Listened to Quicksilver Messenger Service - Happy Trails and WOW

He left for a full year and isn't on Shady Grove; he came back for Just for Love but Dino did almost all the singing from that point on.

 

Thanks for the reminder. I shouldn't have left out Sailor. It perhaps has little "psychedelic," per se, running through it but it certainly does have "the essence of
late sixties SF rock music." It was the first of these several albums mentioned here that I purchased not long after it came out. I still really dig the cover art.
But then, all of the aforementioned had terrific covers.

 

...and it had ‘Quicksilver Girl’ inspired by Julia Brigden:

 

I have seen quite a few of those Quicksilver live releases which I believe Duncan is behind, so the sound quality is listenable?

 

The Fillmore East one sounds great.

 

Count me as one of those people who think the first two QMS albums far outstrip anything with Dino on it. Shady Grove is pretty good, also, with lots of tasty Nicky Hopkins work.

Then, they basically fell apart. For me, at least.

As for the archetypical San-Francisco-golden-age-recordings, can I add Surrealistic Pillow, After Bathing at Baxter's, Cheap Thrills and the first Moby Grape?

 

I had a reel of the Fillmore east show I got in trade from a guy in s.f. who knew their manager so the quality was great. I put it up there with happy trails. They shared the bill with the electric flag and steppenwolf I remember correctly.

 

Definitely the first Grape.

 

HAPPY TRAILS (XL) Apparel on Blowitoutahere.com

Better deal here:
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San Francisco scene of the '60s? Make sure to pick up this excellent boxset:

Love is the Song We Sing: San Francisco Nuggets 1065 -1970





Left to right: Quicksilver Messenger Service, Grateful Dead, Big Brother & The Holding Company (seated except for Janis), Jefferson Airplane, The Charlatans.

 

Been meaning to get that one. Oh, by the way, cool avatar!

 

There are five CDs I never drive in the car without .. 'Happy Trails' is one of 'em!

 

The band’s best studio album by far. Consistently good songs. Believe it or not, “Pride of Man” got some air time on an FM oldies station here in Los Angeles during the early-mid 70s, IIRC.

 

QMS "The Fool" and "Calvary", listened to many times while flying on magic potions.

 

Quicksilver's "Happy Trails" -- one of the great truly psychedelic albums. Along with "Electric Music" and "Anthem of the Sun." I'd rank it No. 2 in that bunch, behind the Country Joe album. Music for LSD trips.

I happened to talk to Bo Diddley in the mid-'70s. I asked him about the two covers on "Happy Trails." Told him I loved Quicksilver's versions of "Mona" and "Who Do You Love." He said he'd never heard of Quicksilver Messenger Service, but it sounded like they owed him money. He made a note to try to collect it.

 

The pre-Dino QMS selection is limited. Theres the self titled debut (1968) and Happy Trails (1969). An '80's double LP import of their early live stuff. In the last decade or so theres been a phalanx of live stuff released on CD & vinyl. But an indispensable album is the 1967 soundtrack 'Revolution' with 2 of their early (and best) standards : Codine & Babe I'm Gonna Leave You.

 

I've loved 'Happy Trails' since I first heard it in '69 or '70. The first album is also very good. I don't like Dino Valenti's singing.

 

Liner notes courtesy of my brother jeff.

 

Correct; I found a review of the show; I think in Billboard, that said it was Mike Bloomfield's last shows with the Flag and that Jimi Hendrix jammed with them for the encore. Too bad that wasn't taped as well.

 

I think was taped in March or April 1970; Duncan & Valenti weren't in the band in 69.

 

The Fool is arguably their most impressive single piece, but I don't think I can agree the first album is better than Happy Trails. First of all there's a bit of apples and oranges, as Happy Trails is, and is intended to be listened to as, a live album. This was a band that excelled at live performance.

Another point is while their first is excellent, it is still a collection of songs while Happy Trails has a kind of unity of purpose, a cohesiveness that is not quite present in the first.

Having said that these two albums are both on my very short list of "If you've never heard these (especially for younger people), you have to hear them now!'

 

You will love it.

 

Yes, great tee. I have one in white with the cover art on the front, nothing on the back.

Their debut and Happy Trails sold me on this group. The dual guitars of Duncan and Cipollina were hard to rival. I think Duncan deserves more credit than he is given. Seems everyone raves about Cipollina, which he deserves, but it was their dual guitars that made that unique sound so Duncan needs equal credit in my opinion. Yes Dino changed the sound, however I was flexible enough to go along with it, at least for Just For Love and What About Me. After those two albums they lost me. There now are a ton of official live concert albums out. Some are just acceptable, some are horrible and a number are great, so its fun to explore this band you never know what you will stumble across. Shady Grove is often over looked and I see that as a unique sound also. This album seems to favor Nicky Hopkins and David Freidberg more than Cipollina and Duncan. I therefore see Quicksilver having four phases of sound, pre-album recording (Jim Murray) era (lots of live albums highlighting this era), early album recording era, mid album era (Shady Grove and where Nicky Hopkins became a member) and then the Dino late era. Just For Love and What About Me were transitional until Dino really took over and dominated the band and tried to make it too radio friendly, the edge was gone.

 

This one?

 

and available on dvd.

https://www.amazon.com/Go-Ride-Music-West-Pole/dp/B0018M6J7C