The music and footage is a treasure, I’m grateful!!! The times and sound are captured beautifully. But there are only a fleeting glimpses of Cipollina here and there , even during his solo moments., who was the most magical to watch as well as hear. And I hear the piano, presumably Nicky Hopkins, but not a frame of footage. Still, it is a miracle to revisit QMS!
Loved Quicksilver, saw them regularly in late 60’s, early 70’s, their psychedelic acid country rock blues music was part of the formation of my teenage love of music. I loved them so much, Shady Grove, Happy Trails To You, Fresh Air, loved John andDino. Bumpety bump!,
Dino had a voice that brought that workmanlike presence to his music, and it likely gave the country boy a certain amount of happiness. Meanwhile, at 18:50, is Gary Duncan's East-West influence coming through. 1969 into the 70's was a blossoming of, in particular - guitarists. Gary Duncan, Jorma Kaukonen, and John Cippolina, and others come to mind. It's a special thing when 2 players like Duncan and Cip were in the same band though. "Quicksilver Messenger Service was a band i grew up with and which i really dug, but you know what?" "What?" "I dig them even more now; probably because i've now heard some of their live gigs, or Representations of them, like this one. And, as usual, what's happening musically is not only in the studios. Sometimes it's right here, years later. Is that like immortal, or something?
This was the spring of 1970, not Aug. 1969. School was not in session until September in '69. My face appears in 10:53, 15:18 and 15:19. Shoulder length dark hair & pearl earrings. Quicksilver had just come out with Fresh Air. Every time they tried to play it they blew out the speakers...there was a lot of waiting for the audience. It was a great day (and free). Nicky Hopkins was awesome. Turned out his girlfriend was someone I had graduated from high school with.
Me too, along with a week of The Peace Festival........Sonoma State student and Arabian horse rancher from Fredericks Rd, Sebastopol...before the ranching area was ruined by development....Best Friends Forever from Marin County were also invited and early on filmed by P.B.S. channel 9...
Hey you, Miss Elaine ... Thanks for sharing your story. I envy you. IMHO their output (the Hawaiian albums) could have been miles better if ... I don't really know what happened with this band and Valenti. The latter at that show was the singer of the band : no more, no less. They probably were more a live band than a studio one. It was a pleasure to meet you, Mrs Elaine. Thanks a lot!!!
y bDuncan was Well yes he is brinniat and hill duelling with Gary Guncan quite wonderful Valenti, on the other hand.... The guitarists new not surpassed, as anyone hearing 'Who do you love'?' knows
Happy Trails to these San Francisco blues cowboys. Quicksilver has a special soul that can't be beat! This band was NOT a pain in the ass and always stayed cool...
When it comes to playing Blues guitar and taking it to another height, Duncan is right up there with the Blues guitar virtuosos like Albert King, Mat Murphy, Phil Upchurch, John Scofield, and Barry Finnerty.
Saw Copperhead after the QMS split in 1972 at Winterland. Headliner was Frank and the original Mothers of Invention and Weather Report opened. Just unreal memory.
Early 1970, not 69. Gary Duncan, John Cipollina on guitars. Nicky Hopkins on piano. This was broadcast on Public Television as part of the Calibration series. This show was Jefferson Airplane and QMS. Still sounds great. Video quality is about the best I've seen for this show.
Yes, I saw this on public TV, probably 1970. I thought they were in Hawaii until I saw a You Tube clip with a description. Too bad Hopkins isn't shown.
I totally agree with Elaine Fenton. In August and September 1969, Quicksilver was in the recording studio as a quartet: John, Nicky Hopkins, Greg Elmore and David Freiberg. The result was Shady Grove which was released in January or February 1970. Gary and Dino were out riding their motorcycles across the U.S. getting down with their bad selves and were not in the band. They rejoined sometime in the interim and I saw them in April 1970 at Fillmore East with these personnel. The show, what I remember of it, was even better than this and the result of all this was the Just For Love LP released summer 1970.
