Added: 4 years ago
From: iwait4u
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  • This is one of my favourite song... I love the words, remember me a long time of my life, explain so well what I was feeling at that times... Since the first time that I heard this song, I think that is perfect for the voice of Robert Plant. Infact, he had sing this. But i prefer this version...

  • Very dark song but so haunting it cannot be denied. Thanks for the post.

  • Great song, weird video.

  • What is all this gross stuff in the video? At first it looked like someone turned a garbage can over but the more i look at it, the more it starts looking like a bunch of candles that have melted.

  • I remember the documentary about heroin addicts, with this song. We were right in the middle of the early 70's heroin epidemic and I had several friends who died from overdoses or suicide. Quite dark indeed.

  • I was at those Berkeley shows, and truly, the best days I ever lived were in that time, Golden Gate Park, Fillmore West, so good.

  • thumbs up if you first heard this in Jack the Bear

  • i miss these good ole songs have some depth

  • Hard to believe that people remember some of the songs that I knew and appreciated from way back when; I thought I was the only one that knew of this song, yet alone enjoyed it. Much thanks.

  • i remember angela davis throwing the typewriter out the window, but i don't remember what was up with that. maybe it had something to do with the black panther movement?

  • @m1kewithaone She got fed up because she didn't know how to spell "gullible."

  • I think that's Charlie Daniels playing the fiddle.

  • AMAZING VIDEO!!!!!!

  • Darkness Jam

  • To iwait4u - There's something interesting about

    the combination of songs with strange-sounding

    stringed instruments & your artwork. Check out the

    video We The People In the Past 1966. It uses 1 of

    the most unusual sounding homemade instruments

    I've ever heard. I would like to see what video you

    would do with that great song.

  • Great song, strange video

  • Great song, strange video

  • The Youngbloods (minus Jerry Corbitt, who had split by this time) used to give free concerts at Ho Chi Minh Park ( Aka Berkeley Municipal Park) across from City Hall and Berkeley High school. They were on Saturday mornings about 11 AM. Good times, good times.

  • @pterosonus Also known as the peoples park

  • @pterosonus I saw the Dead free at Weslyan on "strike weekend" in 1972, with about 30 people in the middle of a field. We crashed in a dorm and hitch-hiked back to our own school the next day. I agree--good times, good times.

  • The Hundredth Monkey WHEN

  • This song may be about using heroin....... the darkness, the escape, the sleep, the blanket, taking away the pain of knowing etc. I'm not the first to interpret this song as a description of escape from reality via smack.

  • @777erobi7 IT WAS REALLY BIG THANG IN 1970 ITS WHAT I THOUGHT, TO MUCH OR TO LITTLE DARKNESS DARKNESS FOREVER

  • These guys gave a free concert outside in Berzerkeley. Must have been way early 1970. Was anyone else online that was there?

  • @wolfdavid1 Yes, I believe i was there. It was near the beach in San Francisco.

  • this song is so awesome . however the lyrics after "long and lonesome" should be "Is the day " instead of Ease the day  . great posting that will be played many times .

  • @ssn0651 I changed it.  Thank you

  • I've been trying to get all the lyrics for decades but I keep getting lost in the listening. the inclusion of all the lyrics (w/ correction)is greatly appreciated

    thanx muchly

  • I wonder if Jesse CY has any idea how much this song means to us 2011 peolple have said nothing but a detoriating world, and wondering WTF the young people are today. I asked my 20 year old daughter WTF is wrong with them....they don't care, she said they have no feeling that they can make a change. SAD...

  • @pavaughn1 Ah but I do believe that so many of the young ones were born knowing that they were put here to make change and let nothing hinder them! So easily can we turn the feeling of helplessness into one of congregated power and improvement, to morph anger and frustration into compassion and progress! They see farther ahead than we, and we must trust their instincts, give up the old in exchange for the new and glorious and transforming!

  • They could Jam when they put their mind to it !

  • Nice video. Very well done. Thanks. Like the Youngbloods. Always did. This is a classic.

