50 years after the Youngbloods got together and rocked the nation, Lowell Levinger, known fondly as Banana, is revisiting those nine wild years with a special collector’s album, Get Together: Banana Recalls Youngbloods Classics. For the album, Banana has penned some originals and also put a fresh spin on the band’s best tunes, bringing some guest stars along for the ride, including Jesse Colin Young, who cofounded the band with Levinger.
One of the Youngbloods hits that Levinger revisited, and the inspiration for the album’s title, is “Get Together,” a song that became an anthem for unity and peace during the Vietnam War. For the song and video, Levinger opts for a stripped down approach, also reminding us that it is important as ever, all these decades later, to come together in harmony. In the video’s intro, we’re reminded in black and white of the struggles of the past and demands of the future. “The Youngbloods sent a copy of [“Get Together”] to every member of Congress,” it reads, “the message was simple… Love one another. 50 years later we are still learning.”
Shots of Levinger playing his guitar in front of a simple, beautiful landscape are interspersed at first with images of the tragedies that plague our nation and the world, from school shootings to police violence. As the folksy twang of the guitar and clear, empowered timbre of Levinger’s vocals allow the words to ring out, the images transition to those of togetherness and love.
Watch the video for “Get Together” below, and get yourself a copy of Get Together: Banana Recalls Youngbloods Classics comes out on September 11th, but in the meantime you can stream it on his website here.
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