Jesse Colin Young, The Youngbloods frontman and bassist who sang the counterculture classic “Get Together” and went on to a long solo career, died March 16 at his home in Aiken, SC. He was 83. His publicists Michael Jensen announced the news but give not provide a cause of death.
The Boston-based Youngbloods released their self-titled debut album on RCA Victor in early 1967, but its first single, “Grizzly Bear,” stalled in the mid-50s of the Billboard Hot 100. The disc’s second single was “Get Together,” but it fared even less well, peaking at No. 62 at the end of the Summer of Love.
Despite playing on American Bandstand, the band appeared destined for also-ran status.
Then came its use in a 1969 PSA for the National Conference of Christians and Jews, and folks started calling radio stations to request the song.
In a 2019 interview for NPR’s “American Anthem,” Young described the second coming of “Get Together”: “Augie Blum, the head of promotion at RCA, went to his boss and said: ‘I want this song again. Now’s the time for it.’ And they told him, ‘Now Augie, we don’t do that. You know we released it once. That’s it.’ And he said, ‘You release a song again or I’m out of here.’ He was too valuable for them to lose. So they put it out again, and he was right, of course. The country was ready.”
The reissue would change everything for the Boston quartet.
“Get Together” stormed the pop chart that summer with its laid-back Byrds vibe and gentle percussion hook. Fueled by Young’s tender yet urgent vocal, it features the familiar chorus, “Come on, people now/Smile on your brother/Everybody get together/Try to love one another right now.” It remains a popular radio track.
The song was penned by Chet Powers, a pseudonym for future Quicksilver Messenger Service member Dino Valenti. The Youngbloods’ version reach No. 5 as hippies occupied San Francisco and the counterculture became pop culture. Over the decades, “Get Together” has been featured in dozens of films and TV shows including This Is Us, Supernatural, Baywatch, The Simpsons, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and Ken Burns’ Baseball and The Vietnam War.
Listen to it here:
Young did write songs for the Youngbloods, including the antiwar anthem “Darkness, Darkness” and “Ride the Wind,” but the never would find that level of success again. The band released three more albums from 1969-71, but none made the national Top 100, and the group split in the early 1970s.
Born Perry Miller on November 22, 1941, in New York City, Young released a pair of folky solo albums during the British Invasion before co-founding The Youngbloods with JErry Corbit, Loweel “Banana” Levinger and Joe Bauer. He returned to his solo career in 1972 and went on to record more than 15 solo albums and several live discs through 2019. His biggest chart success came during the mid-’70s, when Light Shine, Songbird and the live On the Road made the Top 40.
Young is survived by his wife and manager, Connie Darden-Young; their son, Tristan Young, and daughter, Jazzie Young; and two children from his first marriage Suzi Young: Juli and Cheyenne Young.
