TS------I did a quick google of Ed Cassidy. He played with alist of jazz greats longer than my right arm. No mention of the pyramids though. Also checked out Randy California, who was his stepson at one point . Randy died in 1997 while saving his son from drowning. Their first three albums are timeless and really showcase them at their peak.(IMO).I played 6 Bucks A Night (reference to the album cover) so many times you could probably blow smoke though it but I still have it here somewhere.
Aaah, yes. Classic TV. There were a lot of guitar innstrumentals in the 60's, right around the time the Beatles and the British "invasion" was percolating the instrumental guitar track was pretty strong. Glad you enjoyed it, Chatty! Thanks for the pics!
Ed Cassidy - waysider's got the 411 on him. He was the drummer in Spirit, indeed. Spirit, one of the lesser known bands of the 60's, out of L.A. Randy California - ! His signature sound was a smooth sustained tone, and he played great. They played a lot in California, where I saw them a ocuple times at Bill Graham's Winterland and Fillmore, maybe more at Fillmore. Long time ago. :) . Excellent band. I think their lead singer did a solo career after leaving Spirit and had a hit or two, I know I was hearing his stuff for awhile. They were a good live band. A lot of the 60's bands of the psychedlic era as it's called, weren't that good live. Spirit really played well.
Couple cuts - they had a top 40 hit with I Got a Line On You and it kind show California's range for pop.
And this one - this tune's rattled around over the years, I hear it every once in blue moon on something. It has a very familiar sound to it, so someone may know more of where it's been used - Nature's Way
I just listened to Socks's "How Long", and, it was most excellent! And man could I play the harps to that tune! I will get 'em out and figure what key you are in Socks and give it a go. Oh man oh man, to be able to play with talent like you Socks would be such a treat. We do have some of that here in Juneau, but, with the Family and all, and work, and most "music things" happening at night and in bars, I just can't "get there" these days. but I surely do love to play music like that tune of yourn....
Nature's Way was a song done by a band called "Spirit" The album was called "The Twelve Dreams Of Dr. Sardonicas". It took me back (just now) to my LSD days, and made me laugh to hear it. There was another somg on that album called "The Animal Zoo" which was pretty funny with the "hook line being "much too fat and a little too long".
That was a nice blast form the past Socks. Thanks bruthah!
And hey. I now hava CD of some tunes I did. I'd like to post them here but I am technologically challenged. If you would send me your snail mail address once again, I will mail you a copy, and you could post that song here. And, I swear to you, I'll follow through. You can e-mail me at nyetribe@gci.net
Spirit - I would fall more to your opinion of them waysider, and my two sample don't really do justice to their whole range of music. I really like them in their day. Randy California's death was tragic to be sure, I remember reading about it.
The 60's era produced a lot of bands and music. In California there was a kind of "line" between the north and south, San Francisco and Los Angeles. Some of the bands associated with either area weren't really generic to that area (Steve Miller and San Francisco, as an example) but they settled there and worked, recorded, etc. and were closely identified with it.
But a lot of the bands that seemed to really have it going on never had the reputations, or got much if any national media recognition. "The Loading Zone" with Linda Tillery singing were CRAZY good. Funky, jazzy, tight, interesting improvisation. "The Sons of Champlin" are another, often referred to as the best "unknown" S.F. Bay Area band. Both had albums released and performed, and while some were sketchy (The Sons could take 20 minutes just uh, finding their way onstage and getting tuned up). they had ain identifiable and repeatable live sound.
Spirit was a little like that in that they didn't quite hit it nationally, although they did have some radio play. Randy California is known amongst musicians as a unique guitarist. He could really rip live and played several styles well. Their music always seemed like a personal discovery and telling someone about them was a little like passing on a tip - "Check these guys out and tell me what you think".
I don't have anything else digital around, but off their first album "Fresh Garbage" is full of classic Spirit sound. They were one of the earliest band I remember making statements about the environment in a clever and musical way.
Thanks Jonny! I'm witya. Want to hear your stuff, I know it's sure to please. I'm still getting that vocal squared away, I'm putting TomS verse in with the second one. So it's in the works. It's in E.
