John Cipollina: Quicksilver’s Whammy Bar King

The psychedelic era produced it’s fair share of remarkable guitarists. Jimi Hendrix invigorated the blues with a cosmic twist. Jerry Miller of Moby Grape injected some country licks into his band’s early power pop masterpieces. Jerry Garcia and The Grateful Dead captivated the hippy generation with seemingly endless jamming marathons in legendary auditoriums like The Fillmore. One of the most singular talents and instantly recognisable players to emerge from this era was Quicksilver Messenger Service’s John Cipollina.

John Cipollina and Quicksilver Messenger Service were one of the house bands of the San Francisco acid rock scene. Their music is indubitably linked with this period, with flower-child lyrics and extended space-blues jams. The guitar playing of Cipollina was what really set them apart from the crowd though. The best phrase to describe his playing is left-of-centre. His style was a striking amalgamation of blues, jazz, classical and thumb-picked rock, all delivered with extensive wiggling of his Gibson SG’s whammy bar. His intense vibrato style would influence many future guitarists like Tom Verlaine, Nels Cline and Richard Thompson. Check out this video from Cipollina’s solo career. Please excuse the mooners near the start of video, they mean no harm. 

Quicksilver is not one of the more celebrated bands from this period. This could be down to their inconsistent recorded legacy. Having said that, the band did produce some interesting music that is worth a listen. What makes most of their stuff interesting for me is Cipollina’s idiosyncratic guitar style, incorporating jazz and classical licks with a unique blues-rock vocabulary. He is one of Quicksilver’s signature tunes, Gold and Silver. The use of unusual time signatures and elongated instrumental sections make it an early example of jazz-rock.

Recommended Listening: Happy Trails – Quicksilver Messenger Service
http://allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:g9fpxqt5ld6e

Some Top Quicksilver Moments: Who Do You Love, Mona, Gold and Silver.

Funky Cuts, Pt. 1: Eddie Hazel: P-Funk’s Fuzzmeister

I turned to my sibling Declan for our next entry. He’s the funk fan amongst us and has chosen that acid-fried Strat freak, Eddie Hazel.

The P-Funk collective, consisting of Funkadelic & Parliament, was bandleader George Clinton’s distilled concept of the ultimate funk act. Clinton believes that a life without “The Fonk” (I am using the vernacular here) is a life not worth bothering with. “The Fonk” is the answer and the solution to all of life’s worries and strife. The P-Funk universe has played host to a number of colourful and talented individuals over the years. These include bass legend, and permanent inhabitant of “The One”, Bootsy Collins, keyboard maestro Bernie Worrell, and nappy-wearing musical director Garry Shider. For guitarists though, the mysterious man in the bug-eye shades and occasional cape manhandling his Fender Stratcaster is the focal of our interest. Dear cats and kittens, I give you Eddie Hazel.

Eddie first came in contact with George Clinton in the late 1960s, when the young guitar hotshot joined Clinton’s Parliaments, an up-and-coming soul combo based in Plainfield, New Jersey. This act eventually morphed into Funkadelic, losing the matching suits and dance routines along the way and gaining a more psychedelic rock sound and look. Combining the spaced-out rock of Jimi Hendrix and Frank Zappa with the burgeoning funk of James Brown and Sly Stone, Clinton had created an outfit that could jam like a rock band, as well as lay down the groove like no one else.

Eddie Hazel was key to the early Funkadelic sound. He co-wrote legendary P-Funk tunes like Free Your Mind And Your Ass Will Follow, Standing On The Verge Of Getting It On and Ret Hot Mama. His screaming, echo-drenched fuzz guitar solos washed over these tunes like a psychedelic blanket of stars. His signature tune is, without a doubt, is Maggot Brain, the title track of Funkadelic’s 1971 magnum opus. The track is, basically, a ten-minute guitar solo, with only sounds of wars and a lightly plucked rhythm guitar to accompany it. The legend goes that Hazel was locked into the studio and told to play like his mother just died. Did he achieve the desired effect? You be the judge.

Eddie, as well as recording a fine solo album “Game, Dames and Guitar Thangs”, continued to contribute to various P-Funk related recordings throughout the 1970s and 1980s until his untimely death in 1992. What I like most about his playing is that he seems to be taking a great sound (In my opinion, Hendrix’s Band Of Gypsies record) and running with it. That is not to say Hazel was a mere Hendrix copyist. Rather he took up the torch of insane funky guitar soloing for a new generation, putting his own stamp on the sound as he went. He influenced near contemporaries like Ernie Isley of The Isley Brothers and Ron Asheton of The Stooges, as well as modern funksters like Prince. If you are a fan of rock music, give Eddie and Funkadelic a try. Consider them a gateway drug into the murky world of “The Fonk”

Recommend Listening: Funkadelic - Maggot Brian (1971)

http://allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:jifixqy5ldfe

Some Choice Hazel Grooves: I Wanna Know if it’s Good to You, Red Hot Mama, Funky Dollar Bill (All Funkadelic tunes)

Please do check back soon for some more Funky Cuts.