The Family That Plays Together

About The Family That Plays Together

The Family That Plays Together is the second album by the rock band Spirit. The album was released on Ode Records in December 1968. It shows the group expanding on their early psychedelic rock style and moving toward what might be described as an early form of progressive rock. It was voted number 575 in Colin Larkin's All Time Top 1000 Albums 3rd Edition (2000). Tracks such as "It Shall Be" and "Silky Sam" demonstrate the ease with which the ensemble can incorporate jazz into their idiosyncratic form of rock, while "Jewish" and "Aren't You Glad" show the band's competence in exploiting both world music and jam rock. "Poor Richard," "Jewish," and "All the Same" feature double tracked lead guitars played by Randy California. During this time the band lived together in a house in Topanga, California, near Los Angeles. The album's title was also inspired by the stepson-stepfather relationship between the lead guitarist and percussionist Ed Cassidy. It alludes to the slogan "The family that prays together stays together", created by ad-writer Al Scalpone for the Family Rosary Crusade and popular in American and British rhetoric beginning in the 1940s. more »