One of those wonderful mid-60s albums without a bad track.
06/21/1999
(4 out of 5 stars)
"I love this album. A friend of mine at college played it for me in late '66, and it's been one of my most constant companions ever since. As with many bands of this period, the key is the wonderful tightness that grew out of playing together in little clubs night after night. Listen to the match of the voices of Jesse Colin Young and Jerry Corbett, and the constant interplay between Corbett's guitar, Banana Levinger's electric piano and guitar, Young's bass, and Joe Bauer's drums. Of course, the conventional wisdom now is that "Earth Music" (the second album) and "Elephant Mountain" (the third) are superior to this, but I can't hear it. "Get Together" was an international hit TWICE, in addition to being appropriated to innumerable Sixties soundtracks and anthologies. In addition, the album has the stunning electric version of Young's "Four in the Morning" (originally on the classic "Soul of a City Boy" solo folk album), plus the best of Corbett's country-tinged laments, "All Over the World" and "Tears are Falling," plus other great tracks. In the end, the band's great sin was in shedding its hard edge (Corbett) in favor of a rather cloying pastoralism. But on this debut album, the contradictions that would tear the band apart add an extra dimension to each selection. Highly recommended."
A Little Known Classic
Ronald J. Eckberg | Walnut, Illinois United States | 12/19/2001
(5 out of 5 stars)
"The Youngbloods is a classic, plain and simple. It is on my top 20 all time list of great albums. Jesse Colin Young's pure voice, coupled with Banana's solid playing, the vocals and guitar word of Jerry Corbitt, plus the drum work of Joe Bauer made for some terrific music. They just did two albums as a foursome before Corbitt happened (Whatever happened to him?)and the band was never as solid after that.
Thankfully we have these two. Of course, "Get Together" is the classic everyone identifies with the Youngbloods, but I really believe it is one many great songs on the album. In addition I've always loved the production of the album... everything is driven to the edge... just a bit of distortion on the bass, keyboard, and guitars.
I was one of about 25 people who showed up for a show they did at a place called "The Barn" in Sterling, Illinois just after the album had been released but before "Get Together" hit. They were solid, as good a band as I have ever seen.
This is another of those essential rock albums."
Great Album, Bad Pressing
John Ransom | New York, New York | 03/31/2000
(1 out of 5 stars)
"Beware of anything on the Edsel label. I recently purchased this album, and "Earth Music," and the audio quality is poor, at best. This is truly a perfect example of a lousy analog to digital transfer. Hopefully RCA will someday reissue both these albums themselves."
Track Listings (11) - Disc #1