RAG AND ROLL-THE STORY OF THE YOUNGBLOODS
To date, very little has been written in magazines based in the UK about The Youngbloods. There was a brief article in Dark Star, back in 1975 and since then the only real information about the history of the band was whatever got written as sleeve notes on compilation albums and CD’s. However, as member of the band Banana says, “They are all wrong and inaccurate as I recall”. So, at last we can put the record straight and tell the story of The Youngbloods, as remembered by Banana, who amongst other things played keyboards and guitar throughout the band’s career.
As background information, it may be useful to know that their recording career has three very distinct phases. Prior to 1966, Jesse Colin Young released two albums, the second of which included input from John Sebastian (The Loving Spoonful) and musicians who were to become future members of The Youngbloods. Between 1966 and 1969 they recorded and released three LP's for RCA Records. Then, having signed a deal with Warner Brothers, they went on to record a further four albums as a group as well as a slew of solo and collaborative releases under a variety of names, on their own “Raccoon Records“ label. Originally forming on the east coast of America and beginning their career there, The Youngbloods are in fact generally regarded as a west coast band, something that was recently recognised by the inclusion of their biggest hit, "Get Together" as the closing song on the "Love Is The Song We Sing" box set released by Rhino Records.
1. In the UK press, on the rare occasions that The YOUNGBLOODS get mentioned, it is often in comparison to THE LOVING SPOONFUL. How do you feel about that?
They were also a New York area band and we played shows with them occasionally. John Sebastian has become a pretty good friend. And their music was gentle like ours as opposed to so many of that era's bands like say The Jefferson Airplane.
2.Is there an LP from the RCA period that stands out for you in any way?
Elephant Mountain was probably the best thing we ever did. Joe and I spent hundreds and hundreds of hours producing and mixing it and it was a cohesive package, not just a collection of songs. We spent a lot of time on the segues and little almost hidden effects. Sgt Pepper was part of the inspiration I would say upon looking back although we weren't thinking about Sgt. Pepper when we were making the album. A few of the cuts were started in New York and then completely revamped in LA. We would go down to LA and stay in a motel for a few weeks at a time to work on the album. I laboriously and meticulously wrote out the orchestral scores by hand and then got to conduct some of the best session players in LA. It was a thrill.
3. Ditto the WB/Raccoon period. (useful for the latter part of the story)
Rock Festival, the live album also had a lot of time devoted to it's preparation, programming, mixing etc. and the cover is a fantastic Joe Bauer photograph as well as the back photo. I think it also is a cohesive package. Ride The Wind, also live was recorded over a two day gig at the Fillmore East. First released on RCA and then later on Warner Bros.
Good and Dusty represents the change the band went through when Jesse switched from bass to guitar and Michael Kane joined the band as bass player.
I am proud of it as well even though it contains cover tunes and is a bit more casual.
4.Who chose the songs that ended up on the albums from the RCA period.?
It was a collaborative and co-operative effort. Naturally if Jesse and/or Jerry wrote a song that we all liked, bingo. Same thing if I wrote one. And then we all luckily happened to share the same wacky taste and have grown up listening to a lot of the same roots music so we appreciated the same kind of stuff and it was always pretty easy to accept a song that anyone suggested.
5.Who chose the singles from the RCA period? Did you as band members have any input around this?
Yes we had most of the input although the Producers (Felix Papalardi for instance) had a big say in it as well. And the A&R people from the record company always had two cents or so to throw in and sometimes got their way even if we thought it was stupid.
6.Can you tell me how it felt to get that first LP out? Did you go and look at it in the record racks or anything like that? Did your life change overnight as a result? Did you suddenly feel like 'pop stars' / 'rock stars'?
When the first album came out RCA sent us on a whirlwind tour of the country playing about 26 towns in 30 days. They put us up in the best hotels and I remember Corbitt ordering Chivas Regal from room service. It certainly did make us feel like rock stars. Little did we know then that all that lavish expense was being deducted from our future royalties ! And when we went into record stores and saw our very own records in there it was very gratifying. Same feeling when we would hear ourselves being played on the radio. But our lives didn't change. Other than that first tour we weren't suddenly wealthy or anything. We stayed in our same lower east side apartments. We shopped at the same grocery stores. Like I mentioned it takes a zillion years before a musician sees any royalties at all and even then any excuse will be used by the record company to withold them.