We owe whoever made this film some major thanks! Making films required a lot of effort and money, this ain't no iPhone. That's why we see so much blurry or poor footage from that era, usually just cheap transfers from poor video copies of TV shows.
I was thinking the same- we take it for granted nowadays. This kind of vintage filming is so precious. Special moment in time and such great energy captured for posterity.
Funny how music scenes changed in such a short time back then and for the the the better. 1980 was so much so much unlike 1970 Music scenes don't change that quickly anymore, for better or for worse.
...loved 'peaking', sir! Watching and hearing Quicksilver' made me realize what 'electric' guitar was supposed to sound like, especially from Cipollina. I learned it wasn't just about playing chords and notes, but about shimmering, quivery, electricity; it was about tone, like colors splashing in front of your eyes. I re-thought strategy, straight away, and to this day, never forgot or forget it.
I actually like all their material, even the last albums they put out. The other thing I found on RU-vid was a Dino Valente solo album from 1968--that thing's a gem.
I would like to listen to Quicksilver and several hours of other psychedelic stuff with my headphones on at night, after having taken about half a dose of LSD. or maybe a little less. That would be most pleasurable.
What a great band Quicksilver was! Music in 60s & 70s was super. Musicians and the Concerts were real then as opposed to crap these days. Technology has improved immensely but it's the content that counts. Most of the music these days is fake phony and superficial... lot of noise.
+ElPocho DelMundo Best "felt" dancing I ever saw was at the Golden Sheaf Bakery, a small venue in Berkeley, at a Janis Joplin concert. lPeople seemed to be climbing the walls. I may have been a little impaired, tho.
This stuff--the San Francisco stuff, is fantastic, but since then there has been plenty of psychedelic music put out that will blow your mind as well. And the technology is used in a good way, that's truly mind-expanding. You gotta do some searching on RU-vid and find it; it just wasn't (isn't) known by a mass audience like the Dead, Quicksilver and other 60s acid groups.
+Rich915 Lucky to have seen them there and then. In fact, with Valenti as lead singer and main songwriter, they unfortunately sounded more or less like the average SF band. Their peak was Happy Trails, seconded by the first album. With Valenti and N. Hopkins, John Cipollina's sound became sunken - and it was him who made the difference. Ι had the chance to see J.C. live twice, with Nick Gravenites. The first time it was really ECSTATIC! The second one was a few months before he passed away and he was obviously haggard.
I notice Grace slick at the beginning so Jefferson Airplane must have played. Not to say that I'm ungrateful for QMS but I would love to see the full concert including whoever else was playing.
How come I can't find the song Don't Step on the Bears by Qwiksilver Messenger Service I first heard it when my cousin played it on a turn table. In 1973 summer of while on acid first and last time I dropped it in my eye. when that song came on it kinda made thing get wierd 8 hrs after the acid trip I played this bear song once more I'll never forget it. So why can't I find it?
@@OriginalMixedUpKid Spoken like a true pre-designated Top 40 hits kind of kid. Back in the day, I expanded my listening experience to FM underground stations that loved QMS before Dino. In other words, Dino had the hits....but it wasn't QMS anymore. It was all about Dino.
So Dino is out of jail and the band becomes his backing band. Didn't improve things at all. I was lucky enough to see them previous to this without him at The Fillmore East (with The McCoys..) and it shook the walls.
To realize the great black music that was unknown or dismissed by the hippies .... by comparison, this is cat's fighting.... does not hold up as important music at all. My opinion - a lifelong musician and lover of great music. I liked the S.F. bands at first .... I was there. Got turned on to Wilson Pickett in about 1966 ...... if you have ears, you heard the difference and it is huge.
"black music" was absolutely NOT unknown to nor was it dismissed by the hippies... it was covered, it was celebrated. SF bands like the Grateful Dead jammed with Miles Davis, Etta James, Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley, Ornette Coleman, etc. many more....plus The Dead covered tons of black artists. Chuck Berry, Freddie King, and even Elizabeth Cotten, plus countless others like Merl Saunders were a huge inspiration for Jerry Garcia, in particular.
