Music today has been Spirit’s The Family That Plays Together (1968). It was their second album and opens with the song I Got A Line On You. An interesting story about this single from the album that seems impossible to understand these days is that the song was released in October 1968 and hit its highest position on the US chart 6 months later in March 1969 reaching number 25. Spirit seem to be something of a forgotten band. I’ve written about them before on the In Deep page. The original lineup was Jay Ferguson on vocals and guitar, Randy California on guitar and vocals, Ed Cassidy on drums, Mark Andes on bass and John Locke on keyboards. They made four great albums with this lineup between 1968 and 1970. Self-titled and The Family That Plays Together were released in 1968, Clear in 1969 and Twelve Dreams Of Dr. Sardonicus in 1970. If you don’t remember these people from the distant past, you may know the music from the American version of The Office, composed by Jay Ferguson. Ferguson and Andes left Spirit to form Jo Jo Gunne – you may remember Run, Run, Run, a top ten hit in England in 1972. Randy California drowned at the age of 45 saving his son from drowning in Hawaii in 1997. John Locke died in 2006, Ed Cassidy in 2012.

Music Of The Daze

The musical musings in this post are an excerpt from my daily blog, TO WHERE I AM NOW, featured on my main website. Read the full blog post here.