Unique Music By Common People

Common People: Soon There'll Be Thunder and I Have Been Alone
From: Of The People/For The People/By The People [Capitol 1968]

Myth busting on the Fuzz today as we switch up styles once more and enter the world of sixties psych music. For as long as I've known the music of The Common People it's been linked to a major what if. As the story has always gone, David Axelrod was signed up to be the producer of the album and completed three tracks with the group before his wife was injured in a serious car accident. Axelrod then left the recording and the band completed the rest of the album without him.

The reason the story has never been questioned is that the first three songs on the album sound like classic late sixties Axelrod; full of swirling strings, lush percussion and a certain signature depth of sound. The rest of the album, though by no means bad, is a more standard set of sub-Love style recordings without any of the mournful beauty of the album's opening.

However, when reading up about the group recently I stumbled across the following website which managed to locate some of the original band for a revealing interview. In this article the band members debunk the myth, stating categorically that Axelrod left the production before a single note had been recorded. The band are so sure of this it makes it hard to question though it also makes the contrast between the two wildly different styles on the record even more confusing.

Whatever you believe, there's no confusion over why these tracks were held up as masterful Axelrod productions. As mentioned previously their combination of beauty and sorrow are up there with most of his releases from the period and make you long for lost recordings carried out with a similar sound. I've posted two of the three songs for your pleasure and they really are something special.

For a long time a lost gem of the sixties that never even got a domestic release in the US, the album has now been reissued on CD and by all accounts Fallout have done a cracking job. I've been meaning to pick up my own copy for a while now as it will no doubt do far greater justice to the recording than my crackly vinyl rip. Enjoy and feel free to wonder what if with me.......

Moog Music: Annette Peacock

Annette Peacock: Pony and I'm The One
From: I'm The One [RCA, 1972]

I've never been slow in proclaiming my love of ballsy female singers on this site and today I have another selection for you in the debut solo album of Annette Peacock.

A gifted pianist from an early age, Annette's talent really came to fruition after her husband at the time, Gary Peacock, started touring with Albert Ayler's band in 1964. Over the course of the next few years Annette's songwriting developed as she started messing with the Moog (given to them by Robert Moog himself), releasing albums as part of The Synthesizer Show with Paul Bley.

Having split with Bley, Annette's first solo album combined the experimental improvisation of The Synthesizer Show with a more pop sensibility and the results are truly outstanding. At the time of release Peacock was being lauded as the female Bowie and it's not hard to see why as she combines experimentation with great production and song writing.

If all this sounds a bit out there let me bring you back to earth with the psychedelic funk of Pony. A bass heavy groove rumbles throughout the track as Peacock delivers a sultry vocal over the top. This is less avant garde jazz and more Betty Davis funk which, to my ears, is nothing but a good thing. Storming music.

The title track, I'm The One, is less funky than Pony but manages to successfully combine a beautifully produced torch song and wailing Moog as Annette's husky vocals are interrupted by electronic squawks and vibrations. On a page it sounds like a mess but on a stereo it sounds like great music.

For once I can happily tell you that Annette is still making music and released her latest album in 2006. More power to her.

Floating Anarchy

Gong: Sold to the Highest Buddha & Castle in the Clouds

From: Angel's Egg [Blue Plate, 1973]

Gong: Master Builder

From: You [Virgin, 1974]

The back cover on my Decal CD reissues say "File Under Psychedelia."

Gong is a band that is a bit tricky to introduce to people; pick the wrong album or the wrong song and the music might not take. Perhaps this is due to the fact that the band operated more as a collective than a proper band. The constant lineup changes produced such dramatic differences in their sound from song to song that it's difficult to pin-point those pivotal moments in their discography that will draw a listener in and give him/her an entry point into the band's universe.

These 3 songs are from what many consider to be Gong's creative peak (1973-1974) and their most succesful albums: The Radio Gnome Invisible Trilogy. The Radio Gnome song cycle, which unfolds over the course of 3 diverse albums [Flying Teapot, Angel's, You], is based around the band's founder and chief songwriter Daevid Allen's Gong mythology. Legend has it, the kernel for this mythology was born out of a very impressionable acid trip. I won't get too deep into the specifics of the story and its philosophies here, I only mention this because it's an interesting aspect of the band to explore should you enjoy these songs.

