Jesse Colin Young still on the peace train

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Peace train: Sixties icon carries on in troubling times

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Since Elektra Records dropped Young in the early 1980s, he has put his money where his mouth is, releasing albums on his own terms and campaigning against unethical nuclear energy practices and the Iraq War.

"We still think we can kill our way to peace," he says. "But I just don't know how it's possible. Every time you kill someone in the war, you make 100 enemies. I'm glad it's not my job. I don't know how I'd deal with the Taliban or anyone else. What a mess."

Currently without a record deal, Young released "Bring 'em Home" last year on iTunes. The protest song was inspired by a New York Times article about an Iraq War veteran who was jailed after returning a gang member's fire at a convenience store. Young views "Bring 'em Home" and his Vietnam era work as patriotic contributions.

"I never found out until after the war when I started to play at veteran's benefits, and guys would say, ‘You know, the music helped.' I would have been a terrible soldier. I don't listen very well. You wouldn't want to put a gun in my hand," he says. "They got the right kind of service out of me."

read more: http://www.gazette.net/stories/06032009/entemon113830_32522.shtml



Jesse from 2008: http://blogs.myspace.com/jessecolinyoung

Thoughts on Irag and War in general

My dear friends:

I remember being in the studios of KFOG radio singing "Get Together" at 8am shortly before the vote on the Iraq war and saying, "I pray that the President and the Congress will have the sense to stay their hand." Those prayers were not answered.

Why we seem to need to be at war in some way or another has always bewildered me. I saw my friends come back from Vietnam saying, "Hey Jess, Get Together was number 1 in Saigon. Right on!" and then proceed to try to drink them selves to death. These men were asked to do things that went totally against their upbringing and it tortured them and probably still does….those who have survived. I was proud to serve our soldiers with my music. I suspect that I would not have been much help in mortal combat with an M16.

I know that we were attacked and naturally fearful after 9/11, but the way the Bush administration twisted that fear and pointed it at Iraq was a transparent psychodrama from the get go. I lost all my respect for all except the 152 who voted against the war. Weapons of mass destruction smelled like a pack of lies at first and time has proved that it was.

So here we are. We have destabilized the Middle East, alienated most of our allies, blown up Iraq for the second time killing tens of thousands of innocents, and watched our brave soldiers destroyed mentally and physically in combat for what? Oil? Profits for Halliburton? A Bush family feud?

In my naiveté I thought I would never see another war in my lifetime. I thought that we had learned something from the precious blood spilled by our 50,000 brothers and sisters killed in Vietnam and the tens of thousands of casualties still roaming our street homeless and out of their minds. Not to mention the casualties on the "enemy" side.

Wrong again, Jess. To those of us who long for peace I say…..we must dream stronger dreams. Let's "Bring 'em Home". That would at least be a beginning.

[On the Road]

1. I Have Loved Jesse Since "Elephant Mountain" Days

Heard him about ten years ago in Reston, VA. Great stuff -- he played a solo acoustic set and then brought his two sons out and played an electric set with harmonica. A lot of classic stuff like "The T-Bone Shuffle," but it had that wonderful Youngbloods sweeness and lilt to it. He released an album under the name "The Newbloods", but have not been able to get my hands on it.

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2. Germantown Saturday

Wish I could go . . .