Happy Trails

I first heard this when I was 14 years old, and was completely floored by it. To me, it was an astonishing listening experience, really transformative, and it became sort of a musical "holy grail." Side one, 25 minutes of "Who do you Love," was pure musical bliss. The highlights were probably the fabulous guitar solos by Gary Duncan and John Cipollina, the latter both blistering and incredibly lovely, the former energetic and inventive, but the whole thing holds together beautifully. David Freiberg's bass solo is solid, and the drum solo by Greg Elmore, aided by the transfixed audience, whose shouts and moans intertwine with Elmore's percussion and quiet passages where Cipollina and Duncan use their guitars as percussive instruments, builds up a great sense of approach/avoidance that finally segues into the aforementioned Cipollina solo. The band is tight as hell, the different solo suites are perfectly linked, and the whole thing is simply transcendent. The guitar interplay between Duncan and Cipollina is probably the greatest music QMS ever recorded. I agree with others that side one is the best, but there's lots to like on side two. "Mona," with Gary Duncan on vocals, is another Bo Diddley number of course, introduced by him as "this next one is rock 'n roll" again with great guitar interplay by him and Cipollina. "Maiden of the Cancer Moon" is pure psychedelia dominated by Cipollina, very tightly played with intensity. "Calvary" takes some getting used to, but I think it's pretty brilliant. As everyone knows, this is Gary Duncan in the studio, and folks, he must certainly have been under the influence of something (acid, of course), but it's varied, inventive, full of mood and musical changes, and really quite brilliant. The Spanish sounding interlude is quite beautiful, and "Calvary" alternates between intensity and quieter moods. It's probably not immediately accessible for many people today, but it certainly captures the vibe of the times. "Happy Trails" is a short coda at the end, and it marks the end of Duncan's participation in the group for a year. I just wanted to add that QMS continued with Nicky Hopkins on piano, replacing Duncan. "Shady Grove" is a very different album than the first two Quicksilver products, but I think it has a lot to offer in a mostly quiet way. It has finally been remastered, and the original poor sound quality is much improved. A year later, Gary Duncan returned with the arrogant Dino Valenti. In a "take it or leave it" proposition offered by Duncan, the group gave the nod to Duncan's return, only if Dino could come. The rest is history. IMO Valenti's strong man tactics destroyed the group; his nasal high pitched vocals, combined with his egotistical takeover of the band crushed the life out of QMS. At least we still have the eponymous first LP along with "Happy Trails," now from so long, long ago. And don't overlook the remastered "Shady Grove." "Happy Trails" remains fresh and alive, and one of the greatest live albums ever recorded from the heyday of San Francisco rock.

Great quicksilver album I love this album. I used to listen to them all the time it was 70s.

Along with the self-titled first album by The Doors , this album represents the best of the psychedelic jam albums released during the late 60s (The best overall album of the time for me would have to be The Beatles' " White Album) "). Quicksilver dared to do on vinyl what they did live, while most bands offered only short, radio-friendly songs of three or four minutes on their studio albums. This first album by the band is all you need (perhaps along with " The Best of Quicksilver Messenger Service ") to understand why they are so representative of what was good about the music of that era. "Side one" on the record is one long jam on "Who Do You Love," performed live at the Fillmore Auditorium. That song and "Mona" (another long jam) were written by Ellis McDaniels (aka Bo Diddly), of which "Mona" retains the strongest sense of the Bo Diddly spirit that influenced so many bands of the time, including the Rolling Stones and The Grateful Dead. "Calvary" is another jam gem, but given the cowboy imagery that the band and album art projected, one wonders if they simply misspelled "Cavalry" for the title, thus mistakenly suggesting a religious theme. Regardless, it's another great improvisation. If you even remotely like 60s psychedelic music, you need this CD.

Quicksilver Messenger Service's debut was a fiery and energetic rock and roll record that took away some of the structure to allow the basic instrumental setup of rock music to express its emotions much more freely that was possible within structures songs. The idea is one that is obvious mentally, but which was only really devised by the Paul Butterfield Blues Band , though bands from the 1970s and the 1990s/2000s post-rock era used it on many occasions to exceptional effect. For the follow-up to their debut, Quicksilver Messenger Service produced a far more ambitious project with "Happy Trails". Largely recorded live at New York's fabled Fillmore, the album consists of two distinct sides. The first is based around Bo Diddley's "Who Do You Love" and aims to transform the song into a complex suite through the used of four of the band's own compositions, titled "When You Love", "Where You Love", "Which Do You Love" and "How You Love". This part of "Happy Trails" is the album's weak link, however, because too often the passion needed to sustain the epic instrumental playing Quicksilver aim for is not present. Cippollina's soloing lacks energy and the necessary contrast after the passionate vocal on the first part of "Who Do You Love" disappears except in the fourth part "How You Love", making this part a rather difficult to get through completely. The change of tempo to the softer, quasi-tribal "Which Do You Love" fails to reinvigorate the first side, but with another Bo Diddley cover, "Mona", Quicksilver even manage to better their masterful debut on the second side. On "Mona", Quicksilver use the live setting to get into perhaps the tightest groove seen with any rock band before Duane Allman and Dickey Betts in their legendary concerts at the Fillmore in 1970 and 1971. The opening whisper "that's rock and roll" gives a perfect idea of what the bad does over the next seven minutes: the contrasting textures of Duncan and Cippollina that anticipated the two legendary pairings of Duane Allman and Dickey Betts followed by Richard Lloyd and Tom Verlaine support a fierce vocal from David Freiberg and hard-hitting drumming by Greg Elmore. The instrumental "Maiden of the Cancer Moon" is short but equally passionate and tense, moving rapidly from quiet passages to short, fierce, loud parts. "Cavalry", based on the crucifixion of Jesus, extends the basics of "Maiden" to create a work of sustained power from the opening unaccompanied guitar solo that is just so, so stark, to the epic band grooves that form the majority of the song. The album closes with the title song, a simple lullaby that manages to avoid the worst pitfalls of some of the first side. All in all, "Happy Trails" is an uneven record and not as easy to recommend as its predecessor; however, it is still worth owning if you can get past the flaws of the overambitious first side.

