Original Potato Land - Premium Organic Potatoes for Healthy Cooking | Perfect for Mashed Potatoes, Roasting & Family Meals

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