In 1965, David Freiberg helped form Quicksilver Messenger Service, becoming part of the wave of psychedelic rock bands that transformed San Francisco into one of the epicenters of American music.
More than 60 years later, Freiberg is the last surviving member of the band’s original lineup. And on Aug. 24, the musician celebrates his 88th birthday.
Born Aug. 24, 1938, Freiberg began his career far from the psychedelic ballrooms of San Francisco. Classically trained on violin and viola, he worked for a railroad while moonlighting as a coffeehouse singer-songwriter during the folk revival.
Those early years also put him in the orbit of musicians who would become central figures in the emerging San Francisco scene. Freiberg shared a house in Venice, Calif., with David Crosby and Paul Kantner and later became one of the founding members of Quicksilver Messenger Service.
Freiberg shared lead vocals with Gary Duncan and played bass, guitar and keyboards with the group, appearing on six of Quicksilver’s first eight albums. Although the band never enjoyed the singles success of some of its San Francisco contemporaries, albums including Quicksilver Messenger Service and Happy Trails helped establish the group as an important part of the city’s psychedelic sound.
Freiberg left Quicksilver in 1971 and soon became part of another branch of the San Francisco rock family.
Following his release from a brief jail stint for marijuana possession, Freiberg joined Jefferson Airplane for its 1972 tour. When the final Airplane lineup evolved into Jefferson Starship in 1974, he went with it.
Freiberg remained with Jefferson Starship for roughly a decade, contributing vocals, keyboards and bass during one of the band’s most commercially successful periods. He also developed the distinctive organ riff on the Marty Balin-penned “Miracles,” which reached No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100.
But Freiberg’s biggest songwriting contribution came as Jefferson Starship entered a very different era.
After Grace Slick and Balin left the group in 1978, Mickey Thomas joined as its new lead singer. Freiberg was the primary composer of “Jane,” which he co-wrote with Kantner, Jim McPherson and Craig Chaquico.
Released on Jefferson Starship’s 1979 album Freedom at Point Zero, the hard-rocking “Jane” reached No. 14 on the Billboard Hot 100 and helped usher the band toward a heavier sound. Decades later, the song found another life in pop culture, including prominent appearances in Wet Hot American Summer and the video game Grand Theft Auto IV: The Lost and Damned.
Freiberg stayed with Jefferson Starship until the mid-’80s, departing as the group transitioned into Starship. He later said the increasingly synthetic direction represented by “We Built This City” simply wasn’t what he wanted to do.
“I didn’t want to be there because they were doing ‘We Built This City’ and all. It was at the point where they were going to the studio, and nobody in the band was playing anything. Maybe if they needed a guitar… Craig would play it. It was all producing and it was all hot stuff keyboard players and that is what I was basically playing with them…you know…and that wasn’t me. Why have me around? Why should I be around?,” said Freiberg in an interview with John Barthel.
Two decades later, however, Freiberg returned to the Jefferson Starship fold. He rejoined Kantner for a 2005 tour and ultimately became a permanent member of the revived group.
Today, Freiberg remains a member of Jefferson Starship, more than 50 years after he helped launch the original incarnation of the band. He also carries on the legacy of Quicksilver Messenger Service as the last surviving member of the celebrated San Francisco group’s original lineup.
Not bad for a railroad worker who started out playing folk songs in coffeehouses.
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