7. Any memories of touring during this period?
One memorable trip was when we had a gig in upstate New York followed by a gig in Toronto and we had to drive it in this 1960 Oldsmobile huge sedan and it was a raging blizzard. The whole trip was a terrifying fantasy, sort of like being in a blimp in a hurricane in the middle of a cloud. Where is the road? we kept saying. But we made it. We never missed a gig in our whole career although there were a couple of times when our equipment didn't make it and we played on borrowed stuff.
We were the house band at The Cafe Au Go Go in the village and we played there a couple of times a week and opened for many of the more prestigious acts that would play there. We also rehearsed there every day and in the afternoon would take a break and go to the basement kitchen and fight the cockroaches for ice cream.
When we started going on tour on the West Coast we were blown away. They loved us!! They wanted to give us anything we liked and let us play for as long as we liked and just thought everything was groovy. Then we would return to New York after a west coast tour and it would be back to the grind ... banging our heads against that tough wall and begging for acceptance. After a few trips west it dawned on us that we did not have to keep returning to New York .... we could just move.
8.Can you describe some of your early musical influences for me?
I listened to the radio ever since I can remember and hear the crap on Your Hit Parade in the late forties and early fifties but also managed to hear some Hank Williams and he was one of the first influences. As a pre teen I discovered the 'race' station over in the East Bay (Oakland, Berkeley) and fell i love with the music of Jimmy Reed, John Lee Hooker, Lightning Hopkins and also many other rhythm and blues artists .... Little Willie John, James Brown, Ray Charles, Jr. Parker, The Coasters, Fats Domino, Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Big Mama Thornton, etc. etc. Somehow that led me to folk music and Pete Seeger and The Weavers, Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee, Woody Guthrie, Josh White, Odetta, and the Smithsonian collections. It wasn't until high school that I was first introduced to Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs and the Foggy Mountain Boys and after 30 seconds of the first cut my life was changed forever. I then searched out the roots of bluegrass music .... The Stanley Brothers, Bill Monroe, Reno and Smiley, The Country Gentlemen and on and on .
9. As The YOUNGBLOODS were forming and releasing their first LP, who amongst your contemporaries were you impressed by and (perhaps more fun and possibly unprintable), unimpressed by?
I had just moved to New York from Boston where I was immersed in the middle of the folk / bluegrass scene but also viewed as a rebel because I had a rock and roll band (The Trolls). So I was very impressed (and friends with) The Holy Modal Rounders and The Kentucky Colonels as well as The Paul Butterfield Blues Band. I was unimpressed by The Rolling Stones because I knew all the original versions of the tunes they were covering and wasn't thrilled with their versions. Great that they managed to make uptight people hate them but to me the music is more important than that.
I was also impressed by all the great Jazz musicians in New York and even Boston.
The Youngbloods I feel managed to incorporate some of all of these influences, Rounders, Blues Bands, country / bluegrass and jazz.
I bought the Wurlitzer electric piano when I went to New York to join Jesse and Jerry's band which would become The Youngbloods. I had always wanted to play one ever since I heard What'd I Say by Ray Charles as a kid and now I had my chance.
10. I am a real fan of the first LP and would be particularly keen to hear your comments on the tracks included thereon. To this day, when people who are unaware of the band ask me about The YOUNGBLOODS, this is where i begin to evangelise from.
Grizzly Bear. - I have sheet music of Sophie Tucker doing Grizzly Bear from around 1915. On the credits of the LP it says Jerry wrote it. I don't know how that happened. He had been doing it as part of his solo act before the band got together and had a great guitar part for it. (off the record ... in his final days with the band he could not play that part and I had to play it).I do know that I was pissed off when I saw that Corbitt had taken credit for authorship of it though since I have sheet music of it dating from 1915 as performed by Sophie Tucker.
I've told you the story of why we moved to California and am happy to do it again .... orally after a couple of glasses of wine. It certainly wasn't because of The Daily Flash.
Corbitt 'looking for a better deal' signed with a different publisher in cahoots with Felix Papalardi. They published Merry Go Round as I recall (I'd have to go check the single). There was competition between that publishing company and our manager Herb Gart's publishing company. Lots of conflict of interest every which a way. I seem to feel that this had something to do with Merry Go Round never making it to an album but I can't really specifically recall that. Go figure.
