JESSE COLIN YOUNG, WHO LED FOLK-ROCK GROUP THE YOUNGBLOODS, DIES AT 80

Jesse Colin Young, who seamlessly blended folk, blues, jazz, country and rock & roll as the leader of The Youngbloods and subsequently during a lengthy solo career, died in his home in Aiken, South Carolina, Sunday (3/16). He was 83. The news came from his wife and manager, Connie Darden-Young. No cause of death was given.

As the frontman of The Youngbloods, Young captured the ideals of the Woodstock generation with "Get Together," an international hit that called for peace and brotherhood during the turbulent 1960s. The Youngbloods’ only major hit was released in 1967 before becoming a hit two years later and typified the optimism of late-’60s American youth culture, much like Joni Mitchell’s contemporaneous “Woodstock.”

Born Perry Miller, in New York on November 22, 1941, Young dropped out of NYU to join the Greenwich Village folk circuit. He recorded the solo albums Soul of a City Boy (Capitol, 1963) and Youngblood (Mercury, 1964), the latter with John Sebastian in support, before forming a duo in 1965 with guitarist Jerry Corbitt. When he added drummer Joe Bauer (drums) and multi-instrumentalist Lowell “Banana” Levinger, The Youngbloods lineup was set. The group fulfilled Young’s contractual obligations with Mercury with Two Trips in 1967 and signed with RCA. Their self-titled debut album included “Get Together,” written by Quicksilver Messenger Service’s Dino Valenti under the pseudonym Chet Powers.

After relocating to California, the band released the critically acclaimed, Charlie Daniels-produced Elephant Mountain as a trio following Corbitt’s departure. That album, The Youngbloods' masterwork included the intense rocker “Darkness, Darkness,” the jazzy “Ride the Wind” and the idyllic “Sunlight.”

As a trio, the group signed to Warner Bros., which gave them their own label, Raccoon, on which they released three little-heard albums before disbanding in 1972.

Young then embarked on a solo career, recording a series of folky albums featuring his supple tenor, among them Song for Juli (WB, 1973), Songbird (WB, 1975), American Dreams (Elektra, 1978) and The Highway Is for Heroes (Cypress, 1987). What would be his final album, Dreamers, was released in 2019 on BMG.

In recent years he hosted a podcast and ramped up his long-standing social/environmental activism.

Young is survived by Connie Darden-Young, son Tristan, daughter Jazzie and two children from his first marriage, Juli and Cheyenne.