Hey Doc, Did You Have More Than Twelve?

When I was a teenager I was a big listener to Classic Rock radio.  It was not the popular tunes that I gravitated to, but the ones they rarely played.  One station every Thanksgiving week(end) would do the top 1006 songs of all time.  Each year was a little different with additions and or subtractions.  The station bragged it had the best archive of all the area Rock stations.  I look forward to hearing this all time list.  I would have the year before list in my hand.  They publish the previous list in a weekly newspaper.  I would study it for days and days before the start of the countdown.  

I looked for songs I never heard of, or songs by artists that were not played so often.  One such band was Spirit.  This was a time that I went to that trusty old book I told you about.  They talked about Spirit with such superlatives that I had to know more about them.  In the book they mentioned three albums.  Their self titled which I talked about a long time ago.  Their album The Family That Plays Together, and Twelve Dreams of Dr. Sardonicus.  They talked about Twelve Dreams with such high regard.  If I can remember the quote;  "Even though Twelve Dreams of Dr. Sardonicus came out in 1970."  "It is an album of late 1960's feel, but forward thinking that it could come in any decade and still feel fresh."  

It was that 1006 song list included two Spirit songs.  Only problem none of the songs from Twelve Dreams were on it.  In the book it mentioned Nature's Way as one of the best songs in Rock.  Calling the station I asked about Nature's Way.  "Why are you not playing it?" The DJ mentioned that their version was so badly played it would skip on the radio.  Now I had to hear this for myself.  The DJ spoke volumes about the band.  He mentioned that Spirit is one of the unsung bands of the 1960's.

A year or so later I got a copy of the first Spirit album.  I was in awe from the Jazzy tones to the catchy hooks.  It even had the song that Led Zeppelin blatantly ripped off to make Stairway to Heaven.  This album was a constant on the turntable.  I would go record shopping with a friend and there it was, a copy of Twelve Dreams in all it's luster.  The price of the record was a bit pricey, but hearing all this praise I had to get it.  Around the same time I was part of the Columbia House cassette club.  One of their many deals was get four cassettes for $12.00 (plus shipping).  In one of the catalogs was Twelve Dreams.  I was in heaven, now I will have this classic album in two formats.

As I remember coming home with the LP I studied every bit of it's cover, song titles and even it's weird inside gatefold.  I even studied Jack Cassidy and Randy California's tribute to Chinese Masks of the theater.  It was all odd and strange and unique at the same time for me.  It was the music that was not unique.  It was so fresh, so great and so cool.

Fast foward to my college years.  I had a specialty radio show that would play the genres of Psychedelic Rock, Progressive Rock, Space Rock, Krautrock, and unsung Rock gems.  It was one of my first shows.  I had five hours of music of my choosing and I knew Spirit had to be in it.  One of the shows I played Spirit.  Not only did it feel to play them on the radio; it was complemented the next day by my professor telling me thanks for playing Spirit.  "I will play more" I told him.  "I love this band more then you know."

So in conclusion if you need to hear a band that not many people have heard of, then Spirit is your band.  If you want to impress them with an album by said band, then you pull out Twelve Dreams of Dr. Sardonicus.  You will not only impress your friends you will wow them with an album that is a true lost treasure.  It still ranks as a top favorite with me.  People might not know the band or the album, but once they hear it, they will remember what a great experience it was to hear something so fresh and new to the ears.