YOUR SHOUT!
Bass player Mark Andes reckons they were "one of the first progressive bands". So come on, how prog were Spirit really?
"If Future Games isn't groundbreaking enough to be prog – one long piece with found sounds, TV and film dialogue, samples, sci-fi images, try Spirit Of '76. I rest my case."
TONY MALONE
"Ed Cassidy played with Cannonball Adderley and Thelonious Monk prior to Spirit. 'Mr Skin' was 45 when their first LP came out. That’s pretty prog!"
WEDGEPIECE
"Superb band – Twelve Dreams… is an essential part of any self-respecting music fan's collection as is …Potato
Land. Proggy, jazzy, quirky – what's not to love?
TITUS JENNINGS
"To me a hard call, spacey yes, avant-garde yes, prog sometimes maybe but I wouldn't call them a prog band."
YSERBIUS GANDALF
"To me, if I’m being picky, Spirit were more psychedelic rock than prog rock. But the Twelve Dreams Of Doctor
Sardonicus in particular is great music whatever label you stick on it. And a concept album recorded in 1970 with 12 strong and varied tracks that meld into each other? That’s prog enough for me!"
DAVE LOWETH
"Randy California was a gifted songwriter, and Spirit’s music evolved just as any other group. Twelve Dreams…, their fourth release, was excellent and had prog written all over it. To some it may be labelled pop, but the themes and song structures were proggy, at least to me."
STEVE FOY
"Their album …Potato Land is even weirder than both Tales From Topographic Oceans and The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway."
IAN POPE
"I'd say they're more psychedelic, but they did get sorta proggy on tracks like Space Child, which starts really spacey, then veers into jazz-rock."
SEAN ROVALDI
"Isn’t there some kind of ‘grandfather clause’ that means most psychedelic rock is considered ‘proto-prog’ by default? Because there should be."
BEN L CONNOR
"No."
STEVE HARRISON
"They definitely helped build the genre, like all early psych/prog bands of the era."
CHARLES MOSS
"Future Games was certainly progressive having tracks that flowed into each other forming a whole piece."
DAVID JEFFREY
"Their first LP was an important part of my soundtrack while growing up in SoCal in the late 60s. Though a few years before what we now think of as prog emerged, I still think their blending of rock, jazz, and some classical motifs was quite progressive at the time. Still love the record. Shame they floundered so badly later on."
JESSE FISHER
"Thank you, you good folks at the Prog office! For once a sensible suggestion. Well okay, they are best labelled as psychedelic, but close enough. A great band."
KARI HAUTOKOSKI