As flower power descended into acid-fried rock thunder in the 1960s and '70s,
cult California rockers Spirit indulged in loud, psychedelic, proggy jams and
have long claimed that their track 'Taurus' was the inspiration for the Led
Zeppelin classic 'Stairway to Heaven'.
Front man Randy California got his start as a 15-year-old playing in one of Jimi
Hendrix's early groups, but it was with his step-father Ed Cassidy that he
started the band in 1967, originally under the name The Red Roosters. The
bald-headed 40-year-old Cassidy was a jazz drummer who had served in WWII and
pl...