All Over The World. Great song written by Jerry. It's the same all over the woild when yuz looses yuz goil. That's how they'd sing it in Brooklyn.
The band loved it when I came up with the electric piano lick that runs through it.
Statesboro Blues. Blind Willie McTell - another influence that we all shared. The Holy Modal Rounders had a great version of this tune.
Get Together.- Buzz Linhart had a band that played at the Cafe Au Go Go and they did this tune but in a more raga rock style and we fell in love with it and started doing it. Little did we know what a wise move that was.
One Note Man. Dear old Paul Arnoldi was a prominent folk singer around the Boston area in those days and came to New York to play also. He has continued to be a great friend over the years. He is one wacky guy and some of his other songs are far more bizarre than One Note Man but we took a shine to that one.
The Other Side Of This Life. Fred Neil played around New York a lot in those days. We played dates with him and also with Tim Hardin. To me they had similarities. We also did The Dolphin song by Fred Neil. Again the piano riff sort of set the tone of this one and gave us something to work off of.
Tears Are Falling. - This is sort of a dramatic piece .... even melodramatic I suppose. But it works.
Four In The Morning. - Ever heard Hey Joe? Never mind. This was always one of Jesse’s hallmark tunes in his solo act before the band was formed and it is a great one. Written I think by Robin Remailly, one of Jesse's old Bucks County Pennsylvania folk crowd who later was a member of The Holy Modal Rounders
Foolin' Around. - Felix Paparlardi really loved this one and we put it out as a single. Never went anywhere though. Nothing like a good old waltz I always say.
Ain't That Loving You Baby. - A nod to the great Jimmy Reed but quite frankly not the greatest version I've ever heard. But probably the first version of it a lot of people heard.
C.C. Rider. - Boy are there a lot of different versions and arrangements of this song. Ma Rainey, LaVerne Baker, Chuck Willis, and why can't I remember the name of the guy whose version I like the best. Also did a great version of Stagger Lee .... it will come to me. ... ah Lloyd Price.
1. I know that you played some prestigious venues in your time, Fillmore West, Fillmore East, Winterland, Avalon and so on. Any recollections about those venues? Any favourites amongst them? Were there other venues, that you really enjoyed playing in? Were there venues that disappointed?
The epitome of many folks venues must be Carnegie Hall and we got to play there twice. The first time was the biggest thrill of course and it was a Union hall too so our roadies had to direct the union crew in the moving and positioning and plugging in of the equipment. The stage manager had been there forever and Joe and I befriended him and he took us down to the basement into a room where he had an old Ampex 601 Tape Recorder with which he recorded many concerts there. To be on that stage looking out into that hall that you've seen in movies, and pictures and heard about your whole life is quite something.
Sanders Theatre in Boston (Cambridge actually) is a wonderful hall whose acoustics are matched so far in my life only by the church in Chippenham. !!
And yes the Avalon days were amazing. Puslating organic kaleidescopic light shows on every available surface all perfectly times with the music. And of course the strobes which I personally could have done quite well without especially when on acid. You get them for free basically as a side bonus with acid anyway so who needs more of 'em? People dressed and painted and it's hard to tell the difference. Lots of open floor and a total variety of seating options from wicker to lounges to cushions to straight backed chairs to benches. And Chet Helms was mister mellow.
Unlike Bill Graham at the Fillmore (s). One of my fondest memories is of us in the dressing room almost ready to go on but maybe three minutes (well maybe more) late. In bursts Bill screaming at the top of his lungs "What is this, Amateur Night? ". We got on stage in a big hurry.
The Carousel Ballroom was a wild place. Often 'secured' by Hells Angels as I recall.
It's hard to wax on about venues. They all blend together from the stage. I'm sure there are vivid descriptions of gigs at all of those venues (perhaps even some of ours) sprinkled liberally throughout the ether. Pepperland was a sleazy big open dirty indoor space that I guess was actually formerly a dance hall. It had a low class cut rate questionable motel right next to it and was at the end of 'auto row' where all the car dealers are in San Rafael on the frontage road adjacent to the freeway (Highway 101). Not a pleasant place.
