Quicksilver Messenger Service

After a debut featuring hazy folk rock, Quicksilver dropped a jam-band landmark. Happy Trails, released in 1969, was one of the first LPs to successfully capture the San Francisco sound, which was built around extended improvisation in the live setting. Using Bo Diddley's "Who Do You Love" and "Mona" as launchpads, Q.M.S. proved they were first-tier explorers, right up there with the Dead and even predating the Allmans, who must've studied "Maiden of the Cancer Moon."

On the cover of what is presumably Quicksilver's last album is a delightful picture that might
remind one of the old Frederic Remington paintings of the Wild West; the lettering is done
in pure Thirties World's Fair script; on the back are the members of the band in
pen-and-ink, their cowboy portraits matching their sound; there are even little pictures of
Coit Tower and the Statue of Liberty. It's Quicksilver's version of Buffalo Bill's Wil... More >