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Spirit was an American jazz/hard rock/progressive rock/psychedelic band founded in 1967, based in Los Angeles, California.

The original lineup[link]

The original lineup of the group evolved from an earlier Los Angeles band, The Red Roosters, which included Randy California (guitars, vocals), Mark Andes (bass) and Jay Ferguson (vocals, percussion). With the addition of California's stepfather Ed Cassidy (drums), and keyboard player John Locke the new band was originally named the Spirits Rebellious (after a book by Khalil Gibran) but was soon shortened simply to Spirit. Randy California had also played with Jimi Hendrix (then known as Jimmy James) in Jimmy James and the Blue Flames in 1966.

Cassidy was instantly recognizable by his shaven head (hence his nickname "Mr. Skin") and his fondness for wearing black. He was around twenty years older than the rest of the group (born in 1923). His earlier career was primarily in jazz and included stints with Cannonball Adderley, Gerry Mulligan, Roland Kirk, Thelonious Monk and Lee Konitz. He was a founding member of Rising Sons with Taj Mahal and Ry Cooder.

1960s[link]

The group's first album, Spirit, was released in 1968. "Mechanical World" was released as a single (it lists the playing time merely as "very long"). The album was a hit, reaching #31 on The Billboard 200 and staying on the charts for over eight months. The album displayed jazz influences, as well as using elaborate string arrangements (not found on their subsequent recordings) and is the most overtly psychedelic of their albums.

They capitalized on the success of their first album with another single, "I Got A Line On You". Released in November 1968, a month before their second album, The Family That Plays Together, it became their biggest hit single, reaching #25 on the charts (#28 in Canada). The album matched its success, reaching #22. They also went on tour that year with support band Led Zeppelin, who were heavily influenced by Spirit—Led Zeppelin played an extended medley during their early 1969 shows that featured "Fresh Garbage" among other songs, Jimmy Page's use of a theremin has been attributed to his seeing Randy California use one that he had mounted to his amplifier,^[1] and it is now speculated that Page lifted the descending guitar figure from Spirit's instrumental "Taurus" for Led Zeppelin's signature tune "Stairway To Heaven".^[2]

After this success, the group was asked by French film director Jacques Demy to record the soundtrack to his film, Model Shop and they also made a brief appearance in the film^{[citation needed]}. Their third album, Clear, released in 1969, reached #55 on the charts. Spirit were offered the spot right before Jimi Hendrix at Woodstock^{[citation needed]}, but they were advised to turn it down and concentrate on a promotional tour for their third album. Record company managers felt that the festival would not be significant^{[citation needed]}, as it did not seem so at that time, and so they missed out on the massive international exposure that the festival and the subsequent film documentary generated.

"1984" and the Sardonicus era[link]

After the release of Clear, California was called upon again^{[clarification needed]} to give the group a hit single. With the group producing the record on their own, they recorded a song California had written called "1984". It looked at first as though it would be the group's biggest hit yet. After being released in February 1970, it placed at #69 on the Billboard charts.

In retrospect, no one is sure why the single had such a brief chart life, but there are several possibilities. It is no secret that Lou Adler's alliance with Epic Records was uneasy at best, and at the time that the single was released, Adler's distribution deal with Epic came to an end. He had been eager to move distribution of the label to A&M Records, which he did as soon as the deal with Epic ended, which might have killed the commercial availability of the single (though Adler ended up giving Spirit's contract to Epic in the process). It has also been said that there was a tip sheet distributed to radio stations outlining the song's supposed political and social views, and opining that it might not be appropriate for air play. The song would finally see general release on The Best of Spirit in 1973.

In 1970, Spirit started working on what is widely considered to be their best LP, Twelve Dreams of Dr. Sardonicus. On the recommendation of Neil Young the band chose David Briggs as the producer. It was a prolific time for the group's writers and the album was finally released in late 1970. Especially memorable was Randy California's poignant "Nature's Way," which was written in an afternoon when the group was playing at the Fillmore West in San Francisco.

Epic released an early mix of "Animal Zoo" as a single, but this only made it to #97 on the charts. Like The Who's Tommy and Pink Floyd's The Dark Side of the Moon, Twelve Dreams of Dr. Sardonicus is critically regarded as a landmark of art rock, with a tapestry of literary themes about the fragility of life and the complexity of the human experience, illustrated by recurring lyric "life has just begun", and continued the group's pioneering exploration of environmental issues in their lyrics (cf. "Fresh Garbage"). The album is also notable for its inventive production and the use of a modular Moog synthesizer.

1971–1973[link]

After the group undertook a promotional tour to support the album Twelve Dreams of Dr. Sardonicus, Ferguson and Andes left the group, forming Jo Jo Gunne.

