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From: exdoomorbedoomed
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  • one of the great, great dance tunes from the 60's! they don't make music today like they did back then...i'm so glad that was when i grew up...what a rush...love that bass...can't get enough of it!

  • "Twelve Dreams of Dr. Sardonicus."  Buy it.

  • There will never be a Spirit...without Randy California......sorry all of you "I played with Him", No Doors without Jim Morrison!

  • NATURES WAY.Today Spirit would top em all

  • Look at all of the hacks that have the balls to go out and call themselves Spirit and play under the auspice of Randy. A bunch of old has been farts who know a 1-4-5 guitar riff and say their Spirit. What a joke! Like Paul McCartney calls himself the Beatles! One John Lennon, and one Randy California! Period! Get a life Dudes!

  • R.I.P. bbluhmfan!

  • The album "Spirit" is one of my all time favorite albums (that I recently rediscovered in my collection while importing my CDs to iTunes). You never hear these songs on the radio. Everyone should have a copy of the "Spirit" album in the least.

  • R.I.P. Randi California!

  • the drummer, looks wise was decades ahead of his time......his looks are from a contemporary era

  • @inkey2 that's Randy's step father. We opened for them in 96 and he was pushing 70 and solid as hell.

  • I saw them in San Bernardino at the Swing Auditorium. Great concert.

  • THEY PLAYED THE WEST PALM BEACH POP FESTIVAL IN 1969 LATE APROX MIDNIGHT WHEN EVERYONE WAS CRASHING. IT HAD RAINED AND PEOPLE WERE GRIPING ABOUT THE WET FIELD AND SLOPPY CONDITIONS. SPIRIT WASN'T SCHEDULED TO COME ON TILL SUNDAY AFTERNOON. THEY OPENED WITH I GOT A LINE ON YOU AND THE WHOLE 16,000 WAS THEIR FEET AND ROCKING. I WAS THERE TO SEE THE STONES BUT BETWEEN SPIRIT, SLY AND THE FAMILY STONE,VANELLA FUDGE AND JANIS JOPLIN THE STONES WERE HARD PRESSED TO BEAT THOSE INDIVIUAL SHOWS.

  • Who could possible care about the drummer bein kinfolk with randy???? Take some more acid...oh you fools!!

  • Remember seeing Spirit at Fillmore East around 1970 and the drummer Ed Cassidy getting the loudest applause when he walked on stage because well there werent too many rockers with shaved heats back then.

  • @MrAnchor52 yeah and he was also around 45 years old , I saw them around the same time In Frederick Md , I was thinking the drummer is the same age as my Dad.

  • Great song and video! Saw Spirit a tad later when Ferguson and Andes were gone but they were 2nd on the bill to Aerosmith!  Link Wray opened the show! Now we're talking!

  • @sezwhom i think they formed JO-JO Gun

  • THIS IS, AND ALWAYS WILL BE ONE OF MY FAVORITE SONGS I GREW UP WITH. STILL LOVE TO HEAR IT ON THE RADIO.

  • me and my band use to play this back in the late 60s early 70s. great song

  • i beat they got line  on drugs

  • Is spirit one of the  first heavy metal bands?

    yes, or no

    Curious

  • @Freyja1133

    no, they're psychedelic. they were hippies for real, in Ojai, CA

    i don't know why you say metal. Alice Cooper does a metal/sexy cover of this song.

  • Little known fact. Led Zppelin opened for them in Denver for their US gig.

  • The Drummer looks like Heizenburg from AMC's Breakin bad!

  • Yul Brynner on drums.

  • BElieve it or not, I saw these guys at a CA festival the same summer as Woodstock, along with Jimi Hendrix, and they rocked.

  • @sarahjules11 jimi had a group with randi before the experiance randi was suppose to replace mike bloomfield on the super session record when he couldnt finish it they couldnt get him so al kooper called steve stills instead

  • Ed The Head...

  • didnt the lineup change before the dr. sarc,album (natures way)?

  • California helped Jimmy Hendrix get started!

    

  • Randy California, god the boys were always fucked up.....a good thing. We opened up for them on a few occasions, beer at 6AM and one hell of a buzz!

  • @HaightandAshbury really ? mark andes was ann wilson's boyfriend for a while , when he joined heart

  • WOW, gotta love these guys.... they were an inspiration for so many future bands, did you know Led Zep backed them up after this hit on their tour in 1968.... They mentioned their inspiration when Bibby, Teddy, Kirbs, and I saw Zep in Chicago 1972/73 era ...