Trippy

If you like Iron Butterfly's In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida (studio or live), or side 2 of Mountain's Flowers of Evil, you'll like this album just as much. Side one is a 25-minute version of Who Do You Love, and side two starts with Mona and segues into other instrumental riffs much like side one, before tacking on a short hippie studio version of the Roy Rogers/Dale Evans theme song, Happy Trails. Both sides are psychedelia at its best, with outstanding performances by the musicians and excellent production values. It's actually hard to tell that these are live recordings. Side one has the various sections of the song labeled (Where do you love, How do you love, etc.), and on the original vinyl the divisions were visible by widening the space between grooves, although those divisions were not apparent when listening. On the CD, those divisions are visible on the readout, but again, not aurally. The MP3 version, however, has brief (1/2 second) breaks between each section, annoyingly interrupting the flow of the music. This is true on both sides, so it's better to listen to the CD. My advice is to plop this in your CD player, ingest your favorite mood-altering substance, and sit back for a beautiful ride.

You can divide people up into those who like late 60’s San Francisco Progressive Rock and those who don’t get it. If you appreciate Surrealistic Pillow, Breakfast At Baxter’s, Jefferson Starship.., Balin, Kantner & Slick, etc.., then this is for you! 🎵🎵🎶🎵🎸 Who do you love? You’ll love it!

The CD was in great condition

Gran disco grabado en 1969 por Gary Duncan , John Cipollina ,Freiberg y Ellmore en plena psicodelia la música surge improvisada con sonidos alucinógenos para que todo buen Hippie pudiera evadirse. El disco grabado en un directo en San Francisco en plena revolución fue nombrado unos de los 500 mejores LP por la revista Rolling Stone Recomendadísimo y solo me valió 6,50 euros.

1969, c'est l'année de Happy Trails de Quicksilver Messenger Service, l'album acid-rock de référence, emblématique du San Francisco Sound. Peut-être un des cinq meilleurs albums de cette période 60/70. Certainement un des trois meilleurs live (enregistré au Fillmore East et West) qu'il m'ait été donné d'entendre. Le son y est excellent, vous prenez une grande claque dans la gueule tant les Cipollina, Duncan et Elmore donnent une vraie leçon de musique au monde et d'impro. C'est divin et la musicalité n'a jamais été égalée, qu'on se le dise ! 40 ans plus tard, ce chef d'aeuvre, qui est le second album du groupe, résonne comme à ses plus beaux jours. Il faut savoir que le QMS, en dépit des deux pointures qu'étaient Duncan et Cipo, ne comptait pas parmi les plus célèbres bands révélés par le Flower Power. Oui mais voilà, en 1969, la bande à Cipo est à son apogée et c'était déjà perceptible sur leur premier opus. Ca ne durera pas, la faute à Dino Valenti, chanteur envahissant et au départ de Cipollina qui était l'âme de QMS. Je me souviens que la face A abritait un sidérant Who Do You Love de Bo Diddley dans une version longue (25 minutes) et psyché, divisée en plusieurs parties (What Do You Love, How Do You Love, Where Do You Love). Cipollina et Duncan émaillent ce morceau de soli de guitares monstrueux, appuyé par une rythmique qui assure grave, par un David Freiberg impressionnant à la basse. Puis viennent Mona, encore emprunté à Bo Diddley, Maiden Of The Cancer Moon et Calvary, psychédéliques en diable, à l'image du temps d'alors. Happy Trails (thème d'un feuilleton des années 60, Roy Rogers) boucle la boucle. Je recommande plus que tout autre ce disque psyché live de la fin des années soixante au même titre que les aeuvres emblématiques du Dead ou de l'Airplane car réellement inconnu du grand public !

all good

1970に友達から借りて久しぶりに聴いて当時の事が懐かしい。

Amazing