A Spirited Encore : 5 Original Members of a Cherished L.A. Love-In Band Will Play Sunday in Fountain Valley

The Doors were all right, but for many rock fans in the late ‘60s, the L.A. band that really mattered was Spirit. From the effervescent, summery fun of “I Got a Line on You� to the jagged emotional sound-scape of “Mechanical World� to the unfettered jazz excursions of “Elijah,� Spirit came closer to achieving total musical freedom than nearly of its contemporaries in those freedom-lovin’ times, and they had the talent and vision to make the most of that freedom.

All five original members of Spirit will play at noon Sunday at Fountain Valley’s Mile Square Park, part of the 97.1 KLSX Classic Jam. It’s a free, outdoor event that’s nearly a quarter-century removed from the Griffith Park love-in where Spirit came together.

The band’s bald-pated drummer, Ed Cassidy, had previously gigged or jammed with the likes of Dexter Gordon, Roland Kirk, Art Pepper and Chet Baker. Now widely recognized as the world’s oldest rock drummer--he’s 68--Cassidy quipped that he had played his first gig “before this (country) was even a continent.� He may also be the only rock drummer who can claim to have played background music for radio Westerns and snare drum for the San Francisco Opera Co.

By the time he and his son-in-law, guitarist Randy California, ran into singer Jay Ferguson, pianist John Locke and bassist Mark Andes at the 1967 love-in--most had individually crossed paths in bands before that--Cassidy was fed up with the jazz world.

“Earlier in jazz, there had been a warmth and togetherness,� Cassidy said. “But with the exception of a very few players, I think their attitude became, ‘If you don’t understand my music, tough. I’m playing for myself, not you.’ To me, that got away from what music’s all about. Music is for people, to share something.

“My jazz friends were saying, ‘I don’t want to play with those long-haired freakos.’ I said, ‘Good luck.’ Those people are still on the corner waiting for the bus.

“Rock ‘n’ roll music really saved my bacon musically, and it may have saved my life, because I was in a pretty depressed state about music at that time. It just wasn’t happening. What I wanted was a band with no categories that could attempt anything, any style, and make it their own.�

With Spirit, he found it. Something clicked from the get-go among its members, according to California: “The five of us really fit together like five parts of some strange puzzle. Sometimes you can meet somebody and they’re your soul mate, and that happened with us, where together we became one incredibly strong force.�

Locke, like Cassidy, came from a jazz background; Ferguson had studied classical composition; Andes (son of actor Keith Andes) had played in blues and rock bands. And if California seemed undaunted when, at 17, he found himself sharing the bill with Eric Clapton’s Cream at the Anaheim Convention Center, it’s small wonder: He’d spent three months playing with Jimi Hendrix when he was 15.

California’s uncle owned the Ash Grove, L.A.’s seminal folk and blues club. “Our family had a big house, and the performers--people like Lightnin’ Hopkins, Mance Lipscomb, Doc Watson and Clarence White--would sleep over there instead of in a hotel,� California said. “So you’d get up the morning and have breakfast with Mance Lipscomb, then bring out the guitar and they’d show you licks. I was real lucky.�

When California was 13, Cassidy married his mother, so when Cassidy went to New York for a jazz job in 1966, California went along. There he met Hendrix, who was a year shy of fame himself, in a music store. Hendrix asked him to join his band and called him Randy California to distinguish him from a Texas-born Randy who also was in the band (he was born Randy Wolfe).

“The first time I ever really played electric guitar was in Jimi’s band, and he taught me a lot,� California said. “He was a real generous guy. I just flowed right in and did it--you know how confident kids are at 15. I didn’t know then that he was 20 million steps above every other guitar player then or who’s since been. I just had fun playing with him. It was a blast. We used to do double leads, things like that.

“We’d to sit around and listen to Buddy Guy together, going ‘Oh, listen to that lick.’ It all focused around the music and not the music business,� California said.

By the time Spirit formed, he had also absorbed the music of Wes Montgomery and John Coltrane and had forged one of the most distinctive styles in rock, ranging over hushed octave jazz runs, shattering feedback explosions, pioneering tape echo effects and bluesy bends, all played on a $38 Sears-Silvertone guitar. Spirit called their second album “The Family That Plays Together,� reflecting not just the family relationship between the guitarist and drummer but the band’s communal living arrangement in a house in Topanga Canyon.

“It was really like family: You get to know and to trust people,� California said, “A lot of our influences and life experiences became similar, because we all lived in the same place, we were all pulling for each other. And the main motive was the love of music. It wasn’t to become famous or make a lot of money.

“When Spirit started, the whole concept of being a star, making a lot of money or having a hit record meant absolutely zero to me, and it actually still does mean absolutely zero to me, except for the idea of paying your rent and surviving,� he said.

The aggregate that emerged from the Topanga house somehow found a cerebral, sensual blend between the Beatles’ melodiousness, Hendrix’s aural assault and Coltrane’s modal sheets of sound. While not exactly a record exec’s ideal for a crossover band, they did have above or underground hits with “I Got a Line on You,� “Nature’s Way,� “Animal Zoo� and “1984.�

The group’s fans included Hendrix--who sometimes tossed lines from California’s Spirit solos into his live performances--as well as British folk-guitar kings Bert Jansch and John Renbourne and French film director Jacques (“The Umbrellas of Cherbourg�) Demy. It was for Demy’s 1969 film “The Model Shop� that Spirit composed one of the first rock-based musical scores.

