Customer Reviews

Shady Grove

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Although SG is not QMS's best effort, the title track featuring Nicky Hopkins on piano is a must have. But not on this UK CD put out on the EDSEL label. Although it's a 2000 relase, the sound, in my opinion, is muddy. You'll do far better to buy Capitol's 2002, 24 bit digitally remastered "Classic Masters" compilation which has a shining version of the title track, together with Rhino's 1991 two-disc "Sons of Mecury" compiation which has an excellent sounding version of "Edward, The Mad Shirt Grinder" which, accoring to Rhino, was mastered from the original master tapes. The liner notes by Alan Robinson are, however, excellent.

Not one of their best but "Edward the Mad Shirt Grinder" will make you jump out of your skin. That one song alone is worth the price of the album. I had no idea a piano(s) could do things like that.

For years, decades actually, I could not name another song by Quicksilver Messenger Service other than the title track from this 1969 album, which was the group's third release. I really like the song, or I should say that I really liked the introduction to the song, with the pounding piano and the guitar of John Cipollina slowly winding up to the basic theme of the song. The song itself is okay (if it was a bit better I might have decided to have picked up the album before the decade ran out), but the introduction is absolutely great. Now that I have checked out the album I am slapping my head over not recognizing the keyboard stylings of Nicky Hopkins on the piano. But then you say the name Nicky Hopkins and you think of him playing sessions with the Rolling Stones for albums like "Their Satanic Majesties Request" and "Let It Bleed." But he also worked with the Beatles on "The White Album," as well as the Kinks, the Who, and the Jefferson Airplane. That last one probably explains why he ended up with a psychedelic group out of San Francisco.

The other thing I was surprised to learn several years back was that "Shady Grove" is not an original composition but an Appalachian folk song. The Kingston Trio did a really nice medley of it with "Lonesome Traveler," and if you want something more authentic you can go track down Doc Watson doing the purest bluegrass version I have come across to date. Despite the frenzied piano playing that sets up the song, when Quicksilver Messenger Service does it they sure sound to me like they are channeling Bo Diddley more than Doc Watson. Still, when I was putting together my own set of folk music CDs and I started putting together one devoted to folk rock, this had to be the opening track (followed by Led Zeppelin's "Gallows Pole"). On balance this is still just a near-great song, and the bad news is that the rest of the album is as inconsistent as the opening track.

From what I have heard of the first two QMS albums, and as I can see just by looking at their play lists, the group was more into jamming than anything else (each album has a track in double-digits in length, "The Fool" and "Calvary" respectively). Adding Hopkins into the mix certainly changed the group's direction and sound, although the subtraction of guitarist Gary Duncan probably played a key role as well. Ironically the longest track on the album comes courtesy of Hopkins. "Edward, the Mad Shirt Grinder," which slows down the album to almost a dead stop at one point on the last track after offering some decent instrumental moments. "The Flute Song" quickly reminds you that is a psychedelic group and if you play this album for somebody who has never heard it they will probably ask you what group is doing the second song in this collection of forgotten late Sixties music.

Time and time again Hopkins's piano playing stands out despite the best efforts of the rest of the band to drown him out at times. It is the best part of the rollicking' "Three or Four Feet From Home," the pretentious sounding "Too Far," and "Word's Can't Say," the last one being a reminder that QMS was not only hung up on western cowboy images for the covers of their albums, but tried to move musically in that direction without noticeably success. "Joseph's Coat" is a blue song that badly needs to be remixed (and a rewrite of the lyrics would be in order as well), and "Flashing Lonesome" is another forgettable trippy little tune. Then there is "Holy Moly," which should have been the last track on the album, because there is nothing to say after that one. If you are an absolute hard core devote of psychedelic music then you might find another track of interest besides "Shady Grove," but now that I have actually heard this album I am right back where I started.

