Artist: Quicksilver Messenger Service
Album: Happy Trails
Year: 1969
Quicksilver Messenger Service was a psychedelic jam band and this album, comprised mostly of Bo Diddley covers, was their most enduring statement. It's a bold album, eschewing typical song structures in favor of extended soloing and variations on its basic melodic themes. Hence, in many ways it plays more like a jazz album than as a rock album.
I have no doubt that on a technical level, this is some kind of masterpiece. The guitar playing on this album is fantastic as each performer is given the time to show off his virtuosic ability. To me, however, this album lost its luster within the first five minutes. The first track "Who Do You Love" was fine, but with "Where You Love," "When You Love," and "How You Love" as follow-ups...and all providing variations on the same theme...things got tedious in a hurry. And that's only half the album.
I was ready to write this album off entirely until the next-to-last track definitely helped things to click for me. "Calvary" is a dusky, foreboding, 14-minute sprawling piece of psychedelic bliss with some absolutely amazing effects including a flamenco section in the middle that is just mindblowingly good. Maybe I'll have to listen to the whole thing again in light of this one...
All in all, Quicksilver Messenger Service wasn't entirely my cup of tea, but this album eventually ended up working for me...right up through its woozy rendition of Roy Rogers' "Happy Trails" that ends the album.
Rating: Worth a listen
No comments:
Post a Comment