And then there’s Led Zeppelin. The British juggernaut’s first U.S. gig was a Dec. 26, 1968, show in Denver opening for Spirit. For months after, Zep incorporated an instrumental version of Spirit’s “Fresh Garbage� into its onstage jams. There also are listeners who have noted more than a passing similarity between the intro to “Stairway to Heaven� and Spirit’s “Taurus�--recorded three years earlier. Cassidy said members of the two bands often attended each other’s gigs.

Spirit’s shows ranged from rock festivals in front of 180,000 to gigs for a couple of hundred fans at Huntington Beach’s Golden Bear. “The size really didn’t matter much to us,� Cassidy said, “If we made a difference to one person, we figured we were successful.�

One of his favorite gigs was an Independence Day extravaganza at Ciro’s on the Sunset Strip in Hollywood, where the program also included a jazz big band in the orchestra pit and live elephants.

“The jazz musicians were watching real closely throughout our set,� Cassidy said, “and a lot of them told us they were impressed by the things we were doing.�

And the elephants?

“Well, they didn’t stampede, so I guess it was all right.�

A concert centerpiece for the band’s creativity was “Elijah,� in which each member had an open-ended opportunity to express himself. While usually a musical adventure, sometimes Ferguson and Andes would sit and play “Hambone� on their knees, or California might pass fruit out to the audience. Cassidy at times would get out from behind his kit with his mallets and use the whole stage--or sometimes heads in the front row--as surfaces for soloing.

While the disparate influences in the band gave it dimension, it also began to pull members in different directions. The quintet’s final album, 1970’s “The 12 Dreams of Dr. Sardonicus,� was the result of six months of intensive work. When the album--now regarded as a period classic--was shot down by a snide review in Rolling Stone, the band became discouraged.

Further, it was frustrating for some members, Cassidy said, to see Spirit shunted aside while less adventurous bands took the express to recognition and recompense. In June, 1971, Ferguson and Andes left Spirit to start a new group, JoJo Gunne, with a more straightforward rock approach (which yielded one hit, “Run, Run, Run�).

Ferguson went on to a mildly successful solo career (with the hit “Thunder Island�), before devoting his talents to commercial and soundtrack work (including the first “Terminator� film). Locke moved to the West Indies to work in the Montserrat studio scene. Andes, one of the most inventive, on-the-money bassists of the ‘60s, went on distinguish himself as the member of Heart with the nicest hair.

Despite those defections, Spirit struggled on in various forms for a year or two. But California, who suffered a spinal injury when thrown from a horse and was further jarred by a divorce and the death of Hendrix, says: “I was pretty out of it emotionally. It was a real tough period for me trying to put it back together, both musically and in my personal life.�

It didn’t help that, like many bands of the time, the group members had no money to show for their efforts. The downside of the ‘60s credo stressing “music over money� is that while the bands concentrated on the music, someone else got the money. California said that to this day, band members have seen very little from the 2 million albums they reportedly sold.

For a couple of years, California left music behind, worked at a McDonald’s in the San Fernando Valley and manual-labor jobs while living for a time in Hawaii.

He and Cassidy reconvened under the Spirit name in 1974, continuing to the present with a series of sometimes-satisfying albums and steady touring of the United States and Europe.

When asked to perform for Sunday’s KLSX concert, California felt the time was ripe for a reunion, as it is nearing the group’s 25th anniversary. The band had reconvened on just two previous occasions. One, an otherwise-splendid 1976 concert at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium, unfortunately is most remembered as the night California shoved a drunk, off-key Neil Young stumbling into the wings.

Epic/Sony has recently marketed “Time Circle,� an excellent two-CD compilation of songs from the band’s first four albums, supplemented by some previously unreleased material. Spirit has just issued its own retrospective package, “Chronicles,� which ranges from its earliest studio sessions with Barry (Dr. Demento) Hansen at the helm to a recent re-recording of “Nature’s Way,� featuring Sara Fleetwood, Mick’s wife. (For information on the album or other Spirit news, write to: Spirit, P.O. Box 655, Ojai, Calif. 93024.)

In the meantime, California and Cassidy are hoping Sunday to rekindle the group’s live magic, something that was missing the last time the five got together, in 1983 for an ill-conceived, corporate-sounding video/album project.

“I really believe it’s going to be more of what the original band was about,� California said. “That’s what I’m shooting for. This time everyone’s doing it because they want to do it, as opposed to somebody coming in with a bunch of money and trying to resurrect it.

“At this point in time, I think we’re all mature adults and want to maybe relive our youth a little bit and just go for it and have fun. That’s how I always wanted to be if we did get together.�

Spirit and the Doobie Brothers perform Sunday beginning at noon at Mile Square Park, 16801 Euclid St., Fountain Valley. Admission: free. Information: (213) 383-4222.