Family Dog at the Great Highway was in a former .... not sure what .... maybe combination cafe / bar / dance hall / skating maybe? / weird conglomeration of rooms and spaces off of a big space. Previously it was part of Playland At The Beach, the amusement park where I spend many days as a young lad. Similar to the Avalon it had couches, lounges, benches, floors, pillows, arches, portals, porticos, for all forms of relaxation and enjoyment of the activities.
2.Can you recollect any bands that you enjoyed touring with, or sharing a bill with? Conversely, any bands that you hated sharing the bill with? For whatever reasons. Both RCA & WB eras.
We always enjoyed playing with most of our fellow SF bands and there was good cameraderie amongst us. We played a lot of gigs with The Grateful Dead and poor old Earthquake, our beloved road manager, would always try so hard not to get dosed with acid. It was a tradition of the Dead's crew to dose everybody with acid ... sometimes the entire audience as well as the entire bands and their whole crews. And Earthquake could handle it OK but felt that he was more efficient and business like when he was NOT stoned on acid so he tried valiantly to avoid it. This, of course made the Dead's crew even more determined and they would send gorgeous women to try to trick him and it usually worked.
But you know with the Dead and even more so with the Airplane ... in the back room or backstage area just jamming around and picking blues tunes or whatever it always sounded really great. And then they'd go out onstage and it wouldn't sound as mellow and relaxed and genuine to me. Maybe we sounded that way to them too.
Playing with Commander Cody was always a blast.
I'm not sure that I might have met a couple of Mad River guys before the session at gigs or something. I think we actually shared the bill with them once or twice. Then they wanted pedal steel on their session and I played it. And in the early Warner Bros. days we struck up good friendships with The Kaleidescope and The Buffalo Springfield down in LA.
3. Audiences. Do you feel as though you had your own audience, that turned up specifically for you or was it a case of the audiences being receptive, or open to whoever was playing that night? I guess that this applies to both eras of the band, ie RCA and WB.
Depends of course on the gig. Folks would go to the Avalon, Fillmore, Carousel, etc. no matter who was playing. I suppose there must have been folks who if Blue Cheer was playing at one venue and The Youngbloods at another might have had a preference. But sometimes Blue Cheer and The Youngbloods were playing at the same venue on the same show. And Festivals were the same way. The folks were going to THE FESTIVAL and maybe they had a favourite band playing there and maybe it was us for some of them but it seems that they dug it All from our interesting but sort of wimpy songs with more than 3 chord changes and stuff to Blue Cheers wall of sound.
But when we played a club say in Cleveland for a couple of nights then it was certainly Youngblood fans who attended.
Another nice thing was our ability to surprisingly please folks who hadn't or didn't have a clue as to who we were. So I think we made converts at some of those festivals and SF rock shows.
4. The smallest crowd that you ever played for as a member of The YOUNGBLOODS?
Many many nights in the village at The Go Go and a lot of the other clubs we played there ... Tin Angel ... dang the names escape me now ... for only 3 or 4 people and some nights we out numbered the audience.
5. The largest crowd you ever played for as a member of The YOUNGBLOODS?
Check the picture of me playing the banjo taken from the back that I sent you recently. That's gotta be around 30,000 people. Golden Gate park gigs must have had well over 60,000 people. But in all honesty I just don't know. But I think it's safe to say at least 60 -75,000 at some of the big festivals and park gigs.
6. Recollections of playing television shows?
We did a lot of them and you can find some on You Tube. They were usually a big pain in the ass. We hated the make up. We really hated to lip sync. The lights make you sweat like crazy and even worse the more makeup they put on you. We always objected to almost everything and got thrown off The Johnny Carson show for being so objectionable. It made Time magazine though and probably got us more publicity than appearing on the show would have. The greatest one was when Charlie (Daniels) happened to be in the same town as the TV show and we got him to come along and sit in with us on the show. Well they put us each on separate cheesy little pedestal type stands and they were so crappily made that Charlie fell right through his. (He's a rather large fellow) They then agreed to let us stand on the damn floor.
I did get the Hollywood Palace dvd. Amazing! How about the eye makeup on
Connie Stevens? How about the commercials? And, of course they edited the
hell out of us. I like the way Milton Berle pretends like we're right
there. Never met the man. Our segment was taped earlier.
