ildizionariodelrock - miti di ieri e di oggi: DIR - 15 QUICKSILVER MESSENGER SERVICE

QUICKSILVER MESSENGER SERVICE - LIVE IN SAN JOSE' 1966
Il Dizionario Del Rock – N.° 15

1 All Night Worker 3:40
2 Walkin Blues 3:20
3 I Hear You Knockin' 3:34
4 Mona 11:11
5 Your Time Will Come 6:28
6 Smokestack Lightning 9:27
7 Who Do You Love 8:36

Note
Recorded live in San José · California · 1966 · September.

Lineup
John Cipollina – guitar
Gary Duncan – guitar, vocals
Greg Elmore – drums
David Freiberg – bass, vocals
Jim Murray – guitar, vocals

This album is part of the italian series made by Armando Curcio Editore.

This album as been digitally remastered in 1991, it has a fine cover, fine audio quality for the time.

Due to its rarity and good quality, this disc is recommended. These bootlegs offer an excellent image of the various bands, in some cases, better than the official material of the time. Please note that many of these bootlegs and songs have been released officially in different moments:

Please read below for other infos.

Audio quality:

Quality content:

© Official released material:

Concert released officially on: Live In San Jose 1966 - Purple Pyramid ‎– CLP 2148

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Quicksilver Messenger Service
The band that became Quicksilver Messenger Service originally was conceived as a rock vehicle for folk singer/songwriter Dino Valente (b. Nov. 7, 1943, d. Nov 16, 1994), author of "Get Together." Living in San Francisco, Valente had found guitarist John Cipollina (b. Aug. 24, 1943, d. May 29, 1989) and singer Jim Murray. Valente's friend David Freiberg (b. Aug. 24, 1938) joined on bass, and the group was completed by the addition of drummer Greg Elmore (b. Sep. 4, 1946) and guitarist Gary Duncan (b. Sep 4, 1946). As the band was being put together, Valente was imprisoned on a drug charge and he didn't rejoin Quicksilver until later.

They debuted at the end of 1965 and played around the Bay Area and then the West Coast for the next two years, building up a large following but resisting offers to record that had been taken up by such San Francisco acid rock colleagues as Jefferson Airplane and the Grateful Dead. Quicksilver finally signed to Capitol toward the end of 1967 and recorded their self-titled debut album in 1968 (by this time, Murray had left). Happy Trails, the 1969 follow-up, was recorded live. After its release, Duncan left the band and was replaced for Shady Grove (1970) by British session pianist Nicky Hopkins. By the time of its release, however, Duncan had returned, along with Valente, making the group a sextet.

This version of Quicksilver, prominently featuring Valente's songs and lead vocals, lasted only a year, during which two albums, Just for Love and What About Me, were recorded. Cipollina, Freiberg, and Hopkins then left, and the remaining trio of Valente, Duncan, and Elmore hired replacements and cut another couple of albums before disbanding. There was a reunion in 1975, resulting in a new album and a tour, and in 1986 Duncan revived the Quicksilver name for an album that also featured Freiberg on background vocals.

Quicksilver bridged San Francisco's acid-rock, Chicago's blues-rock and northern garage-rock.

Quicksilver bridged San Francisco's acid-rock, Chicago's blues-rock and northern garage-rock. Theirs was a powerful and enthralling rock and roll, seasoned rather than led by John Cipollina's guitar (not very imaginative, but flawless). They were masters of jam, more sophisticated than the Grateful Dead even if less instinctive.

Dino Valenti (real name Chester Powers) was since 1963 the folksinger prince of San Francisco (author, among other things, of two future hits of others like Hey Joe, actually bought by a certain Billy Roberts, and of Let's Get Together) and among his usual accompanists was the young guitarist John Cipollina. When Valenti went to jail, Cipollina put together singer Gary Duncan (former Greenwich Village folksinger who wrote Lovin 'Spoonful's Hey Joe and Get Together), drummer Greg Elmore, bassist David Freiberg and formed Quicksilver.

Pending the release of Valenti, the group began to play in the hippies' historic venues along with Jefferson Airplane and Grateful Dead, even if their sound was much more vigorous than theirs. Their specialty was long blues-rock jams, as evidenced by the posthumous Live In San Jose recorded at the time. Not being particularly in line with the hippy fashion of the moment, the band had to wait until the 1967 Monterey festival to find a record deal.

The Quicksilver Messenger Service album (Capitol, 1968), released in May 1968, showcases a group of shrewd musicians, capable of embellishing delicate songs such as Light Your Windows and Dino's Song with infinite nuances and of various long complex songs more or less blues like the long suite The Fool and the Gold And Silver instrumental jam.

The group matured with Happy Trails (Capitol, 1969), which revealed instead a compact and deadly formation, capable of secreting a fluid and arcane sound without losing any of the "classic" elegance that distinguished them. The title track, a long suite whose movements are inspired by Bo Diddley's Who Do You Love, allows Cipollina, Freiberg and Duncan to improvise a series of sparkling and enthralling instrumental variations. Mona (another Diddley theme) has the same almost hard-rock verve. Cipollina's guitar effects gave psychedelic fruits in Maiden Of The Cancer Moon, but the psychedelic apex of the record is Calvary, a long gypsy trip in which the guitar screams and hisses possessed, while the noises of the other instruments crackle and dilate. .

In 1970, with Duncan lost, the band follows Byrds and Grateful Dead on the paths of country-rock. Valenti returns in time to record Shady Grove (Capitol, 1969), which also makes use of the prodigious pianist Nicky Hopkins, who had played with the Rolling Stones. The latter is the real protagonist of the torpid and bewitching songs of this album (Shady Grove, Flute Song). His keyboard grace goes hand in hand with Cipollina's cute guitar acrobatics. Edward The Mad Shirt Grinder will perhaps remain Hopkins' masterpiece.

Just For Love (with the return of Duncan and still some long experimental tracks like The Hat and Gone Again) and What About Me (even a wind section and mostly short songs) definitely veer towards an easier, almost rhythm and blues, and the miracles of Cipollina (Just For Love and the instrumental Local Color on the second), Freiberg (Won't Kill Me on the second) and above all Hopkins (Spindrifter, on the second) are worth little.

Valenti continued with a new line-up and recorded two more records without backbone. Hopkins fled to England. Freiberg joined the Jefferson Starship.

Cipollina will form other bands (Copperhead, Man, Terry Dolan And The Pirates, Raven), but with less and less success.