  • Is the Jay Ferguson that sang with Spirit the same Jay Ferguson that later did Thunder Island? I was just a bit too young for the Spirit era but I distinctly remember in the '70's a killer song called Thunder Island by a Jay Fergusin. If it is the same guy....VERY COOL! I loved Thunder Island.

  • @TheAxe4Ever .............yes that is the same jay ferguson..he also played with jo jo gunne... jay is a great artist..

  • Fresh garbage!

  • It was great to find this. My elder brother was a huge fan of Spirit and I grew up listening to them. Thanks for the upload

  • Wonderful video, I say these guys a couple of times in the late 1960's. What a surprise they were! Tim Hardin opened for them in Chicago and the crowd was so crazy to see Spirit that poor Tim got frustrated and practically walked off the stage.

    Then the show began..................Great, one of the most under-rated groups of all time.

    Thanks so much for the video, I had no idea it even existed.

  • @joeledels Spirit was underrated but...those that followed them were loyal to the extreme !They had a strong following in the University crowd in the West and Midwest. I don't know about the east coast..

  • uncle fester on drums

  • What an amazing clip. Thanks for posting.

  • Amazing, how many music videos there were before MTV came along.

  • Happy belated birthday to you, Ed. The oldest rocker still alive. Happy 88th!

  • What was truly unusual in these times was a bald person who was cool...

  • At bars, in the early '70's, whenever the band would announce "here's one from Spirit." you knew it would be this one.

  • Had the pleasure of seeing these guys at Rock City Nottingham UK around 1981- then saw Randy on his own couple of years later at Retford porterhouse......wicked memories.....

  • what can you say IT'S SPIRT

  • Some them in KC in 1985 and they actually formed a receiving line near the entrance , after the show !!! I was sitting so close to the stage Randy actually put the mic in my face to start "Animal Zoo" ,so I sang in to it !!! Truly one of the most underrated bands EVER !!! Their sound was at once physcadelic/rock/yet somehow nuturing. Not to mention ecological/environmental long before it was fashionable. Bryce Abood are you out there? Take another listen ...

  • I saw Sprit several times in the late sixties. Although they were doing well financially, Randy California always used his original Sears and Roebuck "Silvertone" guitar (buiilt by Danelectro). Always sounded great.

  • YES THIS SHOULD HAVE BEEN #1, IT PEAKED AT #25 AND WAS ON THE BILLBOARD CHART FOR 12 WEEKS. I WAS 19 WHEN THIS SONG CAME OUT AND AND AT 61 IT STILL ROCKS ! I LOVE THE BASS 3 CHORDS UP 3 CHORDS DOWN ROCK IS NEVER DIE!

  • @AOS1738 A lot of good music that year (1969) didn't crack the Top 10 or even the Top 20. Only real answer: There was too much creativity and good music that year. So, some really good music (like this) got crowded out of the Top 10. Even the low-charting songs that year were pretty good.

  • @AOS1738 I am 61 too and so still love this and many others! 

  • @AOS1738 mark andes on bass is cool, he was great in heart too, untill his fling with ann wilson got in the way

  • @AOS1738 yep ..it was the bass. Never had heard anything like it before.

  • @GreensBayou1 this song is almost 43 years old, it's a song from my youth. i know better song have been written over the years. but i have alway liked this one. if asked to put in to words what i like about this song i would say...it moves from first note to last...it moves, and yes i love the bass.

  • Great song and featuring the first skinhead rocker years before that dude from Midnight Oil made the scene..

  • @pcsbeat lmao

  • @pcsbeat His name is Ed Cassidy and he was born around 1925. I saw them in concert in 1971 and I was thinking the drummer is the same age as my Dad :D

  • Goes to show you the general public has less than no taste or this group would have been #1 for years and years !

  • I saw Alice Cooper at Pirates World but do not remember Spirit but maybe it was a different time, it was 1970 for me. I did get to see Spirit at the Paramount Theater Palm Beach Fl 1974 or 75. Saw Jo Jo Gunne at WPB Auditorium with Black Oak Arkansas and lynyrd skynyrd Dec 31 1974 I think. Too many years ago.......

  • @runthruthewoods ah the paramount theater..many memories, it is now a church!!

  • isn't that jay ferguson on tambourine from jojo gunne? AWESOME band in concert if you had ever had the chance to see them..saw them early 1970s at the west palm beach auditorium

  • I know you have to remember the warehouse in new orleans on tchopotoulas street....and o yea microdot and Allmans on sat.night.man my time is gettin short now

  • @stinkykuntz ah yes the micro dot and the barrells and the blotter. Black beautys, thc, nal.

