The Youngbloods' "Get Together," classic or dud?

Message Bookmarked

Bookmark Removed

This song has become a cliché of The Sixties^®--it's on innumerable "Summer of Love" compilations, and if it hasn't appeared in an Oliver Stone film over a montage of soldiers in Vietnam toking up, it might as well have. Otherwise it's likely to be invoked ironically, as in Nirvana's "Territorial Pissing." I think that's a shame because this is an incredibly lovely song. The twin guitar lines are so crisp, so perfect. I like that simple drum figure that chugs through the verses, and that arpeggiated chord that rings in the transition from chorus to verse. The chorus itself is questionable, I guess--it's interesting how it sounds like a run of the mill late-60s melody (something that might grate if heard too often on oldies radio) but the verses are something else altogether.

Before I make this song out to be some kind of martyr of anti-hippiedom, let's see what you all think of it. I say: classic classic classic.

― amateurist (amateurist), Friday, 25 April 2003 18:09 (twenty-two years ago)

I approve of some of the sentiments of the song, other lines are sort of incoherent but equally evocative of hippie utopianism and the Bible--although both of those things share a certain millenarianism.

― amateurist (amateurist), Friday, 25 April 2003 18:13 (twenty-two years ago)

...which I find powerful and unsettling still, apart from the clichés of Robert Zemeckis films and so on. But it's the music here that gets me.

― amateurist (amateurist), Friday, 25 April 2003 18:14 (twenty-two years ago)

amateurist, This was one of the five or ten favorite songs of one of my closest friends, someone I had long music discussions with. (I wish I could remember the others, since they were an idiosyncratic mixed bag of songs.)

― Rockist Scientist, Friday, 25 April 2003 19:11 (twenty-two years ago)

Anyway, yes, it's a good song, though not that much of a personal favorite.

― Rockist Scientist, Friday, 25 April 2003 19:13 (twenty-two years ago)

I should add that Jesse Colin Young now lives in Kona, Hawaii and is perhaps the biggest local celebrity that anyone not from the Big Island might have heard of. Also he briefly had a boutique label (on Warner Bros?) that was responsible for putting out several incredible records by Michael Hurley--which are unfortunately unavailable, unless you buy a cassette from Michael himself.

― amateurist (amateurist), Friday, 25 April 2003 19:26 (twenty-two years ago)

I don't mind the chimy guitar line. However, the vocals and lyrics just SCREAM hippie 60s the same way "Goin' Up The Country" does.

I do think it's interesting that the song suggests we *try* to love one another. It's as if even they know what a futile quest that is.

― mike a (mike a), Friday, 25 April 2003 19:27 (twenty-two years ago)

Ha! I like "Goin' Up the Country" too, if it's the song I think it is (the one that's played on the jukebox in Alice in the Cities--or is that "On the Road Again"?).

I guess this will become a "What is wrong with the 'hippie 60s' anyhow?" thread after all. So what's wrong with them, Mike? I find this song's evoking a moment when there was a kind of revolutionary-utopian fervor among the youth, one indebted to but not at all beholden to Christianity, sort of moving, despite the strained poesy of some of the verses.

― amateurist (amateurist), Friday, 25 April 2003 19:32 (twenty-two years ago)

I don't understand why the (as you admit, somewhat cautious) optimism of this song is any more objectionable than the pessimism evident in, say, the post-punk you hold so dear.

― amateurist (amateurist), Friday, 25 April 2003 19:33 (twenty-two years ago)

But basically it's the music--this song is beautifully recorded, too.

― amateurist (amateurist), Friday, 25 April 2003 19:39 (twenty-two years ago)

Oh, I'm sure that the song was as evocative of its times as, say, "Damaged Goods" was in its time. Personal preference, I guess.

― mike a (mike a), Friday, 25 April 2003 19:39 (twenty-two years ago)

I guess I'm a cornball, but I actually have a soft spot for a lot of those late-60s / early '70s utopian hits, especially those by groups I know nothing about: "Get Together," for sure, plus both Canned Heat singles, Alive 'n' Kickin's "Tighter Tighter," Brewer & Shipley's "One Toke Over the Line." God, I even kind of like "Oh Happy Day," which sorta fits. I hear this stuff as a 'genre,' somehow, but one that incorporates folk, blues, gospel, bubblegum.

― s woods, Friday, 25 April 2003 19:39 (twenty-two years ago)

Also the Canned Heat songs are more rural-southern nostalgia than apocalyptic utopianism...both important facets of the Sixties I supposed, but the former is more subterranean than the latter. That is, it hasn't been the focus of an Oliver Stone film yet.

― amateurist (amateurist), Friday, 25 April 2003 19:44 (twenty-two years ago)

I mean I can handle this sort of thing much more than the sloganeernig of Gang of Four--which I guess is personal preference since I won't win any arguments about GoF.

― amateurist (amateurist), Friday, 25 April 2003 19:45 (twenty-two years ago)

This song rules, and so does "Time of the Season," I don't care what anyone else sez.

― hstencil, Friday, 25 April 2003 19:46 (twenty-two years ago)

cf. the Turtles "Happy Together" and "You Showed Me" maybe as well.

― s woods, Friday, 25 April 2003 19:48 (twenty-two years ago)

Who the fuck sez anything bad about "Time of the Season"? Although that's more in it's-the-revolution-baby-let's-fuck genre (see also Tomorrow, "Revolution") than the-revolution-is-coming-oh-the-sadness-and-the-joy genre (see also "Something in the Air," "Turn! Turn! Turn!").

