Potatoland [Import]

Spirit | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (May 26, 1995)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Import
• Label: Line
• ASIN: B000002RIF
• In-Print Editions: Audio CD  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #422,772 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. We've Got a Lot to Learn

2. Potatoland Theme

3. Open Up Your Heart

4. Morning Light

5. Potatoland Prelude

6. Potatoland Introduction

7. Turn to the Right

8. Donut House

9. Fish Fry Road

10. Information

11. My Friend

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I'm going down to Fish Fry Road!, July 21, 2001

By 

Scott R Stout (Philly suburbs) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Potatoland (Audio CD)

If you have any possible way of getting your hands on this album do so with great speed!!! It is the best!!!

To clarify - if you like SPIRIT, you will of course like this. If you like OGDENS NUT GONE FLAKE by the Small Faces, you will like this. If you like Jeff Wayne's musical version of War of the Worlds, you will like this. If you're into psychedelic music, you will like this. If you're into George Orwell's 1984, you will like this. If you like the Moody Blues, Geroge Harrison, or early Steve Miller, you will like this. If you have an open mind, you will like this. Need I go on?

It is a musical version (of sorts) of Orwell's 1984 represented by our heroes Kaptain Kopter and Commander Cassidy who journey into Potatoland to find out where love went. Sound crazy? Well it is! It's serious but yet very "tongue in cheek". Great music, sound effects, story and dialouge (and if you get the remastered CD there's a little comic book too).

This basically was an idea of Randy California and Ed Cassidy after the band SPIRIT was dying. The project was shelved by the record company because it has no commercial possibility (uh huh... well... that may have been true, but I'm sure the hippies would have dug it... and when does creativity and commercial possibilities ever match??). So some smart independent record company released it in the early 1980's (I think) and it has become a cult classic.

You will really enjoy it if you want to try something new ( and if you can find it).

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Lost Classic, November 5, 2003

By 

Jerry G. (shaker hts, oh United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Potatoland (Audio CD)

Potato Land is easily as great a concept album as the Who's Quadrophenia or Pink Floyd's The Wall, but thanks to the vicissitudes of pop music it is a sadly forgotten classic. Filled with definitive songs that should have been top hits, a comical story about a voyage into the world of potatoes is told. Sound effects and spoken word help to narrate this story, which is surprisingly full of meaning, and yet remains lighthearted to the end. Everyone with a functioning set of ears should at least give it a chance. It is the sort of album that grows on you and is also enormously enjoyable to listen to. It is certainly a unique recording, and it's impossible to imagine anything like it will ever be made again. I'd say that after Dr. Sardonicus, it's arguably Spirit's best album. And you'll never feel the same way about eating French fries again.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars 1981 Potatoland: Icing on the Spirit cake, September 9, 2011

By 

Boomer T. Dog (Pittsburgh) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Potato Land (Audio CD)

This review is for the new 2 disc set released in 2011. Having just become a fan of Randy California/Spirit in January 2011 I'm a newcomer to the history of Spirit. My quick adoption of the post "Golden 4" Spirit albums has only come in the past two months. It was caused by this release and by the Future Games vinyl (I just purchased the CD ) The base tracks on disc 1 offer a close "memory" of what was supposed to be the 1973 release of the album. Sound quality varies, but content wowed me. As someone who is a fan of Negativland, concept albums mean something to me. The fact that Randy took so much grief about this album in 1973 that it caused him to leave the music business... Starting from the updated 1984 and rolling through Turn To The Right, Doughnut House, and Fish Fry Rd. and many more. The extra tracks put on by Mick Skidmore are interesting and add to the whole package as well as the liner notes.

The second disc is the real gem. This sounds as if it is not the release on Ryko but the Chord records release of Potatoland 1981. The notes indicate this by leaving a track in the order and more of the original acetate sounds. (It's fun to hear records popping on a CD) The first three tracks are superb! We've Got A Lot To Learn is a Harrison-esque pop song that starts it off. The (not well liked by the notes) disco Potato Land Theme is something different and shows Randy can do other styles of music. Open Up Your Heart is a lush sounding, progressive twinged tune like 10CC or later Crack The Sky. My favorite on this disc. (Tracks #3 and #4 are misprinted in reverse order on the CD back cover)

Despite the dismissals of the second disc in the booklet, I'd say this was well worth buying this version just for the second disc. The effort Randy put into taking acetates of old songs, recording new narration and story, overdubbing it, Shadoe Stevens, and coming out with 1981's Potatoland makes it a really great piece of audio art put out because of fans! I put the second disc in and can't stop listening... by Ricochet