The Youngbloods

The Youngbloods was an American rock band consisting of Jesse Colin Young (vocals, bass, guitar), Jerry Corbitt (vocals, guitar, keyboards, harmonica), Lowell "Banana" Levinger (guitar and electric piano), and Joe Bauer (drums). Despite receiving critical acclaim, they never achieved widespread popularity. Their only U.S. Top 40 entry was Chet Powers's "Get Together".

Band history

Background and formation

Jesse Colin Young (born Perry Miller, November 22, 1941, Queens, New York) was a moderately successful folk singer with two LPs – Soul of a City Boy (1964) and Youngblood (1965) – when he met fellow folk singer and former bluegrass musician from Cambridge, Massachusetts, Jerry Corbitt (born Jerry Byron Corbitt, January 7, 1943, Tifton, Georgia). When in town, Young would drop in on Corbitt, and the two played together exchanging harmonies.

Beginning in January 1965, the two began performing on the Canadian circuit as a duo, eventually adopting the name "The Youngbloods". The band's name was a reference to Young's second album. Young played bass, and Corbitt sang and played piano, harmonica and lead guitar. Corbitt introduced Young to a bluegrass musician, Lowell Levinger (born Lowell Vincent Levinger, September 9, 1944, Manhattan, New York City). Levinger, known as "Banana", could play the piano, banjo, mandolin, mandola, guitar and bass; he had played in the Proper Bostonians and the Trolls, and played mainly piano and guitar in the Youngbloods. He knew of a fellow tenant who could flesh out the band, Joe Bauer (born September 26, 1941, Memphis, Tennessee), an aspiring jazz drummer with experience playing in society dance bands.). Several critically praised albums followed: The Youngbloods (1967, later retitled Get Together); Earth Music (1967); and Elephant Mountain (1969), with the track "Darkness, Darkness". But two years later – after Dan Ingram had recorded a brotherhood promotion for WABC-AM in which the song was used as a bed for the promotion, and after the National Council of Christians and Jews subsequently used the song in television and radio commercials – the track was re-released and cracked the Top 5. This disc sold over one million copies and received a gold record, awarded by the RIAA, on October 7, 1969. Tensions existed within the band as well.

thumb|The band as a trio in 1968

With Corbitt's departure from the band (for a solo career) in 1969, before the band recorded the album Elephant Mountain, Levinger assumed lead guitar duties and played extensively on Wurlitzer electric piano.

Banana supplied guitar, banjo, synthesizer and back-up vocals to Mimi Fariña's 1985 solo album, Solo, and also toured with her on and off from 1973 until the 1990s. During the 1980s and 1990s, he played with the jam rock band Zero on keyboards, vocals and rhythm guitar.

In late 1984, the Youngbloods briefly reunited for a club tour. The 1984 line-up contained Young, Corbitt and Levinger, plus new members David Perper (drums, ex-Pablo Cruise) and Scott Lawrence (keyboards, woodwinds). Once the tour was completed, the group disbanded once again by mid-1985.

Jerry Corbitt died of lung cancer on March 8, 2014. He was 71.

Jesse Colin Young died on March 16, 2025, at the age of 83, leaving Lowell Levinger as the last surviving member of the group's original lineup.

Style and legacy

The Youngbloods' sound and style are characterized by "temper[ing] their blues and jug band influences with gentle California psychedelia."

Richie Unterberger of AllMusic called the Youngbloods "one of the better groups to emerge from the East Coast in the mid-'60s." He explained, "The Youngbloods could not be considered a major '60s band, but they were capable of offering some mighty pleasurable folk-rock in the late '60s, and produced a few great tunes along the way."

! scope="col" style="width:2.6em; font-size:90%;"| CAN

! scope="row"| The Youngbloods

Released: January 1967
Label: RCA Victor
Formats: LP, CD

| 131 || 89

! scope="row"| Earth Music

Released: May 1967
Label: RCA Victor
Formats: LP, CD

| — || —

! scope="row"| Elephant Mountain

Released: 1969
Label: RCA Victor
Formats: LP, CD, cassette

| 118 || —

! scope="row"| Good and Dusty

Released: 1971
Label: Racoon Records
Formats: LP, CD, cassette

| 160 || —

! scope="row"| High on a Ridge Top

Released: November 1972
Label: Racoon Records
Formats: LP, CD, 8-track

| 185 || —

| colspan="10" style="font-size:90%" | "—" denotes that the recording did not chart.

Compilation albums

{| class="wikitable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center;"

! scope="col" rowspan="2" style="width:20em;"| Title

! scope="col" rowspan="2" style="width:20em;"| Release

! scope="col" colspan="1"| Peak chart positions

! scope="col" style="width:2.6em; font-size:90%;"| US

| "Beautiful"

|rowspan="1"| Get Together (The Youngbloods re-release)

|align=left| "Sunlight"

| 114

| –

| "Trillium"

|rowspan="1"| Elephant Mountain

|rowspan="3"| 1970

|align=left| "Darkness, Darkness" (re-release)

| 86

| –

| "On Sir Francis Drake"

|rowspan="1"|

|align=left| "Darkness, Darkness" (re-release)

| –

| "On Sir Francis Drake"

|rowspan="1"|

|align=left| "Hippie from Olema"

| –

|rowspan="1"| Raccoon Records

| "Misty Roses"

|rowspan="1"| Good and Dusty

|rowspan="3"| 1971

|align=left| "Sunlight" (re-release)

| 123

| –

|rowspan="2"| RCA Victor

| "Reason to Believe"

|rowspan="2"| Ride the Wind

|align=left| "Sugar Babe"

| –

| "Reason to Believe"

|align=left| "It's a Lovely Day"

| –

|rowspan="4"| Raccoon Records

| "Ice Bag"

|rowspan="1"| Rock Festival

|rowspan="3"| 1972

|align=left| "Light Shine"

| –

| "Will the Circle Be Unbroken"

|rowspan="1"| Good and Dusty

|align=left| "Dreamboat"

| –

| "Kind Hearted Woman"

|rowspan="2"| High on a Ridge Top

|align=left| "Running Bear"

| –

| "Kind Hearted Woman"

|rowspan="1"| 2009

|align=left| "All My Dreams Blue"

| –

|rowspan="1"| Sundazed Music

| "Sham"

|rowspan="1"|

References

External links

VH1 Biography: The Youngbloods
Lowell Levinger Interview NAMM Oral History Library (2017)