John Locke; Keyboard player with Spirit
Hyfler/Rosner
John Locke
Keyboard player with Spirit
The Independent
15 August 2006
Pierre Perrone
John Tilden Locke, keyboard player and songwriter: born Los
Angeles 25 September 1943; (one son); died Ojai, California
4 August 2006.
Coming out of a Los Angeles scene which had already produced
the Byrds, Love and the Doors, Spirit were one of the most
original groups of the late Sixties and early Seventies.
Mixing rock, pop, Latin, jazz and classical influences, they
came to embody a certain freedom and attitude typical of the
hippie era.
Their eponymous début made the US album charts in 1968 and
the following year, "I Got a Line On You", a catchy,
harmony-heavy rock song composed by their guitarist and
vocalist Randy California and featuring trademark piano
flourishes by John Locke, became a Top Thirty hit for the
five-piece group, which also comprised the singer Jay
Ferguson, the bassist Mark Andes and the drummer Ed Cassidy.
But the title of their landmark album The Family That Plays
Together, also issued in 1969, proved a misnomer since the
group couldn't accommodate the creativity of all its
members. Indeed, following the release of Clear (1969) and
The Twelve Dreams of Dr Sardonicus (1970), their fourth
album which eventually went on to sell half a million copies
and has become something of a cult classic, with songs like
"Animal Zoo", "Mr Skin" and the prescient "Nature's Way",
the original line-up split. "Of all of us, John Locke was
best at being the diplomat and peacemaker," Ferguson
recalled.
California went solo, Ferguson and Andes formed Jo Jo Gunne,
and Cassidy and Locke briefly led a new Spirit, recording
the album Feedback (1972) with Al and Chris Staehely (on
bass and guitar respectively). When Cassidy and Locke in
turn left, the Staehely brothers then fronted an incarnation
of Spirit which did not feature a single founder member.
California subsequently took on the Spirit mantle, in
partnership with Cassidy, and Locke contributed to the album
Farther Along in 1976.
In August that year, the original personnel reunited at the
Santa Monica Civic for a concert at which an inebriated Neil
Young put in a guest appearance for a version of Bob Dylan's
"Like a Rolling Stone" but was nearly thrown off stage by
California. "We all walked off one by one," said Ferguson.
"I'd been thinking that it might all come back together but,
nope, the craziness was all back as well. Poor John was
heartbroken."
Locke vowed never to work with California again. In the
early Eighties, he toured and recorded with the Scottish
rock band Nazareth. However, in 1984, he rejoined the other
founder members of Spirit to record The Thirteenth Dream. He
subsequently guested on California's solo album
Euro-American (1982) and also played on the Spirit album
Rapture in the Chambers (1989), as well as occasionally
touring with the group.
Born in Los Angeles in 1943, John Locke was classically
trained as a pianist by his mother. As a teenager, he
briefly played in a group with Robbie Krieger, the guitarist
who subsequently joined the Doors. Through his involvement
with the New Jazz Trio led by Ed Cassidy, a tall,
shaven-headed, 35-year-old drummer who cut a distinctive
figure on the Los Angeles scene, Locke discovered the
underground scene of the Ash Grove and the Whisky A Go Go.
By April 1967, Cassidy was concentrating on the band the Red
Roosters with the guitarist Randy California, his
16-year-old stepson, who had met and played with Jimi
Hendrix in New York the previous year.
The new outfit evolved into Spirits Rebellious, a name
inspired by the 1948 book written by Khalil Gibran, a
favourite of the flower-power generation. They auditioned
for the record producer Lou Adler who shortened their name
to Spirit and signed the group to a four-album deal with
Ode, his new record label. Adler produced their début,
Spirit, which included "Elijah", a 10-minute piece by Locke.
Locke's piano playing and compositional skills came into
their own when Spirit were asked to score and appear in The
Model Shop (1969), a film directed by the French director
Jacques Demy. Demy wanted to capture the aftermath of the
Summer of Love on film but didn't speak any English, while
the group's French was non-existent. The film, starring
Anouk Aimée, had a fraught production and much of Spirit's
soundtrack remained unused.
Following the inclusion of several unreleased tracks from
the film on Time Circle (1968-1972), the double-CD anthology
issued in 1991, Spirit fans began asking for the full
soundtrack album. The Model Shop eventually appeared last
year on the Sundazed label, enabling fans to enjoy Locke's
ethereal, jazzy piano playing and atmospheric contributions
to the score.
In 1997, Randy California was drowned while swimming off
Hawaii. In recent years, Locke had been leading a quiet life
in Ojai, a small town in California, where he ran a
recording studio.
Brian Watson
"Hyfler/Rosner" <rel...@rcn.com> wrote in message
news:A6mdnRPqSfFG1XzZ...@rcn.net...
>
> John Locke
> Keyboard player with Spirit
>
> The Independent
> 15 August 2006
> Pierre Perrone
>
> John Tilden Locke, keyboard player and songwriter: born Los Angeles 25
> September 1943; (one son); died Ojai, California 4 August 2006.
>
> Coming out of a Los Angeles scene which had already produced the Byrds,
> Love and the Doors, Spirit were one of the most original groups of the
> late Sixties and early Seventies. Mixing rock, pop, Latin, jazz and
> classical influences, they came to embody a certain freedom and attitude
> typical of the hippie era.
Spirit remain my favourite group, though albums from other artists are
higher in my favourites list.
It is their fuller and more mature sound (thanks in great part to John
Locke's playing) from earlier in their evolution that keeps them listenable
about 40 years later.
Spirit's work after Feedback is often overlooked and it certainly became,
ahem, variable but there are some real gems in the band's later releases.
--
Brian
"Fight like the Devil, die like a gentleman."