In 1966, Jimi Hendrix was the front man in a group called Jimmy James and The Blue Flames. In that group were a couple of guys named Randy-- Randy Wolfe from California and the other Randy from Texas. To distinguish the two of them Hendrix dubbed them Randy California and Randy Texas respectively.When Hendrix was invited to England, Randy's parents didn't allow him to go with, and thus Randy California missed out on what became The Jimi Hendrix Experience.
Most of us know what happened to Jimi... And listening to the music of singer, songwriter, guitarist Randy California, it's quite obvious that in his short time working with Hendrix Randy was heavily influenced by Jimi.
In 1967 California started the band Spirit which charted 10 albums between 1967 and 1976. In 1971 Randy left Spirit to pursue a solo career (although he would return to various incarnations of the band throughout the rest of his life).
Kaptain Kopter and the (Fabulous) Twirly Birds was Randy's first stab at a solo career. And while the album shows Randy's talents on guitar and even on Hendrix-esque vocals, it's quite evident that he's not much of a frontman. Where his work with Spirit was more jazz-influenced, his solo work shows more of a hard rock/acid rock edge and thus shows much more prominently the influence Hendrix had on Randy several years before.
Kaptain Kopter is an exceptional album and Randy shines throughout and even does an impressive cover of the Beatles Day Tripper. From start to finish the album is an interesting encapsulation of where acid rock was in the early seventies and remains one of the great overlooked/obscure albums of that decade.
8 comments:
I think I'm going to have to try to find this CD in stores, but I have a feeling it might be pretty difficult to find. I'm heading over to Best Buy today to try to find Kansas' "Leftoverture", I'll take a look for this CD as well.
Great cover that's for sure.
I used to have the Kapt. Kopter album in the mid-1970's and some how lost it a few years later in several moves along with a few other choice albums I don't want to think about now. That was a cool and obscure album even for those times.
That version of Day Tripper was really good and I ended up buying a 10" blue vinal version of Jimi Hendrix' version in Berkeley (Rasputens?) in about 1979. They billed that one with "John Lennon" singing background vocals. It's the same version which you will find on the BBC album and others and in reality it's Noel Redding singing the background.
Nice to see that cover again. Thanks.
Hey, I just bought this album off eBay. I never heard of it just bought it randomly but it kicks ass! There is also a cover of 'Rain' that I like better than the 'Day Tripper' cover.
And when I Googled it this was the first page that came up! LOL
ya it is an amazing album i reme ber a song on it called"been on the downer TOO long" that had a KILLER drum intro(by his "dad"Cassidy i believe)+SEARING guitar!!can anybody help me with maybe the line up of the band+songs or share the cd????<>THX
it's a shit hot album, downer is and always has been a fantastic song. one of the best and most over looked riffs ever, don't think the lyrics and sentiment are given there worth either. fookin great album, and goin by the album cover they loo
ked good aswell, which as we know is importan
great kaptain ..nice artical publishing by you...appreciate on you...thanks for giving detail..
happy after reading your blog....
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