| BOOK REVIEW |
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| MY HUSBAND THE ROCK STAR - SHELLEY DUNCAN Book Review by Diane Wells |
| I was a mere 10-year-old girl when 16-year-old Shelley Duncan began a decade of marriage to Quicksilver Messenger Service (QMS) rhythm guitarist Gary Duncan in 1965. He was but a few years older than she, so it wasn't a Lolita kind of thing but more like John Cougar's "Jack and Diane" - "two young lovers with nothing better to do". Neither one of them had an inkling of the measure of success that QMS would eventually attain. Even though it reached only a cult-level status, where North American air play was concerned, the popular band had a steady run of gigs alongside the likes of the Grateful Dead and Big Brother and the Holding Company (with Janis Joplin), most notably at Bill Graham's Fillmore East and the Avalon Ballroom in San Francisco. The band eventually scored a hit with "Fresh Air", as in, "Have Another Hit of", which was dedicated to marijuana users everywhere. I would not become personally familiar with their music until 1972, while on a high school trip to England. I had made the acquaintance of an Englishman ten years my senior, who was familiar with the hippie culture of Haight-Ashbury, no doubt through the participation of English keyboard whiz Nicky Hopkins on QMS recordings. In any case, their highly melodic folk-rock sound, especially with the spicy vocals of Dino Valenti (now deceased and whose son now carries on his musical legacy), was unforgettable. When Shelley contacted me to advise that she had written a book chronicling her life with Gary and QMS, I was quite eager to check it out. In fact, I greedily "devoured" it in less than 24 hours and was quite disappointed when the central characters eventually "grew up", albeit reluctantly in some cases. Shelley herself was actually more in a position of "inside, looking out" rather than an active participant, although not altogether. She does succumb, on occasion, to the strange temptations around her, if only to satisfy her natural curiosity, but ultimately settles on the role of "rock'n'roll widow", a phrase coined by Tina Turner, in her song of the same name. (continued on next page) |
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