1969 Albums Music Review psych: quicksilver messenger service san francisco
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Quicksilver Messenger Service – Happy Trails (Capitol Records, 1969)
Some afternoon, not all that long ago, I strolled into My Mind’s Eye. That’s Lakewood, Ohio for you foreigners. Anyway, after looking at the nicely kept records and watching my girlfriend go through new vinyl (which almost defeats the purpose of buying slabs of wax), I began going through some of the crates on the floor that have been neglected for, oh I don’t know, a fortnight. Yeah that sounds good. A fortnight.
Amongst the Herb Alpert and Streisand, I found a San Francisco relic from about thirty years ago. The Quicksilver Messenger Service never garnered as much attention as The Airplane, The Dead or Mumblin’ Jim, but perhaps they deserve it.
I won’t claim that I’ve discover this band, of course, but it seems that for a bit too long they have been over looked. All the sixties tendencies are here. QMS gives us the psych feeling from the guitar noodling, while still staying rooted in Americana. And of course, they dress up. Band members more closely resemble cow-hands then a rock band in the graphics of the record.
QMS was put together by writer, Dino Valenti, who couldn’t quite make it to show time as a result of incarceration. So, for the first few years of the bands life, the architect of the group was not with them. “Happy Trails”, the groups second album, recorded live in 1968, was the final slab without Valenti. However, this piece of live music is frequently hailed as the peak of the band, seeing as they would become more focused on the idea of songs and structure as Valenti returned.
“Happy Trails” comes from a very specific time and place. You can feel the 60’s as you listen to the grooves. The first side, devoted to about twenty minutes of Bo Diddley’s “Who Do You Love?” is comprised of numerous interpretations of said track. However, the sound doesn’t stop and each version is not really distinct at all. It runs together. But that’s not really a negative thing. Side one just sounds like a 60’s band improvising over two chords for a while. And that’s nice. Simple. Plain.
“Mona”, another Diddley track, starts side two and sounds eerily similar to “Who Do You Love”. So, QMS jams on another two chords. The following two tracks are QMS originals and convey a laid back and atmospheric mood. Hopefully an in-group joke, the title track is “Happy Trails”. Sounding good while covering this song may be the hallmark of a good band. And it comes off alright, bringing the listener back to reality after the space jams.
I paid fifty cents for the slab. Cover’s kinda beat up, but it fits the album, old dusty and weathered. A little bit like Ricardo Montalban’s face.