PRIVATE PRESS CULT FOLK/PSYCH VINYL LP SPIRIT IN FLESH II 2 1979 MINT

$

95

Greetings from 21st Century Treasures!

For your consideration:

AN IMPOSSIBLY SCARCE PRIVATE PRESS VINYL RECORD LP

"SPIRIT IN FLESH II"

CONFEDERATE PUBLISHING, MJRCN1A/B, 1979, USA

Made in extremely limited quantities!  Rarely does the collector see one of these surface!

For those of you familiar to the world of vinyl records, you've most likely come across the self-titled 1971 LP by Spirit In The Flesh on Metromedia Records; a pop blues rock-esque offering from the legendary Michael "Metellica" Rapunzel and his Brotherhood of the Spirit Commune.  As you know this was a standard major label release, was heavily promoted, and thus was not very to hard to come by.  What is virtually unknown however, is that eight years later in 1979, Spirit In The Flesh released a second album! 

That's right!

Spirit in Flesh "II" was released on the private press label Confederate Publishing.

Quantity pressed: 100! 

The band sent some of these to record labels and gave the rest to friends and family.  Today, it is almost impossible to find them outside of private collections!

This album has much more of a classic folk/country/psych rock feel to it and is a very solid album all around!

Album cover is VG+/EX-; bright and vibrant, clean and crisp; no rips or tears and nice corners with some soiling to the base! 

Vinyl is MINT! Clean and bright; looks to be unplayed!  Plain white label is in MINT condition as well! 

Rarely does one cross paths with this record, and some may say it compares in elusiveness to the likes of Christopher "What'cha Gonna Do?" Fitting that the band members were friends and actually recorded together in the 80's with members of Aerosmith.  They produced only 1 Master vinyl, that is all!

More on Michael Rapunzel and Spirit In Flesh:

Michael Metelica was born in 1950 and grew up in the small rural town of Leyden, Massachusetts. At age 15, he dropped out of high school, along with several other local boys became a California run away. Roger Desreuisseau of Colrain, MA was the first run away with two dollars in his pocket. A national phenomena sent many young people across country to Haight-Ashbury. Michael's excuse was he left his turbulent family life after reading an article about the Hells Angels motorcycle gang, but the closest he got to the Hell's Angels was sitting on a side walk with Roger Desreuisseau, on a spot designated for observers of the Angels. Michael never dared to get up and go across the street to meet them. He was instead drawn to the 1967 hippies and love in's at People's Park Summer of Love, where he met an older enamored mentor who introduced him to mobile rooms of telephones and photo sales. Upon returning to Leyden later that year he got his GED. In May 1968, he asked a local blueberry farmer named Donnie Herron if he could build a tree-house on his land, and after receiving permission, lived there in solitary meditation, often times with Wendy Krole, working for farmers for free. He became something of a local sensation and attracted his first following from among his boyhood friends. After the tree-house was destroyed in late 1968 by suspicious locals, Metelica and his little band wandered around the many hill towns in the area, gaining more members, teaching their view of spirituality at area churches and schools until by early 1970, they numbered around 50. Rules were mandated banning drugs, cigarettes, alcohol and sexual promiscuity and members practiced to purge themselves of their imperfections through meditation and intense encounter-group confrontation tactics. By then, Metelica knew that he had the makings of a deliberate community that was based on spiritual beliefs and practice.

The group, now known as the Brotherhood of the Spirit, had as its spiritual advisor, a local farmer named Elwood Babbitt, a trance-medium in the Edgar Cayce tradition. Michael had been introduced to him as an impressionable boy while visiting Beth St. Clair's girls, along with her hypnotist cousin, Charles Hapgood. Hapgood, Babbitt and Metelica believed that the Earth was about to undergo cataclysmic changes in preparation of the Aquarian Age. Babbitt, in particular, was getting information through his spirit guides who warned that humanity’s selfish and self-destructive behavior would cause nature to literally rebel in such a way as to cause widespread death and destruction. These “Earth Changes” as they were called would be a precursor to the spiritual enlightenment of the Aquarian Age, the next step in the evolution of the human race. According to Babbitt, groups like the Brotherhood would be the harbingers of this new age, functioning as teachers of this higher wisdom to the shattered survivors of these worldwide cataclysms. There were 2000 intentional communities in the US in that generation of seekers.

In March 1970, The Brotherhood purchased a 25-acre property in Warwick, MA and the group underwent the first of its many radical transformations. Their growth coincided with a counter-cultural migration as millions of young Americans, disenchanted with the “establishment” during the Vietnam War era, dropped out of universities and cities en masse and spent that summer looking for new venues. The membership skyrocketed to 150 leading to the acquisition of an additional house in nearby Northfield, the building of a dormitory in Warwick and more stringent membership rules.

Metelica became less involved with the commune, devoting most of his energy to the commune’s band “Spirit in Flesh” whose mission was to bring about the message of spirituality through the medium of rock and roll. In late 1970, Spirit in Flesh signed a contract with Metromedia records and the commune’s focus began to shift into a full-time promotion of the band forming his own record label, Corn Records and Production Company, The High Time Girls with Susan Leonard of NYC and You and Me Productions.

Veterans of the Brotherhood of the Spirit consider the Warwick era as being the closest to their ideal of a spiritual community composed of independently inspired individuals. Their youthful enthusiasm allowed them to overcome the many hardships created by an insulated environment dedicated to personal growth and spiritual reflection. For the many that came from urban backgrounds, Warwick introduced the realities of self-sufficiency through logging, house building, the cultivating and canning of homegrown food, and the ability to enjoy life without the distractions of mainstream media. Their spiritual belief system was based on aspects of Buddhism and New Age thinking mixed with an enlightened, almost Gnostic form of Christianity. Reincarnation, meditation, and the power of positive thought were considered to be major doctrines.

The years 1971-1972 were spent in frenzied activities surrounding Spirit in Flesh, including the printing of several thousand silk-screened posters that were placed all across the United States and even into parts of Europe. Because of the sluggish support from the record label, the commune devised its own marketing tactics to promote the band which included marches in New York City, mass telephone call-ins to Metromedia, and infiltrating popular national TV talk shows to announce the band’s impending success. These tactics culminated in a concert at Carnegie Hall that was sparely attended. The album, which featured the entire membership of the Brotherhood commune on its cover, sold less than 1000 copies.

Despite the attention focused on Spirit in Flesh, the Brotherhood had developed into an efficient entity. An elaborate infrastructure that included business management, child care, auto maintenance, farming and food production had been created to service the needs of its personnel. Money was obtained by the practice of having new members sign over all these possessions in order to make a "Lifetime Commitment" to the commune which also created controversy due to its members being briefly on welfare while Metelica was gifted with a Rolls-Royce. There were also numerous run-ins with local selectmen about code violations concerning the commune’s houses and septic systems. By late 1972, the membership had expanded to nearly 300. It was during this time that the first public businesses were launched by the commune along with a magazine, the Free Spirit Press, which was sold along the East Coast from a rainbow-painted school bus. In late 1972, the commune bought the Shea Theater block in Turners Falls, a decaying working-class town next to Greenfield, and made national headlines when Metelica issued an order that all members either work a job or leave. By now, the Brotherhood of the Spirit had been featured in such media venues as the Wall Street Journal; Look, Family Circle, and Mademoiselle magazines as well as televised segments on 60 Minutes and the David Frost show.

A RARE ALBUM INDEED!

Available exclusively from 21st Century Treasures!