| Spirit | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ||||
| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | January 22, 1968 | |||
| Recorded | August 31–November 17, 1967 | |||
| Genre | ||||
| Length | 41:55 | |||
| Label | Ode | |||
| Producer | Lou Adler | |||
| Spirit chronology | ||||
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| Singles from Spirit | ||||
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| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic | |
| The Encyclopedia of Popular Music | |
| Rolling Stone | (favorable) [3] |
Spirit is the debut studio album by American rock band Spirit, released on January 22, 1968 by Ode Records. The album was commercially successful, spending more than six months on the Billboard album charts, [4] peaking at No. 31. It was voted number 658 in Colin Larkin's All Time Top 1000 Albums 3rd Edition (2000).[ citation needed ]
The guitar part of "Taurus" is said to have influenced Led Zeppelin's Jimmy Page in writing "Stairway to Heaven". [5] Led Zeppelin opened for Spirit on an American tour in 1968, and also borrowed from "Fresh-Garbage" in live performances of the song "As Long as I Have You". [6]
In 1973, Epic released a two-disc LP repackage of Spirit and Clear simply titled Spirit.
The album was first issued on compact disc in 1996 by Sony. The original 1968 stereo mixes were not available for this release, so the album was remixed in stereo from the original multitrack tapes. This edition also includes four previously unreleased bonus tracks.
In 2017, Audio Fidelity reissued the album as a numbered limited edition hybrid SACD. This edition was remastered from the original 1968 stereo master tapes, which had not been commercially available since the LP release was discontinued in the 1970s. The 2017 edition also includes bonus tracks in the same mixes as those on the 1996 reissue.
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Fresh-Garbage" | Jay Ferguson | 3:11 |
| 2. | "Uncle Jack" | Ferguson | 2:44 |
| 3. | "Mechanical World" |
| 5:15 |
| 4. | "Taurus" | Randy California | 2:37 |
| 5. | "Girl in Your Eye" | Ferguson | 3:15 |
| 6. | "Straight Arrow" | Ferguson | 2:50 |
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| 7. | "Topanga Windows" | Ferguson | 3:36 |
| 8. | "Gramophone Man" |
| 3:49 |
| 9. | "Water Woman" | Ferguson | 2:11 |
| 10. | "The Great Canyon Fire in General" | Ferguson | 2:46 |
| 11. | "Elijah" | Locke | 10:42 |
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| 12. | "Veruska" | California | 2:50 |
| 13. | "Free Spirit" | Locke | 4:27 |
| 14. | "If I Had a Woman" | California | 3:11 |
| 15. | "Elijah" (alternate take) | Locke | 9:42 |
Spirit
Production
| Chart (1968) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| US Billboard 200 [7] | 31 |