Castles In The Sand [Import]

Quicksilver Messenger Service | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (July 28, 2009)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Import
• Label: 101 DISTRIBUTION
• ASIN: B001OD611Y
• Average Customer Review: 1.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #266,145 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Seor Blues

2. Subway

3. I Know You Rider #1

4. I Know You Rider #2

5. Walk In Jerusalem

6. Castles In the Sand

7. May You Never Be Alone

8. Warm Red Wine

9. Look Over Yonder Wall/State Farm

10. Wake Up, Dead Man (Part 1)

11. Wake Up, Dead Man (Part 2)

12. The Fool

Editorial Reviews

2009 archive release from the West Coast rockers containing one of the first studio sessions by Quicksilver's then new line-up of Dino Valente (vocals), John Cipollina (guitar), David Freiberg (bass & vocals), Greg Elmore (drums), with the British session pianist Nicky Hopkins. Mainly acoustic, it took place in Corte Madera, California in late 1969/early 1970.The sound and mixes are excellent. The songs are often spontaneous, spare and unfinished in places and were likely intended as references for later development by the group. As such they offer a fascinating work-in-progress glimpse of this highly-talented group of musicians re-inventing themselves and developing new material under studio conditions. The booklet's sleeves notes cover the group's circumstances at the time of the recordings and the featured songs. 12 tracks. Charly.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars ONCE A GREAT BAND BUT NOT AT THIS TIME, August 14, 2009

By 

Gregory Starr - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Castles In The Sand (Audio CD)

The record is about this: Dino Valente was Cesar Millan, and the great musicians of QMS were his dogs. He was pack leader from the end of 1969, they obeyed his every command. Valente was good at lyrics and lousy at instrumentals. QMS were Meister instrumentalists. But Valente took charge of the instrumentals. "Castles in the sand" shows how ordinary--and even less than ordinary--QMS musicians became with Valente as pack leader. They know it; as a fly on the wall, you get to hear Elmore and Duncan get explicitly berated by Valente for being asleep while playing. When Cippolina starts to do more than just play rhythm backing, Valente stops the tape. No other egos allowed. This record shows that QMS musicians lost their spirit and their ability to play extraordinary music. The result: this record is really boring. Flat line boring.

I do not want to discourage Charly from putting out unreleased QMS material; there is lots of great stuff out there. Charly just needs to hire someone who knows good music from bad... this record is in reality not a QMS record---these guys were just dependent sidemen for Dino session.

By the way, a third of this record was previously made available as a bonus on the live Kabuki cd release.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not That Great, But Still Interesting For Fans Of Q.M.S, January 19, 2010

By 

Oannes (Melbourne Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Castles In The Sand (Audio CD)

I strongly believe that this quicksilver Messenger Service release "Castles In The Sand", which consists of tracks, recorded in a Jam situation, and works in progress, (from 1969-1970) whilst not being the first port of call for people new to Q.M.S, is still interesting enough for a casual listen. In retrospect it really plays like a country blues jam, on the porch, and is very laid back, which is o.k for a relaxing listen.

Dino Valente's vocals, are high pitched and quite soulful in these improvisations, Greg Elmore's drums are workmanlike and confident, David Freiberg's bass is good, and Nicky Hopkins piano playing is o.k too, John Cippollina's amazing guitar work is NOT evident on this release, it's all strumming and fills, NO electric freakout on display here. If you want the electric Q.M.S, get "Happy Trails" or the excellent, "Q.M.S - Sons of Mercury" compilation. (2 CD set) All up. It's still vintage material, by a band striving for a new direction, finding roots and picking fruits from the vast orchard of American musical history, it's great to hear this, I think.

Once you get over any initial disappointment, regarding this release, I would still recommend this to anyone who thinks being in a band, and recording music is easy, this really drives home the fact that all art is 99 percent perspiration, and only One percent inspiration!

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Where is John Cipollina?, March 9, 2010

By 

Michael W. Ladd (Duluth, GA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Castles In The Sand (Audio CD)

This recording confirms that QMS was a much better band when Dino Valenti was in prison. Compare this to the first QMS (great album) and Happy Trails (ditto) and there is no comparison. I admit to being a "guitar freak" and Cipollina is one of my all time favorites, but he is used as a background player here. I bought this to add to my collection but it will likely collect dust from here out like some of the later QMS albums.