Howdy there fellow tourists, it is high time for another Souvenir of the Week don’t y’all think? This week’s souvenir is an album called The Legend Of God’s Gun by the psychedelic rock band Spindrift and it comes all the way from the old west (not really though).
Originally from Newark, Delaware Spindrift was created in 1992 by singer-songwriter Kirkpatrick Thomas. Ten years later they released The Legend Of God’s Gun in 2002. Inspired by great spaghetti westerns of the past, especially those directed by Sergio Leone and scored by Ennio Morricone, this album takes the great sound of psychedelic rock of the 1960’s and sets it against a backdrop of cowboys, the wild west, and gun fights.
The opening track, In The Beginning, sets the mood for the entire album immediately. With lonely whistling, the sound of howling wind off in the distance, and what seems to be an old broken music box you can almost feel the hot sun beating down on your neck and smell the dirt & despair in the air. With the short spoken word introduction, by who I’m 99% sure is Keith David, the loose story of the album is established and the idea of the gritty old west is firmly planted in your mind.
Immediately after the first track you’re hit with Titoli which is an amazing instrumental, something that this album is full of. The driving drum beats and the distorted guitars while although not historically accurate, help paint an extremely gritty and intense cinematic picture of the west. In other tracks they use other instruments such as an organ, acoustic guitars, castanets, and maracas to give things a more authentic feeling, this can be seen perfectly in the track Preachers Theme. This album also heavily features a lot of vocalization such as whooping, hollering, and chanting that all adds to the feeling of being in the old west. Tracks such as Girlz Booze and Gunz, Preachers Theme, and Indian Run all have some pretty great examples of this.
My favorite tracks off of this album are: Titoli, Preachers Theme, Indian Run, Blessing the Bullets, Girlz Booze and Gunz, and Speak to the Wind. I don’t think there is much more that I could say to explain just how cool this album is. Come on, its a psychedelic rock album about the old west! I think the Vandals put it best with their song Urban Struggle when they sung “I want to be a cowboy, I’ve got to be a cowboy”. Anyways, if you want to feel like a super cool cowboy outlaw while doing mundane things like walking between classes or doing your daily commute then I highly recommend this album to you. Thanks again for reading and I’ll see all of you cowpokes later.
PS – The linked youtube playlist doesn’t have all the songs so click here for a link to stream the entire album for free.
Photo credit: http://www.analog.am/products/legend-of-gods-gun