![]() In 2009, original members Gary Duncan and David Freiberg toured as the Quicksilver Messenger Service, using various backing musicians. After many years, the band has attempted to reform despite the deaths of several members. The style he developed from these sources is evident in Quicksilver Messenger Service's swing rhythms and twanging guitar sounds. Music historian Colin Larkin wrote: "Of all the bands that came out of the San Francisco area during the late '60s, Quicksilver typified most the style, attitude and sound of that era."Member Dino Valenti drew heavily on musical influences he picked up during the folk revival of his formative musical years. With their jazz and classical influences and a strong folk background, the band attempted to create an individual, innovative sound. Though not as commercially successful as contemporaries Jefferson Airplane and the Grateful Dead, Quicksilver was integral to the beginnings of their genre. They were part of the new wave of album-oriented bands, achieving renown and popularity despite an almost complete lack of success with their singles (apart from "Fresh Air", which reached number 49 in 1970). Quicksilver Messenger Service (Interprète) CD album fnac+ 'Happy Trail', deuxième album de Quicksilver sorti en 1969, permet au groupe dimposer son style caractérisé par la virtuosité des guitares électriques et de longs morceaux comme 'Who Do You Love' et 'Mona'. The band achieved wide popularity in the San Francisco Bay Area and through their recordings, with psychedelic rock enthusiasts around the globe, and several of their albums ranked in the Top 30 of the Billboard Pop charts. It closes out with some Yardbird “Still I’m Sad” declensions, culminating in an organ-anchored Bach-Procol Harum denouement.Quicksilver Messenger Service (sometimes credited as simply Quicksilver) is an American psychedelic rock band formed in 1965 in San Francisco. But with the addition of the vocal it picks up somewhat - the words are intoned in a middle-eastern, Hebrew cantor-like quaver. It digresses into some disappointing, ineffable routines, including a guitar-growling sequence, followed by a Claptonesque wah-wah pedal ritual. Some very handsome guitar phrasing sneaks through but whatever good it does winds up buried halfway through the track. It starts out carefully, waiting for the guitar to move out, spaced by some beautiful bass runs which cut into some hard-rock movements only to be lost in a series of impotent semi-buildups. “The Fool” takes up most of Side Two but, unfortunately, not very justifiably. It’s a great piece, though, from its raw, Albert King intro, to a campy “whoa whoa whoa” Dion imitation and old 50’s R&R fade out. The vocal is as close a duplication of Gravenites’ singing as it could possibly be. Gravenites’ composition, “It’s Been Too Long,” is done in typical Flag style. They manage to get away from the “Take Five” theme a bit by going into some Vanilla Fudgish, sluggish tempo drags which develop into a takeoff reminiscent of the Flag’s “Another Country,” even adding some fluttery, tinkly sounds a la Country Joe & the Fish. “Gold And Silver” is (whether intended or not) a rock arrangement of Dave Brubeck’s “Take Five.” Cipollina’s guitar excursions are singularly evocative of Paul Desmond’s sax changes. ![]() The guitar on “Dino’s Song” wanders in and out of a Kaukonen, Garcia and Bloomfield-like garden of sounds, supporting a strong vocal of simple but intensely reflective lyrics endeavoring to explain that “All I ever wanted to do was know you/And maybe hope you could know me too.” John Cipollina is an excellent guitarist and his susceptibility to Bloomfield’s techniques is understandable, and, since he plays so well, readily acceptable. The first inkling of the Flag influence is evident on “Light Your Windows,” which is spaced by some obvious Bloomfieldian guitar breaks. The song itself has some surprisingly profound lyrics: “Oh God/Pride of man/Broken in the dust again.” Not so this version of “Pride,” which the Quicksilver carry off admirably. Another rock group, Clear Light, started off their album with a folk-oriented cut, Tom Paxton’s “Mr Blue,” which they butchered unmercifully. As a result, most of the album cuts (only six altogether) come across sounding like the Electric Flag, minus their blues-loyal predication and Buddy Miles, doing straight rock.Īn exception to the general tone of the album is Quicksilver’s interpretation of folk-rock (remember?) singer Hamilton (Bob) Camp’s “Pride of Man.” This is an unusual number for them to have done, but it’s really a better version than Camp’s original. The Quicksilver Messenger Service don’t sound quite the same since they’ve heard the Flag and Mike Bloomfield, late arrivals on the San Francisco scene. Quicksilver’s initial and long-awaited excursion into the primordial clear light of San Francisco isn’t quite what was expected, due to the production staff headed by the Electric Flag’s Nick Gravenites and Harvey Brooks.
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