― amateurist (amateurist), Friday, 25 April 2003 19:50 (twenty-two years ago)

Yes on "You Showed Me," This Band's Biggest Single Is Their Most Annoying thread on "Happy Together."

― hstencil, Friday, 25 April 2003 19:50 (twenty-two years ago)

I wish I could sing like Marty Balin.

― Sean (Sean), Friday, 25 April 2003 19:52 (twenty-two years ago)

I just LOVE LOVE LOVE all the songs mentioned on this thread so far (except THE Brewer & Shipley ONE-I prefer "Witchie Tai To"). I so wanted to be a hippie when I was 9 years old I'd like to add the Three Dog Night version of "Easy To Be Hard" to the list.

Does anyone know anything about Jesse Colin Young's solo records? He's got a beautiful voice.

― Arthur (Arthur), Friday, 25 April 2003 19:52 (twenty-two years ago)

"Happy Together": annoying verses, fantastic chorus.

― s woods, Friday, 25 April 2003 19:53 (twenty-two years ago)

Er, "chorus" in this case (one of those songs where it's not so clear) being the "I can't see me loving nobdody but you" part with the huge bells.

― s woods, Friday, 25 April 2003 19:54 (twenty-two years ago)

I dunno about JCY's solo career, but the only other Youngblood's song I know is a knockout version of Tim Hardin's "Reason to Believe." Maybe I should get one of their albums.

― amateurist (amateurist), Friday, 25 April 2003 19:58 (twenty-two years ago)

I used to abjectly loathe "Get Together," as it seemed to typify all stripes of the ineffectual, hippy-dippy, lovey-dovey naivitee of its era. That said, it's aged pretty well. I'd never select it on a jukebox these days, but I wouldn't scramble for the door, babbling apoplectic obcenities and threats of violent retribution if someone put it on.

Ever hear the Wonder Stuff's cover of it? Don't get excited, it's yawnsomely faithful.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Friday, 25 April 2003 20:38 (twenty-two years ago)

Wait, let's keep "Time of the Season" out of this, since it's pretty annoying to me (musically).

― Rockist Scientist, Friday, 25 April 2003 20:47 (twenty-two years ago)

"Hey man, is that Freedom Rock?!"
"Yeah man!"
"Well TURN IT UP MAN!!!"

― Evan (Evan), Friday, 25 April 2003 20:57 (twenty-two years ago)

*cues "Love Train" by the O'Jays, sparks joint*

― hstencil, Friday, 25 April 2003 20:59 (twenty-two years ago)

I like "Time of the Season" and don't mind "Get Together" NEARLY as much as I'm being made out to think. Although the Indigo Girls did a really rotten cover of it once.

― mike a (mike a), Friday, 25 April 2003 21:01 (twenty-two years ago)

60's hippies = classic

post-60's hippiedom = dud

I love it that there's still teenage hippies over in the USA, it seems so quaint to me.

― Daniel_Rf (Daniel_Rf), Friday, 25 April 2003 23:26 (twenty-two years ago)

Oh, and the song's grebt of course.

― Daniel_Rf (Daniel_Rf), Friday, 25 April 2003 23:26 (twenty-two years ago)

Also, The Turtles were ironic.

― Daniel_Rf (Daniel_Rf), Friday, 25 April 2003 23:26 (twenty-two years ago)

two years pass...

what should i hear by jesse colin young solo?

― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Saturday, 11 June 2005 14:05 (twenty years ago)

How did I miss this the first time? The Youngbloods ruled. Amateurist, do you have Earth Music? That album is great. I've never heard the JCY solo stuff either. Probably should get around to that at some point.

― Stormy Davis (diamond), Saturday, 11 June 2005 22:06 (twenty years ago)

four years pass...

i've been listening to Elephant Mountain.

― ian, Wednesday, 9 December 2009 00:19 (sixteen years ago)

That song "smug" rules.
Dino Valenti's original recording of this is so awkward and weird compared to the Youngbloods iconic take.

― Trip Maker, Wednesday, 9 December 2009 00:27 (sixteen years ago)

I listened to hours upon hours of SOLID G0LD OLDIES radio in my youth & this is one song I haven't gotten sick of. Great chorus, love the harmonies... never paid too much attention to the lyrics in the verses but I approve of the general sentiment, which I don't read as Utopian-minded so much as
"hey, geez can't we all just get along here?" which I certainly find myself saying a lot

― lukevalentine, Wednesday, 9 December 2009 00:32 (sixteen years ago)

therefore... Classic

― lukevalentine, Wednesday, 9 December 2009 00:34 (sixteen years ago)

wait, the Elephant Mountain LP was produced by Charlie Daniels ??

― lukevalentine, Wednesday, 9 December 2009 00:37 (sixteen years ago)

I have not heard Dino Valenti's( who wrote it) solo version, but there is a charming live version from '67 on 'Jefferson Airplane Loves You.'

― Carl, Thursday, 10 December 2009 19:22 (sixteen years ago)

First song on the "Love is But a Song We Sing" (Nuggets SF edition box set) comp. I got it from the library in town.

― Trip Maker, Thursday, 10 December 2009 19:33 (sixteen years ago)

As a little Youngbloods filip, their other FM hit in SF at that time was 'Darkness, Darkness', a fine song.

― Carl, Sunday, 13 December 2009 04:10 (sixteen years ago)

You must be logged in to post. Please either login here, or if you are not registered, you may register here.