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Topic: The Youngbloods, Banana |
Tony Prior
From:
Charlotte NC
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Posted 14 Jun 2009 2:45 pm |
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The Youngbloods, "Get Together" had a Steel player, Banana, actually his name is Lowell Levinger , he played a Fender 400 . Being a Youngbloods freak back then( mid 60's ) I had a chance to see them in our town, Banana was the first ever Pedal Steel player I ever heard live and probably it was the first time I ever saw a Pedal Steel in person.
If you get the chance to listen to Sugar Babe and Reason to Believe , both from the first Youngbloods LP, you will hear some very good playing and that great classic Fender tone.
I sent Banana an email the other day and he sent me back a real nice reply, he owns a guitar shop out in
Inverness Ca, http://www.vintageinstruments.com,
if you are a Youngbloods fan send Banana a note.
Banana told me that the Steel was stolen way back then and he never replaced it, what a shame, he "had it "...
The internet, gotta love it !
t
Last edited by Tony Prior on 14 Jun 2009 5:24 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Jon Light
From:
Saugerties, NY
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Posted 14 Jun 2009 3:18 pm
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Weird, the kind of holes I've got in my memories (although not very mysterious). The first album meant a lot to me and I wore out Darkness Darkness and Sunlight on my girlfriend's copy of Elephant Mt. But I totally don't remember them doing Reason To Believe---just listened to a snippet and it brings back no nothing in my mind's ear.
I had no ears for or awareness of steel then. Only from SGF mentions do I know that Banana played.
I guess Someday Soon and Sweetheart/Rodeo were just around the corner (my first awakening).
Jesse Colin Young's voice is still special to me. |
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Chris Bauer
From:
Nashville, TN USA
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Posted 14 Jun 2009 5:00 pm
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It's funny that you posted this.
I just last week put a bunch of Youngbloods on my ipod and was really enjoying the steel guitar parts that I'd never even noticed before. I saw them live a bunch of times and have no recollection of ever seeing a steel guitar - though maybe I just didn't know what I was looking at. I cringe to realize that back then I probably thought it was a keyboard of some kind.
Actually, one of my favorite concerts was Youngbloods and Sons of Champlain together - the latter being a band that I never thought got anything close to their due. (I will, however, stand by my conviction that, unlike the Youngbloods, the Sons of Champlain truly never did have a steel guitar. Though they were certainly the first cool non-jazz band I heard with a vibes player.) |
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Tony Prior
From:
Charlotte NC
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Posted 14 Jun 2009 5:30 pm
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I doubt I was zeroed in on the Pedal Steel back then , actually I was zeroed in on Banana's electric Piano at the time . But I know I saw it and heard it and it was my first Steel sighting !
And yeh, Jessi, Jerry, Banana and Joe were really in the groove back then for sure. We were wearing out the first LP no doubt. Surprisingly I drifted from them after Jerry left the group and only recently started listening to the later albums.
It sure was a flash having communication with Banana.
t |
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Brint Hannay
From:
Maryland, USA
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Posted 14 Jun 2009 8:25 pm
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Sugar Babe and Reason To Believe were my favorite cuts on Earth Music (their second album), and the sound of the steel had a lot to do with that, though I had no clear concept of what the heck the pedal steel was at the time (I was 17). As a person who had no exposure whatsoever to country music in my early life, aside from second-hand representations like the Beatles' Act Naturally, those Earth Music cuts were, I think, my first substantial experience of pedal steel (the only earlier example I can think of was the handful of licks on the Lovin' Spoonful's Nashville Cats), and I dug the sound like crazy. (The playing was very simple, of course, but clean (except for the last glaring out-of-tune chord on Sugar Babe--ouch!) and nice.) But it was 15 more years before I took up the instrument.
The band I was in (The Clockwork Orange (!)) opened for the Youngbloods at the Ambassador Theater in Washington, D.C. in the fall of 1967. (Earth Music came out in '68, I believe.) I was entirely intimidated--I was 16, and they were stars who got played on the radio!--so I had no personal interaction with them. But I remember their performance as being very good indeed. For some reason (  )I can't really remember whether Banana played steel on those shows or not! If he did, I didn't know what I was seeing anyway!
