"If I had one wish, I'd bring my dear friend Jimi back. We'd reminisce about days gone by. Tears of joy we would not cry & one good thing about it is...
we'd start all over again."
from 'Jimi's Back" by Randy Wolfe
Did you ever wonder what would have happened if after Jimmy James & the Blue Flames, Randy (from California) had gone along with Jimi to England? Well, I have. The Hendrix - California Experience (Jimi Hendrix, Randy California, Noel Redding, & Mitch Mitchell).
So Randy didn't write tunes as great as Jimi (well, we all know the "Taurus" / “Stairway” thing, right?), but "boy, could he play guitar". The thirteen plus minute "All Along the Watchtower" brings tears to my eyes every time. Or the seven-plus "Red House". Come on. But most of all, he would have always been there for Jimi. We know he would have given his own life to save Jimi from the rip-tide of notoriety & drugs that pulled him down just as he did in the rip-tide of the Pacific to save his son.
Enough of that, though. Spirit was an equally legendary band. When I first saw them at the Fox Theater in San Jose I was hooked. Then Sardonicus came out. ..hell, yeah...
Here are a couple live sets & one post-Randy double discs of greatness...
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Sweet Stella Baby
1984
Country Echo
Jealous
All the Same
Fresh Garbage
It Shall Be
Nothing to Hide (no Prelude)
Ice
Mr. Skin
Animal Zoo
I'm Truckin'
So Little Time to Fly
Fog
Dark Eyed Woman
Uncle Jack
Nature's Way
bonus cuts -
Mechanical World (live, Boston Tea Party, October 11, 1969)
Walking on My Feet
When I Touch You
Street Worm (live backing track)
Love Has Found a Way (backing track)
Disc One -
Soldier
Mike & Bob's Party
Rapture in the Chambers
Love Tonight
Tent of Miracles
All Along the Watchtower
Ship of Fools
Golden Jam
Dark Eyed Woman
I Got a Line on You
Jam Free
Downer
Disc Two -
Future in My Hands
Victim of Society
Holy Man
Love from Here
Fresh Garbage
Taurus
Darlin' If
Burning Love
Logical Answers
Blues for a Nation
Old Black Magic
Animal Zoo
Deep in this Land
Zandu
Turn to the Right
Working in New York
Disc One -
Gonna Need Somebody on Your Bond
Wagon of Wood
Tell Me (Didn't Mean No Harm to You)
Key to the Highway
When You're Smilin'
Pawnshop Blues
Ever Since You Left Me
Kansas City
Fixing to Die (Shake My Ego Down)
Pick a Bale of Cotton
Run Sinner Run
Cosmic Smile (aka the Other Song)
Charlie James / Miss this Train
Jimi's Back
Red House
Kokomo
Devine Love
When the Saints Go Marchin' In
Like a Dog
Lord I'll Be with You Always
I had a Dream
Disc Two -
The Letter
Ain't Superstitious
Ever Since You Left Me (Maui Wowie)
Poor Boy
Cold Rainy Night
California Blues
Sugar Mama
Charlie James
Shattered Dreams
Kokocass Jam
Dreamy Eyes
Miss this Train
Down & Dirty Blues
Last Night I had the Strangest Dream
Enjoy,
NØ