An anthem from the 60s in Daydreaming on the Porch
- June 12, 2020, 9:25 p.m.
- |
- Public
One of my favorite songs from the 60s was a critically acclaimed hit by The Youngbloods in 1967, the year it was released. But the group itself remained relatively obscure, despite the success and impact of “Get Together.”
I was a junior in high school then, and I was starting to hear about our country’s involvement in the Vietnam War. I didn’t get the album, but I must have listened to the song hundreds of times over the decades since. It was reissued in 1969, the “Summer of Love,” the summer of the Woodstock Music Festival in rural New York State, and the summer when protests against the war were ramping up on college campuses across the country.
Now it’s 50 years later and racism has been rearing it’s ugly head in a violent way yet again. The country is in turmoil, not only from a terrifying coronavirus pandemic and new Great Depression, but now from anguished soul searching about racism, inequality, and the state of police departments and the federal government and their handling of peaceful protests. We see the open-sore state of racism in the country as we’ve not seen it in many years. After the murder of a black man, George Floyd, by a white police officer in Minneapolis this past May 25, a lit fuse went off. Peaceful protests in my city and many others, were followed by a night of rioting and looting. It was horrendous that amidst the peace and harmony of the earlier protests came that violence.
Protests the following week spread to more than 450 cities and towns across the U.S. and in other countries, again, mostly peaceful.
Two weeks later I was listening to music on YouTube and there it was, the song from the 60s by The Youngbloods, an anthem for peace and brotherhood that almost sounds innocent or quaint in comparison to the vitriol and political and racial animosity that’s been festering in the land, presided over by a president, attorney general and administration in Washington that condone violence. Tear gassing peaceful protesters near the White House so the president can walk across the street and hypocritically hold up a Bible in front of a church was an act of violence. Tear gas is a very dangerous and toxic chemical whose use in war was prohibited by the Geneva Protocol of 1925. It’s unfathomable that we have gone from being the laughingstock of the world to a now dangerous and pitied, fallen giant.
What’s to become of us? Can we even pause to heed the words of love and brotherhood by the Youngbloods, so memorably sung 50 years ago, or was that only the rallying cry of a long past generation? I don’t think so. From the outpouring of passion and youthful protest the past two weeks, I am convinced that change is coming upon the land, at last.
There were more than 2,000 comments about this song on YouTube. Among the most recent was this: “This song sounds do appropriate and much needed in the scary, crazy and unknown times we’re currently in.” Yes!
Get Together
Words by Chester Powers
Sung by The Youngbloods
Love is but a song to sing
Fear’s the way we die
You can make the mountains ring
Or make the angels cry
Though the bird is on the wing
And you may not know why
Come on people now
Smile on your brother
Everybody get together
Try to love one another
Right now
Some may come and some may go
We shall surely pass
When the one that left us here
Returns for us at last
We are but a moment’s sunlight
Fading in the grass
Come on people now
Smile on your brother
Everybody get together
Try to love one another
Right now
Come on people now
Smile on your brother
Everybody get together
Try to love one another
Right now
Come on people now
Smile on your brother
Everybody get together
Try to love one another
Right now
If you hear the song I sing
You will understand (listen!)
You hold the key to love and fear
All in your trembling hand
Just one key unlocks them both
It’s there at your command
Come on people now
Smile on your brother
Everybody get together
Try to love one another
Right now
Come on people now
Smile on your brother
Everybody get together
Try to love one another
Right now
I said, come on people now
Smile on your brother
Everybody get together
Try to love one another
Right now
Right now
Right now
Last updated June 12, 2020
A Pedestrian Wandering ⋅ June 12, 2020
Loved it then, love it now. Everything old is new again.
woman in the moon ⋅ June 12, 2020
I hadn't really connected the uproar now with the 1960s - though of course there are a lot of similarities. Big difference is I was young then and now I'm old.
Wranglingal ⋅ June 13, 2020
I was born in the early 60's and I remember my oldest brother playing that song many times. I need to remind this song to my brother and sister's, I do hope we can show to our young kids that we can get thru this terrible scary time of their lives!
WE ALL MATTER!!
Oswego Wranglingal ⋅ June 13, 2020
Well said! And I think the music of our era is one way we can get through to the young people of today.
ConnieK ⋅ June 13, 2020
I loved the song, but none of my friends thought much of it until years later when it became popular. I was thinking the times are better reflected in Buffalo Springfield's "For What it's Worth".
Oswego ConnieK ⋅ June 13, 2020
I agree, when I think about it. The Buffalo Springfield song is a classic for the ages, no doubt. The YouTube clip I listen to a lot has 51 million views. That’s a powerful statement in and of itself. But “Get Together” offers hope while “For What It’s Worth” is an angry warning. I’d say both are about equally of their time and highly relevant for now, just with very different messages.
ConnieK Oswego ⋅ June 13, 2020
Both work. "Four Dead in Ohio" fits, too.
mcbee ⋅ June 13, 2020
Perfectly written. I can definitely see the writer/journalist you are. I loved this song at the time and, you are right, it's the right time to put it out there again.
Oswego mcbee ⋅ June 13, 2020
Thank you! I’m finally appreciating the song as much more than a feel-good anthem. I didn’t pay attention to it then as much as I do now. It has tremendous emotional power and resonance.
I appreciate what you said. Pretty much everything I’ve written over the years here and at OD have been the newspaper columns Inever got to write but which in these decades of the I termed and self f publishing have had much more impact than I could have dreamed possible.
ODSago ⋅ June 13, 2020
Oh, yes, I remember that song...love that come on people, smile on your brother.. .line. always felt like a hug around the shoulders when one was being a dope and knew it, at lest to me. So glad you are writing about this topics. You do it so well. Have a nice Sunday.
Oswego ODSago ⋅ June 13, 2020 (edited June 13, 2020)
Edited
I’m just beginning to really appreciate that song. I don’t know why it didn’t resonate as well long ago. I guess a lot of living has passed since that song first came out, and I know a bit more about life.
Marg ⋅ June 16, 2020
Very apt lyrics indeed!
MageB ⋅ June 16, 2020
Yes, a good fit for today.
Deleted user ⋅ June 26, 2020
When I moved to Baltimore in September '69 and lived in North Charlesstreet 601, near the Whashington monument, I saw many burnt out warehouses and shops a few block away from my apartment. I think there had also been a serious protest movement due to racism, that peaked in '68.
I don't remember this song. :(