Quicksilver Part 4: David Freiberg Reveals The Full Story Behind Quicksilver Messenger Service’s Early Days (Interview Part 1) (The Crazy Tale of Quicksilver Messenger Service Series) (Ep. 276)

Discograffiti is the deep-dive podcast for music obsessives. The Crazy Tale of Quicksilver Messenger Service is an audio documentary series that was crafted to act as the ultimate assemblage of fact and opinion on one of the greatest bands to ever walk the face of the earth. This 8-episode series is built around a 2 1/2 hour interview with The Patti Smith Group’s Lenny Kaye, and the main event: an unprecedentedly detailed five-hour interview with last man standing David Freiberg, a very special experience that—regardless of how you feel about the group—will absolutely blow your mind with its unique twists and turns. There’s in-depth commentary on their history, a slew of endlessly wild stories, and star ratings for every release. Prepare yourselves: Lenny Kaye’s the wind up, and David Freiberg is very much the pitch.

This is Part 4 of the series—and part 1 of my discussion with David—in which we cover the completely insane early days of Quicksilver Messenger Service, packed with stories that seem more like mythical tall tales than true events.

Here are just a few of the many things that David discusses with Discograffiti in this podcast:

His early jobs actually working for the railroad;

A rundown of his three distinct pot bust arrests;

How he met Dino Valenti, which led directly to his involvement with Quicksilver;

Trying to get the band off the ground while both Dino and David were behind bars;

The period when the band lived together on a soon-to-be-condemned series of quasi-houseboats;

The period when the band lived in what they described as a “Victorian insane asylum”;

The cowboy period when the band lived out on a horse-filled ranch while The Grateful Dead lived nearby and got into an Indian trip;

And the derivation of their crazy name.