He subsequently appeared on Thirty Seconds Over Winterland (1973), a live album culled from those performances. Shortly after being released from jail in 1972, Freiberg joined Jefferson Airplane at the behest of Kantner, belatedly replacing Marty Balin on vocals and tambourine for the tour that supported Long John Silver. His most notable songwriting contributions include 'The Fool' and 'Light Your Windows', both co-written with Duncan. He continued to serve as the group's bassist and contribute to the band's songwriting until September 1971, when he left the group to begin another prison sentence for marijuana possession.

In addition to earning three Billboard Top 100 hits, several of their albums ranked in the Top 30 of the magazine's album chart. Though not as commercially successful as contemporaries like Jefferson Airplane, Big Brother and the Holding Company and the Grateful Dead, Quicksilver was integral to the development of the San Francisco sound. He would play on six of the eight Quicksilver albums. As the 'most folk-rooted member' of Quicksilver, he also reworked a number of songs from the folk revival and singer-songwriter repertoires (most notably Hamilton Camp's 'Pride of Man') for the group.

Due to the surfeit of guitarists in the group, Freiberg (who was only tangentially acquainted with his bandmates through their mutual friendship with Valenti, with Cipollina remarking that they had been instructed to 'take care' of him) was assigned the bass.įreiberg shared lead vocals with Gary Duncan for much of the band's history and regularly contributed additional guitar and keyboards to their studio recordings. The founding took place shortly after Valenti, who had recently hired the musicians for his backing band following the folk rock explosion, was imprisoned for drugs. But the onset of the Beatles spelled the end of David & Michaela, and incentive for Freiberg to switch to rock and electric instruments.' Quicksilver Messenger Service įollowing his release, Freiberg co-founded Quicksilver Messenger Service with guitarists John Cipollina, Jim Murray and Gary Duncan and drummer Greg Elmore in 1965. David & Michaela made a demo at CBS studios, and ' Elektra producer Paul Rothchild proposed fitting them into a bigger folk group.

During his time as a coffee house folk singer, he was part of the duo David & Michaela. Prior to being incarcerated, he also became acquainted with Dino Valenti, then Crosby's nominal roommate on a houseboat in Sausalito, California. For a while, he shared a house in Venice, California with David Crosby and Paul Kantner before being briefly jailed for marijuana possession. Career Singer-songwriter Ĭlassically trained in violin and viola, Freiberg began his career moonlighting as a coffeehouse singer-songwriter (playing acoustic guitar) during the American folk music revival while working for a railroad. Among other tracks, he co-wrote ' Jane', a hit for Jefferson Starship. David Freiberg ( / ˈ f r aɪ b ər ɡ/ FRY-berg born August 24, 1938) is an American musician best known for contributing vocals, keyboards, electric bass, rhythm guitar, viola and percussion as a member of Quicksilver Messenger Service, Jefferson Airplane, and Jefferson Starship.

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