Bass player John Arliss initially took Andes' place, and California was still in the line-up, but he had suffered a head injury from a horse riding accident and was unable to tour. Bass player Al Staehely was recruited by Locke and Cassidy, and they toured briefly before deciding that they had to add a guitar player to do the music justice. Al's brother, John Christian Staehely auditioned for the band, and was quickly brought on board, with John departing the seminal Texas rock group "Krackerjack." Brothers John and Al, Cassidy and Locke, recorded the 1972 album Feedback in Columbia/Epic's Hollywood studios. It was a different turn for the group, showing more of a country-rock influence pervading their jazzier tendencies, but it also met with a mild commercial response, reaching #63 in the charts (the same position, ironically, that Sardonicus reached). The tour for Feedback proceeded very well for much of that year, but with musical roots that went different directions, eventually both Cassidy and Locke left the lineup, with the Staehely brothers recruiting Stu Perry to play drums. While the tour was well received critically, Spirit disbanded in mid-1973. The brothers would release their own album, Sta-Hay-Lee, in 1973.

California, meanwhile, had recorded and issued his first solo album, Kapt. Kopter and the (Fabulous) Twirly Birds, in late 1972. It featured appearances by Noel Redding (as 'Clit McTorius'), Leslie Sampson (the drummer from Noel's band Road, as 'Henry Manchovitz') and Cassidy and had a hard rock sound. After launching a brief tour to support the album, a follow-up album was recorded with Cassidy, entitled The Adventures Of Kaptain Kopter And Commander Cassidy In Potato Land. Though Locke made a guest appearance, it was not intended as a Spirit album at the time. Epic however rejected the completed album, and California moved to Molokai, Hawaii.

Epic Records decided to re-issue the group's first and third albums as a two-fer, entitled Spirit in 1973, in response to Sardonicus continuing to sell well, despite being off the charts. They also issued a compilation album, The Best Of Spirit, that year, as well as releasing the Sardonicus track "Mr. Skin" as a single. Surprisingly, "Mr. Skin" became a minor hit, and the two-fer hit the charts (along with The Best Of Spirit), and there was new demand for the group. Cassidy decided to capitalize on this, and put together an entirely new group for touring purposes, which lasted throughout the year.

The Mercury years (1974-1979)[link]

In 1974 Cassidy made it a point to find and re-establish contact with Randy California. He eventually persuaded California to return to the mainland and give the band another shot. Andes worked with the duo for a while, but never intended to stay, as he was in the process of working with the group Firefall at the same time. Sound engineer/bassist Barry Keene, who had been a personal sound engineer for Frank Zappa, joined the band as its bass player.

In early 1975, the group was supposed to be the opening act for Ten Years After at a show in Florida, but when Ten Years After backed out at the last minute, Spirit was granted permission to take over the theatre for the evening. After going around to local radio stations to promote the show and setting a low ($3) ticket price, Spirit managed to sell out the 3,000 seat theatre. Using the profits from the show, they blocked out as much time as they could at a Tampa studio, "Studio 70".

After recording a huge amount of material at the studio, their manager at the time, Marshall Berle (the nephew of Milton Berle), offered the material to Mercury Records. On the basis of the material, the group was offered a contract, and a double-album entitled Spirit of '76 was culled from the material and released in May 1975. The album garnered a bit of FM airplay, so they quickly followed it up with Son of Spirit, released early the next year and featuring many songs taken from the same sessions.

For the tour in support of Son of Spirit, Locke re-joined the group. Eventually, Andes returned to the line-up as well, and though Ferguson declined to participate in the group reunion at first, the band (with the addition of Mark's brother Matt Andes as a second guitarist) recorded an album entitled Farther Along.

The album returned the group to the U.S. charts one last time, peaking at #179. For a few shows at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium, Ferguson re-joined the group. Disaster struck, however, when an inebriated Neil Young walked onto stage to join the band during the final show's encore of "Like a Rolling Stone". Randy would later claim that he didn't recognize Young, but at the time was angry with Neil for upstaging what he saw as his own comeback to Southern California. Randy immediately moved over in front of Neil and began pushing him backwards, away from the microphone, back past the drumkit and offstage. Neil, along with a host of Hollywood music and film personas, including Hal Ashby, had been hanging out with the band backstage before they went on, and John Locke had invited him to join them in their encore. When Locke saw California pushing Young offstage, he got up from his piano and said that he had had enough and didn't ever want to play with Randy again, and promptly walked off stage. Cassidy initially quelled the situation by leaving his kit and physically pulling both California and Young back onstage to the microphone to close out the song, asking the audience to sing along with them. The audience stood, stunned at the scene that was playing out before them. The damage had been done, and the reunion ended that night.

