My Favourite Album - Future Games By Spirit

I’ve had an idea to maybe review and say why I like certain albums and then to share my observations and this is going to start with my all time favourite album “Future Games” by Spirit. I own it on vinyl and CD and have it on my phone for when I am walking out. 44 years on it still really moves me, with it’s psychedelic non stop programming (there are no breaks between songs, and while that has been done before - Think Pink Floyd’s “Dark Side of the Moon and a lot before that) it is a truly special album. By the time of its release Spirit was being driven by the ethereal voiced guitarist Randy California with help from his drummer father in law Ed Cassidy (alter ego mad raconteur Jack Bond on Spirit albums).

A quick flashback

I had started as a Computer Operator at Peter Craig in Preston , more than doubling my wages and thanks to the shifts having plenty of time off so after a night shift I bought a classy Sharp music centre and got it home, unpacked it , set it up , put a record on , switched it on , and ….. Nothing.

These were the days when devices didn't come with plugs , so I had done that, rechecked the wiring, still nothing.

Eventually as I was sitting with the plug in my hand wondering why the record player wasn’t working I realised I needed to plug the damned thing into the mains. Lift Off.

I stripped , got into bed and but the album on. That album was “Future Games” by Spirit. I had some of their previous albums , “The Twelve Dreams of Dr Sardonicus” was jammed with classics , but “Spirit of 76” was now California/Cassidy and peppered with Jack Bond musings. It was a wonderful album all the same, but “Future Games” was a whole new world.

Start with a CB message from Randy announcing the new Spirit album “Kahuna Dream” we are gently introduced by “The Stars are Love” but as that fades we start to see, for me the genius of the album, all the songs are linked by film snippets , heavily favouring science fictions and “Star Trek” althe Kermit The Frog and The Muppets are also in the mix.

There is even a cover of Bob Dylan’s “All Along The Watchtower” and you are thinking California / Hendrix .

The whole album is a dream sequence and is best listened to non stop , and with vinyl you have to flip it but Randy introduces side two for CB once more. I am listening to the album as I write this on this YouTube playlist , but I like having the album in physical and digital format.

Because of its nature you never want to skip a song, and as I write this Bones and Kirk are arguing on the intro to the song “Gorn Attack”. It is , for me a wonderful aural adventure, a forty minute film for the ears that I have never tired of.

The album is always played in full and makes you think “I wonder where that came from?” and afterwards you are left on an up but with questions about where that sound bite originated.

I hope this has whetted your musical appetite.

As an addendum to this when Mick Jones left The Clash and formed Big Audio Dynamite with Don Letts a lot of their songs featured film and TV audio samples From the intro to “Medicine Show” , opening “This Is Big Audio Dynamite”, their debut album takes you into Spaghetti Western territories and is great music and great fun. Another album I have on vinyl and CD.

So that is two albums you really need to check out but I have shared links to buy and snippets to listen to on YouTube.