I post a weekly diary of historical notes, arts & science items, foreign news (often receiving little notice in the US) and whimsical pieces from the outside world that I often feature in "Cheers & Jeers".
OK, you've been warned - here is this week's tomfoolery material that I posted.
CHEERS to Bill and Michael in PWM, our Wyoming-based friend Irish Patti and ...... well, each of you at Cheers and Jeers. Have a fabulous weekend.
ART NOTES - works from five centuries in an exhibition entitled Botticelli, Titian, and Beyond are at the Santa Barbara, California Museum of Art to May 3rd.
BRAIN TEASER - try this Quiz of the Week's News from the BBC.
POLITICAL NOTES - the South American nation of Chile is about to change its political system: ditching a Pinochet-era system that ensured two major political parties, while keeping small parties out of Parliament (unless they joined one of the two big coalitions).
From the YOU LEARN SOMETHING NEW EVERY DAY file ....... the late, great Lesley Gore had a 1963 hit with You Don't Own Me - which in time became a feminist anthem of empowerment - and which was written by two ....... men (long before consciousness-raising began).
THURSDAY's CHILD is Malcolm the Cat - an English kitteh who went missing for eight years before being located ... due to his microchip.
FOOD NOTES #1 - while it's a vegetable I can either take-or-leave: apparently I have never eaten a special variety (grown in Palestine) of cauliflower ... that has people eager to purchase it during its short annual harvest.
FOOD NOTES #2 - coastal New England has long been infiltrated by an invasive species that affects native habitat: the green crab - and as controlling them has proved difficult: plans are underway to overcome their hard-to-crack shells (and small amount of meat) in the long run, while making lots of crab stock (in the short run).
FRIDAY's CHILD is J Lo the Hero Cat - a Scottish kitteh who awoke his family to the presence of a burning vehicle outside that was only a few feet from their front door.
HAIL and FAREWELL to the jazz trumpeter Clark Terry - a giant of the music world, as the first African-American member of the Tonight Show band, one of the few musicians who played in both Duke Ellington and Count Basie's bands, appeared on more than 900 recordings over a 60-year career and was a stalwart in music education - who has died at the age of 94.
VERY MUCH ENJOYED yesterday's northern New England meet-up luncheon in Portland, Maine .... hosted by you-know-who (and a dozen other friends) and with some excellent pizza to boot. Our biggest complaint: none of us seemed to get any Soros Money for our appearance (which rumor-had-it we were entitled to).
OLDER-YOUNGER SISTERS? - TV stars Edie Falco and Ellen DeGeneres.
...... and finally, for a song of the week .............................. while they were not (as the All-Music Guide's Richie Unterberger noted) a major 1960's rock band, The Youngbloods did have some chart success in the burgeoning folk-rock scene of the second half of the decade. With a career that lasted some seven years, involving a relocation from Boston to the Bay Area and led by its prime songwriter Jesse Colin Young (h/t to willyr for the suggestion) - this quartet did leave their mark on the music world, and three of its members enjoyed solo careers into the new century.
NYC-born Jesse Colin Young (born as Perry Miller) attended fourth grade with Art Garfunkel and was the son of classical music-loving parents. He was on his way to higher education by attending Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts .... but he had trouble adjusting to the discipline and was later expelled. He developed a love for the blues and eventually joined the Boston to New York folk scene of the early 60's. He released a 1964 debut solo album - now under his new stage name (JCY) - and his second album from 1965 was entitled Young Blood - the name was a precursor of his later band - and which featured John Sebastian on harmonica, inviting comparisons to his musical style in that era.
While in Cambridge, Massachusetts, JCY met-up with the Georgia-born bluegrass guitarist Jerry Corbitt and the two eventually became a duo (with JCY now focused on playing bass and singing). Corbitt later introduced JCY to a local multi-instrumentalist, Lowell Levinger - known by his nickname of "Banana" - who handled keyboards, banjo and mandolin ... and anything else needed. He in turn brought into the band a neighbor, the Memphis-born drummer Joe Bauer - who had extensive jazz experience. (The band is in the center photo below).
