Twelve Dreams of Dr. Sardonicus

Untitled

Twelve Dreams of Dr. Sardonicus is an album released in 1970 by the psychedelic rock ensemble Spirit. Produced by David Briggs, who is best known for his work with Neil Young, and whom they chose on Young's recommendation. The original LP was released in 1970 by Epic shortly before the original group disbanded.

This diverse yet cohesive effort is a sci-fi-based, loose concept album. The album's second song is the key track "Nature's Way", the most notable hit (along with "I've Got a Line on You" – #28 in Canada) the band would ever produce. "Mr. Skin" also became a hit single in the U.S., three years after the album's release. The album also includes several other less well-known tunes which are considered to have had an impact on the genre of experimental rock in the United States.

The album influenced many other groups—the track "Morning Will Come" presaged the emerging glam rock trend and sounds strikingly similar to the music of Marc Bolan and T. Rex, and the piano figure that opens the instrumental track "Space Child" closely resembles the piano intro of the 1978 Steely Dan hit "FM". A modern nod to Spirit was given by Sam Beam of lo-fi indie band Iron and Wine. The breakdown in "Wolves (Song of the Shepherd's Dog)" matches that in "Prelude-Nothing to Hide".

Just as in previous attempts, Spirit fused aspects of jazz and folk together with their traditional rock stylings, but also introduced added elements of space rock, or popular music's science-fiction subset. This innovative LP is also notable as one of the first rock albums to use the newly-developed Moog synthesizer.

The album was re-issued on CD in 1996 by Sony in remastered form, with bonus tracks.

Track listing

All songs written by Randy California except noted.

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
1.	"Prelude – Nothin' to Hide"		3:41
2.	"Nature's Way"		2:30
3.	"Animal Zoo"	Ferguson	3:20
4.	"Love Has Found a Way"	California, Locke	2:42
5.	"Why Can't I Be Free?"		1:03
6.	"Mr. Skin"	Ferguson	3:50
7.	"Space Child"	Locke	3:26
8.	"When I Touch You"	Ferguson	5:35
9.	"Street Worm"	Ferguson	3:40
10.	"Life Has Just Begun"		3:22
11.	"Morning Will Come"		2:58
12.	"Soldier"		2:43
13.	"Rougher Road" †¹"
14.	"Animal Zoo (Mono Single Version) †"	Ferguson
15.	"Morning Will Come (Alternate Mono Mix) †¹"
16.	"Red Light Roll On (Additional Single Mix) †"

• † - Tracks specific to the 1996 reissue

¹ - Previously unreleased material

Personnel

Spirit

• Mark Andes - Bass, Vocals
• Randy California - Bass, Guitar, Vocals
• Ed Cassidy - Percussion, Drums
• Jay Ferguson - Percussion, Keyboards, Vocals
• John Locke - Keyboards, Art Direction

Production

• David Briggs - Producer
• Vic Anesini - Mastering
• Adam Block - Project Director
• David Blumberg - Horn Arrangements
• Ira Cohen - Photography
• Jeff Smith - Package Design
• Bob Irwin - Compilation Producer

Charts

Album

Year	Chart	Position
1971	Billboard 200	63

See also

• Mr. Sardonicus, a 1961 horror film