Spirit Stories Page 3

I was a teenager in Chicago at the time and saw Spirit perform at Aaron Russo's Kinetic Playground. I was playing drums in an all-girl band called THE DAUGHTERS OF EVE back then and we were signed to Chess/Cadet records. I loved their sound so much that when I did meet Ed a few years back it was a dream come true. We lost touch when my home burned down in the '94 earthquake in Saugus,Ca and I lost all my phone numbers.

Debi "drums" Pomeroy

 Thanks for all your work on web site and Tent of Miracles. I just was

chatting with Ed Cassidy, whom I've met on the internet. It is kind of

wild as I had been a Spirit fan for 30 years and talking with Ed is like a

Beatles fan being able to chat with Ringo.

 I guess you can understand this. Ed pointed me to the website and it just seemed 

like a nice way to express a deeply felt appreciation for the music. Randy is gone

 and there's no way to thank him, but doing so with others from the band is just as good.

 You all were quite a part of my life.

 Bob Baumann

In 1968, when I was 14, our local top 40 AM radio station started a weekly

program of "Underground Music". On this show, I was introduced to some of the most 

amazing music I had ever heard. Bear in mind that my prior context was 

The Four Seasons, Pet Clark, 

The Beach Boys, and The Ventures. 

The Beatles (psychedelic period) and The Byrds were the farthest out I'd gotten. 

Suddenly, I was exposed to people like The Doors, 

Jimi Hendrix, Jefferson Airplane, Cream, Janis Joplin, Led Zeppelin,

 and The Mothers of Invention. And Spirit. Most significantly, Spirit.

The show was called Eleven O'Clock, 

and that is what time it came on, on Monday nights. I would lie in bed, 

the crackle of static emanating from the little 

Japanese transistor radio hidden under my pillow.

 It was like being transported to another planet. 

An ethereal string arrangement, studded with acoustic guitar, 

sounded the theme. It was achingly beautiful. The first selection of the

 first show also completely blew me away. 

Spacy, but gritty. Loud, but smooth and lush. A song with verses, 

but also featuring long instrumental stretches that dripped with sobbing strings, 

yet crackled with a scorching, plaintive electric guitar. 

The ambience of the piece was huge, overarching, reverberant, as though it had been 

recorded in an enormous cathedral. I had never heard ANYTHING 

like it. When it was over, I strained to catch the D.J. announce 

the title of the piece. 

"Mechanical World." How odd. The title occurred nowhere in the lyrics. 

I heard a lot of great music on that show, but nothing that affected 

me like that first piece. I made a mental note of the band. 

Spirit. I would have to buy their record.

 The next day, I ran down and bought the Mechanical World 45.

Outstanding. I played the B-side. "Uncle Jack". How odd.

It sounded nothing at all like "Mechanical World"... yet it had

an infectious, rhythmic charm all its own.

I was beginning to love this band... this Spirit, whoever they were.

The following Monday, I turned on my late and secret show,

hoping they would play more Spirit. They did. This one was called "Fresh Garbage".

How odd. This one was somehow COMPLETELY different from BOTH of the other pieces!

How could this BE? A funky little environmental caveat, calling up images

of demonic street vendors in some dreamscape out of

Hieronymous Bosch,  the verses segued into a swooping, spinning, freewheeling Fender Rhodes fantasia that put me in mind of Vince Guaraldi. Wow.

That did it. Now, I had never bought an LP record before.  I knew, though,

without a doubt, that I would have to buy this one.

I can safely say that no one album that I have acquired since that fateful day has broadened my musical horizons as much as that first Spirit album. The record was a gallery of sonic paintings, each one unique and distinct, each one intricate... comprised of two or three different moods, colors, or styles, woven skillfully into a beautifully wrought whole. There was drama here, and there was humor. There was real life, and there was wild surrealism. There was rock and folk and funk and jazz. There were fires and floods and drugs and trash and war and life and death and Old Testament wrath from on high. There was the sense of being in the presence of true artists. This freaking little slice of black vinyl MOVED ME. I think you understand this. That is one reason this site exists. The album, and the band, were described perfectly in Spin magazine (not the new Spin... the one that existed then) as "quiet, personal, and damned good." Damned straight.

Oh, yeah... I got one MORE surprise from the first album. The theme song employed by the Eleven O'Clock show was the piece "Taurus". When I realized that, my love for this band of Californians was truly complete and all-encompassing.

