THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
1,092) Spirit — “Gramophone Man”
Here is a Spirit song not nicked by Zeppelin, but which probably shoulda been! It’s “a tongue-and-cheek stab at radio-inclined music executives [with] a groove in the verses.” (Sinusoid, https://www.progarchives.com/album.asp?id=13042) Boppin’s Blog says:
The start is very early Floyd like. I can almost hear Syd Barrett. Then the song morphs into a little jazz ditty. Then it morphs back again. Very cool indeed.
https://nauticazinger.wordpress.com/2018/01/31/album-review-spirit-spirit-1968-2005-mono-lp/
Matthew Greenwood describes the song as:
One of the few group-written songs from Spirit . . . a colorful portrait of what idealistic musicians have to deal with when trying to “relate” to the record company executives. It’s doubtful that the song was written [about] Lou Adler, who was the founder of Ode Records, Spirit’s label and the band’s producer. At this stage (1968), the group apparently had excellent relations with him. But whomever it was about, the strangeness of the corporate atmosphere that was foreign to many rock bands is communicated. A bluesy, rock base carries the melody, but like many of the band’s songs, it shifts radically, in this case to a delicious jazz fusion break that once again shows off the group’s awesome instrumental abilities, especially Randy California’s Wes Montgomery-inspired jazz octaves.
https://www.allmusic.com/song/gramophone-man-mt0011968298
Donald Brown adds:
[T]he song has a sudden, surprise change in the middle—a common enough feature of psychedelic songs, but in this case it breaks into something jazzier than usual. Ed Cassidy, the bald, older gent in the band, played drums with some big jazz names in his youth . . . and Spirit was unique in its use of jazz ideas in rock. . . . Gramophone Man . . . who at first has “magic presents” in his head and his hands, but later the presents prove “empty.” I suspect that Spirit is commenting on the empty promises of record companies and the like, the whole big bozo bucks sweepstakes . . . . Gramophone Man bids them sing, and, being cool CA music-dudes, they comply, only to feel ill-used and abused later. Mr. Gramophone Man will no doubt laugh all the way to the bank.
https://browndmt.blogspot.com/2014/09/dbs-song-of-day-day-247-gramophone-man.html?m=1
As to Spirit, Sean Trane says:
Spirit created a product of its time: an inventive psychedelic rock hovering between Syd Barrett-Floyd, early The Who, but also developed some highly original sounds of their own. Spirit was not just another garage rock band: they had two jazz players John Locke . . . and drummer Ed Cassidy . . . . [who] was the step father of teenage [ax] wonder Randy California . . . .
https://www.progarchives.com/album.asp?id=13042
As to Spirit, siLLypuPPy tells us:
Rising out of the ashes of a prior band called The Rising Sons centered around The Ash Grove venue in mid-1960s Los Angeles, a new band emerged . . . . includ[ing] percussionist Ed Cassidy, lead vocalist Jay Ferguson, bassist Mark Andes and guitarist Randy [Wolfe to later become Randy] California. The like minded musical misfits started a folk rock band called Red Roosters where they managed to score the odd high school dances and small venues around L.A. but after taking a hiatus and a cross-country trip to New York City Randy California had the chance to briefly play with Jimi Hendrix . . . but ultimately was denied moving with the band to London by his parents due to his tender young age of 15. Slightly dismayed he had to head back to California to reform his prior band and with the addition of keyboardist John Locke, he and the other Red Roosters team opted to change their name to Spirits Rebellious and that’s when the true magic started to gel. Joining in on the “Summer Of Love” hippie scene after a trip to Griffith Park, the members of the band rented an entire house in Topanga Canyon and lived together with significant others, children, pets and pretty much everything else. This is the time where the inspiration for SPIRIT’s eponymously titled debut album came from. After truncating their name to simply SPIRIT, the band started to make waves by having an utterly unique sound that took the disparate styles of 60s folk and psychedelic rock and married them with the more progressive jazz-fusion styles that were emerging.
https://www.progarchives.com/album.asp?id=13042
William Ruhlmann tells us more:
Founded in Los Angeles in 1967 by musicians who had a mixture of rock, pop, folk, blues, classical, and jazz backgrounds, and who ranged in age from 16 to 44, the group had an eclectic musical style in keeping with the early days of progressive rock . . . . The diverse tastes of the original quintet produced a hybrid style that delighted a core audience of fans but proved too wide-ranging to attract a mass following, and at the same time the musicians’ acknowledged talents brought them other opportunities that led to the breakup of the original lineup after four years and four albums . . . . In early 1965, the Rising Sons, a folk-blues group featuring Taj Mahal and Ry Cooder, played the Ash Grove; the band’s drummer was Ed Cassidy . . . who met and married [Randy] California’s recently divorced mother, becoming his stepfather. Cassidy had been drumming professionally since his teens in almost every conceivable style, though lately largely in jazz groups before he joined the Rising Sons. . . . In September 1965 . . . [Randy and Cassidy] formed a band called the Red Roosters [with Jay Ferguson and Mark Andes] that . . . . broke up when Cassidy moved his family to New York . . . in the spring of 1966. There [Randy] had a fateful encounter . . . at a music store in Manhattan; he met the then-unknown Jimi Hendrix . . . who invited him to join his band . . . . Since there was already a musician named Randy in the band . . . Hendrix distinguished the two by their home states, calling . . . Randy Wolfe “Randy California.” California played with Hendrix that summer . . . . [who] asked [him] to go to England with him, but at 15 he was too young. Instead, California moved back to [California where he and] Cassidy formed a band called Spirits Rebellious, after a book by the religious mystic Kahlil Gibran, also featuring pianist John Locke [and the returning Ferguson and Andes]. . . . By June [1967], they were playing gigs and . . . . auditioned for record executive and producer Lou Adler. . . . [who] signed Spirit . . . in August 1967, Adler produced the self-titled debut album . . . . [which] entered the Billboard chart in April and . . . peak[ed] in the Top 40 in September. . . . In October 1968, they issued a single, “I Got a Line on You,” a driving rocker written by California. Peaking at number 25 in the Hot 100 in March 1969, it was the group’s only Top 40 single.
https://www.allmusic.com/artist/spirit-mn0000746010
Here is X version:
Pay to Play! The Off the Charts Spotify Playlist! + Brace for the Obscure 60s Rock Merchandise
Please consider helping to support my website/blog by contributing $6 a month for access to the Off the Charts Spotify Playlist. Using a term familiar to denizens of Capitol Hill, you pay to play! (“relating to or denoting an unethical or illicit arrangement in which payment is made by those who want certain privileges or advantages in such arenas as business, politics, sports, and entertainment” — dictionary.com).
The playlist includes all the “greatest songs of the 1960’s that no one has ever heard” that are available on Spotify. The playlist will expand each time I feature an available song.
All new subscribers will receive a Brace for the Obscure 60s Rock magnet. New subscribers who sign up for a year will also receive a Brace for the Obscure 60s Rock t-shirt or baseball cap. See pictures on the Pay to Play page.
When subscribing, please send me an e-mail (GMFtma1@gmail.com) or a comment on this site letting me know an e-mail address/phone number/Facebook address, etc. to which I can send instructions on accessing the playlist and a physical address to which I can sent a magnet/t-shirt/baseball cap. If choosing a t-shirt, please let me know the gender and size you prefer.
Just click on the first blue block for a month to month subscription or the second blue block for a yearly subscription.
Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! / Off the Charts: 60s Rock Revelations😊 
Pretty cool song. I’d never heard about the Rising Sons until I recently researched a post I did on Ry Cooder so that was an interesting connection.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Synchronicity!
LikeLiked by 1 person