Inkwell: Authors and Artists

    
Hmm.   Capitol must've been a whole 'nother organization than the one we
signed with in '75.   But then, the US was a whole 'nother country by then.
When you guys traveled out of the Bay Area, did you get hassled for the hair
and such?   Any seriously close calls?
  

    
Hey, Ritchie!  Missed you when you were up here last!  NMHRK!!  

Rik- when we mixed the "Just for Love" album at Capitol, we must have
had every piece of outboard gear in the building plus four or five two
track machines running tape delays - and we got no complaints. 
However, I must admit, I wasn't there in 1975.  

When we traveled we got lots of stares and few people would yell "What
are you a girl or a boy" and the like.  We never really had any close
calls, unless we seriously were asking for trouble. One that comes to
mind is the time we thought we could get away with surreptitiously
passing a joint around the first-class cabin of an American Airlines
flight to Dallas.  The police met us at the door, made us sit down
until the other passengers were off (they tsked-tsked at us as they
filed by) and searched around our seats - finding nothing. I had a few
joints in my pocket and could hear the cell doors slamming shut in my
mind but they never searched our persons.  Never tried *that* again!!
  

    
Dallas in the 60s?   Texas was famous for the toughest drug laws in the
country back then.   Our first road trip, coincidentally, was a two day shot
in Dallas in 72, but we were so paranoid that we traveled clean and had the
company rep in dallas take care of us when we got there.   The trip home was
a lot more fun.    We, of course, had the full hair, denim, and lether thing
going, and imagind my surprise when this girl who looked like an apprentice
librarian sidled up to me and said, "Ya'll wanna smoke some dynamite weed?"
As soon as I got my berings back I tried to say yes, but my bassist and
drummer had done it for me, and the four of us head to the back of the plane
and slipped into one of the rest rooms.   Yes, all four of us.   Jay stood
up, Jance sat on the sink, and I sat on the toilet with our benefactress in
my lap (she got cuter.  Took off her glasses and...)  Well, the weed was as
advertised and I have no idea how long we were back there, but we all just
froze when we heard the stewardess knock on the door and say, "Y'all hav e
to come out of there. We're about to land."

So we pulled it together, opened the door, and it must have looked like
Spicolli and the gang falling out of the VW bus.   Smoke billowed into the
aisle and we all stumbled back to our seats past the laughing stewardesses
who were already strapped in and laughing.   We touched the runway about the
same time as we sat down.    But this was SFO, the flight attendants were
all stationed here, and everybody thought we were more cute than
threatening.     Had it been Dallas, we'd still be in jail.
  

    
E-mail from Mark Erickson, who also attaches a .jpg, which I can't display
here...

When ever I think of John Cippolina....my 30th birthday comes to 
mind....after a double shift bartending at a little English Pub in
Muir Beach the Pelican Inn....had nothing to do to celebrate my 
birthday.....two girls that had been in the bar till late offered to 
take me out to dinner...we ended up at the only place still 
serving...Marin Joes....well we sat down and were having a great 
time...when a
group of musicians sat down at the table next to us...one being 
Cippolina....I was tickled and was going to say high to him when I
left...well the girls got the waiter to bring a cupcake out with a 
candle as a surprise...they started to sing Happy Birthday....and all
of a sudden Cippolina and his friends stood up and sang in harmony 
HB....well that was a capper to a long and unusual
birthday....after he tipped his hat [so to speak-did'nt have a hat] to 
me and sat down and resumed his dinner......It was
a great moment....one I will never forget......shook his hand as I 
left.....and remembered all the times I'd seen him play with
QSMS.....Zero.....the Dead......on and on.....that sound he got.....the 
intensity is still quivering through old concert halls.....later
I painted this wild abstract painting called "Cippolina".......which was 
eventually bought by Mark McGwire of the A's.....a
Cippolina fan ....

......here's a recent  portrait of John I did a collaboration with Pat 
Johnson........Viva Cippolina.....VC........
........Mark Erickson
  

    
guitar slinger - everything i wanted to know was answered, but ijwts
-what a lovely video it is.

in the 60's we waited a long time on the east coast for some
quicksilver and finally it came - highly recommended with one of the
last doses of mescaline i ever saw!

iirc - later i was at the show at the fillmore east 6/68 where QMS
opened for the electric flag. jimi hendrix came out and played the
encore after bloomfield left the stage.

