Wednesday, October 7, 2020

Spirit - Live at the Texas International Pop Festival, Dallas International Motor Speedway, Lewisville, TX, 9-1-1969

I'm a fan of the band Spirit, but mostly their original line-up. That line-up released four really good albums from 1968 to 1970. I wanted a good live album from that version of the band, especially since they were very well known for their live shows. Unfortunately, for whatever reason, almost no good sounding recordings exist from that time. There are some bootlegs, but they sound middling or poor.

Luckily, there are two soundboard bootlegs from 1969. One, from Boston, doesn't meet my standards, mostly due to lots of hiss. But this one, from the Texas International Pop Festival in Dallas, sounds good enough to be a satisfying listen. Unfortunately, it's not a very long show. They were on a bill with lots of big name artists, and most of them had the keep their sets relatively short. This one is about 45 minutes long.

If you want some live Spirit from their peak years, this is definitely the way to go.

By the way, the last song, "1984," is a bonus track of sorts. I checked to see if there were any radio or TV appearances with high quality sound, and I didn't find much at all, except for a couple of different versions of their hits, mainly versions of "I've Got a Line on You." But "1984" was a minor hit too, and this version from a German TV show is excellent.

01 Trancas Fog-Out [Instrumental] (Spirit)
02 I'm Truckin' (Spirit)
03 Fresh Garbage (Spirit)
04 Poor Richard (Spirit)
05 Caught [Instrumental] (Spirit)
06 Ground Hog (Spirit)
07 Policeman's Ball (Spirit)
08 Drum Solo - Mechanical World (Spirit)
09 I've Got a Line on You (Spirit)
10 Aren't You Glad (Spirit)
11 1984 (Spirit)

https://www.upload.ee/files/16700501/SPIRT1969_TexsInternatinlPopFestivlLwisvilleTX__9-1-1969_atse.zip.html

I was unpleasantly surprised to find very, very few good photos of Spirit in concert from their peak years. I found one good one that from around 1969, but it was only in black and white. I wanted it to have a psychedelic look, so I took a psychedelic background and melded it into the photo. I like how the combo worked out.

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13 comments:

  1. JobeOctober 8, 2020 at 6:25 AM

    Gotta agree with every thing you said.
    Thanks

    ReplyDelete
  2. echopkOctober 8, 2020 at 9:17 AM

    Thanks for this. I saw the original lineup reunited @ Santa Monica Civic Auditorium 1976...great show...Group came back on for encore "Like a Rolling Stone"...Neil Young shuffled on stage to join group...Randy California got upset and pushed him offstage! John Locke got upset and stormed off stage and encore stopped...after some discussion, encore resumed with Neil Young joining in...rock stars...

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    Replies
    1. PaulOctober 8, 2020 at 6:56 PM

      Lucky you. I remember hearing something about that. I guess it ruined additional reunions.

      Delete
    2. UnknownJune 27, 2021 at 7:50 AM

      Back in college (late '70s) someone had a bootleg SPirit album with the Neil Young incident. You could tell he was hammered, his voice was shot (I'm a big Young fan) and fater a few lines of lyrics there is a lot of bumping sounds and ultimately silince. Any idea what and where that bootleg can be found?

      Delete
  3. echopkOctober 8, 2020 at 9:22 AM

    This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  4. cdelintOctober 8, 2020 at 10:40 AM

    Looking forward to hearing this--thanks!

    By the way, I only just ran across your blog and I love everything about it: the concept, the thoughtful write-ups and of course the music!

    ReplyDelete
  5. SlidewellOctober 8, 2020 at 11:10 AM

    Yup, this was the best version of Spirit. Fresh Garbage still sounds, well, fresh! these many years later!

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  6. RacatiOctober 8, 2020 at 1:27 PM

    As you, I'm a fan of the original line-up of Spirit. They were greats.
    This one is actually the volume 7 of the serie dedicated to the Texas International Pop Festival. You have added "1984" as a bonus.
    Many thanks.

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    Replies
    1. PaulOctober 8, 2020 at 6:26 PM

      Yes, there's a lot more the recording of the Texas Pop Festival. I may post more of that eventually.

      Delete
  7. davidAugust 2, 2021 at 5:35 PM

    Thanks ! Classic Spirit. Surprised there was never a live lp of this band.

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  8. Buzzcut9July 13, 2022 at 8:11 PM

    Thank you for this. I am in agreement, this WAS the best version of Spirit. Why they split to make that loser band Jo Jo Gunne I will never know.

    ReplyDelete
  9. bunternetMarch 27, 2024 at 9:06 AM

    Hi, I am a huge fan of the incarnations of Spirit from 'Spirit of '76' onwards. There have been quite a few posthumous releases from Randy's massive archives, I am sure you could come up with something!

    ReplyDelete