Joni Mitchell incorporated the song into her repertoire around 1967 and Jefferson Airplane also played it, but it was The Youngbloods who turned it into a gold record when they released it as a single in 1967. It was during this period that he wrote his best-known song, ‘Get together’, which encapsulated the philosophies of the nascent counter-culture in a few verses and quickly became a folk-circuit standard. Unable to renew his ‘cabaret licence’ in New York due to an unspecified infraction of the law, Valente decided to head for the West Coast, arriving in Los Angeles some time in 1963. In some respects, Valente’s career was defined by his brushes with the law. Valente’s origins lie in the Greenwich Village folk scene in New York City and he was a regular performer there in the early 1960’s, playing alongside the likes of Fred Neil and a fresh-faced Bob Dylan. It’s actually impossible to discuss Quicksilver without referring to the late Dino Valente, whose shadow hung over the band for years before he actually joined them at the end of the decade. This helped QMS to negotiate a better deal and more creative largesse when they did get into the studio. This proved to be something that worked to their advantage Capitol Records, having missed out on the Dead & the Airplane, were desperate to sign up a trophy San Francisco band and QMS were out there and still unsigned. They were the last of the ‘founding fathers’ of the whole Fillmore West/Haight-Ashbury heavyweights – following the Grateful Dead and Jefferson Airplane – to sign up with a major record company. Quicksilver were always one of the most obscure of the Bay Area bands. Ah well, better than Brian Poole & the Tremeloes, I guess…. These two albums do, I suppose, have some kind of resonance for me as they provided a musical backdrop to the first ‘grande affaire’ of my life. That may be true, but the results are still extraordinary.Specifically, I’ve been listening again to what are sometimes referred to as QMS’s two ‘Hawaiian’ albums from 1970 – ‘Just for love’ and ‘What about me?’. Many Quicksilver enthusiasts dismiss this album because Hopkins so thoroughly dominates the proceedings as to make the band almost secondary. From the opening Hopkins blast on Shady Grove, to the achingly beautiful drawing room/salon type solo on Flute Song, to the countrified leanings of David Freiberg on Words Can’t Say, right up to the grandiloquent opening to the ultimate Hopkins opus, Edward, the Mad Shirt Grinder, this album has a lot going on musically. This album has none of the feel of the first two but it stands on its own as a fine recording. But, that’s what’s great about bands…people come, people go, the music changes, sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worse. Okay, look, there’s no way this album could sound the same. What an honor for Quicksilver that he chose them. Well, only the addition of a world class musician could save the band and that’s what happened when Nicky Hopkins, who had been living in San Francisco and recording with Steve Miller and Jefferson Airplane, decided to actually join a band. He was such an integral part of the band, how could they continue without him. When Gary Duncan left after 1968, it looked like the end. They had a great talent for long, exploratory jams that really took you on that acid trip. The first two Quicksilver albums are among the classics of the era.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |