Added: Aug 28, 2010
From: RadioCannedMusic
Duration: 9:19
Dinosaurs consists of former members of Big Brother & the Holding Company (Peter Albin), Quicksilver Messenger Service (John Cipollina), Country Joe & the Fish (Barry Melton), and Jefferson Airplane (Spencer Dryden), plus two musicians closely associated with the Grateful Dead's Jerry Garcia (Merl Saunders, who co-led a band with him, and his lyric collaborator Robert Hunter). If the group had been formed in 1972, when its members ranged in age from their mid-20s to their mid-30s, it might have been considered a supergroup and gotten national attention and a major-label recording contract. Instead, it came together in 1982, when the musicians were in their mid-30s to mid-40s, and the name, taken from Melton's stage remark, "We're just a bunch of old dinosaurs," signaled that this was some friends getting together for a little fun rather than a serious enterprise. But the pedigree of the players was enough to draw audiences, mostly in Northern California, and after half-a-dozen years of occasional gigs, the band finally made an album. It's a loose, unassuming affair from a collection of musicians who were not the focal points of their earlier bands. Melton was always a reliable second banana to Country Joe, and he remains a sturdy figure here, the closest thing to a frontman in a band that really doesn't have one. Cipollina's guitar sound helped define Quicksilver, and it remains identifiable here, particularly on the live recordings of Nina Simone's "Do I Move You?" and the old Quicksilver warhorse "Mona." Hunter had left the band by the time the album was made, but returned to sing his lyrics on "Who Makes the Moves?," the most striking original song. Much of the individual playing was striking, too, but Dinosaurs on the whole did not reach the heights ascended by some of the former bands of the group's members. ~ William Ruhlmann, All Music Guide
Channel: Music
Tags: the dinosaurs country joe & the fish grateful dead jefferson airplane barry melton spencer dryden jerry garcia john cipollina peter albin merl saunders robert hunter steve keyser
Rating: 5.0' max='5' min='1' numRaters='5' rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#overall ( ratings) Views: 1184 Comments: 3
unviciouscircle Says:
Aug 31, 2010 - triffick share *****
amstratnut Says:
May 28, 2011 - I'm pretty sure I was there. I saw the Dinosaurs numerous times in Palo Alto. Good times. Man were they loud.
TheQuicksilverdog Says:
Aug 28, 2010 - The Keystone in Palo Alto was a great place to go while it was open. I might have been at this gig, caught the Dinosaurs there once, but not sure if it was in 1984 or this one. I grew up in Palo Alto.