THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
2,027) Spirit — “Nature’s Way”
Here’s a Spirit (see #1,092) song that wasn’t nicked by Zeppelin, but probably should have been — “lilting”, a “most endearing FM standard” (Richie Unterberger, https://www.allmusic.com/album/twelve-dreams-of-dr-sardonicus-mw0000651040), “driven by a positively gorgeous folk-jazz melody; its bittersweet beauty is easily apparent upon first listen”. (Matthew Greenwald, https://www.allmusic.com/song/natures-way-mt0033489611)
It was one of the first environmentally-driven rock songs. Matthew Greenwald writes that it was “[i]nspired by a conversation that writer Randy California had with a San Francisco musician, it takes aim at the fact that Northern California was certainly not immune to ecological nightmares.” (https://www.allmusic.com/song/natures-way-mt0033489611)
Greg Cahill adds:
Spirit guitarist and boy genius Randy California penned “Nature’s Way” in San Francisco one afternoon while the band waited to perform at the Fillmore Auditorium. That stark environmental anthem coincided with the inaugural Earth Day celebration, becoming the first pop song to seriously address concerns about pollution and ecological disaster. The album continues to have an impact: Walter Becker of Steely Dan, who lived in the same apartment building as Randy California, reportedly has credited the Spirit guitarist’s bluesy style as a major influence and has noted that Spirit’s jazz-inflected prog-rock paved the way for Steely Dan’s distinct 1970s pop sound . . . .
https://acousticguitar.com/natures-way-became-a-1970s-rock-anthem-and-classic-rock-radio-staple/
As to Spirit, Sean Trane says:
Spirit created a product of its time: an inventive psychedelic rock hovering between Syd Barrett-Floyd [see #13, 38, 87, 315, 360, 922, 1,949], early The Who [see #119, 548, 833, 976, 1,912], 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 . . . .
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 [see #1,577, 1,776] . . . 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.
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.
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