However there is much to enjoy in all the bands phases from the heavy jamming of the first albums, through the hits of the Valente folk pop period (spiced up by Nicky Hopkins then Michael Lewis keyboards) and finally sweet cowboyish love songs like "Gypsy Lights" and "Don't Cry My Lady Love"ĭuncan, Freiberg and Lewis stretched Quicksilver into the Eighties with the the lost classic "Peace by Piece" where the band experimented with rap music and synthesized drums. With the charismatic folk rocker Dino Valente out front, the band had its most recognizable singles "Fresh Air" and "What About Me". But the two guitar attack of John Cipollina and Gary Duncan was generally a constant. Their personnel sometimes changed based on who was busted on the latest pot possession rap. Musically loose, plenty of rough edges, rarely over-produced, no slick singer, just a tough dual guitar attack always looking for a little open space to stretch it out as far as they could go. They made hippie music, simple straight forward lyrics, mostly love songs and some social commentary thrown in (from the freak point of view). Sadly, today Quicksilver Messenger Service is too often overlooked as an essential classic rock experience. In the words of guitarist Gary Duncan, "We had no ambition toward making records, we just wanted to have fun, play some music and make enough money to be able to afford to smoke pot". Maybe they just weren't ambitious enough. Tougher than the Grateful Dead, looser than the Jefferson Airplane, but never managing to achieve the popularity of either they faded away after 1975. They loaded up their from-the-heart songs with free-form jamming in gigs at classic venues like the Fillmore and Avalon, they stretched out and improvised, pushing their music in unpredictable directions. Quicksilver Messenger Service was one of the best bands to emerge from the Sixties Haight Ashbury - San Francisco scene. That may be true, but the results are still extraordinary.Shady Grove - The Quicksilver Messenger Service Page Many Quicksilver enthusiasts dismiss this album because Hopkins so thoroughly dominates the proceedings as to make the band almost secondary. From the opening Hopkins blast on Shady Grove, to the achingly beautiful drawing room/salon type solo on Flute Song, to the countrified leanings of David Freiberg on Words Can’t Say, right up to the grandiloquent opening to the ultimate Hopkins opus, Edward, the Mad Shirt Grinder, this album has a lot going on musically. This album has none of the feel of the first two but it stands on its own as a fine recording. But, that’s what’s great about bands…people come, people go, the music changes, sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worse. Okay, look, there’s no way this album could sound the same. What an honor for Quicksilver that he chose them. Well, only the addition of a world class musician could save the band and that’s what happened when Nicky Hopkins, who had been living in San Francisco and recording with Steve Miller and Jefferson Airplane, decided to actually join a band. He was such an integral part of the band, how could they continue without him. When Gary Duncan left after 1968, it looked like the end. They had a great talent for long, exploratory jams that really took you on that acid trip. The first two Quicksilver albums are among the classics of the era.
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