''Quicksilver'' is the sixth album by American psychedelic rock band

Quicksilver Messenger Service Quicksilver Messenger Service is an American psychedelic rock band formed in 1965 in San Francisco. The band achieved wide popularity in the San Francisco Bay Area and, through their recordings, with psychedelic rock enthusiasts around the globe, ...

Background

Released in November 1971, it was the first album without original members

John Cipollina John Cipollina (August 24, 1943 – May 29, 1989) was a guitarist best known for his role as a founder and the lead guitarist of the prominent San Francisco rock band Quicksilver Messenger Service. After leaving Quicksilver he formed the ban ...

and

David Freiberg David Freiberg ( ; born August 24, 1938) is an American musician best known for contributing vocals, keyboards, electric bass, rhythm guitar, viola and percussion as a member of Quicksilver Messenger Service, Jefferson Airplane, and Jefferson ...

. Guitar duties were entirely taken over by

Gary Duncan Gary Duncan (born Eugene Duncan, Jr., adopted at birth and named Gary Ray Grubb, September 4, 1946 – June 29, 2019) was an American guitarist, singer and songwriter. He was guitarist with The Brogues, then most notably with Quicksilver M ...

, while Mark Ryan took over on bass.

Nicky Hopkins Nicholas Christian "Nicky" Hopkins (24 February 1944 – 6 September 1994) was an English pianist and organist. Hopkins performed on many popular and enduring British and American rock music recordings from the 1960s to the 1990s, most notably ...

had also left at this point to continue his successful journeyman career, replaced by

Mark Naftalin Mark Naftalin (born August 2, 1944) is an American blues keyboardist, recording artist, composer, and record producer. He appears on the first five albums by Paul Butterfield Blues Band in the mid 1960s as a band member, and as such was induc ...

; only

and

Greg Elmore Gregory Dale Elmore (born September 4, 1946, in the Coronado Naval Air Station, California) is an American drummer, formerly with The Brogues and the San Francisco rock band Quicksilver Messenger Service Quicksilver Messenger Service is a ...

remained from the original quartet. Several tracks, including "Song For Frisco" and "The Truth", had been premiered on stage in 1970 with the earlier lineup and were already well-known to Quicksilver fans. As on the previous two albums, Dino Valenti's compositions dominate, with all but two written or arranged by him. The album saw a major decline in sales: whereas their previous four albums had reached the Top 30 on '' Billboard'', ''Quicksilver'' failed to dent the Top 100.

Track listing

All songs written by Dino Valenti except where indicated. ;Side one #"Hope" – 3:01 #"I Found Love" (Gary Duncan) – 3:56 #"Song for Frisco" - 4:58 #"Play My Guitar" – 4:38 #"Rebel" (traditional, arranged by Dino Valenti) – 2:02 ;Side two #"Fire Brothers" (Duncan) – 3:12 #"Out of My Mind" – 4:34 #"Don't Cry My Lady Love" – 5:13 #"The Truth" – 6:58

Personnel

Dino Valenti Chester William Powers, Jr. (October 7, 1937 – November 16, 1994) was an American singer-songwriter, and under the stage names Dino Valenti or Dino Valente, one of the lead singers of the rock group Quicksilver Messenger Service. As a songwri ...

–

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected strin ...

vocals Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or withou ...

, flute,

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Ex ...

- guitar, vocals *

– organ,

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keybo ...

* Mark Ryan – bass *

– drums, percussion

Charts

; Album Billboard (United States)

References

Quicksilver Messenger Service albums 1971 albums Capitol Records albums {{1970s-rock-album-stub