Undaunted, California assembled what was basically a solo album as a Spirit album under the name Future Games: A Magical Kahauna Dream. Mercury released it in early 1977, but it received no promotion, and it ended what little bit of commercial momentum the group might have regained. It also (initially) ended their contract with Mercury. At the same time, former bandmate Jay Ferguson was having success in his solo career in late 1970s with the hits "Thunder Island" & "Shakedown Cruise".

The group, now down to a trio with new bassist Larry "Fuzzy" Knight, toured extensively throughout 1978, and recorded a live album^{[clarification needed]} (1977) that was released (in slightly different configurations) in several countries by different independent labels. It was not a commercial success, and after the tour's end in 1979, California left the group again.

The 1980s and beyond[link]

After Spirit's demise, California put together another group with the intent of re-starting his solo career. This was short-lived, but while in England, a fan presented him with a petition of 5,000 signatures, requesting the release of the Potato Land album from 1973. In 1981, California put out a half-hearted version of the album, featuring only part of the original album (and what was there featured overdubbing done after the fact) with the addition of a few unrelated songs that were recorded in the late 1970s. It was released in the U.S. by Rhino Records (being one of the first albums that they released) and in the UK by Beggars Banquet Records, where it actually reached #40 in the UK Albums Chart (the only time they would chart in the UK), possibly due to the album being played by BBC Radio 1.

California's second solo album, Euro-American, was released in 1982 by Beggar's Banquet. He would release two more solo albums during the decade.

In December 1982, the original Spirit line-up reformed and recorded several songs from their first four albums (as well as a few new tracks) live on a soundstage. Though the album Spirit of '84 was initially recorded for an audiophile label, Mercury Records re-signed the band (and gave California a solo deal) and released the album in 1984. Despite the fact that all five original members were on the recording, and MTV played the video^{[citation needed]}, the album was only a moderate success. Some of the original members went to do other projects, but California and Cassidy continued touring with new members Scott Monahan on keys and Dave Waterbury on bass.

California headed to England and recorded his third solo album, the contemporary hard rock Restless, in late 1985. Following a few live dates in England, California returned to the United States and resumed touring extensively with Cassidy, Monahan and Waterbury. There was one more solo album from California; a collection of material entitled Shattered Dreams that was released in 1986.

California then secured a deal for Spirit with I.R.S. Records, and Locke rejoined the band. They recorded an album in 1988 entitled Rapture in the Chambers, but it failed to return them to the charts.

The group self-released Tent Of Miracles in 1990 and embarked on working almost continually for the next six years. Though they would release very few albums of new material during the decade, the group was always either recording or touring. California had his own home recording studio since the early 1980s, though he had been making home recordings for years prior to that. Sadly, this renewed vigor came to an end on January 2, 1997, when California drowned off the coast of Hawaii. He had been surfing with his son, who got caught in a riptide. He managed to push his son to safety, but ended up losing his own life.

Though Cassidy did play a few dates with some former Spirit alumni under the name "Spirit Revisited" in 1998, California's death was effectively the end of the group.

Locke died from complications due to lymphoma on 4 August 2006, although the date is sometimes given as 9 August.

Posthumous[link]

California's passing, however, did not mark the end of the emergence of Spirit material. Starting in 2000, there have been five collections of previously unreleased studio and live material, four of which were two-CD sets. California had also prepared an anthology of material from the group's first stint with Mercury Records before he died entitled The Mercury Years. The two-CD set was released in early 1997, though it raised the ire of some fans who did not care for the fact that some of the material had been re-edited or featured overdubbing that was not present on the original releases.

Likewise, nearly all of Spirit's original albums are currently in print on CD. This is thanks to the efforts of Sony Records (with the Epic catalog, though Collector's Choice Music was the first to reissue Feedback on CD in the U.S., following a brief release on disc in France in the late 1990s) and Beat Goes On alongside Edsel, both UK labels (with the Mercury catalog, some of which had made it to CD prior to Beat Goes On and Edsel reissuing all of their Mercury albums). Their later independent albums are available through the group's website. The one album that is unavailable at this time is Rapture In The Chambers, which has not been reissued since the original 1988 release, though it was released on CD at that time.

Spirit has also found its work sampled by modern artists several times. The most notable of these was the "Extra P. Remix" of the song "Resurrection" by Common (which samples "Ice" from Clear) and "Feel Good Time" by Pink (which samples the track "Fresh Garbage").

