John Cipollina

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John Cipollina (born August 24, 1943 in Berkeley , California , † May 29, 1989 in San Francisco ) was an American rock musician who became known as the guitarist of the San Francisco-based band Quicksilver Messenger Service . The music magazine Rolling Stone voted him 32nd of the best guitarists of all time.

John Cipollina, December 1976, Berkeley

biography

Since 1959, John Cipollina played with various bands in the Bay Area around San Francisco . In 1965 he was a founding member of the Quicksilver Messenger Service band . They performed at the Fillmore West and the Monterey Pop Festival , among others . In 1968 her first album was released, entitled Quicksilver Messenger Service . The band's subsequent album, Happy Trails , is considered a milestone in music history and ranks 189 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 best albums of all time . Cipollina initially stayed with Quicksilver Messenger Service until 1970, then left the band temporarily and returned to Quicksilver Messenger Service in 1973.

In 1970 Cipollina founded the band Copperhead , with whom he recorded an album. A second album was recorded, but has remained unreleased to this day. After the group broke up in 1973 until his death in 1989, Cipollina played in numerous bands, including Terry & the Pirates , The Dinosaurs , Raven, Zero, Man , and Thunder And Lightning , as well as with Nick Gravenites .

Cipollina, who had suffered from chronic, severe asthma since childhood , nevertheless became a chain smoker. On May 29, 1989, he was admitted to Marin General Hospital due to an asthma attack, where he died of emphysema during the night . He was last seen live on May 13, 1989. Cipollina's ashes were scattered on June 1, 1989 on Mount Tamalpais near San Francisco.

Today, alongside bands like Jefferson Airplane and the Grateful Dead, he is considered one of the co-founders of San Francisco psychedelic rock music.

His brother Mario Cipollina (* 1954) was the bass player for Huey Lewis & the News from 1979 to 1995 .

Equipment

During his career, Cipollina mainly played Gibson SGs , for a short time also a model by Carvin, but in retrospect is now particularly associated with the former guitar. These were always with a tremolo - Bigsbyhebel equipped, from which he made very frequently use and which thus also characterized his guitar playing strong. He used various amplifier models from the California-based company Fender . Both tube amplifiers and semiconductor amps were used. Unusually for guitarists, he also used 15 inch speakers . In addition, over the course of time, he had developed a completely individual cabling, in which one pickup on the guitar was connected to one amplifier and the second pickup to the other amp.

Discography

The discography shows a selection of albums with him as a band member, studio musician or guest.

The album Raven is in a sense the only album that could be considered a solo album; Cipollina took a few friends into the studio. He produced and arranged all of the pieces on the album, which appeared under his name and is also known as John Cipollina's Raven .

Quicksilver Messenger Service

Copperhead

  • 1973: Copperhead
  • 1973: Live 73
  • 1990: Drunken Irish Setter

Dinosaurs

  • 1988: Dinosaurs
  • 1988: Live in San Francisco

John Cipollina's Raven

  • 1980: Raven

Merrell Fankhauser

  • 1985: A Day in Paradise
  • 1986: Dr. Fankhauser

Freelight

  • 1977: Freeway

Nick Gravenites

  • 1969: My Laboratories ; QMS as guest on three songs
  • 1980: Blue Star (Line Records)
  • 1982: Monkey Medicine "The Nick Gravenites John Cipollina Band" (Line Records)
  • 1991: Live At Rodon "Nick Gravenites and John Cipollina" (Music Box)

Man

Maximum Darkness LP (1975) United Artists: CD (1991) BGO CD 43: CD Re-mix (2008) Esoteric ECLEC 2061 Micky Jones, Deke Leonard , Martin Ace, Terry Williams , John Cipollina Recorded at The Roundhouse , Chalk Farm , 26 May 1975

Terry and the Pirates

zero

  • 1987: Here Goes Nothin
  • 1990: Nothin Goes Here
  • 1991: Go Hear Nothin (Live)
  • 1994: Live At The Fillmore

With other artists

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ John Cipollina in the RS ranking
  2. ^ The RS 500 greatest albums of all time ; Rolling Stone.com; Retrieved January 19, 2012
  3. ^ John Cipollina: The Life And Death Of San Francisco's Most Prolific Guitarist by William Ruhlmann
  4. ↑ John Cipollina at allmusic.com
  5. ↑ Information about the equipment on the John Cipollina homepage
  6. ↑ Extensive discography list at deaddisc.com
personal data
SURNAME Cipollina, John
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American rock musician, guitarist
DATE OF BIRTH August 24, 1943
PLACE OF BIRTH Berkeley , California
DATE OF DEATH May 29, 1989
Place of death San Francisco