Loose Leaf Notes

The Youngbloods was one of the bands that epitomized the ‘60s music experience for me.  I bought their records, and my sister Sherry and I saw them in concert at The Boston Music Hall in the early ‘70s. After the band broke up I followed Jessie Colin Young’s, the lead singer’s solo career.

Everyone knows the Youngbloods’ hit Get Together … C’mon people now smile on your brother … Everybody get together … try to love one another right now… What I didn’t know, or I forgot I knew, was that the Youngbloods didn’t write that song and were only one of many bands that covered it. 

It was a big deal for me that Jessie Colin Young was playing 45 minutes away at the Harvester Performance Center in Rocky Mount, like it was a big deal when Tom Rush played there.  Joe isn’t as familiar with the Youngbloods music as I am. I told him they were sweet and upbeat like the Velvet Underground (another favorite band) was dark and edgy, the way the Beatles were sweet and the Stones were not.

Our grandsons were here for the weekend and we took them to the concert with us, but not before playing and singing along with Get Together a few times.  Turns out, they never got to hear it because it was the last song the band played and by then they both had fallen asleep.

After an acoustic sit down singer’s set, Jessie was joined on stage by a group of dynamic young musicians, including his son on bass guitar, and they rocked some fusion.  The Boston theme that was displayed on Bryce’s sweatshirt carried on into the show.  Many of the band members came from Boston and Jessie sang  a song based on the Boston Marathon bombing. When they finally played “the song” I was waiting for, I about cried. It has special meaning for me, and I have been enchanted with Jessie’s singing, the lyrics, and especially the haunting guitar-chord refrains since I first hear it in 1968 in Boston.

“It’s a bucket list song, I told Joe, which means “play it at my funeral.” ____________Our World Tuesday