I love that kind of blues. I pictured that as a - don't know if this makes sense - but like a Road Runner cartoon. Which brings up a question - is the Road Runner male or female? I dunno. But if RR was a goil, she'd be in that car and showing up every once in awhile, as Wile E. is building these wild contraptions to get his car back, and she'd pull up, he'd go "KABOOM!" and she spins off sprroooooooink in the car again. Some mayhem, mixed with solid blues. So the first solo section has the guitar with a kind of "nanner nanner I got yer car" sounding riff and then takes off into the first solo guitar verse. The other sections try to do the same thing.
ChattingKathy... try (just try) out listening to "The Twelve Dreams of Dr. Sardonicus" one time all the way through... I still listen to it and have it on my MP3 player...
The list is very, very short IMO of "rock albums" that are any better than this one... (again IMO, it's a top fiver)
Check it out. Nature's Way is from that album Chatty, and although I wouldn't describe that song as the "sound" of the band, that's kind of how they were, lots of variety. And I have to say, it's REALly intersting that now here we are, all this time later, and we know about theur music. So many bands and collectives come and go and make no lasting mark and as Tom says, they really did put out some memorable stuff.
'S Weird and one of the beauti-ous things about music I guess. I like them, and liked most of their stuff. Live they were a good band, Jay Ferguson, the lead singer (finally remembered his name) was a good performer and front for the group, with Randy California. The drummer, Ed, was older than the rest of the band and kind of stood out with the shaved head. Randy had such a sweet smooth guitar tone for a lot of his stuff, kind of a smoothed out fuzztone "oooooooooh" tone. But at the same time I never liked using that particular tone myself, except if a song called for it. It just wasn't my personal preference. So go figgah! :)
Socks------I just hopped out of my SAN FRAN time machine (ie: I gave another old LP a spin). COLD BLOOD. Man, what a sound though not much "geetar".I listened to "Sisyphus'. ( he was that Greek cat who had to keep rolling the rock up the hill only to see it roll back down the other side.) Lydia Pense cut loose on "Your Good Thing" with an intensity even ETTA hasn't been able to match. As for SPIRIT, "The Family That Plays Together" (aka $6 Bucks a Night ) did it for me . There is a cut on side 2 called "JEWISH" that begs to be translated. Wish I knew someone who knows what he was saying. Hmmmmm.
You know, I really liked that "12 Dreams" album. A friend of mine who moved out from the city (DC) to the "burbs" where I lived turned me onto that band Spirit. We used to get stoned and laugh hilariously to the song Animal Zoo. "Much too fat and a little too long! Much too fat and a little too long!" My DC friend John "Guacamole" Murray seemed to be hooked into all kinds of music that I was not aware of. He was pretty hip on a lot of stuff. He turned me on to another band called "Wishbone Ash" also, and we went and saw them in Baltimore one time.
But, the song "Nature's Way" by Spirit seemed to really get me to thinking about the "plight of Mankind". And later, when I worked on ships crossing the Atlantic, I was deeply disturbed about having to dump raw crude oil into the Ocean as part of my daily duties. At first I refused to do it until they told me that I would be kicked off the ship when we got to Spain if I didn't do my duty. But I thought of that song "Nature's Way" as I dumped raw crude into the sea, hoping that there was a pardon for me.
It's Nature's way of telling you, something's wroooong....It's Nature's Way it's Nature's Way......"
Wishbone Ash! ...thanks for the memory jogger Lingo... I had their first three albums (don't recall why I lost interest in them after that, oh yeah, a cult I got into discouraged that sort of thing)...
They were from the UK and were one of the first groups to have twin lead guitarists IIRC... good stuff indeed!
Waysider, that's a great album - Cold Blood's Sisyphus. The singer Lydia Pense reminds me of another group Ten Wheel Drive with Genya Revan - 2 great tunes on their Best of - Tightrope and Eye of the Needle...And on the Jeff Beck front - after ordering Beckology from Amazon - and waiting about a month I finally get an email from them it's no longer available...I ain't giving up! It's out there somewhere - may hit the used CD shops next.
Thanks - that's me on my Grandpa's porch in Nova Scotia - I've got that "thinks he knows what he's talking about look" on - which works pretty well on this Guitar thread -
Yeah Tom, I remember the "twin lead" guitars. In fact, when I saw them ion Baltimore, I remember that one of those guitars was one of those "flying V" shaped deals. I am sure that one of the good folks here know what you are really supposed to call that shape of a guitar. I wonder what kind it was?
