10 Best Spirit Songs That Don't Sound Like Zep's 'Stairway to Heaven'

Psych-rock fiends generally pick 1970's Twelve Dreams of Dr. Sardonicus as Spirit's best album, but 1968's The Family That Plays Together also touches brilliance. The closing cut, "Aren't You Glad," is an art-rock monster. Singer Jay Ferguson shifts between cocky imploring and starry-eyed remorse. The rhythm section of drummer Ed Cassidy and bassist Mark Andes build a kind of steady-gaited swing, and guitarist Randy California and keyboardist John Locke paint the song's shifting structures with a trippy rainbow of tonal colors. Even when five-minute song seems to slow down to let glassy strings enter, it feels like there's simply more music happening than in similar efforts from most other bands of the era.