154. Quicksilver Messenger Service - Happy Trails (March 1969)

1. Who Do You Love Suite -

I. Who Do You Love (Part One)

II. When Do You Love

III. Where Do You Love

IV. How Do You Love

V. Which Do You Love

VI. Who Do You Love (Part 2)

2. Mona

3. Maiden of the Cancer Moon

4. Calvary

5. Happy Trails

**1/2

Does a twenty minute long exploratory jazz-acid reworking of the Bo Diddley classic "Who Do You Love" sound like a good time to you? If so, I strongly recommend Happy Trails. Personally, though, I kind of think this album is a waste of time.

I think I would have enjoyed the "Who Do You Love" suite a bit more if I wasn't intimately familiar with the original. As it was, I couldn't help thinking of how much I liked Diddley's version and how much the Quicksilver Messenger Service got wrong with their interpretation of it. The original is spooky, fun, sexy, concise and a rhythmic monster. The suite is a long, jammy exercise in so-so guitar heroics, anchored by some extremely unimpressive drum work. I mean, Bo Diddley is considered one of the fathers of punk rock. The Quicksilver Messenger Service are a freeform acid-jazz-rock combo built around twenty minute guitar solos and feedback experiments.

After a few listens, I was able to shed most of my preconceptions and appreciate Happy Trails for what it is, instead of what I wish it would be. And I have to admit - there are a few moments of real beauty here, and the musicians have some pretty impressive chops. But this really just isn't my cup of tea. And it's not just the Diddley covers. The two originals that close out the album are sort of pointless. I've bemoaned the fact several times, but I think you really need to be stoned to appreciate this music, and I'm not about to risk another psychotic break just so that I can properly appreciate "Maiden of the Cancer Moon".

I can see why people like this stuff. I think the problem is I sit and listen to these sorts of albums through, when they're really intended as party soundtracks. As background music to a swinging party, Happy Trails would be excellent. I tried listening to it drunk once while on the computer dicking around, and I didn't mind it. But my last listen was twenty minutes ago, at 11 in the morning, stone cold sober and preparing to go to work in a few hours. Not really an environment conducive to getting all groovy, to use the parlance of the time. 

Happy Trails is a solid album, and its approach points the way forward for a lot of jammy, exploratory music. I can definitely see why people liked it at the time - it manages to go to to some very strange places while remaining pretty accessible, and we haven't really had much like it in the Book at this point. Doing this project, I've found that I'm no great fan of the San Francisco sound, but for a lot of people in the 60s and onward this album must have been a window into a world, and a legendary scene, which a lot of people idolised and still mythologise and pine for to this day. Then there's the fact that this album's approach - taking classic songs and reworking them into long, unrecognisable forms - would be pretty popular through the early 70s until punk came along and remind everyone how to rock. Happy Trails manages to strike a solid balance between direct rock and proggy excess, and I kind of admire the Quicksilver Messenger Service for that. I just really doubt I'll be listening to this album again any time soon.