by Robert Wilkinson
Our Friday Night main stage features some amazing music courtesy of the drummer of one of the most original and exciting bands of the 60s and 70s, Spirit! They were always among my favorites, and if you haven’t heard their music, prepare for a real treat!
May 4 was the birthday of an awesome musical force majeure, Ed "Cass” Cassidy (May 4, 1923 – December 6, 2012), American jazz and rock drummer. In 1967 he co-founded one of my favorite bands of all time, Spirit. From Wikipedia, in the 50s Ed “performed together with many leading jazz musicians including Art Pepper, Julian “Cannonball” Adderley, Roland Kirk, Lee Konitz and Gerry Mulligan.
With Taj Mahal and Ry Cooder, Cassidy formed the Rising Sons in 1964. After that, he formed the Red Roosters in 1965, with his young stepson Randy California, Jay Ferguson and Mark Andes. Adding John Locke, they became Spirit in 1967. Cassidy sported a shaved head, which was unusual at that time; always wore black; and instead of the double bass drum kit that was popular at the time, he used a single bass drum, and two large parade bass drums as floor toms. Because California stepped out of the group for a period of time in 1972, following the death of Jimi Hendrix, Cassidy was the only member who played with all various line-ups of Spirit on almost 20 albums over almost 30 years. Spirit finally disbanded following Randy California's death in 1997.” I saw them 3 times in Austin, and they were truly a great band, regardless of the lineup, which always featured Randy and Ed!
And now, before we get down to the music of Spirit, a brief break so our MC can entertain you with a true tale of music, magic, and metaphysics!
I produced the “Texas Festival of Metaphysics and Music” (TFMM) in Austin in early Autumn each year between 1978-1982. These were multi-day multi-media cross-cultural events, with every kind of music you could imagine, along with talks on all kinds of subjects, poetry readings, and presentations of various global culture themes, often going on simultaneously all over town, and all for free! (The “India Night” was always a hit, with hundreds coming for Indian food, sitar and temple dance performances, as well as discussions of various facets of Indian philosophy. So was the “Kids Day” but that’s another subject for another time involving my old friend David Amram.)
Anyway, for the second TFMM in 1979, I asked Cass if he would come to town and do whatever he considered to be his “leading edge.” He skeptically asked if I expected him to perform, and I told him he could literally do anything he wanted. When asked how that could be, I told him that since no one was getting charged or paid, there could be no expectations, because I truly wanted to break down the barriers between audience and performers. He was delighted, and agreed to come and do a talk for anyone who wanted to learn possible ways to make a living in the music industry that didn’t involve performance.
So we set up a PA on a deck in the back yard of a friend, put up Japanese lanterns and served refreshments, and about 300 showed up to hear Ed give his talk. He was an elegant and gracious man, and as hip as it gets. I’m sure his talk changed the lives of more than a few aspiring music heads in Austin!
And now, for your dancing enjoyment, Spirit!
We begin with Spirit on French tv performing their hit from their first album “Fresh Garbage” From the same gig, another great performance! Here are two gems written by Randy California! “1984” and “I Got A Line On You.”
Here’s the very exciting music video of “I Got A Line On You”
A gem! It's the original lineup in an exciting psychedelic video made in LA in 1970 cranking out “1984” This year I found it again! Here’s a great live clip from 1970 on Beat Club of Spirit doing “1984”
It’s back! For your enjoyment, their 43 minute audio set from the legendary 1969 Texas International Pop Festival! Spirit At the Texas International Pop Festival – 1969. (This had just happened when I hit the UT campus in September of 1969, and people were buzzing!)
A real score! From May 1970 at the Fillmore West, 2 hours and 9 of Spirit Live at the Fillmore West – 1970
Last year I had the original line up doing a great live hour and 23 radio broadcast at the Paramount Theater in Seattle on New Year’s Eve 1971, but it also disappeared. However, from that show, I found this 8 minutes of gold! Spirit – “Hey Joe”
From 1975 in Lansing, an 8+ minute live clip of one of my favorites! “Elijah” which we’ll follow with another from that show, the rocking “Dark Eyed Woman”
This is a great video, and features Ed from the first beat! For your enjoyment, a full hour and 49 from 1978! Spirit Live at Rockpalast - 1978
From 1984 in SF, a great live performance of their first hit, the very hypnotic “Mechanical World”
From Glastonbury in 1982, Randy's very live grinding out "Second Child" and the very rocking "This Is It."
From their 1989 European tour, we have some great videos from various shows! “Ship of Fools” which we’ll follow with “Tent of Miracles.” We now move into “Stuttgart Says Goodbye” followed by “Old Black Magic”
We continue the show with “Borderline” and “Zandu” and bring it home with “Burning Love” and “Deep in this Land”
To get a sense of how this band was so different from other bands of the era, here are some of their early albums that blew the doors down!
Their first album was revolutionary, since it created a sound that was never known before then! The first three songs (“Fresh Garbage,” “Uncle Jack,” and “Mechanical World”) are a seamless suite of rock, jazz, and psychedelia! The fourth, “Taurus,” is what Jimmy Page reworked in “Stairway to Heaven.” For your enjoyment, Spirit
A brief aside! I found this early demo clip from 1967, very much in the Spirit of what they were about! Randy was very young when they cut “If I Had A Woman” and “I Can’t Stand It”
From their first album, one of my all-time favorites titled "Elijah."
From their second album, a tune Ed and Randy wrote! "It's All the Same."
From 1968, their second! The Family that Plays Together
From 1969, their third album! Clear Spirit
From 1970, their 4th legendary album, The 12 Dreams of Dr. Sardonicus
Randy and Ed hung together after the breakup of the original lineup. From 1972, Randy going all out Hendrix on us with Ed and Noel Redding of the Experience! Most have never heard this magnificent guitar tribute, so get ready for pure psychedelia! Kapt Kopter and His (Fabulous) Twirly Birds
To give you a sense of how far out he got, this one has Cass on drums and Fuzzy Knight on Bass. It is definitely the most psychedelic version of this song you'll ever hear! "Mother and Child Reunion"
From 1981, a 26 min. radio interview by Jeff Gold with Ed and Randy about the 1971 Potatoland years when Randy and Ed were Kaptain Kopter & The Fabulous Twirlybirds. Jeff Gold Interviews Ed Cassidy and Randy California - 1981
From a few years later, an equally trippy offering! The Original Potatoland
The original group got back together for a final album in 1983. This was the result. Spirit ‘84
Last year I had a great audio-only clip from Huntington Beach in 1978 of “Stone Free” but it’s disappeared. As I told you earlier, Randy California played second lead as a teenager in Jimi’s band in NY, before the Experience. It is said he was Jimi’s favorite guitarist, and so this tribute clearly shows the bond of respect from Randy to the Guitar Master. Unfortunately, this magnificent 7 minute clip of Ed and Randy performing the electrifying “Stone Free” is gone, but hopefully it’ll come back up by the time we hit Ed’s birthday.
We’ll close with a great 1988 performance by Randy in London of the iconic “Hey Joe”
For our encore, three video clips from 1989 in Toledo! The first two are tunes from Sardonicus, so enjoy these performances of “Nature’s Way” and a tune written for Ed Cassidy, the great “Mr. Skin.” Our third clip from that show was their encore, a cover of Bob Dylan’s classic “Like A Rolling Stone”
Our second encore comes from the Rockpalast show in 1978, another version of “Mr. Skin”
Our third encore is from 1992 on Dennis Miller, with Spirit cranking out their biggest hit live, “I Got A Line On You”
Our final encore features Randy and four other very famous smokin’ guitarists! From 1989’s “Night of the Guitar” tour, I found a great performance of a tune written by Lucky Wilbury, “All Along the Watchtower,” while this version on the 1977 Future Games album again shows just what a Guitar Master Randy was! For your enjoyment, “All Along the Watchtower.”
Here’s a 9 minute mini-documentary of when Randy California met Jimi Hendrix
Here’s a one hour documentary about Ed “Cass” Cassidy, the "oldest performing rock drummer in the world!" Ed Cassidy – the Story of Spirit
© Copyright 2022 Robert Wilkinson
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