I had come to see quicksilver and they sure didnt dissapoint.

crazy daze indeed - how many were spent upstairs at a friends house,
stoned, listening to the fool! 

thanks for that! 

i'd be all for a concert video or audio - and it would be a historical
shame if it didnt happen, if it wasnt preserved.
  

    



Date: Fri, 31 Aug 2001 03:59:43 -0700 (PDT)
From: David Peregrim <david_peregrim@yahoo.com>
Subject: for David Freiberg, about PBS
To: inkwell-hosts@well.com

David,

The first time I was exposed to psychedalic rock was
when I was about 12-13 years old.  It was a public
broadcasting show on channel 13 in New York.  From
what I remember it was QMS in some kind of studio.
Dino Valenti looked outratgious on conservative PBS.
It was fantastic for a young teenager.  Must have been
around 1970.  Do you recall anything about shooting
this PBS show?

dave
  

    
Rik - at least you guys had the good sense to use the restroom.

Dave -  I don't remember doing a studio PBS show - that doesn't mean
that there wasn't one, though.  There was one that was taped outdoors
at Sonoma State University that was edited in with Jefferson Airplane's
studio tapings.  I think it was called Go Ride the Music or something
like that.That would have been with Nicky Hopkins and Dino.Hmm ... now
there's one coming back to me that we did at Pacific High Recording,
also with the Airplane.  Don't have copies, though.
  

    

Hi David! Howzit!

Coming into this a little late but enjoying the stories. Sure bringing back
memories. Like visiting you guys up in Haleiwa in - 1970? I was always sad
to see the Dino 'n' Gary show eclipse what I always thought was the soul of
QMS. BUt life goes on.

Somebody asked,
>>What kind of life did he have outside music?

and I was always struck by John's enthusiasms for, whatever it was at the
moment. One time he played a show I was working down at the Catalyst in
Santa Cruz. Can't remember what band it was with. Anyway he bent my ear for
20 minutes about the latest additions to his gun collection! It was fun to
listen but boy was I thinking, "whatever!"

Also, re Ace of Cups - I was just down in LA with Denise. We are embarking
on a project - well maybe it will turn into a project, I am doing my best to
push it into being - of an Ace of Cups or at least a Denise Kaufman
songbook. Recorded about 30 songs in her living room in Venice, just to get
words and music on tape. Including, of course, Flute Song.

Hi to Linda. And hi Richi!
  

    
Yes, guns.  In my brief time hanging with John, he was most proud of his guns
and his batwng guitars.

I show me how he used NITRO POWDER SOLVENT (a vile-smelling liquid) to clean
and lubricate his strings.
  

    
Hey Lolly!  It'd be nice to hear those Denise songs - I always felt
like I'd murdered Flute Song on Shady Grove.  

John *could* bend one's ear!  One of the last times I saw him was in a
courtroom in Sacramento, where Duncan and Elmore were in legal battle
over something or other.  John was called to the stand and asked a
rather simple question and he started talking. The judge and the
attorneys, for some reason, didn't stop him while he rambled from one
topic to the next.  After about twenty minutes (well, it must have
seemed like that to the court reporter, who had an incredulous look on
her face), John looked up and said: "Let me know when I've answered the
question." The courtroom erupted in laughter. John was using crutches,
had an oxygen tank with him - but still sneaked off to the stairwells
to smoke an unfiltered Lucky Strike.

Yes - Hoppe's Gun Oil - the odor comes back to me even now!  I always
felt that that stuff must be hell on one's liver. Kinda reminded me of
carbon tetrachloride - WHEW!  Ever read the warnings on that stuff?
  

    

I probably still have a bottle of it somewhere.  To me, it had a sort of
intensely chemical fake-banana smell.
  

    



Date: Fri, 31 Aug 2001 17:07:44 -0400
From: David Goodfriend <dgoodfriend@ap.org>
Organization: The Associated Press
To: inkwell-hosts@well.com
Subject: cipollina

glad to see that somebody has done a doumentary on this man.  a
beautiful and inventive player...for me, him and Moby Grape were the
only decent music that came out of SF....the jeffeson airplane? mediocre
at best and the starship is a embarassment....although I admire
personally the Dead, their music leaves me cold...Jerry GArcia searcing
in vain for a musical idea and the worst harmony singing I have ever
heard....I think that time has proven that what was happening on the
east coast (velvets, etc) was better and has also stood the test of time
. yeah, I am from the east coast.  sorry to piss you off...
my hats are off to Mr. Cippolina. may he rest in peace as his music
continues to inspire.
David Goodfriend
  

    

Two reminders:

1.  The correct spelling is CIPOLLINA  (two Ls, one P)

2.  Readers from outside the WELL are invited to send questions or comments
to inkwell-hosts@well.com
  

    <scribbled by castle Fri 31 Aug 01 14:19>
  

    
slipped by David, posting the exact same e-mail!
  

