{"id":2023,"date":"2017-02-03T22:25:12","date_gmt":"2017-02-03T22:25:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.hippy.com\/hip\/other\/jimmie-spheeris\/"},"modified":"2017-02-03T22:25:12","modified_gmt":"2017-02-03T22:25:12","slug":"jimmie-spheeris-by-shiloh-noone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hipplanet.com\/hip\/reviews\/jimmie-spheeris-by-shiloh-noone\/","title":{"rendered":"Jimmie Spheeris"},"content":{"rendered":"

The elusive Jimmie Spheeris,<\/strong> a Greek poet started out in a traveling carnival called the Majick Empire that would strongly influence songsmith poems like \u201cLost in the Midway\u201d and \u201cDecatur Street\u201d. Spheeris later moved to New York in the late 1960\u2019s to further his songwriting career. Discovered by Richie Havens<\/strong>, Spheeris was introduced to \u2018Columbia\u2019 and a four album recording contract was signed. Spheeris\u2019 magnificent 1971 Isle of View<\/em> debut reached deep into the artistic corners of the hip generation particularly the solitary \u201cI am the Mercury\u201d and \u201cThe Nest\u201d which received artistic airplay in the same poetic royalty as Shawn Phillips<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Isle Of View<\/em> was supported by Archies \/ Simon & Garfunkel<\/strong> session drummer Buddy Salzman<\/strong> and People <\/strong>guitarist Geoff Levin<\/strong>, a group that included Larry Norman<\/strong> that scored with the Zombies<\/strong> \u201cI Love You\u201d. In 1973 The Original Tap Dancing Kid<\/em>, followed, backed by Rascals organist Felix Cavaliera<\/strong> and supported by extensive touring alongside Tim Buckley<\/strong> and Al Kooper<\/strong>. The album maintained majestic exhurberence through the wafting \u201cKeeper of the Canyon\u201d, funky \u201cOpen Up\u201d pounded by City <\/strong>bassist Charlie Larkey<\/strong> and bass looming \u201cMoon On The Water\u201d assisted by Leland Sklar<\/strong> from The Section<\/strong>. Spheeris <\/strong>now sharing an apartment with poetess Laura Nyro<\/strong> returned to the studio in 1975 with The Dragon is Dancing,<\/em> a jazzy spilling though hazy and sometimes radical time signatures, namely the drifting \u201cIn The Misty Woods\u201d or thrusting title track featuring Chick Corea<\/strong> on electric piano \/ mini-moog, in the same dimension as Return to Forever.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The slick 1976 Ports of the Heart<\/em> sadly lost poetic device even though assisted by Jackson Brown\u2019s<\/strong> vox and guests Chick Corea<\/strong> and bassist Stanley Clarke<\/strong>.\u00a0 At this stage Spheeris<\/strong> had no recording contract, apart from a 1980 single, \u201cHold Tight\u201d. Four years later Spheeris sadly died in a motorcycle accident at the age of 34 in Santa Monica, California. Unbeknown the album Spheeris <\/em>was released 16 years later conjuring a posthumous \u201cYou Must Be Laughing Somewhere\u201d based on the life friend, author John Kennedy Toole and featuring ex Atomic Rooster<\/strong> drummer Rick Parnell<\/strong> and Rooster<\/strong>\/ Brand X <\/strong>guitarist\u00a0Johny Goodsall.<\/strong> Years later An Evening with Jimmie Spheeris<\/em> (live) appeared.<\/p>\n

Added:<\/b> October 19th 2011
\nReviewer:<\/b> shiloh noone<\/a> | See all reviews<\/a> by shiloh noone
\nCategory:<\/b> Music<\/a>
\nScore:<\/b> \"\"\"\"\"\"\"\"\"\"
\nRelated Link:<\/b> Seekers Guide To The Rhythm Of Yesteryear<\/a>\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The elusive Jimmie Spheeris, a Greek poet started out in a traveling carnival called the Majick Empire that would strongly influence songsmith poems like \u201cLost in the Midway\u201d and \u201cDecatur Street\u201d. Spheeris later moved to New York in the late 1960\u2019s to further his songwriting career. Discovered by Richie Havens, Spheeris was introduced to \u2018Columbia\u2019 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2023","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hipplanet.com\/hip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2023","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hipplanet.com\/hip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hipplanet.com\/hip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hipplanet.com\/hip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hipplanet.com\/hip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2023"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.hipplanet.com\/hip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2023\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hipplanet.com\/hip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2023"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hipplanet.com\/hip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2023"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hipplanet.com\/hip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2023"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}