Band members[link]

Original lineup[link]

• Randy California - guitar, vocals
• Ed Cassidy - drums
• John Locke - keyboards
• Mark Andes - bass
• Jay Ferguson - vocals, percussion

Later members[link]

Following Sardonicus, many musicians passed through the group's ranks. Most of them did not make a huge contribution to the group's sound, but some did.
The most important of the later group members are listed here:

• Al Staehely - bass, lead vocals
• John Christian Staehely - guitar, vocals
• Larry "Fuzzy" Knight - bass, vocals
• Steve "Liberty" Loria - bass, vocals
• Scott Monahan - keyboards, vocals
• Dave Waterbury - bass, vocals
• Mike Nile - bass, vocals
• George Valuck - keyboards
• Walter Egan - bass, vocals
• Stu Perry - drums ^[3]

Discography[link]

Studio albums[link]

• Spirit (Ode, 1968) #31
• The Family That Plays Together (Ode, 1968) #22
• Clear (Ode, 1969) #55
• Twelve Dreams of Dr. Sardonicus (Epic, 1970) #63
• Feedback (Epic, 1972) #63
• Spirit of '76 (Mercury, 1975) #147
• Son of Spirit (Mercury, 1975)
• Farther Along (Mercury, 1976) #179
• Future Games (Mercury, 1977)
• The Adventures of Kaptain Kopter & Commander Cassidy in Potato Land (Rhino, 1981)
• The Thirteenth Dream/Spirit of '84 [U.S. Title] (Mercury, 1984)
• Rapture in the Chambers (I.R.S., 1988)
• Tent of Miracles (Dolphin, 1990)
• California Blues (1996)

Live albums[link]

• Live Spirit (Potato, 1977)
• Made in Germany (1978; live; Randy California, Ed Cassidy, Larry Knight; issued in 1997)
• Live at la Paloma (Live 1995)
• Live at the Rainbow 1978 (Live 1978; issued 2000)
• Live From the Time Coast ((Live 1989 - 1996; issued 2004)

Compilations[link]

• The Best Of Spirit (Epic, 1973) #119
• Spirit (Epic, 1973) [ 2 on 1 reissue of "Spirit" (1968) & "Clear" (1969) ]
• The Family That Plays Together/Feedback (Epic, 1975) [ 2 on 1 reissue of 2nd (1968) & 5th (1972) albums ]
• Time Circle, 1968–1972 (Epic/Legacy, 1991); compilation with previously unreleased tracks;
• Chronicles, 1967–1992 (Line, 1992); compilation with previously unreleased tracks;
• The Mercury Years (Mercury, 1997)
• Cosmic Smile (2000; 1st posthumous release)
• Sea Dream (2002)
• Blues From the Soul (2003)
• Son of America (2005))
• The Original Potato Land (2006; reconstruction of the rejected original version of 1972)
• Salvation - the Spirit of '74 (2007; 2 CDs live, plus one CD with unreleased studio cuts from early seventies.)
• Rock and Roll Planet...1977-1979 (2008; 2 CDs live plus one studio.)
• California Blues Redux (2009; 1 CD studio, 1 CD live. Different version of the CB album from 1996.)
• The Last Euro Tour (2010; 2 CD live.)
• Tales From The Westside (2011; 2 CD live.)
• The Original Potato Land (2011; re-mastered, one extra CD with bonus material)
• Two Sides of A Rainbow - Live at the Rainbow, London 1978 (2012; 2 CDs mostly live, second CD includes original 'Live Spirit' album)

Soundtrack[link]

• Model Shop (Soundtrack for a Jacques Demy film, recorded in 1968 and issued in 2005)

Singles[link]

• Mechanical World (1968)
• I Got A Line On You (1969) #25
• Dark Eyed Woman (1969)
• 1984 (1970) #69
• Animal Zoo (1970) #97
• Mr. Skin (1973) #92

See also[link]

• Taurus-Stairway to Heaven connection

References[link]

External links[link]

• http://www.randycaliforniaandspirit.com/
• http://www.erjobe.info/spirit/

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (June 2009)

The English word spirit (from Latin spiritus "breath") has many differing meanings and connotations, most of them relating to a non-corporeal substance contrasted with the material body. The spirit of a living thing usually refers to or explains its consciousness. The notions of a person's "spirit" and "soul" often also overlap, as both contrast with body and both are understood as surviving the bodily death in religion and occultism,^[1] and "spirit" can also have the sense of "ghost", i.e. a manifestation of the spirit of a deceased person.

The term may also refer to any incorporeal or immaterial being, such as demons or deities, in Christianity specifically the Holy Spirit experienced by the disciples at Pentecost.

