Newsgroups: bit.listserv.allmusic
Date:         Fri, 4 Sep 1992 14:29:47 EDT
From:         "Michael H. Bloom" <MHB@MITVMA.BITNET>
Subject:      Be sure to wear some flowers in your hair

From:         David Malbuff <SPGDAM@UCCVMA.BITNET>
Subject:      Re: Quicksilver Messenger Service

> On Fri, 4 Sep 1992 11:46:00 EST John McIntyre said:
> >isn't the _Happy Trails_ "Who Do You Love" a collection of edits already,
> >with different sections pulled from different concerts?
>
> Yes, it certainly is. I asked JC about that once, and he said that the song,

You spoke to Cippolina?! Tell me everything! I never got to see him play, and
bitterly regret it. Henry Kaiser once said that he never really improvised, he
just repeated preconceived licks-- but I think Kaiser has extremely inflated
standards for improvisation.

> as they played it in those days, tended to run on way longer than 25 minutes
> anyway. Personally I think the editing is rather poor; you notice the 'cuts'
> immediately, unlike the seamless job that Dan Healy and Bob Matthews did on
> sides 1-3 of _Live/Dead_, f'rinstance.

Lotta stuff from the old days got edited: Cream's "Crossroads," Zappa's "Gumbo
Variations" (if you can get an LP copy of _Hot Rats_, compare it with the CD),
etc. Now they don't bother to splice real tape, they just edit the MIDI files.
This is progress?

> And I'll agree about the later Quicksilver albums, too. You'd have one awesome
> cut like "Cobra" (a Cipollina original, of course), and 40 minutes of
> godawful spaced-out hippie gibberish, mixed "creatively" (which is to say,
> idiotically).

Valenti was heavily into the high end. I saw the band once, some time after the
_What About Me_ album (Cippolina had already left, Freiberg was playing piano)
and Valenti kept hollering at the sound guy, "More treble!" when it already
sounded painfully shrill. _Just for Love_ is one of the least listenable albums
in history, just because of his screechy mix-- not even to mention the timeless
wisdom inherent in songs like "Wolf Run" (conga & flute & acid babbling). He
grew less obnoxious about mixing, but he continued to commit affronts against
taste like "Don't Cry, My Lady Love." BTW, there was a Cippolina song on _What
About Me_ called "Local Color," sorta fake country blues with dobro, which I
don't think made it to the compilation.

> BTW, Dino Valenti (not his real name)

He published his songs on _Just for Love_ under the name "Jesse Oris Ferrow."
He also claimed to be the Chester Powers that wrote "Get Together."

From:         Ken Koester <MAINT2@ERS.BITNET>
Subject:      Re: Quicksilver Messenger Service

> Hmmm.  The only 2 I would want would be the black 'un with "Pride of Man",
> and =Happy Trails=.  I had always thought HT was their second one, and
> am not interested in any after that.

I seem to be the net's only defender of _Shady Grove_. There are several good
songs on that album, especially Cippolina's apocalyptic tape manipulations on
"Joseph's Coat" and Nicky Hopkins' circus pianos on "Edward the Mad Shirt
Grinder," dedicated to ALLMUSIC's poet laureate 20 years before the fact.
(Both these tunes are on the compilation, which is probably why I remember
them particularly; other tunes varied widely in quality.)

And I say again, if you haven't heard the two tunes from the _Revolution_
soundtrack, you're missing something-- they're as good as anything on that
first album.

From:         David Malbuff <SPGDAM@UCCVMA.BITNET>
Subject:      Re: "Long Chain On"

> "Soldier's Joy" is a well-known tune in the bluegrass songbag...

Michelle Shocked does an altered version of "Soldier's Joy" on _Arkansas
Traveller_, and she says that the original meaning of the term was morphine,
which was the least unpleasant treatment they had for wounded soldiers in the
old days.

From:         crispen <crispen@EFFTOO.BOEING.COM>
Subject:      Re: Confessions

> Mine is post-Smiley Smile Beach Boys.  These are vile records, but
> I can't help it.

How far post-Smiley Smile? I like _Holland_ and _Surf's Up_, but if you're
talkin' "Johnny Carson" off _15 Fat Ones_, then yeah, you should be ashamed.
:-)

Brian Wilson recorded a second solo album last year and delivered it to Warner
Bros, who declared that it wasn't good enough and declined to release it.
Apparently Eugene Landy wrote it all.
Comments: Gated by NETNEWS@AUVM.AMERICAN.EDU