Fretplay.com The Youngbloods CD reviews The Youngbloods guitar tabs The Youngbloods CD reviews The Youngbloods tabs Beautiful! Live in San Francisco 1971


The Youngbloods - Beautiful! Live in San Francisco 1971 Audio CD

A fair review of the The Youngbloods "Beautiful! Live in San Francisco 1971" Audio CD. Please note that the below review is the views of the authors, and authors only. You can get a complete list of all The Youngbloods reviews here, or go back to the The Youngbloods tabs.

The Youngbloods Band: The Youngbloods
Title: Beautiful! Live in San Francisco 1971
Rating:
Release Date: 2005-02-22
Media: Audio CD

Tracks: 1: Six Days On The Road 2: Country Home 3: On Sir Francis Drake 4: Dreamboat 5: Drifting and Drifting 6: Interlude 7: Old Dan Tucker 8: On Beautiful Lake Spenard 9: Josianne 10: Explosion 11: Beautiful 12: Get Together

Very good live album from an underappreciated band
I wound up enjoying the entire performance, from the beautiful keyboards of Lowell "Banana" Levinger's "On Sir Francis Drake," Jesse Colin Young's "Dreamboat" (to my ear, a bit reminiscent of Blues Image's 1970 "Ride Captain Ride"), the bluegrass mini-set of the banjo song "interlude," and a great and enthusiastic cover of "Old man tucker," and very good blues harmonica (and tasteful guitar fills) on Young's "Drifting and Drifting. I bought this disc on something of a lark after hearing the Youngbloods' cover of the 1963 Dave Dudley song "Six Days on the Road," which I enjoyed quite a bit--a version still faithful to its country roots, but the most creative of all the many covers of that song I've heard (it sounds a bit like what you would expect the Grateful Dead to do with the song). " Heck--I even enjoyed the hippy anthem "Beautiful" (there's a 1969 live version of the song also available on another album), even though the sentiments seem a bit dated at the distance of 37 years. I enjoyed the entire album quite a bit--well worth the $11 bucks it set me back to buy it used. .


Good not great live memory of a great band
Unlike much of the West Coast scene that focused on psychedelic angst (Quicksilver, the Fish, the Dead, Jefferson Airplane) or drunken self indulgence (The Doors), these guys played good time music. These guys did some of the best music of the late 60s-early 70s. In so many ways they took the Lovin' Spoonful's sense of fun and joy in music and made it great music that wasn't "pop" and didn't dip into country rock like Poco and the Eagles.

During their career, they put out 2 live albums ("Rock Festival" and "Ride The Wind") both of which suffered from the same defects this effort shows. In all cases, there is some GREAT work on the album, just not enough to make it a great album.

This retrospective shows them during some of their best musical work, but falls prey to the cover junk syndrome that Jesse, Banana and Joe slipped into seemingly to fill space in concerts.

Elephant Mountain, and Earth Music were two of the best albums of the era. This recording is definitely worth finding if you're a fan, but find it on sale in a used bin somewhere or risk at least a little disappointment in the $17 outlay for a mixed effort.


Rare and beautiful from KSAN vaults...
So any release from any year of their brief existence is a welcome event. The sad truth is that there simply aren't many official or unofficial live recordings of the Youngbloods out there. "Beautiful" dates from the final days, before Jesse Colin Young became committed to his solo career. Whether it's rock, jazz, folk or blues, The Youngbloods inject a relaxed warmth that never grows old or tired. I've been following their careers since Jesse's "The Soul Of A City Boy" in the mid-sixties, and they never fail to please my ultra-jaded musical sensibilities. Help pad somebody's retirement fund out there by dropping a dime on Sundazed. Jah knows the global economy could use the boost!.


You can see a complete list of all The Youngbloods discography, or go back to the The Youngbloods tabs. There is also a good guide on how to read guitar tabs here.

Search guitar tabs

#ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
[ Search tabs | Guitar tabs | Bass tabs |
Easy guitar tabs | Guitar solo tabs |
Acoustic guitar tabs | Guitar chords |
How to read guitar tabs ]
Forum topics
Music forums
- Bands and artists - Songwriting and lyrics - Tablature talk - Promote your band
Instrument forums
- Guitar basics - Gear & accessories - Bass guitar
Community
- The pit - Site Feedback - Reviews
[ User survey | About us | Privacy statement ]