus (1968) and Led Zeppelin's Stairway to Heaven (1971) of the desired executor a plagiarism case against Randy California since 2014 Robert Plant and Jimmy Page on. One goal of the lawsuit was that California should be named as a co-author of Stairway to Heaven . The trial, approved by a Californian judge on the grounds of "sufficient similarity", was opened before a jury in June 2016 and the plagiarism allegation was found to be incorrect.

reception

The song Feel Good Time , which was originally recorded by Beck , but later transcribed by Pink for the soundtrack of Charlie's Angels - Volle Power and their album Try This , contains a sample of the Spirit song Fresh-Garbage from 1968.

Discography

Studio albums

year title Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements
(Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes) 		Remarks
UK UK US US
1968 Spirit - US31 (36 weeks)
US
The Family That Plays Together - US22 (28 weeks)
US
1969 Clear - US55 (15 weeks)
US
1970 Twelve Dreams of Dr. Sardonicus UK28 (1 week)
UK 		US63
gold
gold

(14 weeks)US
1972 Feedback - US63 (14 weeks)
US
1975 Spirit of '76 - US147 (9 weeks)
US
1976 Farther Along - US179 (4 weeks)
US
1981 The Adventures of Kaptain Kopter & Commander Cassidy in Potato Land UK40 (2 weeks)
UK 		-

More studio albums

  • 1975 - Son of Spirit
  • 1977 - Future Games
  • 1984 - The Thirteenth Dream
  • 1989 - Rapture in the chambers
  • 1990 - Tent of Miracles
  • 1996 - California Blues
  • 2005 - Model Shop (soundtrack, recorded in 1968)

Live albums

  • 1977 - Live Spirit
  • 1995 - Live at La Paloma
  • 1999 - Live At The Rainbow
  • 2003 - Blues From The Soul
  • 2004 - Live From The Coast
  • 2006 - The Original Potato Land
  • 2007 - Salvation… The Spirit Of '74

Compilations

year title Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements
(Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes) 		Remarks
UK UK US US
1973 The best of spirit - US119 (12 weeks)
US
Spirit - US191 (4 weeks)
US

More compilations

  • 1991 - Chronicles
  • 1997 - The Mercury Years
  • 2000 - Cosmic Smile
  • 2002 - Sea Dream
  • 2005 - Son Of America
  • 2007 - The Euro-American Years
  • 2008 - The Archive - An Introduction

Singles

year title Top ranking, total weeks, awardChartsChart placements
(Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes) 		Remarks
US US
1968 I Got a Line on You
The Family That Plays Together 		US25 (12 weeks)
US
1969 1984
 US69 (9 weeks)
US
1970 Animal Zoo
Twelve Dreams Of Dr. Sardonicus 		US97 (1 week)
US
Mr. Skin
Twelve Dreams Of Dr. Sardonicus 		US92 (2 weeks)
US
Chart entry after re-publication in 1973

More singles

  • 1968: Mechanical World
  • 1969: Dark Eyed Woman
  • 1970: Mr. Skin
  • 1971: Nature's Way
  • 1972: Cadillac Cowboys
  • 1975: Lady of the Lakes
  • 1975: Holy Man
  • 1976: Farther Along
  • 1980: Turn to the Right

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Christian Graf, Burkhard Rausch, Rockmusiklexikon (sic!) America, Africa, Australia, Asia Vol. 2, Frankfurt am Main, 1999, p. 1467f
  2. ↑ Rockpalastarchiv: Spirit
  3. ↑ Randy Lewis, Guitarist's estate says Led Zeppelin lifted 'Stairway to Heaven' part (May 21, 2014), from: latimes.com, accessed June 20, 2016 (English)
  4. ↑ August Brown, Planned lawsuit to claim Led Zeppelin ripped off 'Stairway' riff (May 20, 2014), on bbc.com , accessed June 20, 2016 (English)
  5. ↑ Stairway to Heaven in copyright trial (April 12, 2016), on bbc.com , accessed June 20, 2016 (English)
  6. ↑ Robert Plant and Jimmy Page from Led Zeppelin in court (June 15, 2016), from: tagesspiegel.de, accessed on June 20, 2016
  7. ↑ dpa: Led Zeppelin wins plagiarism lawsuit. In: FAZ.net . June 23, 2016, accessed October 13, 2018 .
  8. ↑ Wendy Kale: INTERVIEW: Beck adjusts to new band members, prepares for Red Rocks ( Memento from January 15, 2006 in the Internet Archive ) , Uwire.com
  9. ↑ a b c Chart sources: UK US
  10. ↑ Music Sales Awards: US