Quicksilver Messenger Service

Infobox musical artist
Name = Quicksilver Messenger Service

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Img_capt = Quicksilver Messenger Service circa 1967 (L-R): Gary Duncan, John Cipollina, Greg Elmore, David Freiberg
Img_size = 250
Landscape = Yes
Background = group_or_band
Alias = Quicksilver, QMS
Origin = San Francisco, California, United States
Genre = Acid rock, psychedelic rock, jam
Years_active = 1965 – 1979
2006 - Present
Label = Capitol, Edsel
Associated_acts =
URL =
Current_members = Gary Duncan
David Freiberg
Past_members = John Cipollina
Greg Elmore
Dino Valente
Nicky Hopkins
Jim Murray
Chuck Steaks
Mark Ryan
Skip Olsen
Mark Naftalin

Quicksilver Messenger Service is an American psychedelic rock band, formed in 1965 in San Francisco and considered as a part of the city's psychedelic scene. Essentially a jam band, Quicksilver Messenger Service gained wide popularity in the Bay Area and with psychedelic rock enthusiasts around the globe. Many of their albums ranked in the top 30 of the Billboard Pop charts. Though not ultimately as popular as contemporaries Jefferson Airplane and the Grateful Dead, the band was integral to the beginnings of their genre. With their jazz and classical influences, as well as a strong folk background, the band attempted to create a sound that was individual and innovative. [Morrison, Craig. “Folk Revival Roots Still Evident in 1990s Recordings of San Francisco Psychedelic Veterans”. Journal of American Folklore. 2001.] Member Dino Valente pulled heavily from musical influences learned during the folk revival of his formative musical years. The style he developed from these sources is evident in Quicksilver Messenger Service's swung rhythms and twanging guitar sounds. [Vulliamy, Ed. “OMM: love and Haight”. Observer Music Magazine. England. 2007.] After many years, the band has attempted to reform despite the deaths of band members. With the modest success of these ventures, many members have also attempted solo careers. Among these is Gary Duncan, former guitarist of Quicksilver Messenger Service. He has had a prolific musical career after parting ways with the group.

Members

The original band members were John Cipollina (guitar), Gary Duncan (guitar, vocals), David Freiberg (bass guitar, vocals and viola), Greg Elmore (drums), and Jim Murray (vocals, guitar and harmonica), though Murray left before the band recorded.

Origins

There is some confusion as to the real origins of the group. According to John Cipollina:

“It was Valente who organized the group. I can remember everything Dino said. We were all going to have wireless guitars. We were going to have leather jackets made with hooks that we could hook these wireless instruments right into. And we were gonna have these chicks, backup rhythm sections that were gonna dress like American Indians with real short little dresses on and they were gonna have tambourines and the clappers in the tambourines were going to be silver coins. And I'm sitting there going, 'This guy is gonna happen and we're gonna set the world on its ear.”

The next day, Valente was arrested for possession of marijuana, and spent the better part of the next two years in jail. But Gary Duncan notes:

“That’s the story Cipollina told everybody. But according to Dino, that wasn’t the case at all. When he’d been looking for a band, he’d talked to Cipollina, and everybody somehow put two and two together. He actually lived with us when he got out of prison, and while we played some music together and wrote songs, he had no interest in playing in Quicksilver; he wanted to start his own career. Well, when his own career didn’t do so well, he had more interest in playing in Quicksilver!.”

Whether Quicksilver Messenger Service was what Valente had in mind, it appears from Duncan's recollections that he had at least talked with Cipollina about forming a band; Cipollina remembered that:

“I was recommended to Dino, probably because I was the only guy playing an electric guitar, let alone lead, at the time ... We talked about rehearsing one night and planned to rehearse the following night but it never happened. The next day Dino got busted.”

Formation

At the same time, David Freiberg, a folk-guitarist friend of Valente's, was recruited to the group. He had been in a band with Paul Kantner and David Crosby previously, but had just been released from jail. "We were to take care of this guy Freiberg", Cipollina recalled, and though they had never met before, Freiberg was integrated into the group. The band also added Skip Spence on guitar and began to rehearse at Marty Balin's club, the Matrix. Balin, in search of a drummer for the band he was organizing, soon to be called Jefferson Airplane, convinced Spence to switch instruments and groups.

To make up for his theft of Spence, Balin suggested that they contact drummer Greg Elmore and guitarist-singer Gary Duncan, who had played together in a group called The Brogues. This new version of the band had its first paying performance in December 1965, playing for the Christmas party of the comedy troupe “The Committee”.

It was a band without a name, Cipollina recalled:

“Jim Murray and David Freiberg came up with the name. Me and Freiberg were born on the same day, and Gary and Greg were born on the same day, we were all Virgos and Murray was a Gemini. And Virgos and Geminis are all ruled by the planet Mercury. Another name for Mercury is Quicksilver. And then, Quicksilver is the messenger of the Gods, and Virgo is the servant, so Freiberg says 'Oh, Quicksilver Messenger Service'.”

Early career

Having parted company with Murray, the band began a period of heavy touring on the West Coast of the United States. They refrained from signing a record deal at the time but eventually signed to Capitol Records in 1967. Capitol had failed to sign a San Francisco “hippie” band during the first flurry of record company interest and, consequently, Quicksilver Messenger Service managed to negotiate a better deal than many of their peers. At the same time, Capitol signed the Steve Miller Band, with whom Quicksilver Messenger Service had appeared on the movie and soundtrack album "Revolution", together with "Mother Earth".

