John Cipollina was a guitarist who was best known for his role as a founder and the lead guitarist of the prominent San Francisco rock band Quicksilver Messenger Service. He created a distinctive guitar sound by using a one-of-a-kind amplifier stack, while his Gibson SG guitars had two pickups, one for bass and one for treble, giving a sound which was instantly identifiable as his own. After leaving Quicksilver in 1971, Cipollina formed the band Copperhead with early Quicksilver member Jim Murray, former Stained Glass member Jim McPherson, drummer David Weber, Gary Phillipet (a.k.a. Gary Phillips) on keyboards, and Pete Sears on bass. Copperhead disbanded in mid 1974 after becoming a staple in the SF Bay Area, and Cipollina teamed up with Link Wray to perform a series of shows together along the West Coast, with the Copperhead rhythm section of Hutchinson & Weber, and keyboardist David Bloom. During the 1980's, Cipollina performed with a number of bands, including Fish & Chips, Thunder and Lightning, the Dinosaurs and Problem Child, and he was a founding member of Zero, and its rhythm guitarist until his death in 1989. On 20 February 1988 he put together a band which consisted of his brother Mario Cipollina on bass, former bandmate Pete Sears on keyboards, Tony Johnson on drums, and Alex Ligertwood on vocals, and they performed one gig at SF Musicworks in San Francisco, California. It was one show, one time, so the band was named Once, and they played an hour and half set of classic covers from the 60's and 70's, which enabled Cipollina to adapt his great guitar style to a variety of genres, including rock, blues and reggae. I think the second set was marginally the better, with Cipollina's guitar playing being outstanding on some tracks, while a couple of them didn't work quite as well, so I've taken what I consider to be the best recordings from the night and edited them down into one six-track, 46-minute album of superb music from a true guitar legend, recorded just one year before his untimely death.
Track listing
01 My Babe
02 Who Do You Love
03 Baby Watcha Wanna Do
04 You Gotta Help Me
05 Stormy Monday
06 Mona / Tequila / Mona
