John Cipollina

This was John's last public appearance before he died of emphysema. I ran into Middlejohn, a friend of John's on Maui several years later... The Dinosaurs The Dinosaurs, formed in 1982, was the only Bay Area supergroup to emerge from the psychedelic music era of San Francisco. The group consisted of Peter Albin of Big Brother and the Holding Company, John Cipollina of Quicksilver Messenger Service, Papa John Creech of Hot Tuna, Spencer Dryden of the Jefferson Airplane, Robert Hunter of the Grateful Dead, Barry Melton of Country Joe and The Fish and jazz organist Merl Saunders. In 1988, the band released its only studio album, Dinosaurs. In 2005 the band released a retrospective album on the Evangeline label, entitled Friends of Extinction. John Cipollina (August 24, 1943 – May 29, 1989) was a lead guitarist best known for his work with the San Francisco rock band Quicksilver Messenger Service. He pronounced his surname with the Italian "C" (Chipollina). Born in Mill Valley, California, Cipollina had a unique guitar sound, mixing solid state and valve amplifiers as early as 1968. He is considered one of the fathers of the San Francisco psychedelic sound. He played with finger picks and used a whammy bar extensively which, he explained to Jerry Garcia, was to make up for his weak left (tremolo) hand. Even more unusually, he attached six wurlitzer horns to the top of his distinctive amplifier stack. His style was highly melodic and expressive. Cipollina died at the age of 45 from emphysema following a lifetime of illness.