  • Not quite sure how you all have managed to link this to the Vietnam War.....There are many ways to interpret this song, but I have to say that war seems the lease obvious to me.

    I interpret it as the safety and comfort that darkness evokes upon us, and subsequently the peace we find in sleep?

  • Thank God our music from the 60's and early 70s is preserved. Songs like these raised me.

  • Walt Disney's logo is"Capturing your imagination" America was founded on MASONIC FREEMASONRY or Kabbala.Freemasonry is the founding of "America" Freemasons sought "A"merca or the western star

    This means the Western Star Venus. Venus is the Red White & Blue star. The statute of LIBERTY is Their LIGHT BEARER COLUMBIA Shes their Goddess.Your Capital Building's are TEMPLES with each having a CORNER STONE from the FREEMASONS. They ORDAIN their CRAFT with WINE CORN & OIL. Vigilantcitizen or freemantv

  • @WarDogLRS hahahahaha....wipes tears from eyes....hahahahaha....i dont even understand the point but it cracks me up.....smoke another one for me, eh....hahahaha

  • @Karo1636 That is so sad. I have just now realized that Darkness Darkness and Sunlight are about Viet Nam vets. My sincere condolences to you and your family.

  • @pavaughn1 No One can speak for Vietnam Vets. Not you, not the youngbloods and not some ones sister or brother.

    I am so sick of the arrogant stereotyping of myself and my brother vets by people who just want to "feel good"/ Go adopt a puppy and feel good about that. STOP trying to think you understand VETS!!!! You dont! You cant! We are INDIVIDUALS!!!! 

  • Very interesting. Robert Plant gives this song a moribound & almost harrowing intensity, as though he wrote the lyrics himself. The Youngbloods certainly deserve a very substantial nod for producing such amazing lyrics.

  • I wati for you

  • It's "Darkness, darkness, long and lonesome

    Is the day that brings me here.

    I have felt the edge of sadness

    I have known the depth of fear." I double checked it with Jessie singing it clearly on YT. Everyone gets it wrong. There's an echo/distortion at that point on the original recording.

  • Man how I love this song. It's indescribable.

  • I listen only to music of this time/era/genre. Thank god for these recordings. Thank you! Thank you! i cannot live in today's world except from 8 to 5 at work.

  • @pavaughn1

    I feel exactly the same way!! You are so right!!

  • No Sugar Tonight 1970

  • one of the greatest songs of all times

  • Only men who have hunted other men or have been the ones hunted can understand the lyrics. Safety in the darkness, slowing of the hunt in the darkness, a cease fire due to the darkness.

  • @dogcope No sure how you came to this conclusion, seems a little self involved. I don't see the connection between this song and war. It seems to me as describing the safety and comfort that darkness evokes upon us, and subsequently the peace we find in sleep? Not some much of the hunting of men......

    Thank's just me I suppose.

  • i love this song

  • Jesse Colin Young and The rest of the Bloods extolling the virtues of the absence of light when confronting problems LIFE seems to always have in store for each and everyone of us! iwait4u thanks for reminding me, and anyone blessed with enough common sense to bump this site, just how damofino fine this jam is! Thanks also to You Tube for the space! And long live and God Bless Jesse Colin Young! Rock On SHINDIGGERS on ELEPHANT MOUNTAIN!

  • Wonderful song Emad..

    The lyrics are just so dark and deep..Thankyou..

  • Love the original of course, but Robert Plant's version is effing fabulous!!

  • 1:16 old man from family guy is singing HAH HAH

  • JCY YES

  • I remember just after the first EARTH DAY in Philadelphia 1970, WIBG radio were giving out free albums and a day at the Zoo. The Album I received was The Youngbloods with this song on it. I have been a fan ever since !!!

  • dig that fuzzed up guitar solo!!! i love this song so much and i only heard it recently,its a classic.

  • fezzappa is correct - too many people saying such and such is the best - what they really mean is they have the best taste and are too insecure to be contradicted - sad people. Sublime acid guitar solo here though.

  • I weep with love

  • Stupenda......

  • I heard this in a movie recently. Ran right to YouTube to listen to it. I remember this song but haven't heard it in years! Thanks for posting.

  • beautiful song

  • Fabulous song

  • darkness darkness take my hand and let me sleep

  • Love the psychedelics, too!

  • fantastic!!!

  • This song was the soundtrack to a 1960's documentary where a camera crew followed a group of herione addicts. By the ending of the film, they had all died. This song is sort of a rememberance of what drugs, especially heroine, can and will do to take your life & corrupt your very soul.

    -Meghan in Texa$

    Reference: My dad who was in vietnam and lived though the sixties, born in 1948 & a fellow music lover and conosseur.

  • Thank you for this info. All my life i was intrigued by what this song was meant to represent - and how ultimately tragic a serious drug users life is...My Thanks and Gratitude to yur Dad for serving in Viet Nam

  • @meg42069

    Do you remember the name of the documentary? I'd be interested in seeing it.

    Thanks.

  • Great song man...

  • I have always liked the celtic sounding violin intro, the driving rhythm, the whole tenor and ambience of this song. But the montage? Bizarre, chaotic, messy and mysterious, eventually psychedelic and finally representing multi-dimensionality and non-existence...I think the montage is amazing! Wonderful pairing with this classic paean to spiritual anguish. Those insets that keep appearing, are those human figures in costume or what? I am intrigued.

  • charlie daniels on violin?

    felix pappalardi produces?

    band is largely forgotten today. they made some fine music

  • Charlie Daniels on Violin? are ya kiddin me? how did I miss this all these years..and I did not know Felix produced it either.sheesh..

    thanks for tellin me.

  • Ah, it's good to be old. There are so many great musicians who've played in these old groups.

  • And I'm a girl!

  • weird video. Great song obviously, but I don't like this video.

  • this is the best song ever written regarding deep depression. I loved playing this one when i was in that blackness...made me feel less alone...someone else clearly knew the depths.

  • no such thing as the best- but glad it worked for you- it's a great song...

    peace

  • Just an opinion. Perhaps u have a fave?

  • sry- i have this thing about the comments on the tube...too many people call something the best..i guess i am playing semantics...to me there is no best when it comes to art and music-my favorite version of the song,would change depending on my mood,however the original is always the original and that is something in itself-

    peace

    peace

  • I agree the "best song" statement is overused. They should if it applies use the term "my favorite". In Art (all its forms) this can exit.

  • agreed- personal favorites make sense...

  • "best" vs. "my fave"? Merely semantics & you've bypassed the point entirely about the feelings of human beings. Also, u've not posted your own fave song that illustrates depression. I'd welcome it.

  • @fezzappa i'm with ya,..i find a song from my youth, and am transported ,..then as i read the comment's and i get bummed out,.i don't mind that we don't all see things the same,what bum's me is that folk's seem to want to take the difference's in opinion personally, and escalate to name calling and such, and music is like comparing apples to oranges,..like a friend of mine said, "YA JUST CAN'T GET THERE FROM HERE,..YOU GOTTA GO TWO OTHER PLACES FIRST"...take care and keep your ears out there

  • @heyjudy1

    I agree with you re: depression and this great song, used to play it all the time, helped me a lot!

    I also thought this song was fabulous as a poem too!

  • This song has always been special to me and although I have heard other versions done, This is Their song...yes, a kinder time of America..(not in Nam, but amoung ourselves)..civility still existed. I didn't know that they were only three musicians, amazing..

  • those were not kinder times as i recall. The lines were drawn clearly. And it was brutal. Parents against their own children...brothers against brothers.

    great turmoil. Great times.

    This song is just so powerful. It will apply forever to anyone who experiences the deep pain of existence...of that dark place...of depression. You been there, you know that's true.

  • @ceresmary206 No not @ Nam...no peace there for most but there was for some.... O'll leave it at that.

  • am i missing this

    what a great piece of art to go with this song

    who is the artist

    i want to see more

  • Oh yeah this is the REAL version!

