When Jefferson Airplane was in need of a drummer, they recruited Skip Spence, a guitarist from the early lineup of Quicksilver Messenger Service, a band that rehearsed at Marty Balin's Matrix Club. (Another source says Spence was actually a member of the garage rock band The Other Side when called over to Airplane, but we'll stick with Quicksilver.)
Quicksilver Messenger Service formed haphazardly around misfits and jailbirds (for marijuana possession) into a psychedelic jam blues band. Their brand of blues excelled when their extended jams sought to push the genre into a more psychedelic or hard blues direction, though they could just as easily lack in cleverness or inspiration within the same song. Quicksilver's worst quality was that they lost all sense of the blues whenever either David Friedman or Gary Duncan started to sing, and their pop song craft was too weak to stand on its own in a jam session setting.
But I'm not being fair to the band because their debut LP Quicksilver Messenger Service (released in 1968 on Capitol Records) is actually very good. The record does away with Quicksilver's reliance on the Blues in their live sets and focuses on a more contemporary pop sound anchored in the dueling guitars of John Cipollina and Gary Duncan, and it's a wonder what actually hitting your harmonies can do to help a song along.
But the album doesn't capture what Quicksilver's sound was trying to achieve in the live setting, a "new sound" sourced from jazz, folk and blues that, at this early stage of the band's lifespan, was only just an insoluble mix of blues and psychedelic pop with both components stronger apart than stirred together.
Also included on this tour stop is the garage rock band in which Gary Duncan and Greg Elmore started their recording career: The Brogues.
Here is the discography surrounding Quicksilver Messenger Service's debut album:
But Now I Find (1965 single by The Brogues)
Don't Shoot Me Down (1965 single by The Brogues)
Live in San Jose - September 1966 (live album)
Live at the Avalon Ballroom, San Francisco, 9th September 1966 (live album)
Live at the Avalon Ballroom, San Francisco, 28th October 1966 (live album)
Fillmore Auditorium - November 5, 1966 (live album)
Live at The Fillmore, San Francisco, 4th February 1967 - Early Show (live album)
Live at The Fillmore, San Francisco, 4th February 1967 - Late Show (live album)
Fillmore Auditorium - February 5, 1967 Live (live album)
Live at The Fillmore, San Francisco, 6th February 1967 (live album)
Live at the Winterland Ballroom - New Year's Eve 1967 (live album)
Live at The Carousel Ballroom, San Francisco, San Francisco, 4th April 1968 (live album)
Live at the Fillmore, June 7, 1968 (live album)
Revolution (1968 soundtrack album)
Dino's Song (1968 single)
Quicksilver Messenger Service
Stand by Me (1968 single)
Smokin' Sound (1968 live album)
The Hush Records Story (compilation album featuring The Brogues)
Unreleased Quicksilver Messenger Service: Lost Gold and Silver (compilation album)
"Dino's Song (Live at the Monterey Pop Festival)" by Quicksilver Messenger Service
"Acapulco Gold and Silver (Live at The Fillmore)" by Quicksilver Messenger Service
"But Now I Find" by The Brogues
Pass the Headphones!!
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