Thanks - that's me on my Grandpa's porch in Nova Scotia - I've got that "thinks he knows what he's talking about look" on - which works pretty well on this Guitar thread -
It should be made into a greeting card cover. :)
And you put me to shame here so I'd not cut yourself short.
The Explorer shown there is also a very cool guitar. The guy that got me started on the guitar had a custom Explorer builit, similar to the one on the left, but with an additional cut similar to the Flying V, so it was a one of a kind combo of both. He played some cu-razy stuff on that guitar.
The V's are su-weet!
Cold Blood are alive and well, by the way. Sounding very good. They did a gig at the Fillmore in San Francisco several months ago, with Tower of Power. Double bill, and it was great, all the way around.
Yo - Socks - Tower of Power - now there's a hefty group! I remember an old concert at Fillmore East - Mountain, Tower of Power and Mylon LeFevre and Holy Smoke...Have you ever heard Mylon's tune "We Believe that Peace begins within" ? - man oh man it's smokin'
Didn't Skip M. & Dave G. do some work with Tower of Power or am I mistaken?--- OH!-----Another great one from that same era: Zephyr ,starring the original "Hard Drivin' Woman", Candy Givens. This was one of Tommy Bolin's early projects before he moved on to Deep Purple and James Gang. Yet another guitarist who stretched the limits of his instrument. He really cut loose on Zephyr and showed his bluesy side.---About the Flying V----That axe was to Albert King what the duck walk was to Chuck Berry.
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waysider
TS------I did a quick google of Ed Cassidy. He played with alist of jazz greats longer than my right arm. No mention of the pyramids though. Also checked out Randy California, who was his stepson at one point . Randy died in 1997 while saving his son from drowning. Their first three albums are timeless and really showcase them at their peak.(IMO).I played 6 Bucks A Night (reference to the album cover) so many times you could probably blow smoke though it but I still have it here somewhere.
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socks
Aaah, yes. Classic TV. There were a lot of guitar innstrumentals in the 60's, right around the time the Beatles and the British "invasion" was percolating the instrumental guitar track was pretty strong. Glad you enjoyed it, Chatty! Thanks for the pics!
Ed Cassidy - waysider's got the 411 on him. He was the drummer in Spirit, indeed. Spirit, one of the lesser known bands of the 60's, out of L.A. Randy California - ! His signature sound was a smooth sustained tone, and he played great. They played a lot in California, where I saw them a ocuple times at Bill Graham's Winterland and Fillmore, maybe more at Fillmore. Long time ago. :) . Excellent band. I think their lead singer did a solo career after leaving Spirit and had a hit or two, I know I was hearing his stuff for awhile. They were a good live band. A lot of the 60's bands of the psychedlic era as it's called, weren't that good live. Spirit really played well.
Couple cuts - they had a top 40 hit with I Got a Line On You and it kind show California's range for pop.
And this one - this tune's rattled around over the years, I hear it every once in blue moon on something. It has a very familiar sound to it, so someone may know more of where it's been used - Nature's Way
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J0nny Ling0
Hey Now.
I just listened to Socks's "How Long", and, it was most excellent! And man could I play the harps to that tune! I will get 'em out and figure what key you are in Socks and give it a go. Oh man oh man, to be able to play with talent like you Socks would be such a treat. We do have some of that here in Juneau, but, with the Family and all, and work, and most "music things" happening at night and in bars, I just can't "get there" these days. but I surely do love to play music like that tune of yourn....
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J0nny Ling0
Nature's Way was a song done by a band called "Spirit" The album was called "The Twelve Dreams Of Dr. Sardonicas". It took me back (just now) to my LSD days, and made me laugh to hear it. There was another somg on that album called "The Animal Zoo" which was pretty funny with the "hook line being "much too fat and a little too long".
That was a nice blast form the past Socks. Thanks bruthah!
And hey. I now hava CD of some tunes I did. I'd like to post them here but I am technologically challenged. If you would send me your snail mail address once again, I will mail you a copy, and you could post that song here. And, I swear to you, I'll follow through. You can e-mail me at nyetribe@gci.net
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J0nny Ling0
And OBVIOUSLY I had not read the posts preceeding the posts that I put down, because you all were already discussing "Spirit". Sorry bout that.....