  • Great song. Great lyrics. Takes me back to a kinder, gentler time in America.

  • Gentler? Vietnam? 55,000 Americans died not very gently

  • CANCION DE 1969

  • The more I watch this video, the more I like it. What a great combination of music and visual art!

  • What is being shown in this? i can't see it...

  • I met the Youngbloods in NYC in 1970 and was very impressed with their sincerity and humility. Besides being very gifted musicians and a huge stage presence for just 3 guys.

  • Mott The Hoople do a stonking version of this great song

  • Comment removed

  • Sad and beautiful. Ipnotic. Like a pill for deep sleep

  • When you listen songs like this you understand why call them EVERGREEN.They are actual today(Iraq,Gaza,Honduras,Bosni­a etc.) agains all madness.

  • I remember a radio interview w/Jessie Young about this song when I was a teenager. He wrote it as an anthem to the Vietnam soldier. Darkness was their only ally against an enemy they could not see in the jungles. "Hide the things I cannot see." Majestic and beautiful song.

  • This art is incredible!

  • these are all great comments. I believe there are still some of us out their who still have an open mind and have the ability to say what we think and what we feel.

  • ANY war is about money and drugs- Vietnam- part of the 'Golden Triangle' of opium. Afghanistan, also a major producer of opium.

    Iraq- opium and oil.

    The US isn't the problem - The UN is. They want a one world government.

  • Grazie iwait4u per aver postato questa canzone magica.....

  • This song is just about as good as a song gets. Ah, the 60's. Would love to go back to experience the pleasure as well as the pain.

  • perhaps. the music, the feelings, the vibes (at first) were so natural. We all just knew. But we didn't. The bad stuff caused our future, that sick dumb war, and polyester suits co-opted everything. All of that counter-culture was rejected, we all had to join the future.

    the pain was bad, that war, Nixon, racial division, assassinations, 1968 saw Czech uprising and crushed, MLK RFK, not sure I'd want to relive that stuff

  • Absolutely gorgeous, powerful song. It works on so many levels. I love it. I was re-introduced to the song as it played over the ending scenes of the movie Purple Haze. I watched the ending credits, tracked it down, obtained a copy of the vinyl, and have loved it ever since. Thanks for posting this one. It gives me access to this classic via my laptop when I am away from home base. : )

  • Canzone da brividi....Sublime....

  • This song actually was a popular anti-war song during the Vietnam war in respect to the men fighting, their struggle, isolation in the jungles. etc. Not the intent of Jessie when he wrote it I'm sure but it did get adopted by the public in that manner. I suppose you had to be their to understand it.

  • i love this song thanks! i was so down at the time. nothing like a 60s song to get people riled.

  • This song is timeless. Loved this then and now..

  • Back in the 70s when Jesse Colin young first came out with this, I loved it. I was a shitty guitar player(still am)I was in SF hitting a heroin bottom. Wife left, told I was laid off, electric shut off. Came home to no lights TV, food, etc.

    So I played this and sang it (still a shitty singer).

    My friend/neighbor, who came in whenever she wanted, walked in took in the scene, tried the light switch and started laughing hysterically. I did too.

    I cleaned up not long after.

    It still sucks...

  • I want this played at my funeral.

  • What's with all the "war" shit? This is about depression ... either from a genetic chemical imbalance, a hangover or "crash", or just realizing that your life is not what you expected.

    Appreciate it for what it is ... and don't read too much into it.

  • Listen also to Robert Plant's cover it's not bad at all ;)

  • this brings back memories...... what a great song.....

  • Tell the truth. I'm on Candid Camera, right?

    The only thing more stereotypically liberal/Dem/neo-COMM/progressi­ve/knee-jerk/moonbat about your post than its overuse of non-creative name calling and proportionally inverse absence of facts or logic...

    IS THAT SCREEN NAME, "SIERRA"!!!

    Shouldn't you be tree-sitting somewhere and doing primal screams in mourning for the endangered suckerfish?

    "Sierra" -- What a hoot!

