Quicksilver Messenger Service Part Two: 1970 to 1975

      Around New Year's Eve of 1969, Quicksilver began rehearsing again with Gary Duncan and Dino Valenti back in the band. Some of these rehearsals would eventually be released as Castles in the Sand. It becomes clear that Dino is now taking charge much to the disagreement of some. The shows are filled with his new songs while the band's past songs are limited in appearance and length. The drawn out jams are now generally replaced with short pop songs.

     Dino also talks the band to go to Hawaii to do recording. The band ended up in a rural area and had to have a studio built that could run on a generator. The band spent two months in adverse conditions. They returned to the States and finished off the troubled recording sessions in California. The band also brought in horns for the sessions.  These sessions would produce two albums: Just for Love (released in August 1970) and What About Me? (December 1970). Just for Love would produce the big hit Fresh Air. Nicky Hopkins, John Cipollina and David Freiberg would leave not long after the release of What About Me? Both albums are good but not as constantly good as what came before.

     Mark Ryan was brought in on bass. Mark Naftalin also arrived on keyboards during this era. The band began recording their next album, Quicksilver in November. The album actually had many good songs on it like I Found Love, Fire Brothers, Out of My Mind, Don't Cry My Lady Love and The Truth. The previous four albums had all reached the Top 30 but this one didn't even crack the Top 100. Mark Naftalin left and Chuck Steaks was brought in.

Capitol Records put together the two record "best of" set, Anthology hoping to generate more interest in the band. The band returned to the studio rather quickly, with a horn section, to begin work on the next album.

     Comin' Thru was released in April 1972 and sold even worse than Quicksilver. The album does have it's moments such as Doin' Time in the U.S.A., Changes and Mojo. The band continued to perform with John Cipollina and David Freiberg showing up to jam with the band at Winterland Arena in San Francisco on December 1, 1973.

     Capitol Records was beginning to have issues with the band and wanted more of the "classic line up". John and David returned, at least somewhat, for Solid Silver released in October 1975. The album featured a number of strong songs like Gypsy Lights, I Heard You Singing (written by David and Grateful Dead lyricist Robert Hunter), and Witches Moon. I Heard You Singing had already appeared on Robert Hunter's Tales of the Great Rum Runners solo album. The album also featured guest appearances from people like Nicky Hopkins, Mark Naftalin, Pete Sears and Kathi McDonald. The album sold better than the last two albums but it wasn't enough. John had his other projects while David was busy with the Jefferson Starship. Gary and Dino carried on the band with changing line up until the end of the 1970's.

     Gary reformed Quicksilver in 1986 and they've released a few albums with different line ups. David has recently rejoined the band as well. In the late 2000's Bear/Voiceprint Records released a few archive releases. More recently, Cleopatra/Purple Pyramid Records began releasing archive Quicksilver releases.