Quicksilver Messenger Service - Sons Of Mercury (1968-75/1991)

When this two-CD set first appeared in the early '90s, it was among the only Quicksilver Messenger Service titles in the digital domain. It remained the closest thing to a definitive anthology of this seminal psychedelic Bay Area band. Sons of Mercury -- a clever pun on the band's mythically derived name -- begins with QMS's earliest released tracks, "Babe I'm Gonna Leave You" (not to be confused with the Joan Baez composition) and a cover of the Buffy Sainte-Marie classic "Codine." Both were featured in the '60s low-budget teensploitation flick Revolution, which preceded the band's self-titled debut by a few months in the early summer of 1968. The remainder of disc one contains a majority of QMS's self-titled debut long-player, as well as the previously unissued track "I Hear You Knockin' (It's Too Late)," recorded during the sessions for the first LP. This is followed by a large portion of their highly acclaimed follow-up, Happy Trails, which combined concert tapes with carefully incorporated studio enhancements. Disc two contains a sampling of material from the band's other six studio LPs. By the early '70s, the group had evolved beyond the original union of John Cipollina, Gary Duncan, David Freiberg, and Greg Elmore; the second lineup included Dino Valente and legendary British session keyboardist Nicky Hopkins. From this era, Sons of Mercury includes the FM radio hits "What About Me?" and "Fresh Air." Also incorporated are some of the later and much less representative works that QMS released sporadically through the mid-'70s, such as "Fire Brothers" and the largely forgettable "Gypsy Lights." It can be argued that, like Haight-Ashbury contemporaries the Grateful Dead, QMS was never aptly captured on vinyl -- the band's expansive sonic explorations often extended beyond the time limits inherent in a typical album. Ironically, QMS never issued a retrospective concert recording during the group's active lifetime. One flaw here is including the diminutive 45-rpm edit of the "Who Do You Love?" suite from their second album. Granted, the full-length live version does take up an entire side of Happy Trails. However, no other single work in the QMS canon spotlighted each of the quartet in such an accurate way.