Search - Youngbloods :: Earth Music

A great diverse second album of psycedelic blues folk rock

03/01/1999

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Earth Music ,the sophmore effort from the pre San Francisco based Youngbloods,continues in more or less the same Greenwich Village folk rock style as their impressive debut. Only here the band begins to step out and really explore blues, country, jug band and psycedelia in a more realized way that brings their playing and singing to the fore. Highlights include the opening , Euphoria, a psycedelic jugband favorite, the Jesse Collin Young folk rocker, All my Dreams Blue, and the country tinged Sugar Babe and The Wine Song. Banana Levinger and Jerry Corbit contribute the tuneful Dreamers Dream and the acid soaked, Fool Me. Jesse even manages some great blues wailing in Long and Tall and the more laid back blues rocker, I Can Tell. An impressive album from the still east coast based and Jerry Corbit included Youngbloods."

The 3 P's: plaintive, pretty, and party [take your pick]

Phil Rogers | Ann Arbor, Michigan | 05/10/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I first heard this at a party in a house across the street from East Quadrangle (University of Michigan) during the Winter Term of 1969. I didn't know anyone except my frat brother Frank; but the party was hosted by a very gracious young red-headed woman named Marilyn who owned a pet rat which rode on her shoulder. The rat's name was Bazel (Basil?). A lot of the people at the party were from an honors class which Frank was enrolled in titled 'Fantasy Literature'. Note: Frank isn't the same person whom Bob Dylan speaks of in the liner notes of 'John Wesley Harding'.Anyway, I was totally captivated by the plaintive song "Dreamer's Dream", and really, all the songs were kind of blowing me away, so I bought the album the next day, and never regretted it. This was pretty much my first introduction to 'country rock' outside the sphere of the Byrds. It's a downright moving, inspiring album. About half of the other tunes are in a similar style as "Dreamer's Dream", namely "All My Dreams Blue" (another absolutely gorgeous tune), "Fool Me", "Don't Play Games", and the slower numbers: "I Can Tell" and a beautifully harmonized version of Tim Hardin's "Reason to Believe". These are all kind of folk-rocky, though [of course] with more of a country edge. The guitars don't ring and twang like [the Byrds'] Roger McGuinn's 12-string Rickenbacker, and much of their sound is characterized by the band's signature [somewhat boomy-sounding but very well-played] Wurlitzer electric piano licks. (The same instrument is used by Joni Mitchell on her version of the song "Woodstock" from her 'Ladies of the Canyon' album.)The other tunes are more in an up-tempo 'party' mode. Note that most late 60's and early 70's 'party rock' bores me enough to make me want to rhetorically vomit. Not so here: "Euphoria" and the "The Wine Song" are both very catchy and hilarious. "Euphoria", which starts the album, is a total attention-getter: it's well nigh impossible to NOT listen to it. I mean, my ears pricked up right away, and remained engaged thereafter. "Monkey Business" is one of those 'complaint songs', and a very good one. "Sugar Babe" is definitely a feel-good song, The rhythm section lays down an infectious groove, and the singer is totally zapped into it. The riffs and solo bits (including pedal steel) conspire effectively to make this, all and all, a complete anti-depressant of a song. "Long and Tall" continues in a similar vein, but it's more the singer bragging about his honey, using lyrics as good as some we hear from Taj Mahal on his landmark album 'The Natch'l Blues' from the same time period. Very funny, evocative stuff!Buy it--you'll like it !!!"