Quicksilver Messenger Service – Fresh Air

This is a band I knew nothing about going in but I have a new respect for them now. I didn’t think I knew any of their songs…but I have heard this one. When I pick these bands that I’m learning about I usually pick a radio-friendly song to introduce them. After listening to their songs…there are songs I like a little more but this one is great and I’ve heard it somewhere at some point. It’s a cool song.

Quicksilver Messenger Service was formed in 1965 and quickly rose to prominence alongside peers like Jefferson Airplane, Moby Grape,  and Grateful Dead. With their melodies, guitar work, and some experimentation, Quicksilver became synonymous with the psychedelic scene. The members included John Cipollina on guitar, Gary Duncan on guitar, Greg Elmore on drums, David Freiberg on bass, and Jim Murray on guitar and harmonica…it also included the famous British session player Nicky Hopkins at one time. In 1970 it included Dino Valenti.

Their history is confusing because I get different stories as I read on. One of the members and possibly the founding member was Chester William Powers, Jr. He was known as Chet Powers and his stage name was Dino Valenti. But we are not done…as a songwriter he was known as Jesse Oris Farrow. He wrote the very popular “Get Together” made famous by The Youngbloods in 1967. He and Gary Duncan wrote this song…Fresh Air.

It seems that Cipollina and Duncan helped form the band with Dino Valenti in 1964-65. Valenti was busted for pot and amphetamine possession right after and sold his rights to Get Together for a legal defense. He spent time in jail until 1968. When he got out he made a solo album and even opened up for Jimi Hendrix at the Fillmore West. He would finally join Quicksilver in late 1969 or early 1970.

Fresh Air was released as a single in 1970 and also appeared on their album Just for Love. The album peaked at #27 on the Billboard Album Charts and #49 on the Billboard 100. Dino Valenti does the lead vocals on this song. They were a popular band because 4 of their album were in the top 30 of the Billboard Album Charts.

There is much more history to this band than I have of course. I will post another one by them shortly and expand on some of their history.

The band is still going with David Freiberg.

David Freiberg on the name: “Originally there were four Virgos in the band, and one Gemini. Of the four Virgos, there were only two birthdays: John and I were born on August 24, and Gary and Greg were born on September 4…. The ruling planet for Virgo in astrology is Mercury, and it is for Gemini also. So in searching for a name, we said, ‘Well, let’s see – mercury’s the same as quicksilver, right? Mercury’s the messenger god? Quicksilver Messenger Service.’” 

John Cipollina: It was Valenti who organized the group. I can remember everything Dino said. “We were all going to have wireless guitars. We were going to have leather jackets made with hooks that we could hook these wireless instruments right into. And we were gonna have these chicks, backup rhythm sections that were gonna dress like American Indians with real short little dresses on and they were gonna have tambourines and the clappers in the tambourines were going to be silver coins.” And I’m sitting there going, ‘This guy is gonna happen and we’re gonna set the world on its ear.’

Gary Duncan: That’s the story Cipollina told everybody. But according to Dino, that wasn’t the case at all. When he’d been looking for a band, he’d talked to Cipollina, and everybody somehow put two and two together. He actually lived with us when he got out of prison, and while we played some music together and wrote songs, he had no interest in playing in Quicksilver; he wanted to start his own career. Well, when his own career didn’t do so well, he had more interest in playing in Quicksilver!

Fresh Air

Oh, what you do to me
Oh, what you do to me, little girl
Oh, have another hit of sweet air
Oh, have another hit

I want to know where you going
I want to know, sweet mama, where you gonna go?
Oh, have another hit of fresh air
Oh, have another hit

Oh, baby what you gonna do?
I what to know what you gonna do sweet thing?
Oh, have another hit of sweet love in the morning
Oh, have another hit

I love you, yes I do
I love you, god knows I do
Oh, have another hit of sweet California sunshine
Oh, have another hit

Take me home, take me home
Take me home, I wanna go home with you
Oh, have another hit of fresh air
Oh, have another hit

Author: Badfinger (Max)

Power Pop fan, Baseball, Beatles, old movies, and tv show fan. Also anything to do with pop culture in the 60s and 70s... I'm also a songwriter, bass and guitar player.

