Spirit (8) – Clear

A more atmospheric mellow & jazzy set interspersed w/ semi-orchestral numbers & psychy-bluesy-tinged hard rockers. Probably the least important Spirit album but still way better than a lot of ’69 musical output. Their final album w/ Lou Adler producing before their next big success “12 Dreams…”. Worth owning though.
A good album with moments of greatness.

Acquired a rough VG copy of this in a chazza recently. Theres some good stuff on here, So Little Time To Fly is the stand out track meaty bass, 60s pop groove to it, can't stop listening to it. 'Caught' has more than a passing resemblance to 'Lean On Me' by Bill Withers in parts, written 3 years later, I'd be shocked if it didn't inspire him, sounds almost note perfect in places.

My copy is playing through fine; Bought it used but very clean copy. Cleaned it with an ultrasonic machine and am having no troubles. That said, the production or pressing sounds a bit muffled but I don't have another pressing to compare it to.

This one won't be as popular to the rock buying public because the band tapped more into their Wes Montgomery jazz inspiration, but it is still well worth adding to your collection for the atmospheric 'Ice' and Randy's beautiful guitar solo in 'Cold Wind'.

This is an album with different musical styles. The ‘give a life, take a life’ track, known from the ‘fill your head with rock compilation album’, is your typical late 60’s/ early 70’s slightly experimental rock song, on the other side of the spectrum there are the instrumental songs like ‘ice’ and ‘clear’ that are sort of ahead of it’s time with their jazzy ambient instrumentations. Some might find it not a coherent album as a whole. I agree but there are at least 4 or 5 songs that make it a great Classic album.

The blistering “Dark Eyed Woman,” sounding more heavy rock and not as psychedelic as I’d always hoped opens Clear, the third album by the legendary band Spirit, arriving in October of 1969 … just in time for Halloween. It was an album that according to the band suffered from a number of inherent issues, feeling that not nearly enough time was available to make the socially pure adventure they’d intended, an album that should have been a step further than their initial offering Spirit, primarily due to a relentless tour schedule, along with scoring the film “Model Shop” which occupied far too much of their time. All of this resulted in the album featuring no less than three instrumentals, being a sheer disappointment to nearly everyone.

Of course by the time “So Little Time To Fly” drifted from my speakers, I was sure that all the critics were entirely wrong, that Spirit were indeed onto something good. Sadly, there were to be only minutes that implied brilliance. While the album came across as being very disconnected, there were still the signature blues shuffles fused with their own personal visions of 60’s quirky rock-jazz indulgences, indulgences that paled when compared to the Spirit album from the year before, signaling an uneasy rift and the coming of Jo Jo Gunne. Some of the strongest efforts are housed within those three instrumentals, yet even those seem not to have been fleshed out and as deeply considered as they should have been, especially for such a highly regarded band from a seminal period in time, leaving the album to sound uninspired and for the most part, draped with lackluster lyrics.

There’s nothing that’s mythical, mystical, magical, hazed or darkly mysterious to be found here. It’s as if Spirit had sidestepped Topanga Canyon, the acid, the Bay and everything else that went into creating the elusive Summer of Love atmosphere. This album, from a band who loomed larger than life, almost defiantly lacks any vision or emancipation, where except for a few numbers is entirely earthbound, confined and unremarkable.

Spirt’s self-titled first offering is perhaps their only album that stands as a brilliant masterpiece, one that defined a time and space and one that influenced many. All of their other records do nothing but add songs to an eventual collection of ‘best of’ material, which broke my heart, as I’d always imagined that Spirit would soar the ethereal currents like some west coast Moody Blues, singlehandedly defining what 60’s inspired psychedelic music was all about. So while I never got that, I did manage to add a couple of solid tracks which would find their way into making a splendid collection that lets all of this silliness drift off into nothing … leaving me awash in the pleasure of who Spirit almost were.

*** The Fun Facts: Spirit was originally known as The Spirits Rebellious, after a book by the religious mystic Kahlil Gibran.

The number “Coral” included as part of the Sony reissue and available as part of the “Model Shop” soundtrack, regards and is a dedication to groupie Coral Shields, the eleven year old sister of Sable Starr (known as the reigning Queen of the Groupies in LA, who was also involved with Randy California), whom was being dated at the time by Randy California.

Spirit were on of those bands who decided (actually the doings of Lou Adler) to skip out of Woodstock, even though Jimi Hendrix, whom Randy California had played with, personally invited them, saying they could have the slot right before he closed the show.

Randy California once kicked Neil Young off stage when he showed up uninvited and wandered on stage hoping to jam with the band.

Review by Jenell Kesler

Please Note: ALL 3 of the Original Spirit ODE releases WERE issued on CASSETTE Tape with the ODE Cassette prefix number of Z16-. I HAD them and can attest to the fact they DID exist (but were ONLY issued in very small quantites... in late 1969, when Columbia/Epic (who distributed ODE) issued their first Cassette Tape releases)

Anybody else have trouble with the quality of this pressing (the 2002 Sundazed Music ‎– LP 5082)? I got a brand new copy, clean, but it's full of skips and absolutely unplayable. The hole is a little off center, but I've had other records equally off center that played fine.