Customer Reviews

Potatoland

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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).

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.

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

This is purely a novelty album. Please do not deceive yourself into expecting a misunderstood masterpiece whose genius will make itself known to you if only you listen harder. Nor is it a genuine Spirit album, having been recorded as a separate project by members Randy California and Ed Cassidy, under the pseudonyms Kaptain Kopter and Commander Cassidy.

The album does include remakes of the Spirit hits "1984" and "Nature's Way," but aside from that, it's a musically flimsy "concept album" without much of a concept, other than following two stoners on a munchies-fueled road trip.

California and Cassidy may have thought they were making some kind of a heavy statement about conformity, or "the system," or who knows what else, but don't bother looking too hard for it. Potato Land provides a modest amount of enjoyable music, amusing sound effects of giant, bouncing potatoes that chant like the flying monkeys in The Wizard of Oz, and an album rare and strange enough that it might give you the feeling of being in on something. If you're looking for any more than that from it, you'll be cheating yourself.

This was one of my favorite records when it came out in 1981. In particular, "My Friend" has always been a favorite song of mine. I hadn't heard it for over twenty years when I found the CD on the Spirit website (!). Most of the album is silly, but the music is very well executed.

How many times over the past decade or so have I said this? This is a album to enjoy, to share with friends, and to listen to while playing Diablo on the PC. The style is a bit eclectic is areas, and the song writing is a bit uneven... but never the less this album would make it into my 25 CD to take to a deserted island. Enjoy!

As I said, best album in the world

WELL FOLKS YOU WILL NEVER SEE OR HEAR AN ALBUM OF THIS NATURE RELEASED AGAIN. RANDY CALIFORNIA LEAD GUITARIST FOR THE 60'S BAND SPIRIT IS KAPTAIN KOPTER AND THE DRUMMER FOR SPIRIT ED CASSIDY IS COMMANDER CASSIDY. IT MAY BE CALLED A SPIRIT ALBUM BUT IT IS MORE OF A SOLO EFFORT BY RANDY THAN A SPIRIT ALBUM PER SAY.WHILE THIS ALBUM DOES NOT HAVE AS STRONG OF TUNES AS THE FABULOUS TWIRLY BIRDS ALBUM BY THE SAME MUSICIANS RELEASED A FEW YEARS EARLIER IT FLOWS BETTER AND MAY EVEN BE BETTER AS A WHOLE. THE CONCEPT OF FRENCH FRIES AND POTATOES AND SUCH MAY SEEM A BIT GOOFY. TRUST ME WHEN I TELL YOU THE MUSIC IS NOT. MORNING LIGHT TURN TO THE RIGHT AND FISH FRY ROAD. THESE 3 CUTS ALONE ARE WORTH THE PRICE OF ADMISSION. GLAD TO SEE THIS CD FINALLY BECOMING AVAILABLE IN THE USA. RANDY CALIFORNIA IS NO LONGER WITH US BUT MUSIC SUCH AS IS ON THIS CD ALLOW RANDY TO REMAIN IN OUR HEARTS AND SOUL. HE WAS AN EXCELLENT SINGER SONGWRITER AND GUITARIST AS THIS CD WILL ATEST TO. GOD BLESS YOU RANDY YOU TOUCHED US IN A WAY ONLY A FEW ARTISTS COULD EVEN BEGIN TO COMPREHEND OR UNDERSTAND.

ARTHURLEY

This is a faithful reissue of the 1981 version of a Spirit project delayed from the mid 70's. No bonus tracks, but good sound quality and a reprint of the comic book that came with the original. For serious Spirit fans I also recommend The Original Potatoland out recently. It's the unedited unoverdubbed version of this CD with many bonus tracks however the sound isn't as good this version.

This Album is now getting to be so hard to come by. It's a must for any die-hard hippy's record collection that renews itself with each new generation. Needs some publicity and its ratings will soar once again. One of the best albums of the millennium.