17-03-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
Jesse Colin Young, Singer Who Urged Us to ‘Get Together,' Dies at 83
Jesse Colin Young, whose sincere tenor vocals for the Youngbloods graced one of the most loving anthems of the hippie era, 'Get Together,' a Top Five hit in 1969, before he went on to pursue a solo career that lasted more than five decades, died on Sunday at his home in Aiken, S.C. He was 83.
His death was announced by his publicist, Michael Jensen, who did not specify a cause.
Mr. Young didn't write 'Get Together.' It was composed by the folk singer Dino Valenti, later a member of the band Quicksilver Messenger Service, under the pseudonym Chet Powers. But Mr. Young's voice idealized it.
He also composed many other key pieces of the Youngbloods' repertoire during their prime in the late 1960s, including the brooding 'Darkness, Darkness,' which reflected the terror he imagined American soldiers were experiencing during the Vietnam War; 'Sunlight,' a ravishing ode to passionate love; and 'Ride the Wind,' a jazzy paean to freedom.
The lyrics to many of Mr. Young's songs celebrated the gifts nature gives, from the dreamy play of sunlight on skin to the unfettered sweep of wind in the hair.
'Love of the natural world is as much a theme in my music as romantic love,' he told the website Music Aficionado in 2016. 'I get more out of walking over the ridgetop in Marin and looking out at the national seashore than any drugs I ever did' — a reference to the Northern California county where he lived for much of his career.
Mr. Young's voice was as sensuous as his words. Blessed with a boyishly high pitch, and with the ability to bend a lyric with the ease that a great dancer uses to navigate a delicate move, he balanced his innocent character with a sophisticated musicality. His phrasing, like his composing, drew from a wealth of genres, including folk, jug band music, psychedelia, R&B and jazz, both traditional and modern. The same sources informed his solo work, notably a string of successful albums he released in the mid-1970s, including 'Light Shine' and 'Songbird,' each of which broke Billboard's Top 40.
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