| Elephant Mountain | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | April 1969 | |||
| Studio | RCA (Hollywood, California) | |||
| Genre | ||||
| Length | 40:06 | |||
| Label | RCA Victor | |||
| Producer | Charlie Daniels, The Youngbloods, Bob Cullen | |||
| the Youngbloods chronology | ||||
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| Singles from Elephant Mountain | ||||
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Elephant Mountain is the third studio album by the American rock band The Youngbloods, released in 1969. It reached number 118 on the Billboard 200 chart. [1]
With the departure of member and co-founder Jerry Corbitt, Jesse Colin Young became the primary songwriter of the band, penning seven of the 13 tracks on the album, and co-writing four more with Lowell "Banana" Levinger and Joe Bauer. The four tracks credited to Young, Banana, and Bauer are all instrumentals.
Levinger's "On Sir Francis Drake" is an instrumental named after Sir Francis Drake Boulevard of Marin County, where the band had recently moved. At 6:44 it is the longest track on the album, consisting of two sections, the first an electric piano-based waltz, the second a blues jam with some bass soloing by Young. The only other song on the album not co-written by Young is "Rain Song (Don't Let the Rain Bring You Down)", which is similar to their earlier "jug band" style songs like "Euphoria" and "The Wine Song"; it was co-written by Jerry Corbitt, Felix Pappalardi and Gail Collins, his wife.
According to the liner notes on the Sundazed reissue, the album was "begun in New York early in 1967, then finished in RCA's Hollywood studios after the band moved to San Francisco, but not released until 1969." Liner notes writer Jud Cost mentions that original member, Jerry Corbitt, though uncredited in the liner notes, performs "on a couple of Elephant Mountain tracks, notably singing the vocal with Young on 'Smug'."
Unlike their previous albums, there are no covers of songs by other artists.
The album was included in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die . [2]
Although not specified on the album cover, the mountain depicted is Black Mountain (locally called Elephant Mountain), located west of the Nicasio Reservoir in Marin County.
Sundazed released a remastered version in 2008 with "Previously Unissued Bonus Tracks," including "Pool Hall Song" and "Beautiful" (alternate version).
In 2014, RCA of Japan released a 19 track version of the album.
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   [1] |
| The Village Voice | C+ [3] |
Reviewing for The Village Voice in 1969, Robert Christgau wrote, "In the manner of tight groups, the Youngbloods stretch thinner all the time. Not only have they lost Jerry Corbitt, but their own expertise has become somehow attenuated. Banana used to be the most tasteful electric pianist in rock. Now he has become so tasteful he can sounds like Roy Kral on a lazy night." [3] Lester Bangs was more enthusiastic in Rolling Stone , saying "this is one of the most encouraging albums I have heard in months. ... This album exudes that supremely rare commodity in these dark, bored, destructive times – joy." [4]
Years later, Rolling Stone said the album "bridges the gap between the last days of psychedelia and the outbreak of country-rock that had afflicted artists like the Byrds and Neil Young." [4] In a retrospective review for AllMusic, Lindsay Planer praised the album, feeling that it "contains some of the band's strongest material to date". [1] The New York Times described the album as their "1969 folk-rock touchstone". [5]
Tracks 17 "Smug" is a mono mix of the regular album version.
| Chart (1969) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Billboard | 118 |
| Year | Single | Chart | Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1969 | "Darkness, Darkness" | Billboard Hot 100 | 124 |
| "Sunlight" | 114 | ||
| 1970 | "Darkness, Darkness" | 86 | |
The Youngbloods were an American rock band consisting of Jesse Colin Young, Jerry Corbitt, Lowell "Banana" Levinger, and Joe Bauer (drums). Despite receiving critical acclaim, they never achieved widespread popularity. Their only U.S. Top 40 entry was Chet Powers' "Get Together".
Felix Albert Pappalardi Jr. was an American music producer, songwriter, vocalist, and bassist. He is best known as the bassist and co-lead vocalist of the band Mountain, whose song "Mississippi Queen" peaked at number 21 on the Billboard Hot 100 and became a classic rock radio staple.
Mountain was an American hard rock band formed on Long Island, New York, in 1969. Originally consisting of vocalist-guitarist Leslie West, bassist-vocalist Felix Pappalardi, keyboardist Steve Knight, and drummer N. D. Smart, the group disbanded in 1972, but reunited on several occasions prior to West's death in 2020. They are best-known for their 1970 smash hit song "Mississippi Queen", which remains a staple of classic rock radio, as well as the heavily sampled song "Long Red", and their performance at Woodstock Festival in 1969. Mountain is one of many bands commonly credited with influencing the development of heavy metal music during the 1970s. The group's musical style primarily consisted of hard rock, blues rock, and heavy metal.
Perry Miller, known professionally as Jesse Colin Young, is an American singer and songwriter. He was a founding member and lead singer of the 1960s group the Youngbloods. After their dissolution in 1972, Young embarked on a solo career, releasing a series of albums through Warner Bros. Records, including Song for Juli (1973), Light Shine (1974), Songbird (1975) and the live album On the Road (1976). Young continued to release music in the 1980s with Elektra Records and Cypress Records, before deciding to release music through his personal label, Ridgetop Music, in 1993. After the Mount Vision Fire in 1995, Young relocated with his family to a coffee plantation in Hawaii, periodically releasing music. Young received a diagnosis of "chronic Lyme disease" in 2012, and decided to retire from music. He began performing again in 2016 with his son Tristan, releasing a new album Dreamers in 2019 through BMG.
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David Perper is an American drummer. Since 1970, David has played and recorded with national and local Bay Area artists and bands including Kingfish, the New Riders of the Purple Sage, Jesse Colin Young, the Youngbloods, the Mamas & the Papas, the Hoodoo Rhythm Devils, the Rowan Brothers, Peter Rowan and the Free Mexican Air Force, the Sounds of San Francisco, Lamb, Steve Seskin, Bill Cutler, Barry Flast and Trouble, David Denny, Chris Michie and Andy Kulberg, Rahni Raines, Joe Christmas, and Big Bang Beat. Perper lives in San Francisco.
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Song for Juli is the fourth solo album by singer-songwriter and former Youngblood Jesse Colin Young. The album had a higher chart placing than any of the Youngbloods albums, and stayed on the charts longer than any other album he ever made.
"Darkness, Darkness" is a song written by Jesse Colin Young in 1969, which has been covered by many artists. Young's band The Youngbloods released a version on their 1969 album Elephant Mountain. They released a version of the song as a single twice: in 1969, which reached #124 on the Billboard chart, and in 1970, which reached #86 on the chart.
Nantucket Sleighride is the second studio album by American hard rock band Mountain, released in January 1971 by Windfall Records in the US and by Island in the UK. It reached number 16 on the Billboard Hot 200 Album Chart in 1971.
The Vagrants were an American, Long Island-based rock and blue-eyed soul group from the 1960s. The group was composed of Peter Sabatino on vocals, harmonica, and tambourine, Leslie West on vocals and guitar, Larry West on vocals and bass guitar, Jerry Storch on organ, and Roger Mansour on drums.
The Youngbloods is the debut self-titled studio album by the American rock band the Youngbloods, released in 1967. It was also reissued in 1971 under the title Get Together after the popular single from the album. The album peaked at number 131 on the Billboard 200 although two years later the single "Get Together" reached number five and sold more than a million copies.
Earth Music is the second studio album by the American rock band the Youngbloods, released in 1967. The album did not succeed, failing to chart.
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Jerry Corbitt was an American guitarist, harmonica player, singer, songwriter, and record producer. He is best known as a founding member and guitarist of the rock band the Youngbloods.
