Tag Archives: Quicksilver Messenger Service

Song of the Week – (Let’s) Get Together, Kingston Trio, Jefferson Airplane, Youngbloods

by

Ignored             Obscured              Restored

Back in the mid-‘60s, a guy named Chet Powers wrote a song called “Let’s Get Together”.  It was originally recorded by the Kingston Trio in 1964 but would become one of the best known “hippie anthems” of the ‘60s.

A version of the song was included on the Jefferson Airplane’s debut album, Jefferson Airplane Takes Off, released in 1966.

But in 1967, the version that is most notable was released by the Youngbloods (featuring Jesse Colin Young) retitled simply “Get Together”.  It was released as a single that year and stalled at #62.  But upon its re-release in 1969, it rose all the way up to the peak chart position of #5.  The popularity of the re-release was tied to the song being used in a PSA for the National Conference of Christians and Jews.  Maybe we need to bring it back again!

Powers was going by the stage name Dino Valenti as a member of the San Francisco’s Quicksilver Messenger Service.  Drug busts landed him in Folsom Prison, so he wasn’t on the band’s first couple of albums until he was able to rejoin in 1970.  While in prison, he needed some cash for his legal defense so in 1966 he sold the rights to “Get Together” to Frank Werber who was the colorful manager (and Holocaust survivor) of the Kingston Trio.  I don’t know if it is true, but I’ve read his price was $100!  Werber’s royalties certainly far exceeded that.  The bad move by Powers brought the whole story full circle.

Enjoy… until next week.

Song of the Week – Fresh Air, Quicksilver & Before the Water Gets Too High, Parquet Courts

by

Ignored           Obscured            Restored

April 22, 1970, was the date of the first Earth Day.  It has been celebrated every April 22nd ever since.  Long before we understood the impact of greenhouse gasses or coined the terms “climate change” or “global warming,” the environment was being polluted by gas-guzzling cars using leaded petrol and factories were spewing toxic gasses and smoke into the air.

Musicians took up the cause and wrote songs about it.  The earliest one I recall was “Out in the Country” (written by Paul Williams and Roger Nichols) from Three Dog Night’s album It Ain’t Easy (1970).

About the same time, Quicksilver Messenger Service released “Fresh Air.”

“Fresh Air” was written by Dino Valenti (aka Dino Valente, Chet Powers, and Jesse Farrow).  He also wrote the hippie anthem “Get Together” which was a major hit for Jesse Colin Young and The Youngbloods.

Throughout the years many other songs that touch the issue of the environment have been recorded by major stars.  A few examples (and there are many more) include:

Mercy, Mercy Me (the Ecology) – Marvin Gaye

Big Yellow Taxi – Joni Mitchell

Fall on Me – REM

My City Was Gone – The Pretenders

Beds Are Burning – Midnight Oil

Still, very recently, this issue was addressed by Parquet Courts in their song “Before the Water Gets Too High” on 2018’s Wide Awaaaaake!

State TV helps the public explain
Broadcast beamed into the dry terrain
Images of drenched survival
Without hope but soaked with pain
Consequences of reality felt
All conditions of humanity built
On the bridges
Tent villages waiting for the state to help

Before the water gets too high

This brings back the memories of the trauma left behind in post-Katrina New Orleans and 2017’s Maria in Puerto Rico.

Almost 50 years after the first Earth Day there is still more work to be done!

Enjoy… until next week.