If that sounds like an interesting mélange .... it showed up in their sound, and they landed an RCA recording contract after gigs at Gerde's Folk City and later becoming the house band at the Café Au Go Go. Their first single was Jerry Corbitt's Grizzly Bear (which reached #52 in the charts late in 1966) which appeared on their self-titled first album. Future Cream producer (and Mountain bassist) Felix Pappalardi produced their first two albums.
Also on that album was a song that reached only #62 in the charts in its initial 1967 release. Get Together was written in 1963 by the Quicksilver Messenger Service guitarist Chet Powers, who used the stage name Dino Valente - which I think was the reverse of the practices of the time, where performers abandoned their given ethnic names in favor of "American" names. He sold the rights to the song to pay his legal bills when arrested for drug possession, and the Jefferson Airplane performed a 1966 studio version of. Yet the Airplane and Youngbloods did list Chet Powers as the song's author ... which did not appear to matter much in 1967.
After the release of the band's second album - with a spirited version of Tim Hardin's Reason to Believe - the band relocated to the SF Bay Area and guitarist Jerry Corbitt left to begin a solo career. The remaining trio began working on a new album, slated for release in 1969.
But first, their version of Get Together was used in a public service announcement for the National Conference of Christians and Jews - and afterwards, the song was re-released and this time rose to #5 on the charts. This paved the way for critical acclaim for their third album Elephant Mountain - with songs such as JCY's Sunlight and produced by one Charles E. Daniels ... soon to be famous as Southern rock/country star Charlie Daniels. Proud of their album, the group was booked into the Tonight Show where JCY explains they were promised the chance to perform Sunlight if they would oblige with Get Together. However at the show, they were told it was only to be "Get Together" ... to which the band just decided not to play at all.
The band released a few more albums, but never regained their popularity, with one oddity from 1971's Good & Dusty being a Lowell Levinger tune Hippie from Olema - an "answer" record to Merle Haggard's Okie from Muskogee. The band broke-up in 1972, and had reunion tours in 1976 as well as 1984. The second tour was not able to feature drummer Joe Bauer, who died of a brain tumor in 1982 (at only age 40).
Jerry Corbitt went on to a successful career as a session musician, touring partner to many musicians, writer for TV and film and a record producer. His last record was 2008's country album Along For the Ride. Jerry Corbitt died just about a year ago (of lung cancer) at age 71.
Lowell Levinger also embarked upon a varied musical career: as an accompanist to Mimi Farina for over twenty years, plus shows with Dan Hicks and his Hot Licks, and old time psychedelic rock with The Barry "The Fish" Melton band among other gigs. He also owns a banjo, mandolin and guitar vintage instrument store in California, tours from time-to-time and just last year released Down to the Roots - a solo album available on his website. Sounds like "Banana" is going strong at age 69.
Jesse Colin Young (first and last photos below) has also had a long solo career, albeit where he was abandoned by the major record labels come the 1980's. He performed at the 1979 "No Nukes" concert, has added jazz-rock and country to his musical stylings over the years and his 1991 Rhino compilation album captures much of his vital solo material.
He lost much of his master recordings in a 1995 home fire, that caused him and his family to move to Hawaii. They founded a six-acre coffee farm which operates to this day, although the family relocated to South Carolina to be closer to family at age 73. His most recent recording was a 2008 EP entitled Bring' em Home which was a plea .... to bring the troops home from Iraq.
My favorite song of his was one the Youngbloods recorded in 1969, Darkness, Darkness - reputed to be an "anthem" to soldiers in Vietnam (for it described what they felt while in the jungles). It has been recorded by Mott the Hoople, Richie Havens, Eric Burdon, the Cowboy Junkies and the Wilson sisters of the band Heart. And below you can hear it.
Darkness, darkness, be my pillow
Take my hand and let me sleep
In the coolness of your shadow
In the silence of your deep
Darkness, darkness, long and lonesome
Is the day that brings me here
I have felt the edge of silence
I have known the depths of fear
Darkness, darkness, long and lonesome
Is the day that brings me here
I have felt the edge of silence
I have known the depths of fear
Darkness, darkness, be my blanket
Cover me with the endless night
Take away the pain of knowing
Fill the emptiness of right
Darkness, darkness, hide the yearning
For the things that cannot be
Keep my mind from constant turning
Towards the things I cannot see