    The shape of things that were. Time does seem to be closin in. Oh well.......................

    No regrets.

  • Even if you were an innovative band like Spirit, camera directors would still find a way to try and put a band in a "Monkees" type setting. Sheesh!

  • RIP Randy (2 jan 1997)

  • Gorman Ramallah said ??

  • If I remember correctly, that was why Spirit was an early Topanga Canyon thing...Ed Cassidy (and Randy) lived close to the Center.

  • Wow ..cassidy was randys stepdad............i...did not know that

  • @jeffsdolphin yes, and mark andes was ann wilson's boyfriend while in heart

  • This vid is straight outta Monkee-ville. But what the hell, the 60's weren't really about oriignality......

  • 'love that steam engine at (0:36) ..

  • Now this is rock!

    One of the best ever made!

  • My Grandfather saw Spirit live at The Warehouse in New Orleans in 1971. My grandfather is also my guitar teacher. He gave me all of his Spirit albums from his vinyl collection and I now have them all on CD. Also got Randy California's Kapt. Copter check out the CD of Spirit The Last Euro Tour. Great stuff. And if my name was Hazel you could say: Hooray for Hazel!

  • Same Jay Ferguson as "Thunder Island"; he also wrote the theme for "The Office". One of the most underrated American groups ever, (along with Moby Grape).

  • Is the Jay Furgeson from Spirit the same Jay Furgeson that sang Thunder Island?

  • @Db60Dc19 Yes he was the guy!

  • @Db60Dc19 Yes he was the guy! He was also in Jo Jo Gunne " Run Run Run

  • @Db60Dc19 yes!!!

  • What an amazing song. I've loved it for years but always thought they were a one-hit wonder. I was very, very, wrong. I'm in the midst of downloading their albums now from emusic and these guys were the equals of late 60's Pink Floyd easily. Awesome psychedelic rock.

  • Jay Furgeson and Randy California were like Lenon and Mccartny. Where did you dig this up? geezus!Forricecakesthat was acooluploadthankyouywhoeveryou­are

  • WHAT HAPPEND TO AMRK ANDES ?

  • @babyj1996 Mark Andes lives in Texas. I saw him in 2008 at the Saxon Pub in Austin when he played with Fever Tree Rising.

  • @jade0425 how long was he involed with ann wilson ?

  • @alexmonger11 Sorry, but I don't know the answer to your question.

  • Too bad the new music of today can't show the same level of creativity. Most of what we hear today in pop is hate , violence and disrespect for women.

  • Nice track but sound quality is poor

  • This song makes me want to lead police on a three-state chase in a Barracuda.

  • @SnuffyWuffles LOL...nice

  • One of my all time favourite songs....takes me way back. Thanks for posting.

  • the best driving song ever!

  • song got lots ov air play in cda back then , cuse i still have the record

  • I bought this album the first day it came out. Still one of my all time favorites.

  • spirit

  • Got airplay in LA, but the really good songs really never really got played until late at night.

    Radio stations then were far better than they are today...they still suffered from men who had an agenda, men who thought they knew what *we* wanted to hear. Men who shaped what so many did hear.

    Happens more today than way back when. "Cept today it's Men *and* Women who decide what the masses should listen to.

    Traffic, "Dear Mr. Fantasy"? Never would hear it today. et al

  • anyone have cadillac cowboys?

  • I can remember when this song first came out.....and got a look at the drummer....everyone thought he was so weird looking, absolutely no one shaved their head back then (unless you were crazy in a mental institution).......but today he looks quite contemporary

  • @inkey2 Well, not "no one", but it was fairly rare. Take a look at pictures of the instrumental band, the Pyramids.

    On the obscure tip, I Pelati out of Italy were all cleanheads and the Monks, a US band based in Germany shaved their heads into tonsures and walked around in monk's robes when they were a band.

  • Here is a bit of trivia. Randi's real name was Randy Wolf. Before Spirit he was in a local NY band called The Tangerine Puppets. This early band featured Tommy Erdely on guitar and Johnny Cummings on bass. Tommy and Johnny would later go on to creat The Ramones.

  • Classic and WAY under-rated song.

  • godddddaamn that was me a # of decades ago  so cheer up

  • i never knew they made this video.......Great!!!!

  • Love this, my husband used to sing this to me when we were dating,great memories!!!

