We’re staying in San Francisco with this week’s LP cover. Quicksilver Messenger Service was one of the original jam bands; best known for their dual lead guitar attack featuring John Cipollina and Gary Duncan. By the release of this album in 1971, Cipollina was gone and the band had a poppier-n-folkier sound featuring the vocal stylings of Gino Valenti. It’s one of their better efforts and more accessible than some of their 47 minute jams, man. It was, however, a commercial failure and sank without a trace.
I’ve always liked the cover of Quicksilver but cannot for the life of me find out who did the artwork. And all I can make out from the cover is B Olson. That’s for the birds, y’all:
Here’s the LP via YouTube. It’s a strong collection of songs, so give it a spin or is that a click?
Do you know the cover version of “Fire Brothers,” by the ethereal goth band His Name Is Alive?
And do you know the record called Maximum Darkness, a live album by the Welsh jam band called Man, who so much wanted to be a San Francisco Summer of Love jam band that they got Cipollina to play on that whole tour? They do creditable versions of “Babe I’m Gonna Leave You” and “Cod’ine,” Quicksilver’s earliest recordings (for the soundtrack to a hippie exploitation movie called Revolution).
I’m unfamiliar with the goth band.
Man had a very big cult following in the Bay Area, which was one reason he hooked up with them They were a good band. Haven’t heard that album though.