Isle of View

Spheeris, Jimmie

album cover

A Lost Classic from a California Singer-Songwriter

The L.A.-born Jimmie Spheeris followed the road not taken by other California singer-songwriters of the early '70s. Where most tunesmiths (the Byrds, Neil Young, et al.) sought the declarative directness of country, Spheeris had his head in faraway clouds. Everything he sang oozed an almost beatific hippie idealism. His ethereal notions carried over into his lyrics, which told tales of winged gods coming through the smog to deliver messages of hope. (Hey, it was the '70s.)

Spheeris was discovered by Clive Davis, and this debut was issued in 1971—in the wake of Young's After the Gold Rush (see p. 885) and just before Jackson Browne's first album. Despite a pleasantly spacey voice (think Duncan Sheik on downers), and more than a few disarmingly poetic turns of phrase, Spheeris managed to attract only a cult following. That's a shame, because the contemplative Isle of View has much to recommend it—stirring little songs about nature and assorted phantasmagoria like "I Am the Mercury," the slow-motion plea "Come Back," and the gorgeous and unconventional string writing from Beck's dad David Campbell (legend has it that Beck, age eleven months, was a regular at these sessions). None of Spheeris's three subsequent titles for Columbia Records—the last two made with musicians who, like Spheeris, had joined the Church of Scientology—registered much of an impact either. Spheeris dropped out of sight in the late '70s, and had just completed work on a comeback when he was killed by a drunk driver in 1984. He left what might best be described as a small legacy—it took a letter-writing campaign in 1997 to bring his music to compact disc—but that doesn't diminish the placid chamber pop pleasure that is Isle of View.

Genre: Rock
Released: 1971, Columbia
Key Tracks: "Come Back," "I Am the Mercury," "For Roach".
Catalog Choice: The Dragon Is Dancing.
Next Stop: Duncan Sheik: Phantom Moon
After That: Laura Veirs: Year of Meteors.
Book Pages: 730–731