Sold to the Highest Buddha is as close as Gong comes to a pop song. It's a concise arrangement that is sonically dense and practically overflows with tasty, unselfish playing by a handful of space jazz rock pioneers: Daevid Allen, Steve Hillage, Pierre Moerlen, Tim Blake, Mike Howlett, Didiere Malherbe. Together this lineup had amazing chemistry as showcased in the smooth transition from the tightly-wound Buddha to the spacious, deceptively rocking Castle in the Clouds. In a way, this song to song transition mirrors the transition from Angel's Egg to You. If Angel's Egg is a pop album, then You is the space rock jam fest. Master Builder will give you a sense of how the 1974 era collective liked to play: heavy/funky rhythm section, spacey synth backdrops, a few chants here and there, and some nice soloing from Malherbe (sax) and Hillage (guitar).

We Can

Can: Mushroom
From: Tago Mago (United Artists, 1971)

Can: One More Night and Vitamin C
From: Ege Bamyasi (United Artists, 1972)

Can: Future Days and Moonshake
From: Future Days (United Artists, 1973)

Since my last "prog" post was accepted well enough, I reckon I'll share some more music from the more notable acts that fall under the umbrella. This next band is pretty well known these days (you may even recognize their album cover in the Earfuzz banner). Since I'm no expert on the funky experimentalism of Can, I asked my friend humdrumboy to put this selection/writeup together. Thanks homey.

Formed in Cologne in 1968, the core line-up consisted of bass guitarist/tape-editor/alternative-instrumentalist Holger Czukay, keyboardist Irmin Schmidt, guitarist Michael Karoli, and drummer/percussionist Jaki Liebezeit. Each was influenced by wildly diverse sounds such as James Brown, Karlheinz Stockhausen, The Velvet Underground, Avant-Garde Jazz, and gypsy traditionals. The original group included the American-born singer, Malcolm Mooney, who left the band in 1969 due to a mental breakdown that Mooney's psychiatrist felt was directly related to the music Can was creating and performing.

The majority of the compositions that appear on their albums are culled gems pulled from lengthy jam sessions (some of these sessions lasting 6 to 7 hours straight). The space-funk trance music they created relied heavily on improvisation and the punishing "super-groove-machine" rhythm section of Liebezeit and Czukay.

The posts above are pulled from albums that had Japanese-born Kenji "Damo" Suzuki on vocals. Suzuki was a street performer and wanderer when he met Czukay and Liebezeit, and the majority of his lyrics were in a language he created and improvised.

If you enjoy the sounds above, definitely check out the Can Free Concert that was recently reissued on DVD (along with a documentary). The Can Free Concert has incredible concert footage, and it provides a window into how their music was created. Welcome to kraut-rock.

Paint A Lady

Susan Christie: Paint A Lady and Yesterday, Where's My Mind?
From: Paint A Lady [Finders Keepers, 2006]

You may have picked up from my previous posts on Ruth Copeland and Lyn Christopher that I'm a 100% sucker for a certain type of female folk rock. Anything with strong female vocals over tough and moody guitars makes me do the equivalent of a mental swoon and Susan Christie's Paint A Lady is one of the strongest offerings I've come across yet.

A folk singer with more than a passing interest in the playfulness of psychedelia, Christie suffered the fate of many of the artists featured on the site in that she never received her proper dues. However, Christie went one step further than most, forgoing the usual pain of having her album slept on by instead seeing the record label never release her album at all. It was only due to a private press protected lovingly for years that the album was rediscovered and reissued recently by Finders Keepers.

So, onto the music. The title song itself, Paint A Lady, is a brilliantly laid back growler of a track, simmering with intent from the moment the music starts, lilting guitars hovering over some simple but great percussion. Similar in tone to Lyn Christopher's Take Me With You, this track glows with confidence and swagger from Christie as she paints a tale of the monotony of life. By the time the harmonies enter in the chorus I can't see how anyone wouldn't be sold on the brilliance evident here.

I was torn with the second track to feature here, between the Copeland's Medal like anger of For The Love Of A Soldier, the folky bliss of Rainy Day or the psychedelic wig out of Yesterday, Where's My Mind?. Well I dithered and Rainy Day is a truly beautiful track but I thought you'd be most interested in the wig out so here it is. The track takes it's time to get going, spending three minutes as Christie sets the scene of wandering the streets. However, the song builds and builds on it's initial momentum until we are left with Christie screaming at God over heavy percussion and guitars. Excellent stuff.

