In 1970, Spirit started working on their fourth LP Twelve Dreams of Dr. Sardonicus. On the recommendation of Neil Young, the band chose frequent Young collaborator David Briggs as the producer. It was a prolific time for the group's writers, and the album was released in late 1970, peaking at No. 63 in early 1971. The album included Randy California's "Nature's Way", a minor hit (No. 111) which was written in an afternoon when the group was playing at the Fillmore West in San Francisco.
Epic also released an early mix of "Animal Zoo" as a single, but it too only made it to No. 97 on the charts. Like the Who's Tommy and Pink Floyd's The Dark Side of the Moon, Twelve Dreams of Dr. Sardonicus is critically regarded as a landmark of art rock, with a tapestry of literary themes about the fragility of life and the complexity of the human experience, illustrated by recurring lyric "life has just begun", and continued the group's pioneering exploration of environmental issues in their lyrics (cf. "Fresh Garbage"). The album is also notable for its inventive production and the use of a modular Moog synthesizer.
Head East is an Americanrock band originally from East Central Illinois. The band was formed by vocalist John Schlitt, guitarist Danny Piper, keyboardist Roger Boyd, bassist Larry Boyd, and drummer Steve Huston. They met and formed the band while John, Roger, and Larry were studying at the University of Illinois, Steve was at Eastern Illinois University 45 miles away and Danny was not in college. Eventually both Larry and Danny dropped out of the band and were replaced by Mike Somerville (guitar) and Dan Birney (bass). The band achieved success in the Midwest during the 1970s, but fell into obscurity in the following decades on both coasts while remaining strong in the Midwest and South. They remain best known for their AOR hit "Never Been Any Reason".
The late 1980s were a difficult period for The Kings as they lost their drummer and their record label. As it was, the group was on the verge of a major revival as the single "This Beat Goes On" and "Switchin' To Glide" became a huge radio hit in Chicago once again, getting major play on all of the main rock stations: Classic rockWCKG, Alternative rockWXRT, and Mainstream Rock WLUP, as well as Top 40 powerhouse WLS-AM. The unavailability of the Kings records led Chicago DJ Bob Stroud of WLUP to record his own version of the single with his band Rockestra.[5]Elektra Records unfortunately remained unaware of the burgeoning hit and never reissued the single or album
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