  • Cassidy was cool but, Telly Savalas was cool and bald back in the 50's. Who loves ya baby! In the series he sucked on a lollipop instead of smoking. Now that's cool!!

  • I heard both these guys put their heads together one night & made someone's ass, lmao.

  • Ed Cassidy was Kojak before Kojak.

  • I put "12 Dreams" (I Got a Line on You not on it, but doesn't matter) in a league with Sgt Pepper, Exile on Main Street, Graceland, Dark Side of the Moon, Led Zep I, Are You Experienced? Exuberant, experimental, great karma coming off everyone....really swings. Gonna buy it for my two nieces this Xmas. They are 24 and 26. The 24 year old and her band are going back to SXSW, Austin in March.

  • Love this video....love this band....!!!!

  • the best rock group to come out of the west coast, love randi california and cass cassidy, we need more spirit in our music

  • Wikipedia-They recorded and performed as Spirit until January 2, 1997: that day, Randy California drowned in the ocean while rescuing his twelve-year-old son from a rip current near the home of Bernice Pearl at Molokai, Hawaii. He managed to push his son Quinn (who survived) towards the shore but sadly could not save himself from the strong undercurrent that swept him away.

  • This song really came together as far as a recipe for a hit in the late 60's but the competition was really great and the tide was beginning to change direction! I still listen to this song and many others from that point in time.

  • AWESOME POST !!!

  • Yeah the bald dude was the brother of Lurch on Addams Family and also Randy California's step-dad. He's pretty cool for an old dude. I have the 45 of this. Always loved this song. Their other song 1984 was a good one. New Yrs 84 my friendw & I played 1984 that New Yrs at midnite thinking something prophetic might happen. It didn't lol.

  • Should be friends and not friendw. Typos lol.

  • To me I always visually identified Spiit with the bald guy with the shades. He was the logo, the first bald rocker. Little did I know that I the long haired hippie kid would eventually look just like him, with a foot long Mr . Natural hanging from my chin.

  • One of the best rockin' supertunes ever !Great video and info.

  • I didn't realize John Malkovich played the drums...

  • Memories memories live on...great song!

  • This song should have been a #1 hit-

  • @maida1982a

    it got lots of airplay in L.A.

  • @maida1982a I saw them do this live at Pirate's World in Dania, Fla. when they opened for Alice Cooper, it must have been some time near early 1970. I liked them a whole lot more than Cooper.

  • @4tomoconnor i remember pirates world....that was so cool have fun and then see the concerts unfortunately missed spirit but saw them at the west palm beach auditorium..saw emerson lake and palmer, black sabbath, and its a wonderful day..wow what memories

  • @phoebepeepers Great. I'm glad I'm not the only one here that remembers that great place. Yeah, you took a date to the place, had a blast, and then hit the concert. I was living in Hollywood at the time so it was real close.

  • OMG This is awesome...I saw Spirit 2x's in the 60's in NC... Always, always loved this song and "natures way'...What GREAT memories... Ashamed that most people don't even know who they are!!! I remember!!

  • What a great song & one of LA finest bands.

    Got to see them live quite few times in LA & SF during the daze.

    Don't know how known the were in the rest of the world but Spirt was known

    by us coastal Cal kids of the time.

    I'm SF myself & RC wasn't my personal guitar God

    but he could really play.

    Alway had a lot of respect for Him & Spirt.

    Great flashback-Thanks

  • Never saw them live. :( One of the most innovative bands of their time. Awesome band.

  • Kim Mitchell's version takes all the subtlely,dynamics and layers out of the song and replaces them with testoterone.

  • Great video of a KICK-ASS band. Thanks for posting.

  • i die for this song. it is one of the greatest pieces of rock music. rip mr. california

  • One hit wonders ya gotta love them great song thanks for posting.

  • they had other great songs too!

  • While that is true this is the song that they are known for.

  • Once you've seen Spirit live as I did twice at the Fillmore East,you are a fan for life!

    Randi was named "California" by Hendrix who,at the time,had two Randis' in his pre-Experience group at the time to avoid confusion.

  • Very catchy tune, great song. Song goes so well with the Burn after reading trailer.

  • YES- bands just dont get it now- "The hook "[lines] & rythym -leads w/ the vocal harmonies ... Thats what pushed good Rock bands .....

  • Allot of these POP artists remiand me of mad scientists. I was 14 in 1968 when this song came out.

  • castillianwagon..It was some freaky video for sure! They were like the Monkees on crack lol!