The album is now readily available from Finders Keepers and they've done a decent job on the reissue. It's rare that an album so long slept on is great from start to finish but I would highly, highly recommend picking this up.

Grey and Pink

Can't Be Long Now/Francoise/For Richard/Warlock
From: If I Could Do It All Over Again, I'd Do It All Over You [Decca, 1970]

Nine Feet Underground
From: In the Land of Grey and Pink [Decca, 1971]

Feeling kind of random lately during this warm spell in NYC; so, here is a random selection from the progressive rock vaults - Caravan. For those uninitiated in prog lore, Caravan was part of the Canterbury scene and they made some pretty kinda fairly decently good albums (~4) in their prime ('70-'74). I haven't thought about this band for quite a while; and then, last week I was sitting in a bar and I swear I heard a hip hop track sampling some of the synth lines from Caravan's 23 minute "opus" 9 Feet Underground. I assumed I had heard wrong until the next track came on and it worked around the main riff from Cross-Eyed Mary by Jethro Tull (didn't see that coming). Long story short, I'm still not sure if it actually was a Caravan sample, but regardless... apparently progressive rock is fair game for beat mining now. With that said, I guess it's acceptable to dork out on this music again. I mean, I did hear a Diplo mix with snippets of Amon Duul's Yeti.

Can't Be Long... is a suite of smaller tunes that showcases the full gamut of the Caravan sound: psychedelic pop->some lite rocking->smooth jazzy jamming->psychedelic pop. Some say they perfected that formula in Nine Feet Underground. They're both here so you can be the judge. Hope you enjoy.

Note: The links above will take you to the Gibraltar Encyclopedia or Progressive Rock. It's definitely a super-fan site so take all the reviews with a grain of salt. It has all sorts of info about obscure albums so it might prove to be a useful research tool from time to time.

Knights Of The Blue Communion

Peter Ivers' Band: Cat Scratch Fever and Lord God Love
From: Knights Of The Blue Communion [Epic, 1969]

I've always had a soft spot for artists who refuse to tow the line and play ball. While the various musicians who loudly rebelled against "The Man" are heavily documented I've always been interested in those artists who took a different route.

One such musician was Peter Ivers. By turns a singer, artist and actor, Ivers was signed up by Epic in the late sixties on the crest of the Psych fad. However, rather than deliver what Epic were no doubt hoping would be a funked out, psychedelic pop sound Ivers enlisted Sri Lankan jazz singer Yolande Bavan and mixed sounds as diverse as harmonica and oboe.

The results really shouldn't be fit for human ears but, not only do they work, they work brilliantly, if sporadically.

Cat Scratch Fever manages to combine breaks for days with total insanity. I know that Yolande's vocals are the kind you either love or hate but I personally dig the fluctuations in her voice - her fierce tones riding the compact snares. There's a crispness to the sound of the percussion the group produces that seems to stop the chaos ever getting out of hand. I'll be the first to agree that the song's about 4 minutes too long but, hey, it was the sixties. It's also not often I tell you to check out a harmonica solo either so I'll grab my chance and tell you to - it's quality.

Lord God Love is an off kilter folky funky bizarre gem with an undulating bassline over those crisp drums again and a lounge/off kilter melody that Yolande warbles over to great effect, No idea what it's about but seems to be something about finding God's face which is always a winner.

I can't really mention Ivers without bringing up his Lady In The Radiator song from Eraserhead in passing, pure genius. Sadly Ivers was found murdered in 1983 and the world lost a unique talent that day.

I expect this may leave many regular readers cold but try it for a change (it's free) and you may find your musical horizons broadened a little bit. If not we'll be back with the funk before you know it.......

Angels and Space Gods: J.D. Blackfoot

J.D. Blackfoot: Angel
From: Ultimate Prophecy [San Francisco, 1971]

J.D. Blackfoot: Epitaph For A Head [Philips, 1969]

Autumn's here and as the leaves start to fall from the trees my musical taste veers towards the slow and soulful in preparation for those long winter nights. To combat this natural hibernation setting in I've called on the almighty power of psych rock from J.D. Blackfoot.

Formed by the superbly monikered Benjamin Franklin Van Dervort, the J.D. Blackfoot band that played on the album the Ultimate Prophecy were a short lived affair to say the least. You can read more about the comings and goings of the band at the severely moustached Devort's website.

