One of my favorite unsung bands from the sixties: The Youngbloods singing "Euphoria"

[DFW]

[OAITW r.2.0]

1. Jesse Colin Young was awesome. Seemed like they were everywhere, but not on radio....

[DFW]

3. My teenage band once opened for them in Washington--55 years ago!!

I saw Perry ("Jesse" ) in Philadelphia in 1974, and then again in Truro, Massachusetts about 5 years ago. He was 75 or so, and still sounded great, as he always did.

[highplainsdem]

4. "Get Together," re-recorded with Steve Miller to celebrate the song's 50th anniversary, and

used to benefit WhyHunger's Rapid Response Fund:

[DFW]

6. I never even knew they knew each other!

Thanks for that!

[highplainsdem]

10. You're welcome! I love collaborations like that.

[highplainsdem]

11. American Songwriter article and podcast video on that collaboration:

Last edited Sun Aug 14, 2022, 09:32 AM - Edit history (1)

https://americansongwriter.com/jesse-colin-young-and-steve-miller-get-together/

Jesse Colin Young just collaborated with the legendary Steve Miller on a new version of “Get Together” in celebration of the 50th Anniversary of The Youngbloods’ version hitting #1 on the Billboard charts. The updated song and video was released in conjunction with WhyHunger for their recent SongAid campaign, and you can view the video here.

In support of this release, Jesse sat down and interviewed Steve for his video series and podcast, Tripping On My Roots.

During the interview, they discuss coming up together in Greenwich Village, Jesse hearing “Get Together” being played the first time in 1965, how they both would up moving to San Francisco in 1967, as well as many stories of the progression of their individual careers.

A pioneer of American roots music for more than half a century, Jesse Colin Young has left a unique mark on the intersecting worlds of folk, blues, jazz, and rock & roll. With his Tripping On My Roots podcast, the former Youngbloods frontman “gets together” with some of the legendary peers who’ve built similar legacies, while also taking a look at the musical heroes whose songs have inspired his own.

The podcast video is on that American Songwriter page, but it's a YouTube video so I can also add it here:

[highplainsdem]

7. Do you by any chance have a recording of that set? And I'd love to know

which songs were on your setlist then.

Btw, re how good Perry/Jesse still is, this is video from a fan who saw him perform March 5th with Tom Rush and Matt Nakoa in Lexington MA:

[DFW]

12. I wish!!

This was 1967!! Unless recording was set up in advance, sets were never preserved.

Our sets usually opened with the Grateful Dead's album version (they were all on speed, but we didn't know it at the time) of "Cold Rain And Snow," and ended with a note-for-note rendition of the long (1st Doors album) version of Light My Fire. We did some Dead songs, a few of our own, two from Hendrix (The Wind Cries Mary and, of course, Purple Haze). Some blues (Stones version of Walkin' The Dog). Standard progressive 60s fare, although for DC, we were considered out on the fringe. If we had been in New York, L.A. or the Bay Area, who knows? We were four--a drummer, a rhythm guitarist, a lead guitarist/lead singer and me on bass and keyboards (think Ray Manzarek, although I played bass guitar as well). Whether any recordings of us survive, I couldn't tell you. Two years after we scattered to the four winds, EVERYBODY knew the name of our group--they just never knew it was the name of our group. We had named ourselves after a book we had all read around 1965. Five years later the film came out: A Clockwork Orange. But by then we had all moved on.

Perry/Jesse's voice is starting to strain a little (certainly OK at age 80, although my late friend Theo Bikel could still belt them out at 85), but after 60 years, he knows those songs cold, and can move his voice to where he needs to.

[highplainsdem]

13. Fantastic setlist! And I just realized how young you, and probably your bandmates, must have been

then -- mid-teens rather than late teens, so being hired to support the Youngbloods was really impressive.

And you did some of your own songs. Now I'm wondering which artists most influenced those songs.

I'd read A Clockwork Orange by then, but the film did get a lot more attention.

Out of curiosity, I googled to see if any other bands had named themselves A Clockwork Orange, and I found this:
https://anthonyburgess.org/a-clockwork-orange/the-legacy-of-a-clockwork-orange/

Interestingly, that article on the musicians who were influenced by Burgess's novel (and the film) doesn't mention that German band I first heard about from you, or their 1988 concept album and hit single:
https://wikipedia.org/wiki/Die_Toten_Hosen

https://democraticunderground.com/10181664814#post4

[DFW]

14. I was the baby of the group at 15.

The other three were "already " 16. Another group had taken the name, but I think that was years later, after the film had made the name famous. At the time we were active, we were constantly asked about our "weird" name, and where it came from.

