Esoteric (label)
25 February 2022 (released)
13 March 2022
A fantastic new remastering of what is, arguably, Spirit’s best album.
Spirit featured Randy California who, as a 15 year old, was brought into his band Jimmy James & The Blue Flames by Jimi Hendrix. Little wonder that one can hear many references to Hendrix’s playing throughout this album. Hendrix also taught the young lad how to project his stage presence and win over an audience with some physical and guitar pyrotechnics.
‘Twelve Dreams Of Dr Sardonicus’ was Spirit’s fourth album and, at the time of its release in 1970, the least successful of their albums for CBS. However, it was the first album of theirs to get to Gold status and actually achieved Platinum some twenty years after it was first released.
The tunes and melodies are stronger than almost any other of their albums and the standard of musicianship is exceptional. Jay Ferguson (Vocals & Keyboards) went on to join Jo Jo Gunne, John Locke (keyboards) was a member of Nazareth, Mark Andes (bass) played with Jo Jo Gunne, Canned Heat, Heart and others and Drummer Ed Cassidy (also California’s Step-father) was a noted Jazz drummer having played with such as Art Pepper, Lee Konitz, Cannonball Adderley, Roland Kirk as well as being a member of the Rising Sons with Ry Cooder & Taj Mahal.
The album was remastered in 1996 but this is a completely fresh remastering and, in my opinion, definitely a better job than the ’96 remaster. It also includes 11 bonus tracks as well as a CD of live performances from the band’s appearance at the Fillmore West and the Boston Tea Party in 1970.
Spirit were very much an ‘alternative’ band, featuring political, sociological and environmental themes throughout their career and ’12 Dreams…’ is no different, with ‘Animal Zoo’, ‘Natures Way’, ‘Mr Skin’ & ‘Street Worm’ some of the more standout numbers here. Seeing as how Spirit were very much a part of the West Coast underground scene, you might expect that there is an ‘experimental’ feel to a lot of the tracks and they were way ahead in use of samples and effects. Producer David Briggs was fresh from working with Neil Young and brought a lot of technical know-how with him.
The live CD that accompanies ‘Twelve Dreams…’ puts over the feeling of the band onstage in those days and while the quality is a little patchy, musically it is fascinating.
The booklet contains some excellent pictures and a fine essay by Mick Skidmore.