Last edited by Brint Hannay on 14 Jun 2009 9:30 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Pete Finney
From:
Nashville Tn.
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Posted 14 Jun 2009 8:44 pm
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The two songs with steel were on their second album, but it's called "Earth Music". "Elephant Mountain" was their third album and had "Darkness Darkness" and Sunlight" (it was produced by Charlie Daniels, who was pretty much unknown at the time). "Get Together" was on the first album but only became a hit a few years after it first came out...
FWIW |
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Brint Hannay
From:
Maryland, USA
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Posted 14 Jun 2009 9:23 pm
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Pete, you're so right!!! 
Hey, they both start with "E"! (I haven't had either album for many years.)
I'm going to go back and edit out my egregious error.
(BTW, I sent you a PM concerning a previous thread. No biggie.) |
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Joachim Kettner
From:
Germany
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Posted 14 Jun 2009 11:34 pm
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There is also steel on one track of the Elephant Mountain record called Smug.
Banana also played on an album by Mad River. Their singer/bass player Lawrence Hammond later released a very unique coutry record with steel played by Bill Weingarden.
Also on the second J. Corbitt album, on one song the credits list Lloyd Green on Pedal Steel East and John McFee on Pedal Steel West.
The Youngloods also recorded an "answer song" to a Merle Haggard hit.... |
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Tony Prior
From:
Charlotte NC
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Posted 15 Jun 2009 2:11 am
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Yes correction, the first LP was indeed Elephant Mountain, RCA, released 1967, then the Youngbloods ( self titled) RCA, was also released in 1967, I had them both at the time and I gotta be honest I thought the Youngbloods (self titled) was the first one. Both have 1967 release dates. Both excellent LP's.
We were a very young band at the time maybe 17 or so, I know we ran out and somehow got a Wurltizer EP and we worked it into our band, we were so impressed with the sound, never mind the Steel, we probably never never noticed it !
here are two tracks for your listening pleasure
Sugar Babe
www.tprior.com/R1_0072.MP3
Reason to Believe
www.tprior.com/R1_0071.MP3 |
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Joachim Kettner
From:
Germany
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Posted 15 Jun 2009 2:27 am
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| No,Elephant Mountain was the third. It was released in'69. Earth Music was before in '68. Jerry Corbitt was not listed on the credits on EM (though) you can hear him on a few tracks. |
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Pat Dawson
From:
Chesapeake Beach, Maryland, USA
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Posted 15 Jun 2009 4:29 am
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| Wow, I loved the Youngblood Album with "Get Together" in my younger days. I had no idea there was pedal steel in there. I'm going to dust off that album and check it out. Then again, I didn't pick out the steel in Elton's "Tiny Dancer" and so many others, I'm sure. |
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Tony Prior
From:
Charlotte NC
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Posted 15 Jun 2009 6:14 am
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ok, I got it wrong, I actually read it wrong,
Earth Music (LP, Album) RCA Victor 1967
The Youngbloods (LP, Album) RCA Victor 1967
Elephant Mountain (LP, Album) RCA Victor 1969
The Best Of (2 versions) RCA 1970
The Best Of (LP) RCA 1970
The Best Of (LP, RCA 1970
Two Trips Mercury 1970
Good And Dusty (LP, Album) Warner Bros. 1971
Sunlight (LP, Album, RCA Victor 1971
This is one of the discography's listed on the net...
sounds right to me.
t |
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Jon Light
From:
Saugerties, NY
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Posted 15 Jun 2009 6:25 am
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And this explains part of the hole in my ozone layer---I had "Youngbloods", gf had "Elephant" and neither of us had "Earth". Recently played "Reason To Believe" in a pickup gig and freshly fell in love with the song.
