This Be The Verse

“Let me take you baby, down to the river bed

Got to tell you somethin’, go right to your head

Cause I got a line on you, babe”

I went through Spirit binge two summers ago after catching “I Got a Line On You” on the radio. Most stop at identifying “I Got a Line On You” as a rockin’ song and dismiss the band as a name to go along with a one-hit-wonder. Yes, Spirit was critically underrepresented, but this didn’t prevent them from producing hits recognizable by the most naively-eared tweenager or the spaciest psych-freak. Case-and-point: “Fresh Garbage.” If one of my sisters were to pull up my blog and listen to this song, her initial reaction would be: “Why is Logan blogging about Pink?” One of Pink’s bigger hits “Feel Good Time” was indeed based upon the Spirit song. But the list doesn’t stop there. We’d expect some half-talented pop star with Dennis Rodman’s hair-stylist to lift a song from a little-played psychedelic band. But Led Zeppelin? The song “Taurus” is now widely accepted as the main inspiration for “Stairway to Heaven,” not in some minor way, but in a very obvious “we lifted what became our most famous guitar lick” way. I’ll stop here, but the list of bands that rode on Spirit’s half-success goes on. Here’s to the real creative minds.

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