Jesse Colin Young and the Youngbloods - they were pretty good, no?

[Taverner]

The principal at my high school suggested them.

At the time I was into 60's Hippie Bands, but man - from your principal?

Anyway, fast forward about 20+ years - he was right. They were pretty good.

[Ron Green]

1. My favorite voice from that era, for sure.

[abq e streeter]

2. School principals (some anyway) have changed a hell of a lot since I was young ( eons ago)

One I worked for from about 2002-2008 is a hard core blues fan, and reggae too. I've run into her at many blues shows , and at a Bob Dylan/Phil Lesh concert too.
And yeah, Jesse Colin Young has made some real nice music in his life.

[Taverner]

7. Yeah but that was 20 years later!

This was the mid-eighties, when payphones in national parks were new technology!

[Dystopian]

3. They were awesome...yes!

This is my favorite ...I'm certain that I've posted it here before...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4u80u6nJ2g8
Sweet that you love the music from a different time.....
My time:-)




peace~

[Taverner]

4. I love all music from my reference point (I'm 39)

Everything from Bing Crosby to Lady Gaga

[mitchum]

5. They are allegedly the reason that Carson quit having bands on the Tonight Show

Carson thought Young had an attitude problem.

I really love their guitar sound. Like the Byrds on heroin. And y'know I'm partial to that sound.

[Taverner]

6. LOL Byrds on heroin.

That's what I thought of Wolfking of LA

[DFW]

8. My band once opened for them in Washington DC in 1968

They were all rather standoffish except for Jerry Corbitt, who was the nicest guy you could want to meet.

Lowell "Banana" Levinger was stuck up, Joe Bauer was always in a foul mood, and Perry Miller ("Jesse Colin
Young") was just sorta "there," never said a word to us, although his later dedication to environmental
causes is legendary. I can't believe he'll be 70 next year!

OK, we were just the local backup band, but we were treated as regular guys by other bands we backed up,
including Canned Heat and Junior Wells.

Their music, on the other hand, was just great. Over 40 years later, Earth Music is STILL one of my all time favorite albums.

[Taverner]

9. Interesting!

Because in the long run you'd expect someone more along the lines of Jimmy Page, David Gilmour or even Doug Yule being like that!

[DFW]

13. As musicians ourselves, and only high school age, we didn't know what to expect

If you look up the Ambassador Theater in Washington, you'll see the whole run of main acts that played there. We were only on for 4 weeks in a row. We couldn't even be listed because we were all underage and weren't eligible for membership in the musicians' union. Officially we couldn't even play for pay, although Court Rodgers gave us something like $15 a piece for food money. I heard he's still around.

Maybe it was because of Joe Bauer's jazz background, or Banana's multi-instrument musicianship, but the Youngbloods were one of the tightest, most professional-sounding bands I saw in the 60s. The Hollies was the other. I saw a LOT of bands in the 60s, and most of the big name ones were top, but having fun and jamming half the time as well. A friend of mine once did the sound for Spirit, recorded the gig and then accidentally recorded over the tape!!! I heard one sequence when half the band lost power. Only the PA system and the bass could still be heard. The band launched into an impromptu number, made up on the spot, called "Loss of Power" that would have been an underground hit if anyone had ever cared.

I also ran into Johnny Winter at a festival in France in 1970. He was a hell of a nice guy, invited me back to hang with the band, who either ignored me or were total assholes (especially Rick Derringer). You just have to totally separate the personalities you meet with the music they make, because they often don't jive.

[Taverner]

15. Ahhh memories - I was in a Heavy Metal band in the late 80's

Yes, you've never heard of them - Attica. We had a logo very similar to Metallica's.

We did 5 gigs, then the lead singer went born again Christian (this was the 80's), and the rest of us promised to form a prog rock band in his wake.

Soon after, I was in Oregon, getting my BA. The rest of the band - all software engineers. That is, except the lead singer. I think he became a preacher.

[DFW]

16. My band broke up in the fall of 1968 when we scattered to the 4 winds

We were called the Clockwork Orange (in 1967!!) after the book. This was 3 years before the film came out,
so everyone asked us where we got a screwball name like that. The lead singer/lead guitarist found LSD and
San Francisco, the drummer went to Providence RI (RISD), I went to Spain and the rhythm guitarist stayed on
in Virginia, while his predecessor went home to Canada (his dad was the Canadian Ambassador). If we had stayed
together for another 3 years, we would have had great name recognition, courtesy of the film, and probably
a huge copyright infringement lawsuit to boot.

We played a number of private gigs around the Washington DC area, but playing at the Ambassador Theater was
definitely the height. We got that gig by accident. A friend of ours had done the sound system for the place,
and invited us in one Saturday afternoon to play to the empty theater for a sound check of his equipment.
We said, yeah, cool, we get to play the Ambassador! Just like Jimi Hendrix had a couple of weeks before us,
ha ha. We were jamming along while our friend was tinkering with the sound system, and suddenly this guy
appears and asks us who we were and what the hell were we doing? We said we were helping with a sound check,
and who was he? He said his name was Court Rodgers and he owned the place. Oops! We said we were very sorry
to have disturbed him, that we were just helping with a sound check, and would get the hell out of there ASAP.
He said, no wait, he wasn't pissed off at us, and come to think of it what were we doing that evening? Uhhhhhh,
well, as of that moment, we weren't doing anything. So we got our first of four gigs at the Ambassador. That
was like being pulled off the street in San Francisco and being asked out of the blue to open at the Fillmore
for the Grateful Dead. Heady stuff at age 15.

[triguy46]

10. C'mon, they aren't mentioned much for a good reason:

They have not met the test of time. Kinda lightweight then. Not any better with age.

[triguy46]

11. Here's a clip telling the story of walking off the Carson show:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GeEFnUhW79Y

[mitchum]

12. Thanks!

I had heard about this years and years ago, but never knew the details.

[Blue_In_AK]

14. I LOVE them.

I have all of the Youngbloods Greatest Hits loaded on my iPod. :hippie: