Happy Trails (album)
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''Happy Trails'' is the second album of the American 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, ...
. Most of the album was recorded from two performances at the
Fillmore East The Fillmore East was rock promoter Bill Graham's rock venue on Second Avenue near East 6th Street in the (at the time) Lower East Side neighborhood, now called the East Village neighborhood of the borough of Manhattan of New York City. I ...
and
Fillmore West The Fillmore West was a historic rock and roll music venue in San Francisco, California, US which became famous under the direction of concert promoter Bill Graham from 1968 to 1971. Named after The Fillmore at the intersection of Fillmore Stre ...
, although it is not clear which parts were recorded at which Fillmore. The record was released by
Capitol Records Capitol Records, LLC (known legally as Capitol Records, Inc. until 2007) is an American record label distributed by Universal Music Group through its Capitol Music Group imprint. It was founded as the first West Coast-based record label of note ...
in 1969 in stereo.


Album content

The first side of the album consists entirely of a live performance of
Bo Diddley Ellas McDaniel (born Ellas Otha Bates; December 30, 1928 – June 2, 2008), known professionally as Bo Diddley, was an American guitarist who played a key role in the transition from the blues to rock and roll. He influenced many artists, incl ...
's song, " Who Do You Love?". In a self-deprecating poke at the rendition's extended length, it is listed as the "Who Do You Love Suite", with individually titled "movements" which give writing credits to the soloist on each segment. The performance of Bo Diddley's composition breaks down into a guitar solo 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 Me ...
in a style somewhere between jazz and rock (described as " Bloomfield-like") with a
walking bass Bassline (also known as a bass line or bass part) is the term used in many styles of music, such as blues, jazz, funk, Dub music, dub and electronic music, electronic, traditional music, traditional, or classical music for the low-pitched Part ( ...
line by Freiberg. It then mellows down into some apparently improvised guitar and bass plucking and sliding, with feedback, handclapping and audience participation 'almost like a "found object" out of Dada.' Solos by Cipollina and then Freiberg follow. Then comes a slower, quieter reprise of one verse of the Bo Diddley song, leading to a
pianissimo In music, the dynamics of a piece is the variation in loudness between notes or phrases. Dynamics are indicated by specific musical notation, often in some detail. However, dynamics markings still require interpretation by the performer dependin ...
ensemble vocal, followed by a finale in which Elmore changes to a
back-beat In music and music theory, the beat is the basic unit of time, the pulse (regularly repeating event), of the ''mensural level'' (or ''beat level''). The beat is often defined as the rhythm listeners would tap their toes to when listening to a p ...
, while Duncan and Freiberg still play the Bo Diddley beat. Duncan's vocals and Cipollina's lead guitar use
call-and-response Call and response is a form of interaction between a speaker and an audience in which the speaker's statements ("calls") are punctuated by responses from the listeners. This form is also used in music, where it falls under the general category of ...
, and the result is a
polyrhythm Polyrhythm is the simultaneous use of two or more rhythms that are not readily perceived as deriving from one another, or as simple manifestations of the same meter. The rhythmic layers may be the basis of an entire piece of music (cross-rhyth ...
ic rock sound. The recorded live performance of the "Who Do You Love Suite" was almost 27 minutes long, and some of Gary Duncan's solo ("When You Love") was excised, perhaps due to the space constraints of LPs. At the end, Bill Graham announces, "Quicksilver Messenger Service." According to Mick Skidmore, Cipollina found the critical laud for "Who Do You Love?" baffling, saying "it was just a two-chord jam." (April 2001, Notes to Acadia CD "Copperhead") The second side of the album contains " Mona", another Bo Diddley song, and two instrumental compositions by Duncan, "Maiden of the Cancer Moon" and "Calvary", all of which segue. The three songs were originally parts of a single continuous live performance. Both Cipollina and Duncan take guitar solos on "Mona". The live recording of "Calvary" was abridged shortly after the end of "Maiden of the Cancer Moon" and a studio version was recorded and substituted. The ironic comment at the beginning of side two, "This here next one's rock 'n' roll," was also added in the studio. The lead guitar on "Maiden of the Cancer Moon" is played by Cipollina. This is clearly a scored piece, as opposed to the improvisational guitar playing on "Mona." "Calvary" was originally called the " F-Sharp Thing". It has been described as "acid-flamenco", but it is definitely not