Shady Grove has some decent moments and some forgettable ones too. It's not a classic by any means, but it has a few quality songs that totally should have hit the airwaves back in the late 60's. Plus just the entire hippie atmosphere of the album and the time period in which it was created is always something I look forward to because that's when most rock bands took complete advantage of their talent and songwriting.

"Edward, the Mad Shirt Grinder" isn't that great of a jam. Basically it's divided into two melodic parts with a melodic piano jam at the end. Unfortunately the entire thing is either really repetitive or really predictable (especially the jam at the end). This band definitely had more jamming potential than what's presented here- just check out Happy Trails for proof. However, you could argue that a jam centering around melody is good no matter *how* you slice it, but meh... I'd rather be challenged or excited by other jams in the discography of Quicksilver Messenger Service.

My favorite song is without question "Holy Moly". It's a perfect example of late 60's sincerity and excellent songwriting. I love it. It definitely had the potential to be a huge hit back in the day. "Too Far" has a gospel vibe that's pretty good.

Other songs like "Flashing Lonesome" has some interesting background arrangements, but not much else. Certainly not one of the more interesting vocal melodies on the album. "Joesph's Coat" isn't that great either thanks to a relatively generic vocal melody that sounds like it only consists of two or three notes. I do however, love the Moody Blues-inspired chanting in the middle- it's gorgeous.

The most interesting song is "Flute Song". What the heck? Where ARE the flutes? Haha. It should have been called "Piano Song" because that's the musical instrument that dominates the entire song, and Nicky Hopkins blows me away completely. In fact, his inclusion in the band is probably why I'm being fairly generous and giving the album such a high rating. Without him, I wouldn't like Shady Grove nearly as much.

Anyway, what makes this song so interesting to me is that it sounds exactly like the Lizard-era of King Crimson except... that didn't occur until 1970, and this album was released in 1969. Just listen to the Lizard album and you will hear vocal melodies and tasteful instrumental chops identical to the ones in this song. I can't really prove that King Crimson were fans of these guys, but the similarities are pretty amazing and obvious.

Overall, with some better songwriting, I'd recommend it without thinking twice. The way it stands however, well, I personally prefer Steppenwolf (even though they aren't from the San Fran area, they feel like a good comparison with similar vibes and diversity). Other bands from the San Fransisco late 60's movement were much better if you ask me. At least, if Shady Grove is any indication.

I am a fan Of Quicksilver messenger service but found this album to be mediocre at the best.I picked this one up on vinyl(my whole collection is vinyl) and was dissappointed.Gone was the two guitar attack of Cippolina and Duncan, and gone was the leadership of Gary Duncan.I can say there are only two tracks on this album that stand up to the rest of the groups repetoire.Shady Grove and Joseph's coat.David Frieburg's vocal are still excellent but there are a couple tracks featuring the strained vocals of John Cippolina, an amazing guitarist but very poor vocalist.It is a good thing Gary Duncan returned after this album and brought the pschedelic ranger Dino Valente with him.I would definitely reccomend buying Happy trails or Just for love over this album.

An interesting, uneven, and provocative contribution from a band struggling to overcome a key loss of personnel (Gary Duncan). In terms of direction, the dominant voice is David Freiberg's, seemingly part Beat-poet, part Haight acid rock ("Too Far," "Words Can't Say," "Flute Song".) Throw in a dash of Bo Diddley ("Shady Grove"), two parts Nick Gravenites ("Joseph's Coat," "Holy Moly"), and lots of Nicky Hopkins ("Edward," et al), and here is the "new" QMS. Quite good in parts, less so in others, and marred by poor production throughout. But no matter what we may think of the music, and no matter how baffled the critics were at the time, we can see now that it was above all a temporary studio invention, a decent effort by Freiberg, Cipollina, Elmore, and Hopkins to do something creative, and not an indicator of anything that was really happening with a band called "Quicksilver." Some of these pieces survived into the Valenti era, but quickly fell away and (with the exception of "Edward") never followed Freiberg, Cipollina, or Hopkins anywhere.