37 thoughts on “Quicksilver Messenger Service – Fresh Air”

  1. Who knew why they picked that name, and dang, why all the secret squirrel stuff with the names? You gotta love these bands for their names if nothing else. I have their first album, somewhere in a box, likely next to my Jefferson Airplane one. I was digging around the other day and found Sonny and Cher’s first album ( must belong to my sister) and the Monkee’s albums,( also belonged to my sister) which were darn good tunes and the wrecking crew played all the music.

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    1. They did have some names to behold…I’ll admit…hearing the Monkees when I was 7 years old made me want to play music. They had some good pop songs. They had long since broken up by the time I heard them…then I found the Beatles.

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  2. Cool pick today Max. Your research jives with my knowledge about Dino Valenti / whatever name he was using. I think everyone in that band went to jail for possession at one point. This is a good song and Dino’s Song and Pride of Man is think it’s called.

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  3. This was a new era for Quicksilver, featuring Dino Valenti and Nicky Hopkins (keyboards). In my mind, the highlight of their career was while Dino Valenti (and his various aliases) was locked up and the band featured the twin guitars of Gary Duncan (on lead in the video) and John Cipollina. That line-up played one of those legendary concerts that made me wish I’d been born a few years earlier. They played here in October 1968. Gary Duncan didn’t have Valenti’s voice (or all of that echo), but musically they were hot.

    I recommend the first album (with Gold & Silver) or the second album (with an entire side devoted to “Who Do You Love” and more Bo Diddley on the other side). Melodically I loved Duncan’s guitar work. Cipollina had a way of playing feedback right on the edge – just barely controlled.

    Cipollina had a unique sound due to a unique set-up – a Gibson SG with one pickup going to his bass stack (two Standell amps each with 2×15″ speakers), the other to a Fender Twin Reverb (2×12″) and Dual Showman feeding six Wurlitzer horns. His website says, “I like the rapid punch of solid-state for the bottom, and the rodent-gnawing distortion of the tubes on top.”

    After Quicksilver, Cipollina went on to form Fish & Chips (with Barry “The Fish” Melton of Country Joe and the Fish), The Nick Gravenites (of The Electric Flag)-John Cipollina Band, and The Dinosaurs (various old guys from 60s SF bands who got together to play local clubs in a changing line-up, which is how I finally got to see him in the 80s).

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    1. I’ll save some of this for next time….I do like their earlier stuff as well. Nicky Hopkins did surprise me…being in a San Francisco band because he was such a productive British session musician….and had a sickness that didn’t mix well with playing live.

      I love those old tube amps and I have a really old Gibson 1948 tube amp… I do want to get some sixties tube amps if I can find any half way affordable….I mostly have 60s and 70s Kustom Amps but they are solid state.

      Like Moby Grape….I love what I heard from them.

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      2. Yep Kustom…they are really good amps. The most famous band I can think of that used them were CCR…they are tough….almost as tough as Peavy.

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  6. Well my initial reaction was yet another band I know the name of (it’s one that sticks in your mind) but I’ve never heard, but when I started listening to this, I do indeed know it. The classic rock station in Toronto played it semi-regularly. It’s a good one, I like it. It seemedlike it had the right sound for the times, suprised it didn’t do somewhat better. Especially with the lyrics which probably appealed to radio execs – ‘it sounds kind of trippy, but at least they’re not promoting anything druggy. Just another hit of fresh air. We should play that more!’ :p

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    1. Yes! I remembered it also…I didn’t think I would know it but yes…I knew this song. I should have done this on Earth Day…but well…”another hit” could have been pointing that way but again…you would have to read something into it. Either way cool song and yes…it fit the era perfectly.

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    1. Like with Moby Grape…I like a lot of their songs. Their history is very muddy though…one says this and the other says that…but I like their music.

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  12. Like their name, however convoluted it got to get there. I remember listening to ‘Happy Trails’ eons ago, but nothing really resonated me with it then. Great art work on the’Happy Trails’ album sleeve though.

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    1. Oh yes! I’ve seen that album cover before. I remember seeing it in record stores back when…well he had record stores…or more of them anyway.

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    1. Thanks man…yea all of these San Francisco bands this week I don’t know much about but I thought it was time I gave them a listen.

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  14. I’m in the same boat you were before you started looking into Quicksilver Messenger Service. I had heard their name before, as well as “Fresh Air” – great song! That said, I couldn’t associate it with the group. “Get Together” by The Youngbloods is another gem in my book.

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    1. No….most of these bands and artists I don’t know much about…there are two that I did know some about but still limited compared to others.

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