Spirit
Spirit was founded in the mid 1960s. Practically every musician of the time cited The Beatles and their music as an influence, and Ferguson was no exception. Reuniting with longtime musician friends Randy California and California's stepfather Ed Cassidy, Ferguson joined with them to form a jazz influenced rock group that was originally called Spirits Rebellious, after a Khalil Gibran passage. With the general consensus that the moniker was too long, they later shortened the name to Spirit. Ferguson was the last member to actually join the band and found himself in the position of lead vocalist and percussionist.
Ferguson shared singing and songwriting duties with California, writing most of the songs on their first album. Spirit began playing at various nightclubs and concerts in the Los Angeles area, especially the ones along the Sunset Strip, including the Whiskey-a-Go-Go. At one of these shows, French film producer Jacques Demy saw Spirit perform and decided he wanted them in his next film. This led to a cameo role for the band and a short speaking part in which Ferguson played a character based loosely on himself in the film Model Shop. Spirit also provided much of the instrumental soundtrack. Spirit went on to tour and recorded several albums.
Read more about this topic: Jay Ferguson (American Musician)
Famous quotes containing the word spirit:
“So far as inland discovery was concerned, the adventurous spirit of the English was that of sailors who land but for a day, and their enterprise the enterprise of traders.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Have you ever been up in your plane at night, alone, somewhere, 20,000 feet above the ocean?... Did you ever hear music up there?... It’s the music a man’s spirit sings to his heart, when the earth’s far away and there isn’t any more fear. It’s the high, fine, beautiful sound of an earth-bound creature who grew wings and flew up high and looked straight into the face of the future. And caught, just for an instant, the unbelievable vision of a free man in a free world.”
—Dalton Trumbo (1905–1976)
“The sickness of our times for me has been just this damn thing that everything has been getting smaller and smaller and less and less important, that the romantic spirit has dried up, that there is no shame today.... We’re all getting so mean and small and petty and ridiculous, and we all live under the threat of extermination.”
—Norman Mailer (b. 1923)