Randy California (born Randy Craig Wolfe; February 20, 1951 – January 2, 1997) was a guitarist, singer and songwriter and one of the original members of the rock group Spirit, formed in 1967. (More from Wikipedia)
The 1960’s psychedelic/progressive rock band Spirit formed in Los Angeles in 1967, growing out of an earlier L.A. band called the Red Roosters. Bandmembers were Randy California (guitar and vocals), Mark Andes (bass guitar), John Locke (keyboards), and Jay Ferguson (percussion and vocals). The inclusion of Randy California’s stepfather Ed Cassidy (drums) brought the band an added dimension that was missing from most 1960’s rock bands: Besides being much older than the other bandmembers, Cassidy cut his teeth playing in numerous jazz bands including stints with Cannonball Adderley, Gerry Mulligan, Roland Kirk, Thelonious Monk, and Lee Konitz. Ed Cassidy was also a founding member of the 1964 band Rising Sons that also included Taj Mahal and Ry Cooder.
A noted guitar prodigy, Randy Craig Wolfe of Spirit was given his moniker at age 15 by none other than Jimi Hendrix (before Jimi started using that spelling); when they played together in 1966 in one of Hendrix’s early bands, Jimmy James and the Blue Flames, Jimi called him “Randy California” in order to distinguish him from Randy Palmer who was also in the band.
Spirit’s biggest hit song was a rousing rocker called “I Got a Line on You”, which was released in November 1968. The accompanying album, The Family that Plays Together is one of my favorite American albums of the 1960’s.
The album includes an unusual track called “Jewish” that is sung in Hebrew. Like “Taurus”, “Jewish” was written by Randy California; he had been raised in a Jewish home. According to a post by Jewish Business News, the lyrics are taken from a traditional song called “Henei Ma Tov” (or “Hine Ma Tov”) that is based on Psalm 133 (one of the Psalms of David).
This post also says of Randy California: “In his book Stars of David: Rock ’n’ Roll’s Jewish Stories, author Scott R. Benarde quotes [his mother Bernice] Pearle saying, ‘I always felt Randy [California]’s solos sounded like what I remember from Temple. I told him that sometimes his guitar sounded like a cantor in Synagogue.’”
Spirit was recently in the news when they won the first round in a long-simmering controversy with Led Zeppelin. The two bands had toured together during Led Zep’s first tour, and Randy California had long claimed that the opening chords for “Stairway to Heaven” were lifted from their 1968 instrumental song “Taurus”.
Reportedly for lack of funds, a copyright infringement lawsuit was not filed until May 2014 (by Randy Craig Wolfe’s heirs); and on October 21, 2014, the Judge in the case denied the request by Led Zeppelin’s attorneys to dismiss the case.
(November 2014)