Quicksilver Messenger Service released their eponymous debut album in 1968, followed by Happy Trails the following year. These two albums define a classic period in their career and are most strongly associated with their unique sound, emphasizing extended arrangements. Cipollina's highly melodic, individualistic lead guitar style, combined with Gary Duncan's driving guitar work, feature a clear jazz sound.

Archetypal Quicksilver Messenger Service songs include an elongated, multiply re-titled suite of Bo Diddley's "Who Do You Love?". This cover incorporates the classic “Bo Diddley rhythm” and evokes images of machismo and connects the listener with the history of Bo Diddley's music as well.

Duncan left the group after the recording of Happy Trails. "Well, let's put it this way," he reminisces 18 years later, "at the end of 1968, I was pretty burned out. We'd been on the road for, really, the first time in our lives. I just left for a year. I didn't want to have anything to do with music at all. And I left for a year and rode motorcycles and lived in New York and L.A. and just kind of went crazy for about a year."

Freiberg later recalled that "the engine" of the band had been removed. Nevertheless, Duncan was replaced by the English piano journeyman Nicky Hopkins, who had played on albums by The Rolling Stones, The Who and Steve Miller, among many others. This version of the group released 1969's Shady Grove, dominated by Hopkins' virtuoso piano boogie.

Later years

In the meantime, Gary Duncan had teamed up with Valente. When Duncan was asked to return, Valente followed. The group recorded the two "Hawaiian Albums" under Valente's control ("Just for Love" and "What About Me") during stay in Hawaii. Vestiges of the old Quicksilver Messenger Service can be heard in occasional songs on these albums, likely due to the influence of Cipollina. However, this mainly marked a turning point in the band's story. From this point on, the band would be a vehicle for Valente's folky singer-songwriter fare.

Hopkins and Cipollina quit following these sessions. A series of personnel changes followed until the original band reunited briefly in 1975 for the album "Solid Silver" but this was short-lived. Valente, Duncan and Elmore continued performing with various players until 1979.

Remnants and reunions

After Quicksilver, Cipollina went on to play with a series of bands such as Copperhead, which resembled Quicksilver updated for the 1970s, and Raven, which resembled Copperhead. He guested on Quicksilver-idolizing Welsh progressive rock group Man's 1975 album "Maximum Darkness". He died in 1989, at the age of 45, from emphysema; possibly attributable to a heavy cigarette habit. His performances were marked by the trademark lit cigarette perched on a guitar string stub.

Hopkins continued his career as a studio musician, including playing with Jefferson Airplane at Woodstock. He died in September 1994. Dino Valente died in November 1994.

Freiberg went on to join Jefferson Airplane, staying with them throughout their mutations into Jefferson Starship.

In the 1980s Gary Duncan resurrected the name and released the albums "Peace By Piece" in 1986, "Shapeshifter Vols. 1 & 2" in 1996, "Shapeshifter Vols. 3 & 4", and "Strange Trim" in 2006, along with several live albums and a website, quicksilvermessengerservice.com. He toured on and off for the next decade or so under names like "Gary Duncan's Quicksilver" and "Quicksilver '96".

In 2006, Gary Duncan and David Freiberg launched a 40th-anniversary Quicksilver celebration tour as Quicksilver Messenger Service. They still perform as of 2008, often opening up for Jefferson Starship.

In 2002, there was a Quicksilver tribute band formed called Quicksilver Gold. They performed the music of the Quicksilver Messenger Service and members included Dino Valenti's son, Joli Valenti, as well as John Cippolina's brother, Mario Cippolina, and some members of Zero. This band broke up in 2004. [http://www.bay-area-bands.com/bab00051.htm]

The band will be appearing at the Rhythm Festival in August 2008 alongside their musical contempories Jefferson Starship.

Members

Discography

Original band:
*"Revolution" (movie soundtrack) (UAS 5185 (1968)) with Steve Miller Band & Mother Earth
*Quicksilver Messenger Service (1968)
*Happy Trails (1969)
With Nicky Hopkins:
*Shady Grove (1969)

Hawaiian Albums:
*Just for Love (1970)

*What About Me (1970)
Quicksilver under Dino Valente:
*Quicksilver (1971)
*Comin' Thru (1972)
Reunion:
*Solid Silver (1975)
Gary Duncan's revival:
*Peace By Piece (1986)
*"Shape Shifter Vols. 1 & 2" (1996)
*"Live at Fieldstone" (1997)
*"Shapeshifter Vols. 3 & 4" (2006)
*"Strange Trim" (2006)
European live & studio releases:
*Maiden of the Cancer Moon (2-LP, 1983)
*At the Kabuki Theatre (2-CD, 2007)
*Live at the Avalon Ballroom, San Francisco, 9th September 1966 (CD, 2008)
*Live at the Avalon Ballroom, San Francisco, 28th October 1966 (CD, 2008)
*Live at The Fillmore, San Francisco, 4th February 1968 (2-CD, 2008)
*Live at The Fillmore, San Francisco, 6th February 1968 (CD, 2008)
*Live at The Carousel Ballroom, San Francisco, 4th April 1968 (2-CD, 2008)
* Link for the five latest above releases: [http://www.spincds.com/archives.asp?id=13218]
Other releases & compilations:
*"Quicksilver Anthology" (1995) BGO CD 270
*"Sons of Mercury 1968-75" (1991)
*Unreleased Quicksilver Messenger Service - Lost Gold and Silver (2-CD, 1999)

References