Just For Love

Performer: Quicksilver Messenger Service
Artist: Nicky Hopkins
Distributor: Caroline Distribution

Notes: Quicksilver Messenger Service: Gary Duncan (vocals, acoustic & electric guitars, maracas); Dino Valenti (vocals, guitar, congas, flute); David Frieberg (vocals, guitar, bass); John Cipollina (guitar); Gregory Elmore (drums, percussion). Additional personnel: Nicky Hopkins (piano). Recorded at the Opaelua Lodge, Haleiwa, Hawaii in May & June 1970. Quicksilver Messenger Service: Dino Valenti (vocals, guitar, flute, congas); David Freiberg (vocals, viola, bass guitar); John Cipollina (guitar); Gary Duncan (guitars, electric bass, percussion); Nicky Hopkins (piano, harpsichord, organ); Greg Elmore (drums, percussion). Audio Remasterer: K. Bartley. Although synonymous with the psychedelic scene of late 1960s San Francisco, Quicksilver Messenger Service never quite lived up to the standards set by their fellow Haight-Ashbury acts. They never achieved Jefferson Airplane's commercial notoriety, Moby Grape's critical acceptance, or the Grateful Dead's cult status on the live circuit. Like the Dead, they were an exceptional live act that dealt almost exclusively in multi-guitar psychedelic boogie. Also like the Dead, they had difficulty committing their live energy to wax. By 1970, they stopped trying, went to Hawaii, and instead recorded the uncharacteristic JUST FOR LOVE. JUST FOR LOVE marked their reunion with the band's founder Dino Valenti, who brought with him an emphasis on vocals and song craft. Guitarists David Freiberg, John Cipollina, and Gary Duncan exchange slithery leads on the up-tempo "Cobra" and "Freeway Flyer". While the emphasis on trippy excursions remains evidenced in Valenti's flute flourishes on "Wolf Run (Part 1)" and the psych meltdown of "Just For Love (Part 2)," Quicksilver harnesses each jam in the name of pop accessibility. The recipe worked, as the album scored a minor hit in "Fresh Air," a song whose chorus demands the listener "have another hit." Sadly, Quicksilver Messenger Service did not.

Along with the Grateful Dead and Jefferson Airplane, Quicksilver Messenger Service were one of the first and best of the San Francisco '60s psychedelic bands. Though they shared with their peers an improvisational bent and eclectic roots in blues, jazz, folk, and rock, what helped set them apart was the distinctive twin-guitar work of John Cipollina and Gary Duncan, two virtuosic players. When New York singer-songwriter Dino Valenti became their frontman, their sound became more accessible and they scored a couple of minor hits before disbanding in the mid-'70s.

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