Their one album together ofter veers on the edge of psych's worst excesses with the track Prophecy in particular sounding dangerously close to a dry run for Spinal Tap's Stonehenge number. The ballads, on the other hand show the wonderful county tinged melodies the band had on offer.

Angel is the lightest of light folk styled tracks, its upper pitched vocals and soft harmonies reminding me a lot of early Love but with a distinctively country twang. Sweet but never descending into sickly saccharine levels it's a recent fave.

So, all very nice and all that but where's the hibernation combating rock? Look no further my friend for here is the truly awesome Epitaph For A Head. Released as a single only and even more rare than an OG of the album it shows what happened when the band took the bad pills rather than the happy ones: a bad rock trip of a song, with whacked out guitars, clattering drums and lyrics on a whole nother level (Ah, It's A Space God) . Turn it up loud and let it blow your mind.........

McDonald & Giles - Crimson Funk

McDonald & Giles: Flight Of The Ibis and Tomorrow's People
From: McDonald & Giles [Cotillion, 1971]

A change of pace today as we rock out to the proggish tones of King Crimson......... Well kinda anyway. McDonald & Giles were part of the original line up of the band but split from the group after the release of their debut album due to various cited reasons (one common rumour being that the duo fell in love on tour with the women pictured on the cover - can't blame McDonald then, she's rather fine).

While it would have been interesting to see where the band would have gone had McDonald and Giles stayed with them I can't say I'm disappointed with the split when the resulting album is as beautiful as this. While undoubtedly based in prog rock the album feels incredibly sunny and uplifting compared to most comparative records of the time, the duo ensuing the darker noise of their contemporaries for something of a more positive folk laden nature.

Although the album is a break diggers wet dream the first track I have for you is more melody, less beat heavy. Flight Of The Ibis isn't actually half as proggy as the title suggests. Instead the track offers a Beatle-esque vocal over some crisp drums and gorgeous piano and harpsichord work. This tune just makes me want to lie on my back in a grassy field and watch the clouds roll by.

Tomorrow's People is a break heavy banger of a song. Starting unexpectedly with a mixture of horns the track shows clear signs of it's original composition as a Crimson track with it's electronic vocals and more psychedelic overtones. What kills me about this song is that 2 minutes in the track breaks down into a funk groove and never really leaves it afterwards, with the drums and bongos coming hard as various instruments float in over the bass riff before the track literally comes to a stop and reawakens with funk and vocals united together. Funky prog my friends, funky prog.

Food For Thought

Food: Forever is a Dream and Leaves
From Forever is a Dream [Capitol, 1969]

Food was a band from Chicago who's only release was this 1969 album of somber psychedelic tunes, which is quite ironic given how cheerful they all look on the cover. There's not a lot to be said about these guys since there's not a lot of information out there, but the music speaks for itself. As melancholic as their music is, both lyrically and aurally, there's definitely something beautiful and optimistic about their sound. Both the title track and "Leaves" are sonically profound, carefully orchestrated and arranged to provide music capable of enduring nearly fifty years of aging.

Flora Purim: Angels
From Nothing Will Be As It Was... Tomorrow [Warner Brothers, 1977]

Some more laidback weekend goodness for y'all... I have to run out the door, so I can't do this justice in writing. Flora on the mic, Earth Wind and Fire's Al Mckay on guitar.

Time for some Stark Reality......

Stark Reality: Clouds and Comrades
From: Discovers Hoagy Carmichael's Music Shop (AJP Records, 1970)

So the fundraising for New Orleans continues over at Soulstrut and they've been pulling out the big guns with Stark Reality's Discovers Hoagy Carmichael's Shop appearing earlier this week and raising $1000 for the cause (which was quadrupled by Soulstrut). I've posted up a couple of tracks off the album to give you a taster of one of the holy grails of crate digging. While a grand is a pretty big sum of money to spend on any piece of vinyl, if any album's worth it this has got to be it.

If you want to know more about this stunning album you can read about it on the Stone Throw reissue here. Let me just tell you that it's been sampled by Large Professor, Pete Rock, Madlib and Cut Chemist and you can't get a much better guarantee of quality than that.

With the OG raising so much money it seemed only appropriate to post up a track bizarrely missing from the reissue, one of my favorite tracks of the album, Clouds. A truly brilliant mix of folk and funk the track is about as blissful as they come.

The second track, Comrades, is available on the recent reissue and displays the groups ability to hold together their experimental style into tracks that you cannot just admire from afar but also enjoy listening to day in day out. I always love the way the group bring in the vocals, perfectly fitting the lyrics to the outstanding music.. Truly, truly, brilliant stuff.