JL
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ChattyKathy
socksman, I listened to them both twice. :( But I don't care for it. Your stuff is much better man!
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socks
Well, thank ya Chatty! Hey,you have great taste.
Spirit - I would fall more to your opinion of them waysider, and my two sample don't really do justice to their whole range of music. I really like them in their day. Randy California's death was tragic to be sure, I remember reading about it.
The 60's era produced a lot of bands and music. In California there was a kind of "line" between the north and south, San Francisco and Los Angeles. Some of the bands associated with either area weren't really generic to that area (Steve Miller and San Francisco, as an example) but they settled there and worked, recorded, etc. and were closely identified with it.
Some of the San Francisco bands that were part of the "hippie © " era weren't always that good in performance, IMO and probably sounded best on their albums. Jefferson Airplaine would be an example. While they certainly had talent in the band, especially early on, live they were pretty thin. I only saw them a couple times and figured, that's enough of that. The Starship with Mickey Thomas and Grace Slick together was good, but that was really a whole different thing. Other bands like Big Brother and the Holding Company seemed to have good musicians but live - forget it.
But a lot of the bands that seemed to really have it going on never had the reputations, or got much if any national media recognition. "The Loading Zone" with Linda Tillery singing were CRAZY good. Funky, jazzy, tight, interesting improvisation. "The Sons of Champlin" are another, often referred to as the best "unknown" S.F. Bay Area band. Both had albums released and performed, and while some were sketchy (The Sons could take 20 minutes just uh, finding their way onstage and getting tuned up). they had ain identifiable and repeatable live sound.
Spirit was a little like that in that they didn't quite hit it nationally, although they did have some radio play. Randy California is known amongst musicians as a unique guitarist. He could really rip live and played several styles well. Their music always seemed like a personal discovery and telling someone about them was a little like passing on a tip - "Check these guys out and tell me what you think".
I don't have anything else digital around, but off their first album "Fresh Garbage" is full of classic Spirit sound. They were one of the earliest band I remember making statements about the environment in a clever and musical way.
Anyhoo.....
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socks
Thanks Jonny! I'm witya. Want to hear your stuff, I know it's sure to please. I'm still getting that vocal squared away, I'm putting TomS verse in with the second one. So it's in the works. It's in E.
I love that kind of blues. I pictured that as a - don't know if this makes sense - but like a Road Runner cartoon. Which brings up a question - is the Road Runner male or female? I dunno. But if RR was a goil, she'd be in that car and showing up every once in awhile, as Wile E. is building these wild contraptions to get his car back, and she'd pull up, he'd go "KABOOM!" and she spins off sprroooooooink in the car again. Some mayhem, mixed with solid blues.
So the first solo section has the guitar with a kind of "nanner nanner I got yer car" sounding riff and then takes off into the first solo guitar verse. The other sections try to do the same thing.
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Tom Strange
ChattingKathy... try (just try) out listening to "The Twelve Dreams of Dr. Sardonicus" one time all the way through... I still listen to it and have it on my MP3 player...
The list is very, very short IMO of "rock albums" that are any better than this one... (again IMO, it's a top fiver)
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ChattyKathy
Okay I will.
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socks
Check it out. Nature's Way is from that album Chatty, and although I wouldn't describe that song as the "sound" of the band, that's kind of how they were, lots of variety. And I have to say, it's REALly intersting that now here we are, all this time later, and we know about theur music. So many bands and collectives come and go and make no lasting mark and as Tom says, they really did put out some memorable stuff.
'S Weird and one of the beauti-ous things about music I guess. I like them, and liked most of their stuff. Live they were a good band, Jay Ferguson, the lead singer (finally remembered his name) was a good performer and front for the group, with Randy California. The drummer, Ed, was older than the rest of the band and kind of stood out with the shaved head. Randy had such a sweet smooth guitar tone for a lot of his stuff, kind of a smoothed out fuzztone "oooooooooh" tone. But at the same time I never liked using that particular tone myself, except if a song called for it. It just wasn't my personal preference. So go figgah! :)
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waysider
Socks------I just hopped out of my SAN FRAN time machine (ie: I gave another old LP a spin). COLD BLOOD. Man, what a sound though not much "geetar".I listened to "Sisyphus'. ( he was that Greek cat who had to keep rolling the rock up the hill only to see it roll back down the other side.) Lydia Pense cut loose on "Your Good Thing" with an intensity even ETTA hasn't been able to match. As for SPIRIT, "The Family That Plays Together" (aka $6 Bucks a Night ) did it for me . There is a cut on side 2 called "JEWISH" that begs to be translated. Wish I knew someone who knows what he was saying. Hmmmmm.