flamenco Flamenco (), in its strictest sense, is an art form based on the various folkloric music traditions of southern Spain, developed within the gitano subculture of the region of Andalusia, and also having historical presence in Extremadura and ...
music. It does resemble orchestral or symphonic music, and it is not readily classifiable as rock, jazz or blues. In the studio, Quicksilver took the themes of Duncan's piece and redid them with an extended introduction, a different
cadenza In music, a cadenza (from it, cadenza, link=no , meaning cadence; plural, ''cadenze'' ) is, generically, an improvisation, improvised or written-out ornament (music), ornamental passage (music), passage played or sung by a solo (music), sol ...
by Duncan, guitar and bass feedback, a brief interlude that rises out of the feedback, and a closing melody, played
staccato Staccato (; Italian for "detached") is a form of musical articulation. In modern notation, it signifies a note of shortened duration, separated from the note that may follow by silence. It has been described by theorists and has appeared in music ...
, that fades out. There are a variety of percussion instruments used besides the standard
drum kit A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player ( drummer) typically holds a pair of matching drumsti ...
:
tympani Timpani (; ) or kettledrums (also informally called timps) are musical instruments in the percussion family. A type of drum categorised as a hemispherical drum, they consist of a membrane called a head stretched over a large bowl traditionally ...
, a
tam-tam A gongFrom Indonesian and ms, gong; jv, ꦒꦺꦴꦁ ; zh, c=鑼, p=luó; ja, , dora; km, គង ; th, ฆ้อง ; vi, cồng chiêng; as, কাঁহ is a percussion instrument originating in East Asia and Southeast Asia. Gongs ...
, a
whip A whip is a tool or weapon designed to strike humans or other animals to exert control through pain compliance or fear of pain. They can also be used without inflicting pain, for audiovisual cues, such as in equestrianism. They are generally e ...
,
tubular bell Tubular bells (also known as chimes) are musical instruments in the percussion family. Their sound resembles that of church bells, carillon, or a bell tower; the original tubular bells were made to duplicate the sound of church bells within a ...
s, bar chimes (or perhaps the newly invented
mark tree A mark tree (also known as a nail tree, chime tree, or set of bar chimes) is a percussion instrument used primarily for musical colour. It consists of many small chimes—typically cylinders of solid aluminium or hollow brass tubing 3/8" in di ...
), a
triangle A triangle is a polygon with three Edge (geometry), edges and three Vertex (geometry), vertices. It is one of the basic shapes in geometry. A triangle with vertices ''A'', ''B'', and ''C'' is denoted \triangle ABC. In Euclidean geometry, an ...
or a
bell A bell is a directly struck idiophone percussion instrument. Most bells have the shape of a hollow cup that when struck vibrates in a single strong strike tone, with its sides forming an efficient resonator. The strike may be made by an inter ...
, and
güiro The güiro () is a Puerto Rican percussion instrument consisting of an open-ended, hollow gourd with parallel notches cut in one side. It is played by rubbing a stick or tines (see photo) along the notches to produce a ratchet sound. The güiro ...
. In addition, Duncan lays down his electric guitar to play an acoustic guitar during the brief interlude, and then takes up the electric once again. The band also sings wordless vocals in harmony. Duncan shouts, "Call it anything you want!", while the track begins and fades out with "shhh" vocals. The album sleeve says that "Calvary" was recorded "live" at
Golden State Recorders Golden State Recorders was a San Francisco recording studio owned by Leo De Gar Kulka. Some of the albums recorded at the studio were Brewer & Shipley's second album '' Weeds'' in 1969, sessions for The Beau Brummels originally recorded between 196 ...
, meaning that nothing was overdubbed. There was also substantial editing and additional overdubbing done at Golden State Recorders to both sides of the record. As a coda, the band performs the theme tune from
Roy Rogers Roy Rogers (born Leonard Franklin Slye; November 5, 1911 – July 6, 1998) was an American singer, actor, and television host. Following early work under his given name, first as co-founder of the Sons of the Pioneers and then acting, the rebra ...
' western television show, which lends its title to the album. "Happy Trails" has "clip-clop percussion, piano and drawling vocals by Elmore There is no bass on this track; Freiberg plays a
honky-tonk A honky-tonk (also called honkatonk, honkey-tonk, or tonk) is both a bar that provides country music for the entertainment of its patrons and the style of music played in such establishments. It can also refer to the type of piano (tack piano) ...
piano part.