@RamblinRose No he does not, even thoug i like this loose hippie stuff, nobody would stay to listen to them after a Wilson Picket, B.B. King, James Brown or let us say Dolly Parton Gig. No Blues, Soul, Funk, Real Rock'n'Roll or Country Musicians would get away with this so laid back as to fall from the Barstool Stuff. And believe me if they started their Career today they would be reduced to some Art Boho Happenings Brunches on Sunday Afternoon. I do not say they were without Talent, but most often there was more lukewarm Noodling then spirited Jamming. This Concert here has it ups and downs and since there where more ups then downs on these occasion it is Fun. But I do understand everybody who rsther listened to CCR or Ike and Tina Turner back then.
I' am with you, but this loose Jam has something that I can listen to every now and then, but I actually got to great Music to chose Black over White Music when there was a Choice.
@@angelrossell5381 Miles Davis & The Grateful Dead Shared a Four Night Bill Together at Fillmore West. (4/10/70) Miles Davis and the Grateful Dead shared the bill at the Fillmore West for the first second night in a run of four shows (4/9/70-4/12/70) for their only run of shows together. The Dead covered him some throughout the years especially Jerry and his side projects. not sure if there is a recording of them jamming together, though. Miles was a big fan of them. "The Grateful Dead are a jazz band that plays rock'n'roll." - Miles Davis
+Mike W. Oh, sorry. I don't know if they played there (searched a JA gig database and couldn't find it either) but I did find a video called Go Ride The Music which has them playing at a studio along with this footage of QMS. I guess you've probably seen but if you haven't, here's the link vimeo.com/39569670 Peace!
Just a funny observation but doesn't Dino V. sound alot like Johnny Rivers! The band was always very good.I saw then at the Filmore East whenever they were in NYC.
+if6was929 I plead guilty, maybe my comment about Mr Valenti is a bit too nasty. However, IMO, with Valenti as lead singer and main songwriter, they sounded more or less like the average SF band. John Cipollina's sound - that really made the difference - became too sunken, unlike Happy Trails and the first album, where it was prominent.
George Stefanakis that's a fair assessment and I do understand your point of view. I don't feel the same way and I can't offer a reason for why I rolled so easily with the changes in Quicksilver Especially since I was part of a group of friends who held pretty rigid opinions for music during the 60's. At a time when Cream, Traffic, the Beatles, CSNY, Hendrix, etc., were releasing albums, our criticism of groups like Blue Cheer, Vanilla Fudge, etc., was totally harsh and completely dismissive. Everybody has their guilty pleasures but none of us ever sat around, lit up and listened to Vincebus Eruptum! Happy Trails was an outstanding album, it would have been interesting to see Quicksilver's evolution if they continued with the original lineup. After an initial WTF after first hearing Valenti's voice, I came to like many of his songs and considered the group's first album and the original lineup as a very special one-off gem by a different group, which, in some ways, it was.
+George “Whiskey” Stefanakis Try listening to him later on in his career with Quicksilver. I agree, some songs can be annoying but he was a great frontman by 1975
Don’t be a bummer. You had to be there. Everyone danced and treated each other with generosity and kindness. Also, we looked hot in our halter tops and low cut Landlubber bell bottoms. ☮️
Very frustrating video -- 90% of the time the camera is resolutely on Gary Duncan regardless of who is playing the solo; the other 10% it's on that fool Dino dancing about like a moron. NOTHING on John, even when he's scorching the earth with a solo.
@@Numb217 their sound direction changed completely, it was much heavier sound in their 1st two albums then when Gary got arrested and Dino returned I felt the sound got more Folkier and less bluesey and I 1000% prefer Gary Duncan as lead singer
@@jerricocrittenden8311 Sound got folkier with Shady Grove (no Gary, pre-Dino). Dino was very talented but I prefer the quartet of the first 2 LP's myself.