    

David, I hope there will be something for you to hear soon. Once Denise ok's
it I will definitely send something to Polte. But - meanwhile don't tell
him, I want it to be a secret (which is why, like a fucking idiot, I posted
about it on the well. Sigh, so much for that.......)
  

    
Hal, Could you give us simoe background on Copperhead?   Was that John's
primary focus after QMS?  Who was in it, and how would you contrast them?
  

    
Copperhead's album has just been reissued on CD by a British label.  I got a
copy a couple of weeks ago.  Some fine music!
  

    
Cool! Wasn't Gary Fillipe in that group? Also Hutch (now of Bonnie Raitt
affiliation)?
  

    
Also my late good friend & collaborator, that wonderful human - Jim
McPherson.
  

    
Finally had a chance to watch 'Guitarslinger' all the way through last
night, and I want to commend Hal and everybody involved - this is a great
appreciation of John Cipollina's life and music. The skillfully-cut piece
of music left me hungry... I hadn't realized JC had been involved with so
many bands outside Quicksilver. I searched Amazon by name and found only
one non-QS album actually available (and three unavailable). The one
that's available is an import called 'Raven.' Aside from the playlist
there's nothing about it... anybody know this one?

It was also cool to see the clips of Nicky Hopkins talking - when were
those shot?
  

    
Email from "Cipollina Fan":

COMMENT FOR THE JOHN CIPOLLINA ELECTRIC GUITARSLINGER CONFERENCE

You can find John's music at:

http://www.musicsearcher.com/c/Cipollina,John.php?searchfor=CDsMerch&popup
=

The recently re-released Copperhead CD can be found at:
http://www.evangeline.co.uk/Copperhead.html

and is available at most Bay area Tower Record stores
  

    
Been thinking more about the John/Gary guitar duo and how they complemented
each other. I remember now that I used to think of Gary as the Apollonian
one and John as the Dionysian one. I used to think the same thing about
Buffalo Springfield -- that Stills was Apollonian and Young was Dionysian.
I'm not sure I even understand those terms well enough to throw them around,
but that's how I thought of them.
  

    
Copperhead was John's First Big Adventure after QMS.  The band only lasted
a couple of years - 71 to 73 - and consisted of John, Jim McPherson, Gary
Phillipet, Hutch Hutchinson, and David Weber.   They produced a single 
album (self-titled "Copperhead") originally on Columbia I think, but 
recently released by Evangeline Records.

  http://www.evangeline.co.uk/Copperhead.html

I'm told 'twas a great band, but I was living out on Long Island at the time
and never heard them play live.  The album is very good.

John's main bands were QMS, then Copperhead, then more-or-less long 
overlapping streches with Terry and the Pirates, Thunder and Lightning/
Nicksilver, and Dinosaurs.   Lots of other bands were fit in around the 
edges - Raven, SF All-stars, Zero, Problem Child, etc.   Other bands
he played in were only slight shuffling of his main bands.   Dinosaurs
(Barry Melton, John, Peter Albin, Spencer Dryden, and Merl Saunders)
without Merl Saunders became Fish & Chip (Barry Melton being The Fish
of Country Joe and The Fish).

Many of these bands managed to put out at least one album, and Terry and
the Pirates (Terry Dolan, John, Greg Elmore, Greg Douglass and friends),
put out a number of very good albums.  I've had fair luck building a 
collection of these at used record stores and eBay.
 
John also sat in with an amazing number of other artists and bands 
including Grateful Dead, Paul Butterfield, Maria Muldaur, Michael
Bloomfield, and many others including a particular hero of his - 
Link Wray (yeah -- the guy who did Rumble).  He even did some 
soundtrack work on odd movies - like _Skiing Extreme_ a 1988 skiing
movie.   
  

    <scribbled by jonl>