7. To your knowledge, were any shows from the RCA era ever recorded for possible live release?
Probably maybe I dunno.
8. What are your thoughts on the early songs that THE YOUNGBLOODS recorded for Mercury Records, that eventually came out on the "Two Trips" LP?
Those sessions were some of the great learning experiences for us. They were produced by the great Bobby Scott. He made Joe play on a phone book ! At first Joe was muffed but then really got into it and it sounds great on the record.
Working with Bobby Scott was a great introduction to the recording business and I feel privileged to have been able to do those few sessions with him.
I remember he wanted to change the words in one song from Clouds are lifting in the quiet dawn' to 'in the filthy dawn'. Man that impressed me. I can't remember if Jesse went for it or not. Have to listen to the record.
9.To my mind and ears, all of the RCA releases are very eclectic, covering many musical styles and with hindsight, the listener can detect changes in the group sound and progress. Can you account for the varying styles of music contained on the records and possibly identify the driving forces behind the varying styles?
There were more styles to be exposed to in those days if you were the type that hunted for them and we were all that type. Jesse and Jerry and I had all explored rural and urban blues, rural and urban folk music, old timey music, bluegrass, country, hillbilly, calypso, Hank Williams, Joseph Spence (music of the Bahamas),rhythm and blues, rock and roll .... all of that and so we shared a lot of common ground. Joe came from the jazz world which I had also explored a lot ... Jesse and Jerry not so much but were game. Jesse's songs were eclectic and lent themselves to different styles.
(actually these days if a kid cares to hunt they can find even more stuff than we could I think)
10. I don't want to get too close to any bones of contention, but was everyone in the band happy with the diversity of styles of music being played and contained on the records?
Yep amazingly enough. I don't recall anybody ever putting down a tune or not being willing to try it. Some naturally didn't work out but everyone was always willing to give it a shot. I don't have any objection to any tune on any record that I can think of other than a little embarasment perhaps.
11. Back to the audiences again-any recollections of how the audiences responded to those different styles? Did audience reaction have any effect on how the band sound developed?
When we had become well known enough to be able to play a three hour set at a festival we would break it down in the middle to an acoustic section and in the very middle just me and the banjo. Many in the audience were stoned and a whole lot of them got sucked into the whole three hour 'trip' that started off nice and lively and then wound around into the acoustic thing and then slowly back up to a raucous finale. Some lost interest in the middle I imagine. But in a typical 1 1/2 hour set at say The Fillmore we would go through the many styles as we went through the repertoire and it seems the audience always went right along with us.
THIRD ROUND OF QUESTIONS
NB; Joe Bauer died 1982.
THE RACCOON YEARS
To my knowledge, little has been written in this country about this phase of The Youngbloods career. There was a compilation LP released in the UK in 1987 called "Point Reyes Station" on the Edsel label that, despite covering the Raccoon years, still felt the need to devote half of it's sleeve notes to the RCA period. So for us fans wanting to know more, we were still feeling let down. Even now, it strikes me as odd that the writer of those notes should have taken that approach.
Hopefully, i can get you to fill out some of the background for us relating to the label as well as discussing the albums themselves.
Isn't that the one with all the intimate details about the Younglboods activities in West Marin? They are all wrong and inaccurate as I recall. Quite amusing.
1.The first two Youngbloods releases bearing the Raccon label were both predominantly live affairs, ie "Rock Festival" and "Ride The Wind". What was the logic behind this decision?
Rock Festival was put together by Joe and Me using cuts from various live shows that had been multi track recorded. The energy the trio generated in live shows was difficult to duplicate in the studio. The feedback from the audience helped us to overcome our day to day differences I guess and put us more into the present moment. Ride The Wind had been recorded while we were still with RCA and had even been released by RCA after we left but somehow or other we got them to recall it and it was released again on Warner Bros. It was all from recordings taken from 2 (or maybe 3) consecutive nights at the Fillmore East on a Thanksgiving weekend.
2. "Ride The Wind" contained tracks recorded two years prior to the LP being released. What was it for you as a band that made you choose those particular recordings for release? Given the wealth of material available from a three night run of recordings, was the prospect of a double album ever considered?