Etymology[link]

The English word spirit comes from the Latin spiritus, meaning "breath", but also "spirit, soul, courage, vigor", ultimately from a Proto-Indo-European *(s)peis. It is distinguished from Latin anima, "soul." In Greek, this distinction exists between pneuma (πνευμα), "breath, motile air, spirit," and psykhē (ψυχη), "soul."^[2]

The word "spirit" came into Middle English via Old French. The distinction between soul and spirit also developed in the Abrahamic religions: Arabic nafs (نفس) opposite rúħ (روح); Hebrew neshama (נְשָׁמָה nəšâmâh) or nephesh (in Hebrew neshama comes from the root NŠM or "breath") opposite ruach (רוּחַ rûaħ).

Metaphysical and metaphorical uses[link]

English-speakers use the word "spirit" in two related contexts, one metaphysical and the other metaphorical.

Metaphysical contexts[link]

In metaphysical terms, "spirit" has acquired a number of meanings:

• An incorporeal but ubiquitous, non-quantifiable substance or energy present individually in all living things. Unlike the concept of souls (often regarded as eternal and sometimes believed to pre-exist the body) a spirit develops and grows as an integral aspect of a living being.^[3] This concept of the individual spirit occurs commonly in animism. Note the distinction between this concept of spirit and that of the pre-existing or eternal soul: belief in souls occurs specifically and far less commonly, particularly in traditional societies. One might more properly term this type/aspect of spirit "life" (bios in Greek) or "aether" rather than "spirit" (pneuma in Greek).
• A daemon sprite, or especially a ghost. People usually conceive of a ghost as a wandering spirit from a being no longer living, having survived the death of the body yet maintaining at least vestiges of mind and of consciousness.
• In religion and spirituality, the respiration of a human has for obvious reasons become seen as strongly linked with the very occurrence of life. A similar significance has become attached to human blood. Spirit, in this sense, means the thing that separates a living body from a corpse—and usually implies intelligence, consciousness, and sentience.
• Latter-day Saint prophet Joseph Smith Jr. taught that the concept of spirit as incorporeal or without substance was incorrect: "There is no such thing as immaterial matter. All spirit is matter, but it is more fine or pure, and can only be discerned by purer eyes."^[4]
• In some Native American spiritual traditions, the Spirit, or 'Great Spirit', is a term for the Creator.
• Various forms of animism, such as Japan's Shinto and African traditional religion, focus on invisible beings that represent or connect with plants, animals (sometimes called "Animal Fathers)", or landforms (kami)^{[citation needed]}: translators usually employ the English word "spirit" when trying to express the idea of such entities.
• Individual spirits envisaged as interconnected with all other spirits and with "The Spirit" (singular and capitalized). This concept relates to theories of a unified spirituality, to universal consciousness and to some concepts of Deity. In this scenario all separate "spirits", when connected, form a greater unity, the Spirit, which has an identity separate from its elements plus a consciousness and intellect greater than its elements; an ultimate, unified, non-dual awareness or force of life combining or transcending all individual units of consciousness. The experience of such a connection can become a primary basis for spiritual belief. The term spirit occurs in this sense in (to name but a few) Anthroposophy, Aurobindo, A Course In Miracles, Hegel, Ken Wilber, and Meher Baba (though in his teachings, "spirits" are only apparently separate from each other and from "The Spirit.")^[5] In this use, the term seems conceptually identical to Plotinus's "The One" and Friedrich Schelling's "Absolute". Similarly, according to the panentheistic/pantheistic view, Spirit equates to essence that can manifest itself as mind/soul through any level in pantheistic hierarchy/holarchy, such as through a mind/soul of a single cell (with very primitive, elemental consciousness), or through a human or animal mind/soul (with consciousness on a level of organic synergy of an individual human/animal), or through a (superior) mind/soul with synergetically extremely complex/sophisticated consciousness of whole galaxies involving all sub-levels, all emanating (since the superior mind/soul operates non-dimensionally, or trans-dimensionally) from the one Spirit.
• Christian theology can use the term "Spirit" to describe God, or aspects of God — as in the "Holy Spirit", referring to a Triune God (Trinity)(cf Gospel of Matthew 28:19).
• "Spirit" forms a central concept in pneumatology (note that pneumatology studies "pneuma" (Greek for "spirit") not "psyche" (Greek for "soul") — as studied in psychology).
• Christian Science uses "Spirit" as one of the seven synonyms for God, as in: "Principle; Mind; Soul; Spirit; Life; Truth; Love"^[6]
• Harmonism reserves the term "spirit" for those that collectively control and influence an individual from the realm of the mind.