I won't take up much more of your time, except to say that, in my humble opinion, the most galvanizing, high-powered, emotionally supercharged piece of guitar playing that I have ever heard, hands down, is the end section to "Aren't You Glad", from The Family That Plays Together. You name the guitar hero, no one has ever come close to the sheer force of that sweet assault. It is a roller coaster ride for the soul. I about rip the armrests off my chair every single time I hear it. Randy... we miss you, buddy.

Good luck with the current project. I am confident that, with the proper measure of love and musicianship, you will keep the Spirit burning well into the new millennium.

Yours most fervently,

David Drummond
South Florida, U.S.A

What a shame about Randy's mom.  I think Randy would be

a little miffed with her attitude because it seems completely at

odds with what 'Spirit' the band was.  I've recently been playing my

old records and reading all the listings of band members and there

have been so many variations of Spirit groups, even one without Randy,

it just seems a shame.

Things can change.

We can hope.

Peace

Larry Parkes

Just found your web site and it brought back memories of seeing the

band at Friars Club Aylesbury (England) . Everyone I was with just wanted to

see Marillion (local band made good) but having been listening to Spirit

albums for years it was great to see them in action. I think it was about 1981

and Potatoland had just had it's official release, I can't remember what

they played but I do remember the Wild Thing encore being replayed over the

PA after the band had left the stage. It was a good night and I know it

turned several of my friends onto what they thought was just another one of my

old Hippie bands.  I lost track of the band in the 90's and I am sorry to

Learn of Randy's passing. 

An English Spirit Fan

I have been an avid Spirit fan since I first listened to their music on 8-track back in the late '60's. Even back then, the music era of innovation, Spirit's music was ratcheted upward an extra notch or two or three on that wonderful scale of innovation for those times. I had all their long-play releases.

A devastating tornado hit Lubbock in 1970 and killed 24 people (where I grew up). Spirit played a concert at the Lubbock Municipal Auditorium shortly after this disaster and donated that night's profits, as I understood it, to go towards a relief fund benefiting those impacted by the tornado.

I'll never forget this! Spirit, I salute you, even all these years later. And the concert was great too, of course!

Steve Buchanan

Nashville, Tennessee

It was new years eve 1969 at the old Eagles auditorium in Seattle that I saw Spirit. Needless to say that the crowd and the band were in festive spirits.   Ed with his 69 tee shirt and huge gong with a light show backdrop. Fresh Garbage, it doesnt get any better than that!  

John Austin

god im so sorry about randy s death!!!  i have been trying to find out

about members of spirit for many years... i just found this website..  i have

been a fan of theirs since the very beginning!!! i am a drummer, a bass

player, and keyboard player and songwriter, greatly influenced by randy and ed

especially!!  one of my favorite drummers of all time,, along with gene

krupa..  i can t believe randy is gone he will never be forgotten!!!

I live in sarasota  fla. now and just finished  a new cd. with my band the

touch.  glad ed is still keeping the spirit alive!!!!!   your friend  and biggest fan,

dale b. henry

1st exposure to Spirit were the 'Family...' & '12 Dreams' albums in

'71. Purchased '12 Dreams' w/ paper route money; it was that important!

Intrigued by 'Kaptain Kopter''s title & bassist. Potatoland. Never had

an opportunity to see them until moving to T.O. from Montreal, '76,

opening for P. Frampton; was there when gates opened. 'Spirit of '76'

WAS that summer for me.

Next time I saw them was at a more intimate venue, tour bus parked a

ways down the street. Again,there early, as no reserved seats. Look at

all the people; they're into Spirit, too[had to be, as it was November&

COLD].Cab pulls up & Ed, Randy&Tour Mgr. from '76' album get out. Wow!

Will never forget Randy saying prior to a song that night[Hey Joe?],"I

saw a beautiful thing at the Border Crossing at Windsor when we were on

our way here...'HANDGUNS PROHIBITED' on the Canada Customs

sign."[Thanks, Randy]!

I always liked Spirit, & when I found out Randy drowned trying to save

his son, I felt quite sad, yet I found it fitting[if death could ever

be], since I got a sense that Randy was a noble soul. Play on,

Brother-I'll miss looking forward to a new song or show.

Thomas Broden

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