When I opened the Spirit section with an abbreviated, single LP version of Spirit Of 76 I promised a further three alternate albums concerning Randy California and his ever-changing (save for stepdad Ed Cassidy) line-up of Spirit, Mark II to...oh...maybe XII or so?! So, after our look at the work throughout the 70s of the ever more fluid types of Spirit it's time to make good of that promise and pick up where the last tracks of that comp left us: with a Spirit that was, for all intents and purposes, kaputt. Future Games, the disastrous excuse of a concept album had left the band without a record contract once again. Which of course didn't stop California & Co. from gigging or from writing and recording new music. California was a lot like his idol Jimi Hendrix, basically recording everything, whether a live show, a sudio demo or a simple tape of him noodling on his guitar. Which, if you listen to it all, or even most of it, can be tiresome and unproductive, since there is so much chaff to go through. Fortunately, you won't have to, as once again the One Buck Guy volunteers to present the best of the rest.
This version of the newly reconfigured band was once dubbed "a power trio with class" by California, including besides him and Cassidy bassist and backing vocalist Larry "Fuzzy" Knight. Their live shows as a power trio were highly charged, but their studio work, as highlighted on Radio Aqua Blue, was more melodic and relatively diverse. The name of this album that never existed is actually a play on the band name Aqua Blue, that California gave to a very short-lived four-piece version of the band including his friend Tom Hall from Maui. "So Happy Now", "There Are Words" and "(I See You) In The Morning Light" are from the Aqua Blue version of the group.
By the way, you might ask, that explains parts of the name, but why Radio? Well, considering the extremely different nature of the tracks, in fidelity, source and style, I was looking for a way to try to unify the tracks a bit, so I settled on the concept of the album being a radio station - Radio Aqua Blue! - that plays these different tracks. Thus the little bits of radio dial in between tracks. And really, Radio Aqua Blue - the imaginary station as well as the existing album - plays a bunch of different stuff, ranging from pure rock'n'roll to an unexpected excursion into country rock ("Midnight Train") to a couple of slower guitar ballads. As said, the album highlights the melodic side of Spirit rather than their turbocharged rock'n'roll, though tracks like "Rock'n'Roll Planet", "Zandu" and especially "These Are Words" are exactly that.
One major choosing point for the tracks that make up Radio Aqua Blue was sound quality - some songs from the period with merit were excluded because the sound quality was so much inferior to the others. In order to stretch out the material to album length I took a solo California guitar demo from '77 ("Livin' In This World") and used it as part of the closing medley. Spirit specialists will also recognize the Potatoland '81 track "We've Got A Lot To Learn" present here in an alternate version, as Spirit was starting to rework the old Potatoland material in 1978.
So, overall Radio Aqua Blue is the album that Spirit could've brought out in 1979, if record companies had been interested. It isn't any kind of classic by any means, but a diverse and good listen either way. So, turn on your radio, switch it to Radio Aqua Blue and let the spirit of radio take over...
Radio of Spirit/Spirit of Radio
ReplyDeletehttps://workupload.com/file/buMeCR898FA
Tell us about your favorite radio stations you listened to when you were young...
ReplyDeleteWell, i'm Italain and in those days of old (early seventies) in Italy commercial radios didn't exist yet . But on State managed radio channels I used to listen to some daily shows that aired rock music and the like. What a lot of precious hours for me... (you know in Italy , musically speaking, we were, and are, plagued by the totally inane Sanremo-Festival-True-Italian-Melody-Style shit albeit presented in a"modern" or "contemporary" stile)
ReplyDeleteBtw, while writing these notes ,I'm listening to Martha and The Muffins' Trance and Dance .What a delight, in these hot days of August. And tx for Spirit, one of my faves
WLS - World's Largest Store, and WGN - World's Greatest Newspaper, dominated the airwaves from Chicago, but the Ohio powerhouses WCKY Cincinnati, and WKYC Cleveland gave them a run for the money on AM - Ish
ReplyDeleteIn the Los Angeles area we had KMET & KLOS. The DJs talked slower than AM radio. Many side long albums and The Import Hour where they would play music from overseas. And The Doctor Demento Show. FM radio played a lot of deep cuts back then. Not just the hits off a playlist. Probably influanced me.
ReplyDeleteKMET impressed me on a trip to LA in 1972. My own home town version was WBCN in Boston. Before that, in the early sixties, powerhouse (100,000 watts) AM top 40 station WBZ had a Sunday afternoon folk music show that morphed into a folk-rock show in 1966 and then into an "underground" rock show in 1967.
ReplyDeleteBTW, thanks for this comp. Wading through all the extraneous stuff is a much appreciated service that you're doing us.
ReplyDeleteGreat comments, y'all. You had way cooler radio stations back then, but then again, you had way cooler music, too!
ReplyDeleteMe, I'm just a man out of time constantly trying to catch up with the good stuff from way back when...
Don't worry OBG. It may take some time but I worked backwards through the music. New music just took too long to come out fresh. I went backwards through the 60's to Big Band. I wanted to know what made previous generations dance. Enjoy your journey. I did.
DeleteWithout a computer. Just going by instinct and bargain bins.
DeleteSome great albums come from bargain bins! See my nickname! I could probably build a half decent record collection with one buck albums alone...
DeleteI've spent hours at the bargain bins.
DeleteIn the early 80s LA county I enjoyed KROQ and KXLU (Loyola Marymount college radio station)
ReplyDeleteI remember KROQ. One afternoon Frank Zappa came in and told everyone listening to get out some blank tapes. He was about to play the entire Lather album. He said it would be tied up in court and not released for years. Which is exactly what happened. Thanks Frank!
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