Metaphorical usage[link]

The metaphorical use of the term likewise groups several related meanings:

• The loyalty and feeling of inclusion in the social history or collective essence of an institution or group, such as in school spirit or esprit de corps.
• A closely related meaning refers to the worldview of a person, place, or time, as in "The Declaration of Independence was written in the spirit of John Locke and his notions of liberty", or the term zeitgeist, meaning "spirit of the age".
• As a synonym for "vivacity" as in "She performed the piece with spirit" or "She put up a spirited defense".
• The underlying intention of a text as distinguished from its literal meaning, especially in law; see Letter and spirit of the law
• As a term for alcoholic beverages.
• In mysticism: existence in unity with Godhead. Soul may also equate with spirit, but the soul involves certain individual human consciousness, while spirit comes from beyond that. Compare the psychological teaching of Al-Ghazali.

See soul and ghost and spiritual for related discussions.

Related concepts in other languages[link]

Similar concepts in other languages include Greek pneuma and Sanskrit akasha/atman;^[2] see also Prana.

Some languages use a word for "spirit" often closely related (if not synonymous) to "mind". Examples include the German, Geist (related to the English word "ghost") or the French, 'l'esprit'. English versions of the Judaeo-Christian Bible most commonly translate the Hebrew word "ruach" (רוח; "wind") as "the spirit", whose essence is divine^[7] (see Holy Spirit and ruach hakodesh). Alternatively, Hebrew texts commonly use the word nephesh. Kabbalists regard nephesh as one of the five parts of the Jewish soul, where nephesh (animal) refers to the physical being and its animal instincts. Similarly, Scandinavian languages, Baltic languages, Slavic languages and the Chinese language (qi) use the words for "breath" to express concepts similar to "the spirit".^[2]

See also[link]

Spirituality portal

Look up spirit in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

References[link]

Further reading[link]

• François, Alexandre (2008), "Semantic maps and the typology of colexification: Intertwining polysemous networks across languages", in Vanhove, Martine, From Polysemy to Semantic change: Towards a Typology of Lexical Semantic Associations, Studies in Language Companion Series, 106, Amsterdam, New York: Benjamins, pp. 163-215, http://anu.academia.edu/AlexFran%C3%A7ois/Papers/876329/Semantic_maps_and_the_typology_of_colexification_Intertwining_polysemous_networks_across_languages 
• Baba, Meher (1967). Discourses. San Francisco: Sufism Reoriented. ISBN 1-880619-09-1. http://www.discoursesbymeherbaba.org. 

Look up band in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Band may refer to:

Clothing, jewelry, and accessories[link]

• Bands (neckwear), two pieces of cloth fitted around the neck as part of formal clothing for clergy, academics, and lawyers
• Bandolier or bandoleer, an ammunition belt
• Belt (clothing)
• Wedding ring or wedding band
• Strap, an elongated flap or ribbon, usually of fabric or leather

Science and technology[link]

• Band (radio), a range of frequencies or wavelengths used in radio transmission and radar
• Rubber band, a short length of rubber and latex formed in the shape of a loop
• Möbius strip or Möbius band, an artifact with interesting topological features
• Band (mathematics), an idempotent semigroup
• Spectral bands, part of the optical spectra of polyatomic systems
• Metals and semiconductors
  • Valence band
  • Conduction band
  • Band gap

Medicine and biology[link]

• Bird ringing, or bird banding, placing a numbered bands of metal on birds' legs for identification
• A group of animals, such as gorillas or coyotes
  • Herd
  • Flocking (behavior)
• Band cell, a type of white blood cell
• Protein band, see Coomassie
• Gastric band, a weight-control measure

Organizations[link]

• Bands (Italian Army irregulars), military units once in the service of the Italian Regio Esercito
• Brazilian broadcast television network Rede Bandeirantes, nicknamed Band or Band Network
• The Band (wrestling), the Total Nonstop Wrestling name for the professional wrestling stable New World Order

Society and government[link]

• Band society, a small group of humans in a simple form of society
• The primary unit of Native Americans in the United States
• Band (First Nations Canada), the primary unit of First Nations Government in Canada

People[link]

• Band (surname)

Places[link]

• Band, Mureş in Romania
• Bánd, a village in Hungary

Music[link]

• Band, a company of musicians—see Musical ensemble
  • Rock band
  • Concert band
  • School band, a group of student musicians who rehearse and perform instrumental music together
  • Marching band, a group of performers that consist of instrumental musicians who generally perform outdoors and incorporate some type of marching (and possibly other movements) with their musical performance
• The Band, a Canadian-American rock and roll group
  • The Band (album), its eponymous album released in 1969

See also[link]

• All pages beginning with "Band"
• All pages with titles containing "Band"
• Banding (disambiguation)
• Drum and bugle corps (disambiguation)
• Stripe (disambiguation)

This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the same title. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article.

