Not surprisingly, the first set opens with the marijuana anthem, "Fresh Air," one of the most recognizable and popular songs from the Valenti-led era of the band, which receives a warm reception from the San Francisco audience. Approximately half an hour of fragmentary segments of the two sets from this night have circulated among collectors for many years, but thanks to the discovery of Bill Graham's recordings, we can now present the entire Quicksilver performance in unedited form. Many of the shows on this tour brought Quicksilver back into the club scene, playing in more intimate settings, but this Winterland performance, where the group headlined a triple bill also featuring Soundhole and Little Feat before a hometown crowd, was well attended and found the reunited version of the band playing before a much larger audience. Frieberg, due to his commitments with Jefferson Starship, was unable to join the tour, but the other members recruited Skip Olsen on bass to replace him, as well as keyboardist Michael Lewis to augment the group's sound. In 1975, Valenti, Cipollina, Duncan, Frieberg, and Elmore reunited Quicksilver Messenger Service to record a new studio album, Solid Silver, and to promote it with a brief tour. It closes out with some Yardbird “Still I’m Sad” declensions, culminating in an organ-anchored Bach-Procol Harum denouement.Dino Valenti - guitar, vocals John Cipollina - guitar, vocals Gary Duncan - guitar, vocals Skip Olsen - bass, vocals Michael Lewis - keyboards Greg Elmore - drums But with the addition of the vocal it picks up somewhat - the words are intoned in a middle-eastern, Hebrew cantor-like quaver. It digresses into some disappointing, ineffable routines, including a guitar-growling sequence, followed by a Claptonesque wah-wah pedal ritual. Some very handsome guitar phrasing sneaks through but whatever good it does winds up buried halfway through the track.
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It starts out carefully, waiting for the guitar to move out, spaced by some beautiful bass runs which cut into some hard-rock movements only to be lost in a series of impotent semi-buildups. “The Fool” takes up most of Side Two but, unfortunately, not very justifiably. It’s a great piece, though, from its raw, Albert King intro, to a campy “whoa whoa whoa” Dion imitation and old 50’s R&R fade out. The vocal is as close a duplication of Gravenites’ singing as it could possibly be. Gravenites’ composition, “It’s Been Too Long,” is done in typical Flag style. They manage to get away from the “Take Five” theme a bit by going into some Vanilla Fudgish, sluggish tempo drags which develop into a takeoff reminiscent of the Flag’s “Another Country,” even adding some fluttery, tinkly sounds a la Country Joe & the Fish. “Gold And Silver” is (whether intended or not) a rock arrangement of Dave Brubeck’s “Take Five.” Cipollina’s guitar excursions are singularly evocative of Paul Desmond’s sax changes. The guitar on “Dino’s Song” wanders in and out of a Kaukonen, Garcia and Bloomfield-like garden of sounds, supporting a strong vocal of simple but intensely reflective lyrics endeavoring to explain that “All I ever wanted to do was know you/And maybe hope you could know me too.” John Cipollina is an excellent guitarist and his susceptibility to Bloomfield’s techniques is understandable, and, since he plays so well, readily acceptable. The first inkling of the Flag influence is evident on “Light Your Windows,” which is spaced by some obvious Bloomfieldian guitar breaks. The song itself has some surprisingly profound lyrics: “Oh God/Pride of man/Broken in the dust again.” Not so this version of “Pride,” which the Quicksilver carry off admirably. Another rock group, Clear Light, started off their album with a folk-oriented cut, Tom Paxton’s “Mr Blue,” which they butchered unmercifully. As a result, most of the album cuts (only six altogether) come across sounding like the Electric Flag, minus their blues-loyal predication and Buddy Miles, doing straight rock.Īn exception to the general tone of the album is Quicksilver’s interpretation of folk-rock (remember?) singer Hamilton (Bob) Camp’s “Pride of Man.” This is an unusual number for them to have done, but it’s really a better version than Camp’s original. The Quicksilver Messenger Service don’t sound quite the same since they’ve heard the Flag and Mike Bloomfield, late arrivals on the San Francisco scene. Quicksilver’s initial and long-awaited excursion into the primordial clear light of San Francisco isn’t quite what was expected, due to the production staff headed by the Electric Flag’s Nick Gravenites and Harvey Brooks.
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