Customer Reviews

Dinosaurs

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Charter members of the 1960's San Francisco music scene, this should catch the eye and ear of fans of that genre. There are reminders of each of the player's former groups. John Cipollina's Quicksilver guitar is present throughout the album, especially on 'Strange Way,' and 'Mona.' Country Joe's Barry Melton vocal and guitar drives 'Butcher's Boy' into the spotlight. Peter Albin's (Big Brother and the Holding Company) bass underpins it all. Merl Saunders big warm organ sound shows clearly on 'Do I Move You?' Jefferson Airplane drummer Spencer Dryden rocks steadily. 'Lay Back Baby' gives a nod to the Dead 80's sound. There are several stellar moments, but absolutely not groundbreaking or mind numbing. Still, its good to hear this guys making music together again.

Sometimes when you take a group of good musicians from hit bands and put them together they sound better. That is not the case here. Although there were a few good songs, nothing jumps out as new and improved. At times you could hear flashes of the old bands at their best, but for a "supergroup" it was a bit diappointing. I would rather listen to their old stuff. So for me, it was just OK.

Review from All Music Guide:

Dinosaurs consists of former members of Big Brother & the Holding Company (Peter Albin), Quicksilver Messenger Service (John Cipollina), Country Joe & the Fish (Barry Melton), and Jefferson Airplane (Spencer Dryden), plus two musicians closely associated with the Grateful Dead's Jerry Garcia (Merl Saunders, who co-led a band with him, and his lyric collaborator Robert Hunter). If the group had been formed in 1972, when its members ranged in age from their mid-20s to their mid-30s, it might have been considered a supergroup and gotten national attention and a major-label recording contract. Instead, it came together in 1982, when the musicians were in their mid-30s to mid-40s, and the name, taken from Melton's stage remark, "We're just a bunch of old dinosaurs," signaled that this was some friends getting together for a little fun rather than a serious enterprise. But the pedigree of the players was enough to draw audiences, mostly in Northern California, and after half-a-dozen years of occasional gigs, the band finally made an album. It's a loose, unassuming affair from a collection of musicians who were not the focal points of their earlier bands. Melton was always a reliable second banana to Country Joe, and he remains a sturdy figure here, the closest thing to a frontman in a band that really doesn't have one. Cipollina's guitar sound helped define Quicksilver, and it remains identifiable here, particularly on the live recordings of Nina Simone's "Do I Move You?" and the old Quicksilver warhorse "Mona." Hunter had left the band by the time the album was made, but returned to sing his lyrics on "Who Makes the Moves?," the most striking original song. Much of the individual playing was striking, too, but Dinosaurs on the whole did not reach the heights ascended by some of the former bands of the group's members.

This lp has it's moments-particularly Barry Melton's rendition of "The Butcher's Boy," (an old trad. tune) and the band's workout on Bo Diddly's "Mona," which John Cippolina used to do in Quicksilver Messenger Service. The lp is worth purchasing for these tracks alone. "Mona" rocks with real electricity and Melton burns on "Butcher's Boy." I think the Merle Saunders material is weak and while this isn't the Quick, the Airplane, Big Brother,or CJ and the Fish,listening to it makes me wish John had never started smoking cigarettes-maybe he would still be with us and this lp/cd would not be the Dinosaurs'only legacy.

Though there's a lot of individual talent here, it doesn't add up to much. The production is thin, the vocals are strained and the songwriting is weak. Seek out these dinosaurs in their former individual incarnations before they "evolved" to create this poor material.