Levon Helm
Levon Helm performing in 2004 on the Village Green in Woodstock, New York.
Background information
Birth name	Mark Lavon Helm
Born	(1940-05-26)May 26, 1940 Elaine, Arkansas, United States
Died	April 19, 2012(2012-04-19) (aged 71) New York City, New York, United States
Genres	Rock and roll, rhythm and blues, rock, blues, country, folk
Occupations	Musician, songwriter, actor, producer
Instruments	Vocals, drums, percussions, mandolin, guitar, bass, harmonica, banjo, violin
Years active	1957–2012
Labels	Capitol, Mobile Fidelity, MCA, Breeze Hill, Levon
Associated acts	The Band, Ronnie Hawkins & The Hawks, Bob Dylan, Levon Helm's Ramble on the Road, Levon Helm and The RCO All-Stars, Ringo Starr & His All-Starr Band, Eric Clapton
Website	levonhelm.com

Mark Lavon "Levon" Helm (May 26, 1940 – April 19, 2012)^[1] was an American rock multi-instrumentalist and actor who achieved fame as the drummer and frequent lead and backing vocalist for The Band.

Helm was known for his deeply soulful, country-accented voice, and creative drumming style highlighted on many of the Band's recordings, such as "The Weight", "Up on Cripple Creek", "Ophelia" and "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down". His 2007 comeback album Dirt Farmer earned the Grammy Award for Best Traditional Folk Album in February 2008, and in November of that year, Rolling Stone magazine ranked him #91 in the list of The 100 Greatest Singers of All Time.^[2] In 2010, Electric Dirt, his 2009 follow-up to Dirt Farmer, won the first ever Grammy Award for Best Americana Album, an inaugural category in 2010.^[3] In 2011, his live album Ramble at the Ryman was nominated for the Grammy in the same category and won.^[4]

On April 17, 2012, his wife and daughter announced on Helm's website that he was "in the final stages of his battle with cancer" and thanked fans while requesting prayers. Two days later, Helm died at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City.^[5][6]

Biography[link]

Early years[link]

Born in Elaine, Arkansas,^[7], Helm grew up in Turkey Scratch, a hamlet west of Helena, Arkansas. His parents, Nell and Diamond Helm, cotton farmers and also great lovers of music, encouraged their children to play and sing. Young Lavon (as he was christened) began playing the guitar at the age of eight and also played drums during his formative years. He saw Bill Monroe & his Blue Grass Boys at the age of six and decided then to become a musician.

Arkansas in the 1940s and 50s stood at the confluence of a variety of musical styles—blues, country and R&B—that later became known as rock and roll. Listening to all these styles on the Grand Ole Opry show on radio station WSM and R&B on radio station WLAC out of Nashville, Tennessee influenced Helm. He also saw traveling shows such as F.S. Walcott's Rabbit's Foot Minstrels that featured top African-American artists of the time.

Another early influence on Helm was the work of harmonica, guitarist and singer Sonny Boy Williamson II, who played blues and early rhythm and blues on the King Biscuit Time radio show on KFFA in Helena and performed regularly in Marvell with blues guitarist Robert Lockwood, Jr. In his 1993 autobiography, This Wheel's on Fire - Levon Helm and the Story of The Band, Helm describes watching Williamson's drummer, James "Peck" Curtis, intently during a live performance in the early 1950s and later imitating this R&B drumming style. Helm established his first band, The Jungle Bush Beaters, while in high school.

Helm also witnessed some of the earliest performances by Southern country music, blues and rockabilly artists such as Elvis Presley, Conway Twitty, Bo Diddley and a fellow Arkansan, Ronnie Hawkins. At age 17, Helm began playing in clubs and bars around Helena.

The Hawks[link]

After graduating from high school, Helm was invited to join Ronnie Hawkins' band, The Hawks, a popular Southern bar and club act which also had success in Canada, where rockabilly acts were very popular. Soon after, Helm joined The Hawks, and they moved to Toronto, Ontario, Canada, where, in 1959, they signed with Roulette Records and released several singles, including a few hits.

Helm reports in his biography, This Wheel's on Fire, that fellow Hawks band members had difficulty pronouncing "Lavon" correctly, and started calling him "Levon" (/ˈliːvɒn/ LEE-von) because it was easier to pronounce.

In the early 1960s, Helm and Hawkins recruited an all-Canadian lineup of musicians: guitarist Robbie Robertson, bassist Rick Danko, pianist Richard Manuel, and organist Garth Hudson- although all the musicians were multi-instrumentalists. In 1963, the band parted ways with Hawkins and started touring under the name "Levon and The Hawks," and later as "The Canadian Squires" before finally changing back to "The Hawks." They recorded two singles, but remained mostly a popular touring bar band in Texas, Arkansas, Canada, and on the East Coast of the United States, where they found regular summer club gigs on the New Jersey shore.

Helm with The Band, at the Santa Cruz Civic Auditorium 1976 Photo: David Gans

By the mid 1960s, songwriter and musician Bob Dylan was interested in performing electric rock music and asked The Hawks to be his backing band. Disheartened by fans' negative response to Dylan's new sound, Helm returned to Arkansas for what turned out to be a two-year layoff, being replaced by drummer Mickey Jones. During this period, Helm ended up working on off-shore oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico until he was asked to rejoin the band.

After The Hawks toured Europe with Dylan, they followed him to live around Woodstock, New York, and remained under salary to him. The Hawks recorded a large volume of demo and practice tapes in Woodstock, playing almost daily with Dylan, who had completely withdrawn from public life the previous year. These recordings were widely bootlegged and were partially released officially in 1975 as The Basement Tapes. The songs and themes developed during this period played a crucial role in the group's future direction and style. The Hawks members also began writing their own songs. Rick Danko and Richard Manuel also shared writing credits with Dylan on a few songs. In 1967, Danko called Helm and invited him to return to the band in Woodstock.

The Band[link]

Helm returned to the group, then referred to simply as "the band." While contemplating a recording contract, Helm had dubbed the band as "The Crackers." However, when Robertson and their new manager Albert Grossman worked out the contracts, the group's name was cited as "The Band." Under these contracts, The Band was contracted to Grossman, who in turn contracted their services to Capitol Records. This arrangement allowed The Band to release recordings on other labels if the work was done in support of Dylan. This allowed The Band to play on Dylan's Planet Waves album and on The Last Waltz, both non-Capitol releases. The Band also recorded their own album Music from Big Pink, which catapulted them into stardom.

Helm, center, performing with The Band. Hamburg, 1971.

On Music From Big Pink, Manuel was the most prominent vocalist and Helm sang mainly backup, with the exception of "The Weight." However, as Manuel's health deteriorated and Robbie Robertson's songwriting increasingly looked to the South for influence and direction, subsequent albums relied more and more on Helm's vocals, alone or in harmony with Danko. Helm played drums for perhaps 85% of The Band's songs,^{[citation needed]} including most of those for which he sang lead. On the others, Manuel switched to drums while Helm played mandolin or, on rare occasion, guitar or bass guitar. The entire group was multi-instrumental and certain songs featured Manuel on drums, Helm on mandolin (as on "Evangeline"), rhythm guitar (the 12-string guitar backdrop to "Daniel and the Sacred Harp" is by Helm), or bass (while Danko played fiddle).^[8]

Helm remained with The Band until their 1976 farewell performance, The Last Waltz, which was recorded in a documentary film by director Martin Scorsese.The documentary is widely considered the greatest rock and roll film ever made.

Many music enthusiasts know Helm through his appearance in the concert film, a performance remarkable for the fact that Helm's vocal tracks appear substantially as he sang them during a grueling concert. However, Helm repudiated his involvement with The Last Waltz shortly after the completion of its final scenes. In his autobiography, Helm offers scathing criticisms of the film and of Robertson, who produced it.^[9]

Solo artist and the reformed Band[link]

Helm playing mandolin in 1971

With the breakup of The Band in its original form, Helm began working on a solo album Levon Helm and the RCO All Stars, followed by Levon Helm. Helm recorded solo albums in 1980 and 1982 entitled American Son and (once again) Levon Helm. Helm also participated in musician Paul Kennerley's 1980 country music concept album, The Legend of Jesse James, singing the role of Jesse James alongside Johnny Cash, Emmylou Harris and Albert Lee.

In 1981, Helm married the former Sandra Dodd.

In 1983, The Band reunited without Robbie Robertson, with Jim Weider on guitar. In 1986, while on tour, Manuel committed suicide. Helm, Danko and Hudson continued in The Band, releasing the album Jericho in 1993 and High on the Hog in 1996. The final album from The Band was the 30th anniversary album, Jubilation, released in 1998.

In 1989, Helm and Danko toured with drummer Ringo Starr and His All-Starr Band. Other musicians in the band included singer/guitarist Joe Walsh, singer/pianist Dr. John, guitarist Nils Lofgren, singer Billy Preston, saxophonist Clarence Clemons and drummer Jim Keltner. Garth Hudson was a guest on accordion on certain dates. Levon played drums and harmonica, and sang "The Weight" and "Up On Cripple Creek" each night.