We just picked the best performances and the thought of a double album never crossed our minds .... and we were still in the last throes of our RCA relationship fighting with them over everything we wanted to do.
3. Slightly 'by-the-by' but if the above tapes survive, what are the chances of any of them ever getting a belated official release?
Haven't the foggiest. Bob Irwin at Sundazed would have to get on the case I suppose. And that would probably just give them the idea to do it themselves and fuck the whole thing up.
4."Rock Festival" contains some great moments and i wonder whether any of the songs included were ever recorded by the band in a studio? "Fiddler A Dram" is a specific example of this. I should add too that i think the performance included on the LP is wonderful, very intense, with a fine, flowing instrumental section that sounds as though it could have been improvised on the spot.
It was indeed improvised on the spot. I don't think we ever attempted it in the studio.
5.Then there are "On Beautiful Lake Spenard" and "Interlude". Were studio versions recorded and / or ever considered for release?
Interlude has been recorded by me in many different conglomerations and configurations and studios and continues to be to this day. It has staying power. On Beautiful Lake Spenard exists on many live recordings and home studio recordings but it was never recorded at RCA or Warner Bros studios.
6. "Faster All The Time". Another one of yours, which leads me to observe that "Rock Festival" may well be the one Youngbloods LP where you get more composer credits than Jesse. Was this a case of your becoming more prolific? Back to "Faster All The Time", would you care to comment on the song, which seems to me to be an early example of songwriters beginning to think about their / our impact on the world and the rest of humankind. Is it an ecological plea or is it a more mundane ( i hesitate to use that word though) plea to just slow down in your own life?
Yes it is an early environmental protest song of sorts besides being a bunch of wisecracks. The song has morphed and grown into Supersonic Transport which appears on the Nothing Goes Here - Zero CD. I think it's a way better song now than it was then.
7.The sleeve / artwork. Credited to Joe Bauer. Care to explain how you all, as a band decided to take control of this?
It was part of our deal with Warner Bros. We got to control every aspect of our work. They gave us our own production company .... Raccoon Records. They let us outfit two separate studios ... Jesse's up on the hill and Studio "B" in the little cabin in back of my house and make our records here instead of going down to LA. We got to produce outside artists ....Michael Hurley, High Country, Jeffery Cain, Kenny Gill etc. And make crazy records like Moonset and Crab Tunes. Fools.
8.How did the deal for Raccoon come into place?
see above. They thought we were going to make more hit records like Get Together .... whoops ... sorry about that.
9. Raccoon studio A. Raccoon studio B. It all sounds very glamorous. What kind of set-up did you have there?
Nope not glamorous. We started out with good state of the art equipment but the state of the art advanced much faster than our budget could withstand.
After the Youngblood breakup, Jesse kept up his studio at his house and I moved mine to Pt. Reyes Station thinking it could be a successful commercial venture. I could be a rich man today were it not for the money I invested in that studio. I was wrong about the successful commercial recording studio in Pt. Reyes Station. It hasn't been tried since.
10.As far as i know, "Rock Festival" came out before "Ride The Wind".I base this surmise on catalogue numbers. "Rock Festival" is on WB/Raccoon. So far so straightforward. How come some copies of "Ride The Wind" came out on RCA? Any ideas?
See above.
11. "Ride The Wind" shows a very different side of the band, laid-back, improvising and quite unlike anything that we had heard from you before. Who chose the track selections for this release?
We did and we mixed it as usual. Joe and I did most of the mixing / production / programming / etc. type work on the records.
12. Was a studio version of "Dolphins" ever attempted and considered for release?
We never topped the live Dolphin recording in the studio.
Next up is "Good And Dusty".
13. Who came up with the title of the album?
Concensus.
14. As you know, i particularly love the sleeve. By selecting it, what were you saying to your public? this question also applies to all the sleeves that you, as a band designed. How in touch did you feel with your public?
We were just picking cool art and pictures that we liked and though looked good. No public statements were considered or implied. Although "Howdy" might be a good statement for the Good and Dusty cover. We were always deeply in touch with each individual audience. The concept of 'our public' was not high in our consciousness. In recordings we were trying to please our own artistic taste and integrity, not the public. In my not so humble opinion music that is designed to please the public while often successful is also often hollow.