Our big gig in DC came about when we were riding around with an older friend who had been hired to build the sound system for the Ambassador Theater, the short-lived Washington wannabe version of the Fillmore East. He asked if we had tome for him to do a sound check before the show that night (it was a Saturday). We said OK. He then said that since it was not in the best part of town, we should probably bring our equipment in with us, so we did. Once inside, he said that we could set up if we wanted, and make his sound check easier. So we said, sure, it would be the only chance for us to play at such a prestige place. Jimi Hendrix had been there a few weeks before. Of course, in the empty hall with his sound system, we sounded fabulous. Suddenly a guy appeared and asked who we were? We said we were friends of the guy who built the sound system, and we were helping with a sound check, and by the way, who was he? He said, "I own this place."

OOPS!! We apologized for the noise, and said we'd stop immediately. He said, no, that's OK, and were we by any chance doing anything that night? Ummm, not any more we're not!!! His backup band had canceled on him, and he was in a bind. We called everyone we knew, and had quite a crowd. The next three weeks, we ended up opening for the original line-up of Canned Heat, Junior Wells, and finally the Youngbloods. He started to get nervous about having kids our age there, since we were too young to join the Musicians Union. He found himself an older band, but for a few weeks, it was the greatest gig a bunch of high school kids in DC could ever want to get.

Our own stuff was influenced by contemporary music of the time--Cream, Sgt. Pepper, Pearls Before Swine, Country Joe and the Fish, the Byrds, the Doors, the Dead, etc etc.

[highplainsdem]

16. Great story! And the owner of the Ambassador was very lucky that you showed up

when you did.

Even if he was worried about how young you were.

I think the rules about working musicians' ages got bent a lot back then (probably still do, though you're not likely to hear about it till years later).

Producer Tony Visconti was working as a musician before he was 16, including at a Catskills resort (think of the film Dirty Dancing) where he worked 6 days a week the summer he was 15. He had his union card at 16, but he was also hired to play bass then in a nightclub band, at Ben Maksik's Town and Country Club in Brooklyn, where the headliners included Tony Bennett, Robert Goulet, Buddy Hackett and Milton Berle (who nicknamed Tony the Karate Kid after seeing him practicing karate backstage; this was in 1960, long before the film). Legally, musicians were supposed to be 18 to play in nightclubs. Tony had auditioned without saying how old he was, but came clean after the audition. He was advised to "borrow somebody's card" -- and he did, for the next year and a half. (This is in his bio.)

I'm not surprised your band had so many influences, considering your age. The same was true for Golden Earring when they started out in their teens -- all sort of influences, all kinds of different rock and pop music.

[highplainsdem]

2. Much better than the original from the Holy Modal Rounders:

[DFW]

5. The Wine Song, also on that album, Earth Music, was my co-favorite

[highplainsdem]

8. Music to get drunk to. :)

AND very well done. Clever song.

[highplainsdem]

9. I like "Long and Tall." It rocks. And I generally approve of songs about

tall women.

[DFW]

15. Long and Tall was not my favorite on that album

Even if it does describe the one I ended up with as a life's partner.

I once met a "take-your-breath-away" woman at my dentist's office. She was a girlfriend of the hygenist who was cleaning my teeth. She was from Venezuela, but had been living in the USA for many years. She was six feet tall, which she considered "too tall," and said she preferred to say she was 5'12" instead. Despite her Miss Universe looks, she said she had trouble meeting men. I told her flat out that if I weren't already happily married, I wouldn't have let her out of my sight ever again. She smiled, and I never saw her again (probably just as well!). I was always attracted to tall women and wouldn't have been bothered in the slightest if my partner were an inch taller than I.

[highplainsdem]

17. Being tall can be very awkward for a woman. Fine for basketball (and I'd

played basketball in junior high), challenging when shopping for clothes (though not so bad when I could wear dresses with hems 12" above my knees, and men's jeans with 36" inseams (though a younger brother of mine, 6'3", would sometimes "borrow" my men's jeans, especially if they had leather trim and the local stores were sold out before he could get the same jeans)). I thought I'd finally completely overcome feeling awkward about my height by my mid-twenties, but I hadn't, since I've never forgotten being at a cocktail party at a convention one day and spotting someone I wanted to meet on the other side of the pool deck...and realizing they were really short, probably nearly a foot shorter than me even if I hadn't been wearing platform heels, which I was. I went back to my room to change to flats, but by the time I got back to the party they were gone.

A lot of men do seem to find tall women intimidating, too.

So I loved it when I ran across a song celebrating tall women. I wished the Hollies' "Long Cool Woman In A Black Dress" had come out years earlier.

Re that Youngbloods track -- as I said, it rocks. And although I like folk and folk rock and bluegrass, I really love rock.

And I love that Hollies song, where Allan Clarke was trying to sound like John Fogerty. Wow.

[DFW]

19. In days of yore........ n/t

[highplainsdem]

20. DFW has such interesting stories. And he tells them very well, too.