Reception

While briefly remarking that all four songs on the second side are excellent,
Greil Marcus Greil Marcus (born June 19, 1945) is an American author, music journalist and cultural critic. He is notable for producing scholarly and literary essays that place rock music in a broader framework of culture and politics. Biography Marcus wa ...
devoted most of his review in ''
Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first kno ...
'' to extensive discussion of the side-long rendition of "Who Do You Love?", which he deemed "one of the best rock and roll recordings to emerge from San Francisco, a performance that captures all the excitement and grandeur of the great days of the scene in a way that is almost too fine to be real." He particularly noted that, "They use the infamous Bo Diddley rhythm not as a crutch, not as something for the rhythm section to play with while the lead takes it; Quicksilver finds dimensions of that 'bump buddy bump bump — bump bump' beat that no one has even suggested before, as they stretch it, bend it, move around it, as a motif or a bridge, as an idea rather than as a pattern." Retrospective reviews have also been highly positive. ''
Head Heritage Julian David Cope (born 21 October 1957) is an English musician and author. He was the singer and songwriter in Liverpool post-punk band the Teardrop Explodes and has followed a solo career since 1983 in addition to working on musical side proj ...
''s
Julian Cope Julian David Cope (born 21 October 1957) is an English musician and author. He was the singer and songwriter in Liverpool post-punk band the Teardrop Explodes and has followed a solo career since 1983 in addition to working on musical side proj ...
strongly approved of the decision to have most of the album devoted to Bo Diddley covers, saying Diddley's "amplified cigar box and ever-shifting shuffle beat lent itself easily to interpretations of extended electric guitar-based improvisations". He found all the tracks to be effective, especially praising the interplay of Duncan and Cipolina's guitars, and insisted that "The entire album was recorded live at The Fillmore East and West" despite the sleeve clearly indicating that much of the album was recorded in the studio. Lindsay Planer of
AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...
, while not questioning the partially studio setting for the recording, likewise found ''Happy Trails'' to be by far the most accurate recorded recreation of Quicksilver Messenger Service's "critically and enthusiastically acclaimed live performances." He lauded both the atmospheric and technical accomplishments of the jamming, and said the band has "the uncanny ability to perform with a psychedelic looseness of spirit, without becoming boring or in the least bit pretentious."


Awards and accolades

The album was a surprise commercial success, hitting #27 on Billboard and eventually certified gold (over 500,000 copies sold in the US) in 1992 by the Recording Industry Association of America. It was voted number 553 in
Colin Larkin Colin Larkin (born 1949) is a British writer and entrepreneur. He founded, and was the editor-in-chief of, the ''Encyclopedia of Popular Music'', described by ''The Times'' as "the standard against which all others must be judged". Along wit ...
's ''
All Time Top 1000 Albums ''All Time Top 1000 Albums'' is a book by Colin Larkin, creator and editor of the ''Encyclopedia of Popular Music''. The book was first published by Guinness Publishing in 1994. The list presented is the result of over 200,000 votes cast by the ...
'' 3rd Edition (2000)''.'' In 2003, the album was ranked number 189 on ''
Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first kno ...
'' magazine's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, maintaining the rating in a 2012 revised list. It was number 44 in ''Rolling Stone''s "50 Coolest Records." " Mona" by Quicksilver was ranked number 88 on the 100 Greatest Guitar Songs of All Time by ''Rolling Stone''.


Track listing


Personnel

;Quicksilver Messenger Service *
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 band C ...
- guitar, vocals *
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 Me ...
- guitar, vocals *
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 S ...
- bass, vocals, piano *
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 ...
- drums, vocals, piano, percussion


Releases

''Happy Trails'' was remastered and rereleased in audiophile versions of June 2012 (a “mini LP” on CD) and January 2013 (HQ vinyl). An English version came out in 2010. Japanese versions surfaced in 2008 and 2009.
Capitol Records Capitol Records, LLC (known legally as Capitol Records, Inc. until 2007) is an American record label distributed by Universal Music Group through its Capitol Music Group imprint. It was founded as the first West Coast-based record label of note ...
released a CD version in 1994.Psychedelic Sight - 'Happy Trails’ finally feels the love 1/8/13)
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Charts

; Album
Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertise ...
(United States) ; Singles Billboard (United States)


Notes


References

{{Authority control Quicksilver Messenger Service albums Live at the Fillmore East albums 1969 albums Capitol Records albums 1969 live albums Capitol Records live albums