The title should read : Bang and Olufsen ... I made a mistake in the title, sorry ... read on ...
Here are the pictures. The story comes after the pictures so continue to scroll down and enjoy. Cheers ...
The album that I played on my Bang and Olufsen stereo today originally cost $3.99 at the Giant Music. I know because the price is still marked on the protective, clear shrink-wrap that covers the record. It's still all there serving as history. I wonder from whom this record was purchased and what year? I'll bet it was one of the first releases of the record.
The reason I wonder is that for a summer I worked at Giant Music on Columbia Pike. I may have sold the person this record?!? What's the chance of that having happened?
I used to ride my bike to the store and back. I cannot remember now but perhaps this was the only Giant Music store? I simply cannot remember.
I do remember that the store manager had a sister that was an English major and so he offered me a lot of her old books which I took and still have. It sure is a small world, really.
The price goes on to say that the regular price was $4.98 and that the sale price is $3.99 at Giant Music.
I paid $15 today for this record which seems to be in really good shape - no scratches that I can detect. It says : Stereo LSP 4150 on the back. Perhaps that is a good clue to when this copy of " Elephant Mountain " was released and sold?
Wow! I just bought a copy at Record/ Tape & Exchange of the RCA VICTOR LP ( LSP-4150 Dynagroove , 1969, New York, NY ) The Youngblood's " Elephant Mountain " that I have been trying to find now for quite some time. I would have liked to find a copy on a cd since everything is so much easier once it's in cd format. However, this " find " and the fact that it was recorded in 1969 and that a month ago Woodstock was celebrating it's 40th anniversary : well, this is all quite impressive that it all comes together for me now. Let me try and explain and bring it all into focus for both you and myself as I write about all the things that have come together.
I'm listening to the record ( side one now ) as I type quickly away on Monday, September 7th, 2009 at 3:36 PM here at home in northern Virginia as my wife takes nap, my son's at Caribou Coffee with a friend and my daughter is down at the Smithsonian with a new friend. I'm listening to the third track ( an instrumental called " On Sir Francis Drake " ( a 6:18 minute track ) as I write.
The most important thing about all this is that my grandmother that lived in California told me about the Youngbloods years ago when I was living in Aurora Hills North Arlington and swimming on the Fort Myer swimming team. Those sure were some wonderful days : swim hard in the morning at practice and then spend the rest of the afternoon at the pool with my friends and listen to 45 RPM's on their plastic players. I think I had one too : it was shiny red and white and it sure was nice to spin our lives away in the sunshine by the pool on the green grass. I;m sure I had an impressive 45 RPM collection but for the life of me I cannot remember exactly which ones I had then. The radio, too was very important back them: I think it was called WEAM the station : one of our two or so music bibles so-to-speak.
But the fact that my grandmother made me aware of the Youngbloods was something special. I bought a copy of this album " Elephant Mountain " back then (" Can't you understand, you're beautiful, do what you will ... open your eyes and look around you .... oohhh you're so beautiful... beautiful, so beautiful ... come on and say what you will, what you're feeling, reach out your hands ... can't you understand " sings Jesse Colin Young on the song " Beautiful " ( 3:42 minute track ). Thank you granny for introducing me to the Youngbloods. I really like the lyrics on this album and I forgot pretty much all about this song.
I am hearing this again after many years of silence. I lost my copy of this album so long ago as my family traveled overseas for many years as I was growing up partly here in northern Virginia and partly somewhere overseas in the Azores Islands, Brazil, Trinidad, Costa Rica and Paris, France. It was hard, but someone had to do it!
I remember back then when I discovered the Youngbloods that I quickly fell in love with this album and that I pretty much liked all of the songs on it. That's saying something that I cannot say for many albums. So I have been very curious to see whether or not I still like them as I did so much forty or so years ago?
I have just finished the first side of the album and may say that I really liked rediscovering it after so many years. Now I am going to go over and turn it over on my Bang & Olofsen Beogram RX record-player ( it still plays really well ! ).
