Spirit
by RICH ARITHMETIC
Editor’s Note: A somewhat different version of this post originally appeared in the 1980’s Cassette Culture Blog, June 20, 2025
Teenage psychedelic guitar phenom Randy California (real name Randy Wolfe) missed his chance at superstardom when he was playing in a band with Jimmy James in New York. When Chas Chandler, the bass player from The Animals, invited Jimmy James to go back to England with him and be the featured star in a new band that Chas would manage, Jimmy invited his young sidekick Randy Wolfe to go with them. However, Randy’s parents thought the 16-year-old was too young to go on an unsupervised overseas trip, and so Randy did not go on to become a part of Jimmy’s new band, The Jimi Hendrix Experience
But Randy Wolfe’s story doesn’t end there. After Jimi Hendrix’s departure for London, Randy returned to his home state of California, now going by the name of Randy California — a name given to him by Jimi Hendrix in order to distinguish him from another member in the band also named Randy, whom Hendrix dubbed “Randy Texas.” Once in California, Randy started an eclectic new band that included a folkie, a jazz keyboardist, a rock singer, and even his middle-aged stepfather, a striking-looking bald jazz drummer who’d previously played in a trio with Taj Mahal and a very young Ry Cooder.
Now, Randy California’s new band, Spirit, never found the superstardom that he might have achieved with Jimi Hendrix, but Spirit did become hippie-rock cult-favorites for their eclectic mix of genres. Even by the kind of “Anything Goes” aesthetic of the late Sixties, Spirit’s creative music was considered highly adventurous, as can be heard in “Fresh Garbage,” the lead-off track from their eponymous debut album (1967) with its blend of blues and rock, folk and acid-pop, and jazz and psychedelic space vibes.