Quicksilver Messenger Service Concert

Melville | Thursday, June 05, 2008 | 9:21 pm

K, Yes, they did. Quicksilver was on bills with Bo Diddley, who naturally had top billing. You can Google it . . . Or rather they shared a stage. What sort of personal interaction is an interesting question. And the whole "psychedelic" environment . . . I wonder what he thought of that. Melville

Anonymous | Tuesday, June 03, 2008 | 4:57 am

RIP BO . I was wondering does any one know if any of QMS had an encounter with BO. K

bri56 | Sunday, May 25, 2008 | 6:27 pm

Bravo, Melville!

Melville | Wednesday, May 21, 2008 | 7:13 pm

Yes, Gary Duncan was underrated. Quicksilver was underrated. A lot of that's the nature of the music industry, which is focused on recordings, so it’s hard to expect reviewers to respond to the live performance they have not experienced. I first heard Quicksilver in October, 1967 at the Fillmore in San Francisco, and some dozen times total, when my parents would let me go. It was more to the Avalon Ballroom because I felt safer hitchhiking home 25 miles at 2 a.m. Anyway, I remember them live in 67 and 68, and compare the records to that. Here, in non-studio-perfect recordings, is a souvenir of what I heard: Quicksilver Live. Gary Duncan was only 21-22, but I'd never heard anything like his brilliant, scintillating, high energy guitar solos in any electric music, before or since. The same is true of John Cipollina. They were unique. Their interactive counterpoint is legendary . . . The focus has usually been on John Cipollina's amazing style and sound, as "lead guitar". Lead and rhythm guitar roles was a false dichotomy with Quicksilver. They were dynamically interactive, as these recordings reveal. The arrangements and variations were not static. They would evolve from gig to gig, though there was an architecture (a word I derived from an interview with Van Cliburn about classical music recently): a structure to it all. That is a large part of what made me such a fan. There was an intelligent order to this music: a beginning, middle, and end. There was a musical order that I still wish somebody who knows music would help me understand what I hear. And such melodies! There are tunes that struck me as inevitable, like I’d heard them before but didn’t know where, but they are beautiful. “The Fool” isn’t here, but those melodies are in it. They are in Duncan’s solos at the Winterland Concert 12/31/67 in the midst of Who Do You Love (a further development is on the Happy Trails album version), If You Live, and It’s Been Too Long, for example. It may be hard to distinguish between Cipollina and Duncan for those who only know recordings. Duncan used a hollow body guitar, while John C. a Gibson SG. They were interactive and learning from each other, perhaps vying at times . . . but the result was a dynamic interplay that led to an excellence that is hard to find. For those interested, please consider the first break in “It’s Been Too Long” here, starting from 1:16 or so until 1:48. This is Duncan. Listen carefully and you may hear the wah-wah pedal done only with the guitarist’s fingers. This is not meant to take anything away from the transition to Cipollina’s brilliant solo after that. And especially take “If You Live”. The first instrumental with the break is Duncan. Cipollina’s part starts about 2:15. Then they merge, but we can distinguish the guitar sounds . . And, of course there’s “Who Do You Love”. The amazing Duncan solo there one could say was in formation here, but then than goes back to the standard being the recording. Ah, now we’ve got it perfect; it’s on a record. Maybe not . . . Here we have some live work not caught on vinyl . . .

bri56 | Wednesday, May 07, 2008 | 3:48 pm

Gary Duncan was underated!