  • old men sending the gullible to their doom for some great purpose is nothing new and continues to this day. if no one went they would be short wars. i choose to skip my appointed war- vietnam song relates to how i felt when i received by draft notice. a great tune.

  • I'm with you Chinacatsunflower and did exactly the same thing in 1969 when those old men tried to turn me into a killer for corporate amerika.Nancy Regan had it right when she told the kids to "just say no" to bad she had the wrong cause!

  • basically your saying you are a coward right? I joined.

  • So fucking what.That just proves you are a pawn and willing to be led around by the war mongers who run our country. get a life I'm proud I ducked the draft and have no regrets what so ever.

  • lol you fucking homo

  • You really are pathetic

  • Comment removed

  • yeah, now you are a man only if you are taken to a war and shoot some muthafakers, i wish my country had a war so i could join damn! thats why we are so screwed, because of that part of USA who think like that, or think what they are told to think

  • thats kind of simplistic thinking

  • dude u call someone a homo just for not joining a stupid war and i'm having a simplistic thinking??? your answer kinda reminds me of the answers i used to give when i knew i was wrong at the age of 7

  • Look, mr simplistic thinking or mr bad engrish), I am not going to say the viet nam war was good , or even correct, in any way shape or form. My comments were deleted not by me (so much for free speech in the usa), although I was going to delete my comment, and even apologize to the person's whose account this is..

  • it wasnt a name calling for him NOT JOINING A WAR, it was for his attitude. I regret making that comment because there were a goodly number of gay men and women who lost their lives and or sanity in that war or as a result of that war. And each and every one of them has more honor and integrity than mr I am proud to have dodged the draft....

  • sorry for my engrish, I have to say you ascended a categorie for admitting your mistake (just a few people can do that), and i guess that some people will be against war and some people just wont, and litle can be done to stop them, but who knows anything can happen byebye

  • One Of Thier Best Thx

  • What a terrific combination of video effects, art, and music.

    This is one of the best original videos I've seen on Youtube. Thanks for sharing it.

  • so beautiful.

    5 stars!!!

    thank you

  • Fantastic. Didn't expect that, wow.

    (and if we all post enough comments it will knock the person who kinda missed the point of this off of the front page. you can lead someone to art/music, but you can't make them think...)

  • How bout this one Contontos

    GO F YERSELF

  • How about that?

    Well, CWSiler, how about... What took so long? Generally, some Liberal injects something as astute as that (or as insightful as "racist" or "Nazi," or some other unintelligible discharge featuring the phrase "Bush lied," or the word "Halliburton," or both) at the first sign of facts being brought into a discussion.

    What kept ya?

    Long line at Starbuck's?

  • I am a man of few words.........

    As I stated before GFY

    And bye the way, not a liberal, just dont like ya, yer an idiot

  • "I am a man of few words..."

    You exaggerate. It's reason that distinguishes a man.

    "As I stated before GFY"

    I hope you don't think of your mom with that mind.

    "And bye the way, not a

    liberal, just dont like ya,"

    That's a shame. You missed your calling.

    "yer an idiot"

    This from someone who's measured contribution to a discussion is, "GO F YERSELF." Outstanding.

    As a favor to us conservatives, would you consider telling people you're a Liberal before you contribute your thoughts?

  • I dont do favors for the politically irrelavent.

    Yer lucky I'm even stooping down to attempt communication with ya

  • Don't apologize.

    Your spelling of "irrelavent" virtually shouts "Liberal" for you.

    Are you finished "stooping" Lightnin'? Or do you have more gems that you'd like to submit for my amusement?

  • Ooh. I'm in awe. Tell us, Great Leader. What are your plans for the future of mankind?

  • Comment removed

  • "Respect for opposing opinions is the essence of the freedoms that our troops were and are fighting and dying for."

    You almost make a worthwhile statement there. All you need is to qualify "opposing opinions" with the additional adjective REASONED, and you're almost there.

    To wit:

    I can OPINE that the sun is pushed around the Earth every day by plump grandmothers in pink tutus, but without evidence, that's no better nonsense than most of what gets flung about these pages -- Yours included.

