Friday, March 24, 2023

The Reverend's Spirit...On Track (Every Album, Every Song)

Even in an age of unparalleled innovation and artistic freedom, Spirit stood head and shoulders above their 1960s-era rock ‘n’ roll contemporaries. Perhaps only Love shared the same sort of expansive and adventuresome artistic vision as the five guys in Spirit, whose disparate and diverse musical backgrounds led the band to explore the outer regions of rock ‘n’ roll as the band incorporated elements of the blues, folk, R&B, and jazz into their heady brew of psychedelia-tinted hard rock. Although they never experienced the level of commercial success that their talents and innovative music deserved, few bands since have matched Spirit in eccentricity, originality, intensity, and instrumental virtuosity.

For all their creative accomplishments, Spirit’s legacy is that of a half-forgotten band whose name is seldom brought up in ‘classic rock’ discussions. Published by Sonicbond Publishing in the U.K., On Track...Spirit corrects this oversight, revisiting the band album by album, song by song, from their ground-breaking self-titled 1968 debut and their masterpiece, Twelve Dreams of Dr. Sardonicus through the break-ups and reunions and solo efforts of the lean years until their resurgence in the 1990s with albums like Tent of Miracles. More than a mere album guide, On Track...Spirit recounts 30 years of the trailblazing artistry of Spirit.     

The “Reverend of Rock ‘n’ Roll,” Rev. Keith A. Gordon has been writing about classic rock and blues music for 50 years, his words appearing in over 100 publications worldwide including Creem, Blues Music magazine, Live! Music Review, and the Rock and Roll Globe. A former All Music Guide contributor, Gordon has written 25 previous music-related books including Anarchy In The Music City!, The Other Side of Nashville, and Scorched Earth: A Jason & the Scorchers Scrapbook.

Buy the book from Amazon: Rev. Keith A. Gordon’s On Track...Spirit

 Early book review from The Beat magazine in the U.K.


 

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