15. High on cover versions of older material, the LP has a very upbeat feel to it. It sounds like you were all having fun. Was this the case or was it more like The Beatles during the "Get Back" sessions? Viewing the film that eventually became "Let It Be" it is painfully clear that the fab four were really getting on each other's nerves. To me, when i listen to the songs included in that film, and having heard many bootleg recordings of the rehearsals, i can hear a lot of parallels between the way they were recording at the stage and also what you were releasing on this LP. Fanciful thinking on my part or were you in any way aware of what the Beatles ( and i suppose many others) were getting up to? ie the direction they were trying to go in as band?
Good and Dusty was recorded after Jesse had stopped playing bass and the communication between us all was less that it had been as a trio. Original tunes were harder to communicate and since we shared the good ole love of the good ole tunes that we had grown up on, we could all agree to have a good ole time playing them. So we did. The Beatles had nothing to do with it nor any other outside influence. We pretty much always did what we ourselves thought up and wanted to do.
16. Care to tell us about "Hippie from Olema"?
I was an ardent fan of Merle Haggard. I knew the chords (not so hard) and lyrics to a whole lot of his songs and loved to sing them and listen to them. What a voice ! What a songwriter ! And then Okie from Muskogee came out. Well once again it is a brilliant song and sung supremely by 'the man' but the lyric content was a bit disturbing and I felt it needed a reply. Charlie Daniels was very supportive and encouraging and he egged me on to write the song. Then Jeffery Cain contributed the third verse and now David Nelson has contributed the fourth.
"We might smoke marijuana if we wanna
Now and then a trip on LSD
We still burn old glory down at the White House
Cause we like living right and being free."
17. Michael Kane joins the band for this release. Where did he come from ( actually i know a bit about this, but for the purposes of the interview...) and how did his arrival affect your approach to playing live and in the studio?
Michael Kane and I met on the very first day of college. Orientation day and Boston University. He, Rick Turner and I were the only three students among about 5000 who refused to wear a beanie hat. So we were automatically attracted to each other and learned to our delight that we all shared the same musical roots and all were fans of Leadbelly, Pete Seeger, Odetta, Lightning Hopkins, The Clancy Bros., Josh White, Big Bill Broonzy, Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee, James Brown, Ray Charles, etc. etc.
Michael was an original member of Banana and The Bunch in 1963 and also The Trolls in 1964 and The Proper Bostonians in 1963-64. We played together and lived together for years. Then I moved to New York to join up with Jesse and Jerry and then to California. He moved to Vermont.
When Jesse decided he no longer wanted to be the bass player I suggested we see if Michael Kane was available. No objections from Joe or Jesse so Michael packed up and moved out to West Marin where he has been ever since.
18.Around this time, you were involved at some level in the "Medicine Ball Caravan" tour and are featured on the soundtrack LP. Any recollections of this tour?
It was wild. Tie Dyed Teepees and a whole community were transported by Psychedelic Busses all over the country with a bunch of bands, a huge entourage, complete with menagerie, cooks, bottle washers, camp followers, etc. etc. The diehards travelled with the caravan. Us wimps flew in to a few gigs and went on our own merry way. They would set up camp for a few days and produce an outdoor festival at that location. It was a classic Hippy happening.
19.You get two songs on the soundtrack LP. "Hippie From Olema" sounds like a different version to me. Your choice or just 'one of those things'? the other song is "Act Naturally". Again, whose choice was it to put the song out on this LP?
I don't know who chose those cuts and haven't heard the rest of the recordings that were made at those gigs. Hippie from Olema is probably the original version with Merles melody intact. When released as a single it garnered a cease and desist order from Merle's lawyers. Warner Bros lawyers didn't think they had a case to made us re-record it with different chord changes. After five submissions they finally said .. "OK, that's different enough". Thus was born the single ... "Hippie From Olema #5" that was released.
HIGH ON A RIDGETOP
1. Over the years what has really come to my attention as i listen to this LP are the high production values. Was there a concerted effort on the bands part to achieve this? I am thinking of the arrangements, quality of the recording etc. It is tempting to me in hindsight to possibly see the production values resulting out of this being The Youngbloods last LP. Were you aware of this being the case at the time of it's release?
