CoronaVinyl Day 74 (Psychedelic Rock): Twelve Dreams of Dr. Sardonicus by Spirit

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Today's CoronaVinyl category is psychedelic rock, which is another one of those amorphous genres.  Essentially, it was rock from the mid '60s to about 1971 or so that was connected to psychedelic culture or the counterculture.  It often had drug-related themes, weird musical effects, the use of "non-traditional" instruments, and extended solos or jams.  Needless to say, there's a lot of music from that time period that fits the bill.

I decided to go with a relative obscure band, Spirit. Probably best known for their 1968 song "I Got a Line on You" (which was their only Top 40 hit, reaching #25), Spirit was a Los Angeles-based psychedelic rock group.  Lead guitarist and primary songwriter Randy California had played in Jimi Hendrix's backing band in 1966 (Jimmy James and The Blue Flames).  His song "Taurus" was allegedly copied by Jimmy Page for the introduction to "Stairway to Heaven," resulting in a copyright infringement lawsuit in 2014 on behalf of California's estate, although the suit was ultimately unsuccessful.

1970's Twelve Dreams of Dr. Sardonicus was the band's fourth studio album. As if the title didn't do it, the freaky album cover lets you know that this is a psychedelic album.  It is a concept album and, though it was not commercially successful (topping out at #63 on the Billboard album chart), it is considered influential and innovative, both for its themes and for its production and music.  All in all, it's a great album, and exactly the kind of thing you'd be looking for if you were on hallucinogenic drugs.

The Spotify version of the album has four extra tracks.  Happy Friday indeed.

Favorite song from Side 1:  "Animal Zoo"
"Animal Zoo" is a fun, catchy rock song.  The lyrics appear to be about a fat zookeeper who is fed up with pollution, but I might be off.

Favorite song from Side 2:  "Morning Will Come"
This song is basically a glam rock song before there was such a thing as glam rock.  It could easily be on a T. Rex or Mott the Hoople record.