Quicksilver Messenger Service - What About Me

Q is a tough one. Not that many bands with Q names in my collection (I’ve got one Queens of the Stone Age album that I’ll sell to someone for a buck). I was going to post up something by The Queers, but most of their stuff is re-released or still available, so I fell back on ole faithful Quicksilver...but which album?

Back in 1971, I had just been released from jail after serving time for possession of mescaline & as a condition of my parole had taken a job at a summer camp for mentally challenged youth. I was a Senior Camp Counselor & had to be with my campers day & night 23 hours. The only time off I got each day was from 2pm - 3pm when they had swimming, as they were supervised by the Junior Counselors & watched over by the swimming coaches & lifeguards. Every two weeks on payday, my friend Mole would come up to the camp. I would sign over my paycheck to him & he would leave me my two week supply of hashish. I made a hash pipe out of some unneeded plumbing supplies & drain screen. Between 2pm - 3pm I would hide out undisturbed in our cabin, listen to one of the two albums I had with me on the cabin’s portable stereo, & smoke as much hashish as I could smoke in one hour. I would play one album one day & the other the next, continuing this alternation every day. The two albums I had were two recently released platters, The Guess Who’s American Woman & Quicksilver’s What About Me. So the choice of Quicksilver album’s was obvious. What About Me! What about me?

Quicksilver Messenger Service was one of San Francisco 's original psychedelic bands of the late '60s . Essentially a jam band, they were popular around the Bay Area & achieved international recognition among devotees of psychedelic rock, though they never gained the broader popularity enjoyed by their San Francisco contemporaries Jefferson Airplane or The Grateful Dead.

What About Me is their fifth album, released in December 1970 & recorded partly at the same sessions that produced Just For Love , their previous album. What About Me is the last Quicksilver album to feature pianist Nicky Hopkins, who had joined the group when one of the original guitarists, Gary Duncan left the band after Shady Grove. Although the fiery guitar duels between John Cipollina & Gary Duncan are missing, Dino Valenti (born Chester [Chet] William Powers Jr., aka Dino Valente, aka Jackie Powers, aka Jesse Orris Farrow, here under his ‘Jesse Oris Farrow’ pseudonym), experiments with R'n'B, Latin, & even contemporary art-rock while never abandoning psychedelia, so it is still a great trip.

Year of Release: 1971
Label: Capitol Records SMAS-630
Genre: Psychedelic Rock
Tracklist:
Side A -
What About Me
Local Color
Baby Baby
Won't Kill Me
Long Haired Lady
Side B -
Subway
Spindrifter
Good Old Rock And Roll
All In My Mind
Call On Me

Download: Quicksilver Messenger Service - What About Me
Download Size: 105 MB(ripped at 320Kbps)