The Encyclopedia of Dead Rock Stars (167 page)

Quicksilver Messenger Service

Cusping the hippy scenes of both East and West coasts, singer/guitarist Dino Valenti was a colourful figure critical to the formation of acid-rockers Quicksilver Messenger Service. The young Valenti and his sister were born to variety entertainers, and spent most of their childhood travelling from town to town; Valenti was labelled ‘the magical brat’, owing to his act and general demeanour. Although he suffered a broken marriage, early experiences left Valenti unfazed by strong personalities, which was to his advantage as he moved west into a houseshare with David Crosby (of The Byrds), Paul Kantner (of Jefferson Airplane) and bassist David Freiberg, who joined him at the birth of QMS – alongside the brilliant John Cipollina and Gary Duncan (guitars), Greg Elmore (drums) and later Nicky Hopkins (keyboards). Previously a ‘minstrel’ with a few solo sides for World Pacific, Valenti’s first achievement on the signing of Quicksilver to the ubiquitous Elektra was to get himself banged up for drug possession. At a time when the authorities were making examples of young people (Mick Jagger, Brian Jones, etc), Valenti was, to his horror, given a custodial sentence, and had to sell the rights to his finest song, ‘Get Together’, to bust himself out of jail. ‘At the time, I figured I could always write another,’ claimed Valenti after his release. Cipollina, who had previously befriended the singer, was distinctly put out by Valenti’s return, QMS having cut a couple of long-players without their renegade frontman – and promptly left the band. In Valenti, he, like many others, saw a confrontational character; most put this trait down to the frontman’s previous ‘gypsy’ lifestyle. The truth was, however, that Valenti had a rare brain condition, undiagnosed until it became life-threatening.

With QMS a distant memory (the band never recovered without Cipollina), Dino Valenti underwent major surgery around 1983 – but it was clear he was living with a condition that was in effect something of a time bomb. Valenti died a decade later in Santa Rosa, leaving a legacy of many fine songs to the Library of Congress. The Jimi Hendrix hit ‘Hey Joe’, however, was not written by Valenti, despite many claims to the contrary.

See also
John Cipollina (
May 1989)

Tommy McManus

(Enniskillen, Northern Ireland, 1966)

Mama’s Boys

On the same day, another childhood illness resurfaced to claim its victim. Plucky drummer Tommy McManus had been diagnosed with leukaemia at just nine years old, and stunned doctors by apparently defeating the disease within a couple of years. Growing up in rural County Fermanagh, McManus and his brothers Pat (guitar) and John (bass) followed a heritage of traditional Irish music before a career in soft metal beckoned, with support slots to Irish rockers Horslips and Thin Lizzy in the early eighties. A contract with Jive gained proper distribution for the band’s fourth album (no less), but it was in America that Mama’s Boys attracted most attention. McManus suffered his first relapse as the band’s Slade cover ‘Mama Weer All Crazee Now’ (1985) was break-ing across the Atlantic. A second relapse occurred in 1992, when the hardworking four-piece were on a tour of Europe, this time more serious, and the young drummer was advised to undergo a bone-marrow transplant. Tommy McManus waited a year for a donor to be found, but sadly passed away during the operation. His two brothers – having composed a eulogy to their sibling called ‘Brother’s Lament’ – closed the book on Mama’s Boys and re-entered the world of more traditional Irish rock as Celtus in 1996.

Wednesday 23

Tommy Boyce

(Sidney Thomas Boyce - Charlottesville, Virginia, 29 September 1939)

Tommy Boyce was one of the most prolific US songwriters in the sixties. After a fruitless recording career as a teen pin-up, Boyce’s first successful tune was ‘Be My Guest’, a Top Ten hit for Fats Domino in 1959 - further compositions for Curtis Lee (‘Pretty Little Angel Eyes’ and ‘Under the Moon of Love’) got Boyce invited to work at the fabled Brill Building in New York, where he was partnered with Bobby Hart. The pair really hit paydirt with the million-selling ‘Come a Little Bit Closer’ (1964) for Jay & The Americans and, moving to Screen Gems, a number of songs for the Monkees, for whom they shared songwriting duties with another young product of Brill, Neil Diamond. Boyce finally realized the dream of his own Top Ten hit with his and Hart’s ‘I Wonder What She’s Doing Tonight?’ (1968), and, during the seventies, the duo toured with Mickey Dolenz and Davy Jones. As a quartet, they regularly performed The Monkees’ ‘Last Train to Clarksville’ - Boyce and Hart’s only Billboard charttopping composition.

Tommy Boyce suffered a severe brain aneurysm at the age of forty-three, which had a hugely detrimental effect on the demeanour of this previously ‘up’ individual. Attempting to deal with depression, he appeared on US chat shows and revealed his worsening condition to millions. Boyce - writing his autobiography at the time - committed suicide in strangely similar circumstances to his longtime friend, singer Del Shannon, who also died at the age of fifty-five (
February 1990).
Just as he appeared to have overcome the worst of the affliction, Boyce was found by his wife on the morning of 24 November 1994. The songwriter had apparently shot himself in the head.

DECEMBER

Saturday 10

Garnett Silk

(Garnett Smith - Manchester, Jamaica, 2 April 1966)

Beginning his career as a juvenile ‘toaster’, Garnett Smith was known as Little Bimbo before choosing the smoother moniker that would complement his adult vocal style. Silk made his first recordings as an 18-year-old DJ – under the guidance of natural mentor Tony Rebel - though his first bona fide release was ‘Problems Everywhere’ (1987), which earned him the respect of fellow artists such as Sugar Minott, who worked with him as a result. Silk was shortly to convert to Rastafarianism, a transition marked by the album
Garnett Silk Meets the Conquering Lion
(1988), something of a hidden classic until its 2000 reissue. Still known by many as Little Bimbo, Silk recorded with a variety of other artists, most notably Rebel and veteran singer Derrick Morgan, who mostly oversaw the singer’s graduation from the dancehall of his younger days. The next five years were a somewhat inconsistent period in Silk’s career, though his studio output remained phenomenal and sprinkled with occasional gems. This remarkable work rate also saw the singer collapse on stage in New York around this time. In 1994, however, it seemed Silk was set for the big time as he finalized a deal with Atlantic Records.

Before he’d even had time to complete a first album for the highprofile label, disaster struck. Returning to Jamaica to visit his mother, Garnett Silk asked friends to show him how to use a pair of guns he’d purchased following a recent burglary at his Mandeville home. As the others watched, one weapon was discharged accidentally, hitting a propane tank, which in turn set the house ablaze. Silk and his friends made haste for the door, before the musician realized his mother lay asleep upstairs: he tried to save her but both were overcome by smoke – and perished.

Friday 23

Dan Hamilton

(Spokane, Washington, 1 June 1946)

Hamilton, Joe Frank & Reynolds

The T-Bones