Customer Reviews

Happy Trails

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I own both the U.S. and the the "restored & remastered" Repertoire version of this classic live recording. It may boil down to a matter of personal taste, but I found the Repertoire CD to be bass-heavy, and the recording as a whole not to be any clearer than the U.S. CD. I doubt that the original master tapes were used by "EROC at the Ranch." I also doubt that 24 bit digital remastering was used, as was in Capitol's 2002 "CLASSIC MASTERS" QMS compilation. I will, however, commend Repertoire for its excellent booklet. It's a shame that neither Capitol nor Rhino has seen fit to put out a definitive remaster this timeless CD.

One of the greatest records of the sixties and one of my favorites. The guitar playing is simply phenomenal! But it is also a psychedelic album, taking you on a "trip" that winds down at the end of "Calvary", sort of like someone walking off into the sunset, then the somewhat ironic "Happy Trails" last. What a nice trip, now bye! Also the last we would hear of the great sounds of the original quartet on the first 2 albums.
I think this Repertoire release sounds a little better than the previous Capitol release, but not much. It's still worth getting, though. Repertoire has released some really good sounding CD's recently, especially the Yardbirds albums, so you can trust that the sound will be good. The booklet has the usual information about the band's career, i.e., the first album didn't capture how they sounded live, the 2nd live one was great, the third not so great, they had a semi-hit with Fresh Air, etc. Not really a whole lot of new revealing information if you already are familiar with QMS. I would like to have found more specific information about the recording of "Happy Trails" and what the band was up to at that time. Oh well, it was a long time ago...

One of the two greatest live (non-bootleg) performances of a '60s San Francisco band around -the other being "Bless Its Pointed Little Head" by the Jefferson Airplane. I first heard Happy Trails when it was first released, and only recently got the CD. Despite a couple of decades between the time I last listened to it and today, the music was a fresh and creative, and exciting as ever. It had lost nothing of its power and spacey appeal and could easily hold its own against any contemporary band if released for the first time today. Anyone who'se serious about music ought to own Happy Trails -and "Bless Its Pointed Little Head", too.

BUY THIS VERSION ONLY

The two top albums by Quicksilver Messenger Service are their self-titled first album and this live album. Both of these albums demonstrate the musicianship was far ahead of many better known "Summer of Love" San Francisco Bands. I had heard the LP and the other available CD pressing of this and was underwhelmed. Yeah it's a Bo Diddley tribute, but I couldn't see why people thought that much of it. I always preferred the songs on first album (QMS) and I still like the mostly original tunes esp. "Pride of Man", "Dino's Song" and "the Fool".

But then I got this mix and it is just spectacular! Electrifying, WOW!! The depth and the three-dimensional image are really outstanding, jawdropping. I could see why people like it so much. The playing, esp dual-lead guitarists John Cipollina playing against Gary Duncan, is yes, telepathic. The bass goes down accurately into the first octave, (20-40hz) which one rarely hears on any CD, much less one nearly 40 years old. "EROC at the Ranch"- Whoever the remix/remastering people were, they really know their stuff. This import version contains 2 octaves deeper bass and one octave higher treble than the Capitol mix!

Yes, they go on a tad too long in "Who do You Love" and interest flags a bit, but "Mona" and the subsequent variations on it are really perfection. On a good full-spectrum hi-fi, this album is a rare audiophile demo quality album! This CD makes the other, cheaper, better-selling non-import version, frankly, a waste of money.

The Real authentic feeling of the Haight Ashbury, psychedelic, Summer of Love, live Golden Gate Park-type free concerts. Unfortunately Quicksilver never achieved these Olympian heights again, after the first two albums. With changes of personnel and the return of Dino Valenti, they changed from the premiere instumental band to mostly just another SanFran group with a vocalist.

It sounds like an SACD demo-quality disc - it's that good! AN AUDIOPHILE DELIGHT! ONE OF THE BEST RECORDED LIVE ROCK CONCERTS OF ALL TIME.

Any "mixed reviews" of the EROC version, the best available, quite frankly stem from listening on low quality stereos incapable of accuately reproducing the deep bass on that CD. If it doesn't sound like this, if it sounds boomy or muddy, you may be experiencing bass doubling (cheaper speakers have a midbass, 60-80Hz, bass hump, with nothing below, to create the illusion of deep bass) or room-wall interaction. You also might consider an speaker upgrade. Next time you audition new speakers in a stereo store, take this disk with you. Make sure you turn OFF your tone controls or equalizer!

As Matthew Sweet said about his classic album Girlfriend "Don't be afraid to turn it up LOUD!", at low volume, the sound and 3-D image tends to collapse into the speakers.

i liked the recording, and this is one of qms' best performances. this release was remastered by EROC (who seems to be doing all the remastering on the repertoire label). he used to be drummer in the german progressive band grobschnitt, who's solar music live is considered one of the best live progressive recordings ever. so, it's a bit ironic that one great performer has remastered another great rock performance. the booklet in this cd is very informative. i highly recommended this cd release.

I remember perfectly my evenings with my friends listening to this specific album. The first time I listened to it I got astonished, that sound belonged to another realm. It was in 1983 approximately, a rather crazy period of my life.

Now I find that this album, which I kept scrupulously in tape is reissued in CD format. No doubt about the purchase. The quality of remastering is excellent.

How imaginative this music is.

Who do you love? Quicksilver Messenger Service, of course.

Get it and you'll never regret.

Bye

As has been said before... The sound of this is absolutely wonderful! If you compare the poor Capitol release with this Repertoire re-master, most people will right away notice more depth and clarity in the sound.

I actually believe Capitol mastered their version from an LP, as there are a few times you can noticeably hear some snap, crackle, pops that aren't anyway to be found on this version.

Performance wise... One of the best Live and Magical recordings you'll ever hear from this era (PERIOD.)

Don't miss this one if you love that era of psychedelic music & are a bit of audiophile! I truly don't believe that it gets much better than this in sound & performance (and I have a ton of great rare live shows from this era.)

Buy & Enjoy Kiddies!!!

btw... Kudos to rash67 for his insight on this version!!! Never would have known of it without his input!

This is the original Jam Band record. The guitars and the grooves are timeless. Elevating the Bo Diddley groove to the level of recombinant DNA. I highly recommend this work.

I fail to see why Amazon can't package this collection better. On the record, "Who Do You Love's sections are not separated by silent spaces, but are segued together almost imperceptably, to make it one long piece of music. The way Amazon separates the sections is clumsy at best, and the breaks destroy the flow of the piece.
For those of us buying the album, at least, Mr. Bezos should provide the music as was originally presented.

This album was great, but it didn't have some of the more famous songs like Fresh Air. I thought that the music, espicially the guitars were more excelent than they usually are. I would reccomend this album to people who know they already know they like Quicksilver, but if you're trying them out for the first time this may not be the one for you. This one is great for people that already like the band, because it introduces songs that aren't as popular, so there is more of a variety from their other albums. But overall, this is a great album. And my entire family likes to listen to it. My dad listens to Tony Bennett, my mom the Stones, and me Home Grown, but we all agree that this is a great album, espicially for long car rides.