''What About Me'' is the fifth

album An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early 20th century as individual 78 rpm records co ...

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, ...

. Released in December 1970 and recorded partly at the same sessions that produced '' Just for Love'', the album is the last to feature pianist

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 ...

and the last pre-reunion effort to feature founding members

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 ...

and

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 ...

Reception

Writing for

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 databa ...

, music critic Lindsay Planer wrote of the album "Musically, there is little to delineate the fifth long-player from Quicksilver Messenger Service, What About Me, from their previous effort, Just for Love. Not surprisingly, material for both was initiated during a prolific two-month retreat..."

Track listing

Side one

#"What About Me" ( Jesse Oris Farrow) – 6:43 #"Local Color" (John Cipollina) – 3:00 #"Baby Baby" (Farrow) – 4:44 #"Won't Kill Me" (David Freiberg) – 2:32 #"Long Haired Lady" (Farrow) – 5:55

Side two

#"Subway" (

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 ...

, Farrow)Per BMI Records (se
BMI Work # 1423776
. The original album label and sleeve both erroneously credit Farrow alone. – 4:29 #"Spindrifter" (Nicky Hopkins) – 4:38 #"Good Old Rock and Roll" (Farrow) – 2:30 #"All in My Mind" (Duncan, Farrow) – 3:48 #"Call on Me" (Farrow) – 7:36

Personnel

;Quicksilver Messenger Service *

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 ...

– lead vocals (except on "Won't Kill Me"),

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 ...

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, backing vocals, bass, percussion, organ *

– guitar, percussion *

– bass, backing vocals, lead vocal on "Won't Kill Me", guitar *

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, percussion *

–

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 ...

(except on "What About Me", "Baby Baby", "Subway", and "Call on Me") *

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 ...

- piano on "What About Me", "Baby Baby", and "Call on Me" ;Additional musicians on "What About Me" and "Call on Me" * Martin Fierro -

tenor A tenor is a type of classical male singing voice whose vocal range lies between the countertenor and baritone voice types. It is the highest male chest voice type. The tenor's vocal range extends up to C5. The low extreme for tenors is wide ...

and alto saxophone, flute * Frank Morin - tenor saxophone * Pat O'Hara -

trombone The trombone (german: Posaune, Italian, French: ''trombone'') is a musical instrument in the brass family. As with all brass instruments, sound is produced when the player's vibrating lips cause the air column inside the instrument to vibrate ...

* Jose Rico Reyes - conga, percussion, backing vocals * Ron Taormina - baritone and soprano saxophone

Charts

Album Single

References

{{Authority control Quicksilver Messenger Service albums 1970 albums Capitol Records albums