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J0nny Ling0
You know, I really liked that "12 Dreams" album. A friend of mine who moved out from the city (DC) to the "burbs" where I lived turned me onto that band Spirit. We used to get stoned and laugh hilariously to the song Animal Zoo. "Much too fat and a little too long! Much too fat and a little too long!" My DC friend John "Guacamole" Murray seemed to be hooked into all kinds of music that I was not aware of. He was pretty hip on a lot of stuff. He turned me on to another band called "Wishbone Ash" also, and we went and saw them in Baltimore one time.
But, the song "Nature's Way" by Spirit seemed to really get me to thinking about the "plight of Mankind". And later, when I worked on ships crossing the Atlantic, I was deeply disturbed about having to dump raw crude oil into the Ocean as part of my daily duties. At first I refused to do it until they told me that I would be kicked off the ship when we got to Spain if I didn't do my duty. But I thought of that song "Nature's Way" as I dumped raw crude into the sea, hoping that there was a pardon for me.
It's Nature's way of telling you, something's wroooong....It's Nature's Way it's Nature's Way......"
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Tom Strange
Wishbone Ash! ...thanks for the memory jogger Lingo... I had their first three albums (don't recall why I lost interest in them after that, oh yeah, a cult I got into discouraged that sort of thing)...
They were from the UK and were one of the first groups to have twin lead guitarists IIRC... good stuff indeed!
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T-Bone
Waysider, that's a great album - Cold Blood's Sisyphus. The singer Lydia Pense reminds me of another group Ten Wheel Drive with Genya Revan - 2 great tunes on their Best of - Tightrope and Eye of the Needle...And on the Jeff Beck front - after ordering Beckology from Amazon - and waiting about a month I finally get an email from them it's no longer available...I ain't giving up! It's out there somewhere - may hit the used CD shops next.
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ChattyKathy
T-Bone, that is the cutest avatar.
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T-Bone
Thanks - that's me on my Grandpa's porch in Nova Scotia - I've got that "thinks he knows what he's talking about look" on - which works pretty well on this Guitar thread -
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J0nny Ling0
Yeah Tom, I remember the "twin lead" guitars. In fact, when I saw them ion Baltimore, I remember that one of those guitars was one of those "flying V" shaped deals. I am sure that one of the good folks here know what you are really supposed to call that shape of a guitar. I wonder what kind it was?
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ChattyKathy
It should be made into a greeting card cover. :)
And you put me to shame here so I'd not cut yourself short.
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Tom Strange
Lingo, I think it's called "flying vee" :) Neil Young used to use one as well.
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Tom Strange
TBone, search 'beckology' on ebay... there are three there.
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socks
Ah, the Flying V - Wikipedia has a nice brief write up on it - HERE
Some more stuff and cool vintage pics HERE
The Explorer shown there is also a very cool guitar. The guy that got me started on the guitar had a custom Explorer builit, similar to the one on the left, but with an additional cut similar to the Flying V, so it was a one of a kind combo of both. He played some cu-razy stuff on that guitar.
The V's are su-weet!
Cold Blood are alive and well, by the way. Sounding very good. They did a gig at the Fillmore in San Francisco several months ago, with Tower of Power. Double bill, and it was great, all the way around.
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T-Bone
Yo - Socks - Tower of Power - now there's a hefty group! I remember an old concert at Fillmore East - Mountain, Tower of Power and Mylon LeFevre and Holy Smoke...Have you ever heard Mylon's tune "We Believe that Peace begins within" ? - man oh man it's smokin'
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waysider
Didn't Skip M. & Dave G. do some work with Tower of Power or am I mistaken?--- OH!-----Another great one from that same era: Zephyr ,starring the original "Hard Drivin' Woman", Candy Givens. This was one of Tommy Bolin's early projects before he moved on to Deep Purple and James Gang. Yet another guitarist who stretched the limits of his instrument. He really cut loose on Zephyr and showed his bluesy side.---About the Flying V----That axe was to Albert King what the duck walk was to Chuck Berry.
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