    I don't think back in the day my transistor radio could handle it! :)

  • I was born & raised in N Y City and was 14 when this song came out in Nov 1968 and when I heard this and other songs then I thiought we would shake the world apart ! Maybe we did !

  • I read that film of the Atlanta Pop Festival are locked up in Philadelphia. No documentary has been made of it for some reason. Tragic !

  • saw them at atlanta rock fest in 1970,awesome

  • Was that the Atlanta Pop Festival ?

  • On July 4th 1969 and 1970 we were too busy blowing the place up with fireworks in N Y City. The Italian Mafia brought about 10,000tons of them in the city each year back then.

  • How come they don't do it now?

  • Because Jack Boot Guiliani has turned N Y City into a PPOLICE STATE and Bloomberg has continued that along with the RICO laws that allow seizure of assets for organized firework dealing. This stuff has made N Y City DULL ! It taken all the color out of it ! Very sad !

  • WOW ..I don't even know what to say . In the late 70's and early 80's , we would take the train down there and have a GREAT time! I'm glad I moved than! The east coast just became too expensive for me anyways!

  • It ended in 1991. ChinaTown and fireworks in N Y City are gone. Some people still get them but themasses don't. Penn. and Conn. have some fireworks legal now and Bloomberg sends cops to fireworks stands in many places to photograph N Y plates going into those stands, then he sends cops out to arrest the people who bought stuff from them ! Florida is now where there are the most fireworks because they are legal and people have money to buy them.

  • What the hell? Thats just ridiculous!

    I live in New Mexico now and we even sell fireworks (dry as it is here).Bloomberg sounds like a total ASSHOLE!He's worried about fireworks when the Meth and crack labs are taking over?

  • Words of wisdom. Bloomberg and Giuliani are real jerks and so are all the other control freaks in the US ! In N Y they are paying cops $ 56,000.00 a year to do this and now they are actually considering selling the bridges to fund their police state. They now are going to track EVERY car entering Manhattan each day and keep the data for 30 days. Terrorists, you know. And they look down on the rest of the US !

  • I could use a slice or some fried calamari.mmmmm mmm .I did like the East coast!

  • well, shit, i live in ohio, and we sell fireworks here, we just have to sign a paper that says we are going to either kentucky or indiana, and we can buy as much as we want, technically they don't even care.

  • BRING BACK 1968 !

  • Please BURN AFTER READING

  • I just met Mark Andes in Austin back in May. He's an incredibly nice guy!!

  • Great to see this. I am one of the people who actually saw Spirit 2x. Still remember waiting on line at the Fillmore East for the second show(yeah, bands would do 2 shows a night back in the day). They opened the side door and I saw Cassidy's drum set up with gong, Randy C. and the boys. A phenomenal band. Part of the LA sound along with the Doors.

  • ~Ohhh...I remember this tune...cool...~~

  • An absulute fave of mine too. Thanks! This music endures.

  • I'm 55 years old now and WHAT A JOY TO SEE MY FAVE ROCK BANDin 2008! I caught them twice at Baltimore's Civic Center in 1968/1969 and WHAT A LIVE CONCERT!Randy's step-dad had two huge gongs surrounding him and the drums and THEY ROCKED!

    Thanks so much for this historic video in American Iconic Music! Eddie B.

  • love jay ferguson

    jo jo gunne #1 fave all time band

  • Where can I download this song? I don't find it anywhere.

  • You are going to have to buy the CD. It's a small price to pay for such uplifting music. Way better high for the money than a bottle of booze.

  • Hey they booked a trip on Jefferson Airplane at the end!

  • thats the train from knotts berry farm also used on the beach boys song sheet sloop john b and the tv show casey jones

  • Are you 100% sure on that? It looks an awful lot like some of the trains I climbed on as a kid in Los Angeles' Griffith Park "Travel Town" museum. I'd be curious to know for sure! Besides, a band with little or no budget could probably film there for next to nothing, no permit needed. Knotts Berry Farm, being the bastion of conservatism would probably look askance at these long haired cretins......

  • kinda sounds like a song rare earth coulda wrote

  • Except, I don't think Rare Earth wrote their own songs. Just did rocked-up versions of Motown songs

  • I LOVE this song AND this video! What a cool step-dad, too!

  • ONe of the absolute all time great rock songs of that or any era. It was a part of the basic narrative of that time.

  • One of my favorite songs ever. Thanx for posting!!

  • They were probably the most unusual band of their day. The music is very unique. Try listening to some of their other stuff.

  • yeah!my favorite band with earlier procol harum(a salty dog )& wishbone ash there"s the rub !my 3 best