Spirit - Original Album Classics

 

As I have said before, I have been a fan of Spirit ever since "I Got a Line on You" blasted out of the AM airwaves way back in '69, but I haven't had much of their output. I finally pulled the trigger on this 5-CD set compiling their first five albums after procrastinating for no particular reason for ages. 

They blend quite a bit into their sound - late 60's pure rock'n'roll intersperses with sweet acoustic numbers ("Nature's Way" is one of their best - I'm astonished that this wasn't it hit - it sends chills every time I hear it), a bit of late-psych and some proto-prog, if there is such a thing. They were certainly a huge influence on the up'n'coming Led Zep, who opened for Spirit, and not just in the fact that Page ripped off "Taurus" for "Stairway to Heaven" - although Spirit are not as overtly bluesy as LZ, the whole hard rock/acoustic/prog bits were certainly incorporated, as was the idea of a theremin, which Randy was using at the time - Zep even interpolated bits of "Fresh Garage" into onstage medleys.

Spirit were certainly not afraid to experiment, as with the sitar in "Girl In Your Eye", choral vocalizing in "Water Woman", among many other concepts,  and Randy California has a great lead tone throughout - sweetly sustained'n'melodic - and my faves are, not surprisingly, their more rockin' numbers, such as the afore-mentioned hit, along with greats like "Fresh Garbage", "Mr. Skin", "Dark Eyed Woman", "1984", "Nothing to Hide", "Morning Will Come" and even the somewhat whimsical "Animal Zoo".

Sometimes the slower, more atmospheric, light-jazz, pseudo-prog numbers drone on a bit without too much interest being generated, so there is definitely some filler here. But I believe that the good outweighs the bad by a wide margin, and there are lots of extras on all but the last CD, with alternative mixes, single versions, etc., adding to the value.