Quicksilver Messenger Service: Fillmore Live CD
Heyday Live Recording of Influential San Franciscan Acid Rockers
Jan 3, 2009
Built around a core of drummer Greg Elmore, bassist David Freiberg and duelling lead guitarists Gary Duncan and John Cipollina, QMS built themselves a solid reputation the old-fashioned way: gigging hard and regularly.
They had established themselves as counter-cultural live favourites on California's happening West Coast long before they released their eponymous debut album early in 1968 and would cement their reputation with the classic Happy Trails album in 1969.
Gritty live recording from The Fillmore Auditorium
One of a series of vintage live Californian recordings from '66 – '68 to be released by UK label Voiceprint (www.voiceprint.co.uk), Live at The Fillmore Auditorium captures QMS with their original vocalist Jim Murray, who would leave before the band recorded their first album. Although he's not as distinctive as Gregg Allman or Jim Morrison at his earthiest, Murray howls the blues acceptably and the band turn in an intuitively gritty performance.
With its' side-long suite of explorations based around Bo Diddley's Who Do You Love, Happy Trails ensured the world would always identify QMS in the role of extended jammers. However, with its' nine songs clocking in at a breezy 46 minutes, Live at The Fillmore proves Quicksilver could work within an economic, song-based format.
Tight blues-rock sound closer to Creedence Clearwater Revival
Assisted by wailing blues harp, songs like All Night Worker are dispatched with a clipped efficiency closer to Creedence Clearwater Revival than The Grateful Dead. In contrast, Gold & Silver adds a jazzy lightness of touch and I Hear You Knocking's rearing slide guitar could be from the same stable as Screamin' Jay Hawkins' I Put A Spell On You.
As the performance draws to a close, Year of the Outrage finds guitarists Duncan and Cipollina finally slipping the leash and expressing themselves freely, though a sprightly version of A Fool for You picks up the pace and the set-closing I Can't Believe It even instils a touch or two of Southern soul for good measure.
Gary Duncan and Quicksilver Messenger Service live on.
Despite numerous personnel changes, Quicksilver Messenger Service would retain a high level of success until their initial split in 1973. Cipollina, Elmore and key later members such as Nicky Hopkins and Dino Valenti are long dead, but the band's current website www.quicksilvermessengerservice.com reminds us that a reconfigured band exists to this very day.
Therefore, while the Live at The Fillmore series may be targeted at the band's established fan-base, they're also spirited snapshots of a halcyon age which shaped the way we hear music today.
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