Quicksilver Messenger Service – The Unreleased Quicksilver Messenger Service: Lost Gold And Silver

I dislike when things turn out not be what they seem, with this compilation rising from the European double live vinyl edition, released in 1983 under the title of Maiden Of The Cancer Moon, with two songs from the soundtrack album Revolution released in 1967, along with some marginal material not found on formal albums, plus with some studio outtakes from the hazed 60’s.

That being said, the music collected here tends to be absolutely good or downright nearly unlistenable. Of course the live material taken from Maiden Of The Caner Moon is topnotch, first-rate, and well worth your time and efforts … from there it’s catch as catch can with what rides most well in your back pocket.

Sadly, other than the live material, the vocals making up the rest of the album are like fingernails on a chalkboard (though I wonder how many younger readers will even understand that expression). It’s rather evident from the get-go that the live tracks have been taken from a variety of shows, and not a single event as Happy Trails was, though even that was drawn from a two night stand at the Fillmore Auditorium. There has been no attempt made to suggest where these shows had been or their dates, though perhaps the info has been lost to the winds for all time, just as no one know which side of Happy Trails was recorded on which night. One of the most interesting aspects is the twin guitar opus “Gold and Silver,” more than loosely based on “Take Five” first delivered by Dave Brubeck, where I was reminded at how talented Quicksilver Messenger Service were, wondering how many people would even recognize a 5/4 score, yet alone have the ability to conceptualize and re-interrupt the song.

From there, anything I say is going to sound as disjointed as disc two, where the band could have easily been outdone on any song by any number of bands playing at a Holiday Inn anywhere across America during those heady times. Most of it is interesting to hear once … maybe. Consider “Acapulco Gold and Silver,” a sly reference to the high quality strain of marijuana, Acapulco Gold, sounding like a hum along version of “The Good, The Bad and The Ugly,” while fanciful, you’ll wish that it was more relevant and fit in somewhere, yet comes across as free-floating and undefinable. Dino Valenti’s softer side steps into the light on the track “Stand By Me,” though not the Ben E. King song, which would have been much better. These visions of Valenti’s overshadowed the band making Quicksilver sound weak and feeble, where they never achieved the success they had with the adventurous and classic Happy Trails, an album that defined the 60’s, a flash in the pan that came across like a onetime blessing from on high. This is not historic material by any means, it’s a onetime listen pure and simple, making me wonder why there wasn’t a Dick’s Picks soundboard for Quicksilver as it was their live material that is everlastingly of top quality.

Yes, this album is avoidable by any means necessary, the good live material is available other places, and numbers such as “Mono” and “Calvary” have been done far better … so you should venture there instead of shelling out some cash, then saying, “Oh man, wish I’d listened to what Jenell had to say.”

Review by Jenell Kesler