  • Comment removed

  • Leaves me with chills.

    This is excellent!!!!!

    Thank you.

    10 stars!

  • I would have loved to hear Green Carnation cover this song.

  • Nixon "ending it" from wiki - Richard Nixon and the Joint Chiefs of Staff planned using 3 small tactical nuclear weapons in support of the French. As Vice president Richard Nixon, a so-called "hawk" on Vietnam, suggested that the U.S. might have to "put American boys in" President Eisenhower made American participation contingent on British support, but London was opposed convinced that the political risks outweighed the possible benefits, Eisenhower decided against the intervention.

  • this song ended the intense anti-war flick "purple haze' it shook my young soul . It helped me say 'no' to the sick old men who'd use the young and poor as blood soaked pawns

  • Comment removed

  • Isdmadman - finally someone who remembers "purple haze", one of my very favorite movies, but nobody i know has seen it!

  • One of my favourites too, in fact, the reason I looked up this song is because it is at the ending of the movie, and what an ending! I wrote to the director for a copy on DVD as you can't get it anywhere.

  • This song will always have a place way down deep in my soul...Way ahead of their time, in my estimation. Wish the kids today could have a listen....

  • Elephant Mountain is a total classic and this has been one of my favorite songs for decades.

  • awesome song, so contagious. there's also a very good cover by robert plant.

  • Whoooaaa...what a mind rape.

    I always though Robert Plant's was the original;

    It's one of my favorite songs. This tripped me out.

    :0

  • you should check out the album elephant mountain. :)

  • Liking both C. Daniels and JCY..the only connections I can see are: males, mammals, living, Terran...all else is 180 out, to my mind...response to Canyons, btw.

  • love it

  • My apologies, sir, you're right. I looked him up on Wikipedia--no mention of service. I'd heard the comment from a DJ one night. One more 'urban legend' down the tubes. Perhaps like you and me, he had friends and brothers there. About the song, Wikipedia sez: "During the Vietnam war, it was considered an "anthem" to the soldiers for it describe what they felt while in the jungles." Peace.

  • Comment removed

  • Jesse wrote this when he was a soldier in Vietnam.

  • Comment removed

  • jesse colin young ,as good or better than get together . to my sweet college bostonian days

  • Ann Wilson does this song pretty good justice on her recent solo album.

    She played it close to the original for good reason.......the original is smokin great!

  • Comment removed

  • This song is written about Pain and i think the person who puts a video out is entitled to put their own art and thoughts to the lyrics of the song..I have had this video in my favourites for quite a long time now and i also love this track...Peace...and Respect....:)

  • iwait4u - If these are your artworks, I think you should consider going back on the medication. Not a criticism, just a suggestion. I'm a little worried. But one of my favorite songs, so thanks!

  • Mingin video but what a song. Is there a connection to Charlie Daniels (the devil went down to georgia) with this band?

  • The song was good, but the video is another story.

  • thanks for ruining a great song with a video of a rotten birthday cake with dead animals in it

  • One of my favorite songs but WHAT THE HELL is going on with this video?

  • Search me, I'm agnostic, I'm the last to know.

  • Nice one. From one agnostic to another, I wish it had occurred to me to use that line years ago. Oh well you know what they say about agnostics...ha,ha,

  • poets take pain and make beautiful music.

  • Flashback -- S.F. 1969. Elephant Mountain. Oh what a year it was.

  • Brings back old memories

  • And, by the way, HemlockHolyMan, I am so envious that you saw the Youngbloods, Country Joe & The Fish, and Iron Butterfly, all in one. Daggum it!

  • Wasn't about Prozac. It was about the war in VietNam. We were living in dark times. This song was covered by several groups, including Mott the Hoople. I found out only recently that the peace sign actually emnerged in 1958 as a Brit support for nuclear disarmament. Imagine that. I thought I was cool in 1968, but I was living on a principal that was 10 years old at the time. Still, it was fun to march on Washington in 1969 and to protest the War. Darkness Darkness was one of our anthems.