This Ain't the Summer of Love: Spirit - The Twelve Dreams of Dr. Sardonicus

Editor’s note: This is a fairly drastic reworking of a piece I wrote back in 2002. There are enough untouched phrases left that I thought I should mention it, in the interest of full disclosure.

The Twelve Dreams of Dr. Sardonicus is the album which I will happily proselytize to friends, relatives and complete strangers. “Good morning, m’am. I’m here today to share with you the good news about Spirit.” Having had one too many doors slammed in my face, I now turn to the intarweb.

The album, released in 1970, is the perfect blend of pop, jazz, and psychedelia, tight and focused and spacey all at the same time. Twelve songs, most of which clock in around the magic three-minute mark – as much as I love the more extended musings of, say, Can, it’s nice to see a little restraint employed every now and again. OK, there is “When I Touch You” (5:37), but it stays on topic, as it were, for the entire time. (I wouldn’t have known that it was that long if I hadn’t looked at the cover, and I’ve been listening to this album on a fairly regular basis since I was first turned on to it* in 1979.)

The songs ebb and flow, one leading directly into the next. All the usual elements of psych are present and accounted for: backwards tracks (the percussion on “Love Has Found A Way”), sound effects (“Animal Zoo”), phased guitars ping-ponging between channels (“Prelude/Nothin’ To Hide”, “Street Worm”) – they’re all here. What makes this album different is that the effects don’t run amok over the music. My guess is that part of the credit for that restraint is due to the presence of David Briggs as producer. He’s the guy who ran the sessions on the cream of Neil Young’s recorded output.

As for the lyrics... well, they’re a product of their time. They are suffused with the somewhat relentless optimism one can only find in music of the psychedelic era. I like this album a lot, but a line like “children reaching for a hand/ soldiers killing an Africa man/ though I sing this with si-o-lent tears/ some will fear this with vi-o-lent fears”, from “Love Has Found A Way”, makes me wince every time I hear it. On the other hand, “Nature’s Way”** is a fairly elegant meditation on death, ie: “nature’s way of telling you something’s wrong”. Actually, the whole album sorta deals with life and death – the songs “Life Has Just Begun” and “Morning Will Come” sorta point that out, and the set is bookended by “You have the world at your fingertips / No one can make it better than you”.

Songs like “Mr. Skin” and “Animal Zoo” are fun for the whole family, and “Morning Will Come” rocks like a mofo, mostly due to the crazy soul-revue-style horns. Wait, didn’t I mention the horn section? Oh shit yeah, psychedelia with horns! Did Jerry Garcia ever think of that? No, he did not.

The only real non-starter is “Space Child” (the title’s a bit of a give-away, isn’t it?), an instrumental excursion by the otherwise excellent keyboardist John Locke on a vintage 1970 Moog synthesizer. It doesn’t really go anywhere, just sorta noodles & farts to an end. Which, really, is the nature of the instrument anyway. Other than that, though, he’s top-notch throughout. Personal fave moments: the carnival organ on “Animal Zoo”, and the swelling church organ that closes both “Soldier” and the album itself.

Given that noodly excess and bombast are what you might expect from a “guitar virtuoso” of that era – one anointed by Jimi Hendrix himself – I’m happy to report that Randy California’s playing is actually fairly restrained. It’s all integrated so well into the tapestry of the record that it doesn’t leap out at you, yet you can still hear that there’s something behind what he’s doing. Economical leads that actually serve the song, rather than the guitarist’s ego – who’da thunk it possible? It certainly wasn’t the norm at the time, which is a shame. That said, he shows that he is capable of bringing the frenzy on “Street Worm”, yet still doesn’t try the patience of the listener. Huzzah!

What keeps the whole affair moving forward like a healthy shark is the rhythm section. Ed Cassidy’s*** drumming is just as nimble as you’d expect from somebody who’s played with Dexter Gordon and Cannonball Adderly. What he plays is always inventive, stretching beyond the traditional drumkit to include tympani and vibes, but never overplayed. The muscular, fluid bass of Mark Andes complements Cassidy’s style quite nicely. How he ended up later in http://www.firefall.com/ Firefall is beyond me, but he more than makes up for future transgressions on this disc. The way the bass and vibes play tag toward the end of “Love Has Found A Way” is a real treat, one I look forward to every time I play the disc.

Jay Ferguson provides lead vocals on most tracks. His voice, while nothing extraordinary, is pleasant. “Life Has Just Begun” is probably his most shining moment here. His real purpose in the band, as far as I can see, was to ground the more, um, far-out elements of the group in pop. That may just be my perception, though I would say that his minor hit in the late seventies, “Shakedown Cruise”, would seem to bolster it somewhat.

The original version of Spirit split up after this album. I’ve seen the story told a couple of different ways. Some imply that ego clashes played a part in Ferguson and Andes leaving the band to form Jo Jo Gunne. Others mention the difficulties in dealing with the occasionally erratic California, who suffered a concussion at one point and, y’know, had some ongoing drug issues. Ultimately, it doesn’t really matter that much. I hate digging around in the whys and wherefores of the split-ups of favorite bands, but it is part of their history.

I’ve easily listened to Dr. Sardonicus several hundred times over the years. I don’t mean just certain tracks over and over, but the entire album. I can’t think of another record for which that holds true. I don’t know if it says more about me than it does about Spirit, but I’ve yet to grow tired of the album. For me, it’s just as fresh as if it had been released last week.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve gotta get my ass to the Animal Zoo.

*Heh.
**You may have even heard this lovely little tune on your local “classic rock” station. They drag it out about three or four times a year, just to show how expansive their playlist actually is.
***Today’s fun fact: Cassidy was California’s step-father, and some twenty years older than the rest of the group. He’s still around, (which would put him somewhere in his eighties now), and I believe he still plays a few dates each year. On a sadder note, Randy California died in a surfing accident ten years ago this month.

Comments

***Just as a FYI, I speak to Ed Cassidy on a regular basis and he's doing just fine. He just celebrated his 84th birthday...An incredible talent and a wonderful man.

PS. I totally agree with your comments regarding, "The Twelve Dreams of Dr Sardonicus." It is a masterpiece...sadly, too few people have even heard of it!

Posted by: Georgene | May 29, 2007 at 04:42 PM