Blast From The Past

by The Scene on May 15th, 2008

People often remember the 60’s as an era that contained amazing music and/or too much acid. Unfortunately, the sheer volume of artistically viable yet extremely popular music helped cause some real big talent from ever making it past the B-List. So it goes when you compete against the Beatles. One of these B-List bands was a wonderful little group known as Spirit. Let’s talk about some cool things that Spirit did:

1. Their frontman was named Randy California, but surprisingly we don’t think we’ve ever bought drugs from him

2. They opened for Led Zeppelin’s tour in ‘68-’69, and the Zep regularly covered and borrowed from Spirit. Most notably, the opening chords to Stairway To Heaven are a direct lift from Spirit’s “Taurus”. Randy California may have also turned Jimmy Page onto touching (or not touching) a Theremin.

3. They released a concept album in 1970 called “Twelve Dreams of Dr. Sardonicus”. How BADASS is that??

Spirit’s sound sits somewhere between the Kinks and the Zombies, learning more heavily to the former, and their Dr. Sardonicus album is a true work of art. One of rock’s first concept albums (alongside Sgt Pepper, Pet Sounds, Tommy, and Dark Side of the Moon), it stands as a soulful analysis of our (then) modern isolation and growing detachment from a state of nature. Sound familiar to half of the concept albums you’ve ever heard?

Here’s a song by them. It’s called Animal Zoo, and it will kick your ass.