I'm listening to " Rain Song " ... " Blow your mind, turn around, don't let the rain bring you down ... " as Jesse Colin Young sings in his strong, pure voice ( I like it as well as the voices of the others as they chime in ) ... " don;t let the rain bring you down ... ". I'm not quite as impressed with this song and yet I like it's playfulness and lightness of sound, not so much lyrics. Now " Trillium " is playing and I am listening to it's instrumental beginning. As I said I do not remember all these songs. The one that always stuck with me through all these years is " Darkness Darkness " ( 3:48 minute track, the first song on Side One : it's a great way to start the album and get you hooked ).
At the Record Tape and Exchange I noticed that Joe Bauer plays along with Banana and Jesse Colin Young. This makes me smile big because I just did an in-store wine-tasting of the ANTON BAUER wines. Anton ( Toni ) Bauer is friends with Joseph Bauer that also makes excellent Austrian wines. I met Joseph Bauer through Toni Bauer when I went to Austria in 2005 I believe ( at the summer palace in Vienna for the annual Austrian wine-festival ). I liked Joseph and I wonder if these two are related?
I just had to get up and check my record out for dust as I was starting to hear static with the end of the " Rain Song ". I was right : there was quite a bit of dust at the tip of the needle and I removed it and the sound comes through so much more clearer now .
" This was of quicksand, quicksand, singing like a songbird, quicksand closing in around, quicksand, teaching me ... takin' and concealin' ahhhh I don't know about quicksand ... little things I'm feeling ... not to be revealed, covered up by quicksand ... " sings Jesse Colin Young as I type quickly and try and hear correctly each of the words that he is singing. I'll have to listen to the song " Quicksand " a couple more times ... " And if you want to see somebody you got to see me now as I am ''' strip off your disguise ... if you're scared to touch somebody ... because I don't want to love nobody ... heh, alright, ( great guitar solo hear ) why don't you open up your mind, I know you're feeling ... you've gotta be somebody baby .... " sings Jesse on the song " Sham " which I remember and really like. Now it's on to the softer lighter solo/intro on " Ride The Wind " ( 6:44 minute track ) ... I remember and like it, too.
" Ride the wind, leave your mind behind... see the colors flashing like the rainbow ... let it go, let it go ... ( nice piano solo here ) ... until there's overflow ... you can feel all you need to know, ride the wind ... ( the piano solo is back again, so soothing, so tranquil and lilting and light and engaging and bright and pastoral, prairies and fields and ranges and the wind blowing gently as in a nice breeze or more ) ... heh, heh, heh , heh, heh , heh , heh , heh , heh , heh ... ( a nice soothing rhythm going here now, lulling me, I'm feeling no stress, no worry, my wind is going nicely along and it's on auto-pilot as the rest of me is, too ... we're just along for the Youngblood's ride on their backs as they ride the wind to the close of this delightful/insightful album.
Jesse, you are quite the poet - quite the one to express your feelings/ know them, share them - bring light to them as both a remedy for you as well as the rest of us. It's almost as if these are gentle sermons of yours about how to live and enjoy life to the fullest. It's almost as if this is an outline of sorts for the pitfalls and the highs that life provides and not just the safe/boring middle ground. Don't get me wrong : we desperately need some of that middle ground but we also need some of both the highs and the lows in there for us as well. You give us some of all of this - pleasure in both words and music and I'm so happy to reconnect again with " Elephant Mountain " after so many years.
Someone should use some of this music in soundtracks to today's movies : what are they waiting for?!? Anyway, thanks to the three of you as well as Joe Clayton, Plas Johnson , Dennis Smith and everyone else associated in bringing these songs into this inspirational, lyrical, pastoral, positive and pleasing album back in 1969. It's time it be rediscovered : I think a lot of today's youth would love some of these songs.
The Youngbloods are listed on the back cover of this album with the address of : 4502 18th Street, San Fransisco, California 94114.
I'd like to hear from you Jesse or any of the others of you that worked on this album. If you see this blog please comment on it and give me an email address so that we can start a dialogue.
I did not write the lyrics down in the right order that they were sung but I hope that I got enough of them down correctly and that it makes everyone want to go and find a copy of " Elephant Mountain " on cd or on vinyl as I have here.
Cheers to you all and I hope that you like this one-draft/unedited blog that I am posting right now for one and for all to enjoy on Labor Day weekend, 2009. Anthony ( Tony ) Quinn Thanks granny, you're the best ...
The other day
