Granted, the band's mere handful of well-known songs are gotten out of the way right away ("1984," "Mechanical World," "Nature's Way," "Animal Zoo," "Fresh-Garbage," "I Got a Line on You"). 'Mr. Twelve Dreams of Dr. Sardonicus, though off the charts, had become an FM radio favorite and a perennial seller (it would be certified as a gold record in 1976), and Epic re-released The Family That Plays Together, which reentered the charts in July 1972.Meanwhile, California had signed a solo contract with Epic and in the fall of 1972 he released his debut album, Kapt. It was not only one of the key tracks from the band's fourth album, 'The 12 Dreams of Dr. Sardonicus,' but also served as the nickname for drummer Ed Cassidy due to his shaved head.

Like Twelve Dreams of Dr. Sardonicus, it peaked at number 63 in the charts. Skin' is one of the funkier tracks in the Top 10 Spirit Songs list. Formed in 1966 by guitarist Randy California, bassist Mark Andes and singer Jay Ferguson, the band … It also included a booklet with a critical and historical essay by Malcolm Dome, as well as archival interviews with California and Cassidy. Another killer Randy California guitar solo makes this one a home run and its catchy-as-can-be chorus should have made this a hit. The band toured as a quartet including Locke and Knight, then carried on as a trio when Locke dropped out again. Copyright © 2020 Apple Inc. All rights reserved. By June, they were playing gigs and looking for a record contract. The lead-off track to Spirit's 1968 debut album comes out of nowhere and sounds like nothing else out there at the time. Ian Anderson wrote "Aqualung" after looking at pictures of homeless men that his wife took. Spirit remain one of rock and roll's unsung entities. The Sam & Dave classic "Soul Man" was re-recorded by Sam Moore and Lou Reed for the 1986 movie Soul Man, about a white guy who pretends to be black so he can get a scholarship to Harvard. California succeeded in pushing his son to shore, but he was swept out to sea, and his body was never recovered.Randy California's death meant the end of Spirit, of course, although the indefatigable Cassidy, by now in his seventies, toured with a band called Spirit Revisited. Consequently, in 1981, California released an overdubbed selection of tracks from the original album alongside several unrelated songs dating from the late 1970s. A single, Ferguson's "Animal Zoo," emerged in July and grazed the bottom of the charts, but it ultimately took six months to complete the LP, released as Twelve Dreams of Dr. Sardonicus in November.Spirit toured in support of the album during the winter and spring of 1971, but Epic failed to break a successful single from the LP, and it peaked at number 63 in February.