We always strove to achieve high production values. A lot of this album was cut up at Jesse's (Raccoon Studio A - later Owl Mountain Studio). We were aware that things were not going to last forever. But I don't recall thinking ... woo woo last album ... make it a good one. We just did as good as we could as always. I certainly don't think that album holds a candle to Elephant Mountain.
2. In amongst all the 'oldies' you cover "She Came In Through The Bathroom Window". Who chose to do this? Consensus again? Can i say that i particularly enjoy the piano part? Did the band ever consider doing any other Beatle songs, from Abbey Road or any other LP?
That was my choice and while it was great by the Beatles it was Fats Dominos version that inspired me to do it. I don't think we ever did any other Beatles songs but I sure like doing Rocky Raccoon.
3. You already mentioned in passing what you thought about the Rolling Stones cover versions of older songs. Care to comment on any Beatle cover versions? (pertinent because of the inclusion of this particular song on your LP).
The Beatles covers that were markedly different from the originals were the best. The attempts to be more faithful to the original arrangements weren't as successful for my ear and taste.
4."La Bamba" is sung in what i think is Spanish? Any memories of how this came to be done that way and was it just a case of the song being sung phonetically or did/does Jesse actually speak Spanish? (Maybe i should actually ask him that, but as we have never met, i end up asking you...)
Yes you should ask him that the next time you see him. La Bamba is a song written in Spanish. The phrases that aren't English are indeed Spanish.
Spanish sounds better than English in general and Italian sounds even better than that.
5. Is the song "Ridgetop", as later recorded by Jesse on one of his solo LP's connected in any way with the title of this LP? (The lyrics actually include the line "High On A Ridgetop"). If so, was a version of this song ever attempted or considered for inclusion on the LP that finally emerged?
Nope Ridgetop is a Jesse song .... not a Youngblood song. But there must have been some influence for the title. The recollection turns muddy at this juncture of the stream. The title certainly goes with the cover art. I don't think The Youngbloods ever performed the song Ridgetop.
6.Some of my favourite moments on the LP include the brass parts on "Running Bear" and the wonderful vocals on "Speedo". Can you recall after all this time who had the most input into those parts?
We all love those old tunes and grew up on them ... me, Michael and Jesse ... so working out the vocal parts was great fun and we all did it together. I don't recall the brass parts so I think maybe Jesse overdubbed them with some local guys. But maybe I was there .... I'll try harder to remember. Maybe if I dig out the record and listen to it. 7.The sleeve artwork is outstanding. Does it depict a real place or is it imaginary? ( I know, i should probably ask Mr Heald about this but as we are not in touch with each other...i am asking you). The queation applies to both the inner and outer sleeve pictures.
Imaginary logical extension of West Marin where we live.
8. Did any of you have a list of songs prepared for possible inclusion on the LP before the recording sessions began? ie was the decision made about the tracklisting before the recording sessions commenced or were the tracks selected from a number of songs that had been recorded for possible inclusion?
The answer is .... B.) The latter.
9.Do you still have projected tracklists for the as yet unreleased albums called "First And Last" or the "Country Home" LP's.?
One would think they might be somewhere wouldn't one?
10.Why were they unreleased at the time, as i believe you were still under contract to WB for more albums?
Warner Bros. had 'had it up to here' with us and had no interest in investing in or promoting further albums by us. Plus the fact that we were breaking up and not playing any more gigs might just possibly have had something to do with it.
I'll tell you the rest of the story in person in private as it is ... in my not so humble opinion .... a bit ugly for public consumption.
11.Was artwork prepared for "First And Last"?
I don't recall any First and Last artwork.
4.Had they both been released, which of them was mooted to have appeared in the shops first?
Moot. Not applicable. application error encountered ... re-boot please.
5. What were your feelings then and now on their not being put out and made available to the public?
See 4 above
6.It might be nice if you had time to just write a few words about what having been a member of The Youngbloods means to you now, if that is not too personal a thing to ask of you?
Being a founding member of The Youngbloods from start to finish means a great deal to me. It taught me a lot about the music business, performing, being professional, and getting along with all kinds of people and situations.
We were at the right place at the right time and had a wonderful time of it and made music that had a beneficial effect on a whole lot of people. I'm proud of our performances and our records.
Portions of this interview were originally published by Shindig! magazine in the UK. The above, is the unedited version.