The regular folks on Soulstrut are starting to run out of money so get on there now and start bidding.........

Listening to Listening

Listening: Stoned Is
From Listening [Vanguard, 1968]

Slowly I've been discovering tracks used on Tripledouble and Diplo's AEIOU mix, most recently a track by a band called Listening from Boston. I believe they only cut one album in '68 featuring nice psychedelic rhythms with blues and jazz influences, and sultry vocals. This is the type of sound I love, and it shines through tremendously on "Stoned Is." It's a trippy, funky, and quite honestly a beatiful track that benefits from strong instrumentation.

Enjoy. More AEIOU bits are surely on the way.

A Fistful Of Psychedelia

Ennio Morricone: L'assoluto Naturale and Come un madrigale
From: Psichedelico Jazzistico (El Records, 2004)

There's a famous story concerning John Carpenter's classic horror Halloween. Apparently the up and coming director screened his rough draft of the movie sans soundtrack to the movie executives and they were less than impressed by it. Carpenter went away, regrouped, got equipped, and added his electro soundtrack to the film. The movie was then screened again for the execs and they were scared rigid by it.

Which leads me to my point: certain films could not exist without their soundtracks. A perfect example of this is Sergio Leone's spaghetti westerns and their haunting Ennio Morricone score. With it's innovative use of voices and soaring strings this was the peak of Morricone's achievements in my eyes until I came across this compilation. Including highlights from four Italian films Morricone scored in the late sixties/early seventies,Psichedelico Jazzistico shows an artist at the absolute top of his game so lie back and enjoy Ennio bliss.

L'assoluto naturale starts off with the simplest of acoustic guitars and organs before the strings slowly swell up, changing the piece of music from something minute to something altogether more epic. Listen to the way the various layers are introduced and marvel at the skill at work. I love the harmonies Morricone seems to create so effortlessly between his accompanying strings, guitar, piano and percussion to create a piece that is majestic but never heavy.

The second track, Come un madrigale , is almost too beautiful for it's own good. Reminiscent of some of Morricone's work on Once Upon A Time In America, it begins with nothing more than a short sharp human voice in a call and answer game with the most delicate of strings. From there Morricone creates the lightest of lullabies gliding over the melody. As the vocals are properly introduced to harmonize with the strings, the track becomes truly haunting.

Hungarian Treats

Zalatnay Sarolta: Hadd Mondjam El and Ne Hidd El
From Hadd Monjam El [Pepita, 1973]

Finally got a copy of this record after seeing it on a number of wall of fames and hearing tales of it being heavily regarded as a beathead's dream. The cover alone is certainly enough to create intrigue as many diggers tend to be drawn to records fronting attractive vixens, but it's definitely more than a wall piece; the music inside is lovely Hungarian rock with a funky twist, and strong female vocals to boot.

This record was actually one of Soul-Sides' first features back in June 2003, Oliver highlighting the strong drum breaks that were laced throughout. But that was back when mp3 blogs were just a dream, and a reader could only imagine what the writer was talking about, especially when it comes to rare titles like this one. So I present two killer tracks from this LP, both coincidentally featuring prominent drum breaks. The title track is rhythmically more furious, while the latter has more of a dusty fingers type vibe to it. I think the instrumentation is pretty strong throughout, and while some could find displeasure in Sarolta's singing, I tend to be drawn towards female vocals. And even though I can't understand a word she's saying, I think it only adds to the intrigue.

Pugh Tuning

Pugh Rogefeldt: Love, Love, Love and Signe
From: Ja Da A Da (Metronome, 1969)

Ok, ok, the front cover of this album may not suggest a world of funk riffs and headblowing drums lays in wait but you'll just have to trust me on this one because this is some stellar stuff. Still don't trust me? Well, check out the first few bars of Love, Love, Love and let your jaw drop as you realize that DJ Shadow lifted the intro in it's entirety for Mutual Slump.

Now we've settled that, let me fill you in a little more on the life of Pugh. Born in 1947, Pugh dabbled with the blues before sending his first testpress off to record companies in 1968. Unfortunately for Pugh, by the time his talent was recognized by the executives he had started his compulsory military service. However, luckily for us, that didn't stop plucky Pugh, he quickly went AWOL from the Army and got back in the studio to record the debut album that would be known as Ja Da A Da. While unknown to many English speakers, this album was a huge hit in Pugh's native Sweden and laid the basis for a career which still continues till this day. You can read a fuller biography here.

