Ferguson (vocals, percussion); John Locke (keyboards); Mark Andes (bass instrument, background vocals); Ed Cassidy (drums, percussion).Additional personnel: Matt ...
Ferguson (vocals, percussion); John Locke (keyboards); Mark Andes (bass instrument, background vocals); Ed Cassidy (drums, percussion).Additional personnel: Matt Andes (dobro).After three albums with producer Lou Adler (who had also signed them on his label, Ode), the band brought in David Briggs, who'd previously worked with Neil Young. A real sense of camaraderie and experimentation runs through this entire work, which took longer to record than any previous Spirit effort. Nature's Way has remained popular since its first appearance, and the album also includes Mr. Skin, Morning Will Come, and Animal Zoo.The album is characterized by an audacious blend of catchy pop and experimental sounds, as on the folkish, daring Why Can't I Be Free and the musically ambitious Love Has Found A Way. Unfortunately, this was the band's final album. Randy California and Ed Cassidy continued to resurrect the Spirit name over the decades, but the perfectly balanced tensions of this original lineup were gone. Here, though, the supremely focused yet adventurous playing and writing make TWELVE DREAMS OF DR. SARDONICUS Spirit's finest hour.[Reviews]Rolling Stone (3/4/71, pp.52-54) - ...A blockbuster of a record...Entertainment Weekly (11/08/96, p.69) - Seekers of esoteric musical thrills might do well to investigate these reissues of this all but forgotten West Coast band's late '60s/early '70s albums....unlike many latter-day chops flaunters, these guys mostly kept to the four-minute mark, so that even the unsuccessful experiments are mercifully brief. - Rating: B+n
mystical orientation. Led by the family duo of Hendrix-inspired guitarist Randy California and his uncle, jazz drummer Ed Cassidy (whose shaved head--some 20 years ahead of its time--was the band's visual focus), Spirit had a few idiosyncratic hits such as "I Got A Line On You." The band didn't reach its prime until Twelve Dreams, after which they promptly broke up. A loosely constructed sci-fi concept album, it contains the band's biggest hit, the ecological "Nature's Way" (complete with booming kettle drums), the surreal rock of "Animal Zoo," and the orchestral psychedelia of "Life Has Just Begun." Bristling with ideas, energy, and California's meaty guitar, Twelve Dreams exemplifies the best of the late '60s experimentalism. --Steven Mirkin
mystical orientation. Led by the family duo of Hendrix-inspired guitarist Randy California and his uncle, jazz drummer Ed Cassidy (whose shaved head--some 20 years ahead of its time--was the band's visual focus), Spirit had a few idiosyncratic hits such as "I Got A Line On You." The band didn't reach its prime until Twelve Dreams, after which they promptly broke up. A loosely constructed sci-fi concept album, it contains the band's biggest hit, the ecological "Nature's Way" (complete with booming kettle drums), the surreal rock of "Animal Zoo," and the orchestral psychedelia of "Life Has Just Begun." Bristling with ideas, energy, and California's meaty guitar, Twelve Dreams exemplifies the best of the late '60s experimentalism. --Steven Mirkin
mystical orientation. Led by the family duo of Hendrix-inspired guitarist Randy California and his uncle, jazz drummer Ed Cassidy (whose shaved head--some 20 years ahead of its time--was the band's visual focus), Spirit had a few idiosyncratic hits such as "I Got A Line On You." The band didn't reach its prime until Twelve Dreams, after which they promptly broke up. A loosely constructed sci-fi concept album, it contains the band's biggest hit, the ecological "Nature's Way" (complete with booming kettle drums), the surreal rock of "Animal Zoo," and the orchestral psychedelia of "Life Has Just Begun." Bristling with ideas, energy, and California's meaty guitar, Twelve Dreams exemplifies the best of the late '60s experimentalism. --Steven Mirkin
Advantages: Excellent tracks, faultless playing Disadvantages: None
...was starting that they were just too good at it. Where Signing Off had the target of Thatcherite Britain in its sights, Present Arms seemed altogether less focussed and worldly. There were injustices still to be identified, they just were not all in Birmingham anymore. The music too was beginning to sound as if they could play it in their collective sleep. The musicianship is excellent without ever sounding inspired.
The album begins with a military drumming intro to the title track. This is unmistakably UB40 with a rolling beat interspersed with brass section chiming in. A pleasant opener about the submergence of individual will by military exposure it is pleasing and effective. It skips along before a long instrumental break. Sardonicus is next and this is a slower number featuring the chorus :-
‘Sardonicus is everybodys friend, Sardonicus...
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Advantages: Classic tracks, truly experimental music Disadvantages: Blues jams take a while to get into
...'s a different cover now, actually closer to the one requested by Hendrix (as explained in the accompanying booklet), with this "authorised release by the Hendrix family", remastered from the original tapes.
On to the music… it's a very druggy affair, and the overall effect is that it's a great soundtrack for anyone wanting to relive the experimentation, and psychedelic side of the late 60's, but, more than that, it's an album that paved a way forward, for bands like Led Zeppelin, everything that Eric Clapton did, Lenny Kravitz, U2… the list goes on. And it still stands up as a classic record today.
Opening track, "…And the gods made love", is a quick burst of experimental sound, sounding in the end like a sound affect for a Dr Who monster.
Then comes "Have you ever been (to electric ladyland)" a soulful song, sounding closest to Curtis Mayfield...
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Advantages: inteligent varied original Disadvantages: their last record as a group
...Some are born great,as the saying goes ,others have greatness
thrust upon them,and in the case of The Specials it seems not only did they achieve greatness with their debut album "Specials",but had even more greatness thrust upon them by an over expectant music press and ravenous fan base
all eager for more of their punk/ska riotous rapture ,however in
the spirit of true greatness and wanton defiance they delivered
"More Specials" in the autumn of 1980,and in direct conflict to its title could well have been called "Less Specials "
In the twelve months which had elapsed between their debut and this daring follow up the musical landscape had changed a great deal ,the fury of punk which gave rise to the groups foundations was now a fading memory as new sounds and movements splinterd into a varied buffet of sounds and movements...
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helpful 15.10.2006
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24.09.2001