This part of the discussion is of course just a fact checking diversion. Youngbloods were cool. Wonder what Banana's back story was that brought him to steel. |
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Joachim Kettner
From:
Germany
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Posted 15 Jun 2009 7:17 am
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| Jerry Garcia sold it to him in 1966. It's in the biography An American Life. That is all I know. |
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Brint Hannay
From:
Maryland, USA
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Posted 15 Jun 2009 10:31 am
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| Working from my own memory, I'm sure "The Youngbloods" was the first album, then "Earth Music", then "Elephant Mountain". After that I don't know. |
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Steve Robinson
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Posted 15 Jun 2009 6:05 pm
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I used to run into Banana occasionally while hang-gliding on the coast of northern Calif in the mid-seventies. Big personality; very interesting character and a versatile musician.
That "Muskogee" answer-song from the Youngbloods was "Hippie from Olema" and had this great line: "We still take in strangers if they're haggard..." |
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Michael Johnstone
From:
Sylmar,Ca. USA
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Posted 15 Jun 2009 9:13 pm
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Wow! I did all that too - same time,same place - and I used to run into Banana(among other S.F.musicians)down at Leo's music store in Oakland in the early/mid 70s. Didn't he eventually open his own music store?
17'x17' Manta I built from a kit. Stepping off a cliff into a stiff sea breeze at Ft.Funston summer 1974.
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Tony Prior
From:
Charlotte NC
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Dave Zirbel
From:
Sebastopol, CA USA
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Posted 16 Jun 2009 4:32 am
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Not to be confused with San Rafael's largest music store, Banana's At Large.....
We see him around every now and then. I think I opened for him once. He was playing bluegrass banjo with David Nelson and Grisman's fiddler.
_________________
Dave Zirbel-
Sierra S-10 (Built by Ross Shafer),ZB, Fender 400 guitars, various tube and SS amps |
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Dave Grafe
From:
Hudson River Valley NY
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Posted 17 Jun 2009 3:17 pm
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| ...seems to me I remember a pedal steel version of "On Beautiful Lake Spenard" as well, or was I just dreaming? |
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Stu Schulman
From:
Ulster Park New Yawk (deceased)
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Posted 17 Jun 2009 5:41 pm
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I live near Lake Spenard! 
_________________
Steeltronics Z-pickup,Desert Rose S-10 4+5,Desert Rose Keyless S-10 3+5... Mullen G2 S-10 3+5,Telonics 206 pickups,Telonics volume pedal.,Blanton SD -10,Emmons GS_10...Zirctone bar,Bill Groner Bar...any amp that isn't broken.Steel Seat.Com seats...Licking paint chips off of Chinese Toys since 1952. |
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Joachim Kettner
From:
Germany
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Joachim Kettner
From:
Germany
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Mark Eaton
From:
Sonoma County in The Great State Of Northern California
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Posted 27 Jul 2012 8:22 am
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"Well I'm proud to be a hippie from Olema
Where we're friendly to the squares and all the straights..."
I don't like this getting older bit, Lowell bills himself as Grandpa Banana these days.
He stays pretty busy with gigs, Dave mentioned bluegrass banjo. Banana mostly does acoustic stuff, back to his 'grasser roots. He does solo gigs and plays with everyone from David Nelson to David Grisman and many of the other local yokels. I've seen him play a few times. I checked his website, he'll be at Lagunitas Brewing Company in nearby Petaluma next month, I might head down there for the show. They have these informal music deals there that start later in the afternoon at 4:20.
Having grown up in the area and seen The Youngbloods several times as a kid, I don't recall ever seeing Banana play pedal steel with them - But it's getting to be a lot of years now..
I do recall seeing a steel player one time in the early 70's with Jesse after the Youngbloods were no more, but I don't recall who it was. McFee maybe?
If I can get to the show at Lagunitas in a few weeks, I'll make sure to ask Grandpa B during a break if he ever played the pedals onstage with The Youngbloods.
_________________
Mark |
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Joachim Kettner
From:
Germany
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Posted 27 Jul 2012 8:40 am
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Wow, you've seen the Youngbloods!
"Earth Music" was one of the first records that I heard with steel on it.
I can imagine that when they located to California as a Trio (without J. Corbitt) that there was no option for him to play steel. But I'm still very interested in what he would say about it.
_________________
Fender Kingman, Sierra Crown D-10, Evans Amplifier, Soup Cube. |
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