So, back to Love, Love, Love and that jawdropping opening. From the very off the track is driven by the intense drumming of Jan Karlsson. The thumping drums and crashing symbols draw the listener in before the track settles down to a slightly less frantic but no less funky pace. What really draws me into this track is the layers, with the relentless drumming and funk riff offset by the vocals of Pugh who sings this track like Sweden's answer to the Os Mutantes. As the layers overlap they create a psychedelic wall of sound that's hard to resist. Once again, a track that deserves to be considered in it's own right outside merely being a loopdigger's record.

Signe takes a different approach to the world of psychedelia, more sedately funky than Love Love Love. Starting with ominous strings it seems clear to me that Pugh had definitely been checking Love's classic Forever Changes album went he went into the studio to record this. He keeps the vocals light and sweet over the acoustic guitars before, half way through, the track dissolves into ghostly vocals and strumming. However, this is just the precursor for the track to finally kick in as a rolling bass and hard drums carry the track home in pure Swedish psychedelic funk style.

There, that'll teach you to judge a book by it's cover won't it.

It Ain't Easy

The Psycheground Group: "Easy"
From Psycheground [Lupus, 1970]

The Psycheground Group was an obscure progressive rock group from Italy, so obscure in fact that their exact makeup is not entirely known. Supposedly members of Nuova Idea and keyboardist Vince Tempera were members, but I just pulled that information from a random website. Nevertheless, they released this album in 1970 containing five instrumental tracks that span prog and psych while maintaining a funky jazz type of vibe. The standout cut is "Easy," an absolutely nasty exercise in funky drumming, hammond organ, guitar, and bass. The first time I heard this I seriously couldn't believe my ears. Now it's a top want of mine, and with only a supposed 50 copies produced, I know it's gonna be a tough hunt.

Heavy Beats in the Woodland of Weir

Little Boy Blues "Seed of Love"
From In The Woodland of Weir [Fontana, 1968]

The days of producers pulling old funk and jazz records for sample material are over; for the most part anyways. Sure they'll continue to loop and chop the fuck out of "Apache" or "Nautilus," but let's face it, that gets boring fast.

Enter the wonderful world of psych rock, a resource that many producers are finding relatively untapped, proving that there is definite heat a lurking under the wailing vocals and fuzzy guitars of the genre. Motown67 from Soulstrut played this for me a few weeks ago, a track called "Seed of Love" by Little Boy Blues which was sampled by Just Blaze for Jay-Z's The Black Album. The piano riff on this one is just nasty, while the keys, horns, drums, guitars, and vocals all fall nicely into place. This is the type of record every producer wishes they found first, and that everyone is after once somebody does.

Keep your eyes open for this one cause the album as a whole is rock solid.

Since posting this it was brought to my attention that another track on this album, "Dream Weaver," was sampled by Diamond D on Xzibit's "Bird's Eye View" way back in 1996. No surprise that Diamond of all people was up on this first, but I'm surprised he didn't hear any potential on "Seed of Love." Oh well, it just goes to show that it was in a producer's hands long ago, but it took eight years for it to hit the mainstream.

I Was Sneaking Down a Long Lonesome Road

Spirit: "The Other Song"
From Son of Spirit [Mercury, 1975]

I think a lot of people are thanking Diplo and Tripledouble for dropping the insanely dope AEIOU Two last year, an eclectic journey through beats and breaks that sheds light on what makes this whole digging thing worthwhile. Although every track they used is heat, one of them in particular stands out and has lead to a number of heads hitting up message boards frantically searching for the song's identity. I was surprised to find out it was a track by Spirit, a rock band from the Bay Area that experimented with psychedlia, jazz, funk, and blues to create a unique sound for themselves during the early 70's. After lead singer Jay Ferguson left the band, members Randy California and Ed Cassidy perservered and released Son of Spirit under Spirit's name, but unfortunately this release was shunned into obscurity due in large part to the band's new genetic makeup. The track Diplo and Tripledouble used is called "The Other Song", an incredible mix of psych, blues, jazz, and funk. The slow pacing and hypnotic guitar playing allows for some especially eerie vocals, eventually evolving into a more upbeat jazz number before falling back again. While I can't really recommend the album as a whole, this track alone is so worth the purchase. Essential.