Lyr/Chords ADD: Get Together (Chet Powers)

To Thread - Forum Home

The Mudcat Café ^TM
https://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=18729
9 messages

Lyr/Chords ADD: Get Together (Chet Powers)

01 Mar 00 - 12:45 AM (#187266)
Subject: Get together
From: GUEST,Bill

Does anyone know the chords to Hamilton Camps Get together? Thanks Bill

01 Mar 00 - 05:23 PM (#187718)
Subject: Lyr/Chords Add: GET TOGETHER (Chet Powers)
From: GUEST

As recorded by the Youngbloods, from the OLGA site  
(& I've just noticed they have the composer wrong if it was indeed Hamilton Camp):  
  
#-------PLEASE NOTE---------------------------------#  
#This file is the author's own work and represents their interpretation of the #  
#song. You may only use this file for private study, scholarship, or research. #  
#---------------------------------------------###  
  
Date: Thu, 14 Nov 1996 15:28:44 -0500  
From: Andrew Rogers   
Subject: ./y/youngbloods/get_together.crd  
  
The Youngbloods' arrangement of this much-recorded 60's icon:  
  
  
                             "Get Together"  
                  (Chet Powers [a.k.a. Dino Valenti])  
  
Intro:  
  
        Guitar 1 [capo II]:  
  
         A6                Gmaj7/A  
        [G6]              [Fmaj7/G]  
         v   v   v   v     v   v   v   v  
        -----0-------0---|-----0-------0----  
        ---8---8---8---8-|---6---6---6---6--  
        -7-------7-------|-5-------5--------  
        -----------------|------------------  
        -----------------|------------------  
        -----------------|------------------  
  
        bass:  
  
         v   v   v   v     v   v   v   v  
        -----------------|------------------  
        -----------7-----|---------5---75---  
        ---------7-----7-|-------57------7--  
        -5---------------|-5----------------  
  
  
Verse 1 [guitar 1 continues fingerpicking pattern, changing chords as  
         indicated]:  
  
         A  
        [G]  
        Love is but a song we sing  
                               G  
                              [F]  
        And fear's the way we die  
         A  
        [G]  
        You can make the mountains ring  
                            G  
                           [F]  
        Or make the angels cry  
         A  
        [G]  
        Though the bird is on the wing  
                              G  
                             [F]  
        And you may not know why  
  
Chorus:  
  
         D  
        [C]  
        C'mon people now  
         E  
        [D]  
        Smile on your brother  
              A  
             [G]  
        Ev'rybody get together  
                D         E            A  
               [C]       [D]          [G]  
        Try to love one another right now  
  
Verse 2:  
  
        Some may come and some may go  
        We will surely pass  
        When the one that left us here  
        Returns for us at last  
        We are but a moment's sunlight  
        Fading in the grass  
  
[repeat chorus, 2X]  
  
[verse-length guitar solo; guitar 1 replaces the fingerpicked  
 pattern with strummed A-Gmaj7 (G-Fmaj7, capoed) chords]  
  
[repeat chorus]  
  
[bass plays intro pattern twice; guitar 1 enters second time]  
  
Verse 3:  
  
        If you hear the song I sing  
        You will understand  (listen!)  
        You hold the key to love and fear  
        All in your trembling hand  
        Just one key unlocks them both  
        It's there at your command  
  
[repeat chorus, 3X]  
  
Coda:  
  
                  (A)             Asus2  
        ... right now, right now  
  
  
-- another ace 60's tab from Andrew Rogers

01 Mar 00 - 05:32 PM (#187729)
Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: Get together
From: GUEST,Jeremiah McCaw

Dunno why I've become a generic "GUEST" all of a sudden, but ...

Apparently Dino Valenti did write this song, which Hamilton recorded. This is according to the info on Camp's website. 'Bout as close to gospel as we gonna get! :-)

02 Mar 00 - 08:46 AM (#188063)
Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: Get together
From: M. Ted (inactive)

The printed sheet music, if I remember correctly, showed the first line of the second verse as "Soldiers die and Empires fall" although that was not the way that it was recorded by the Youngbloods--

22 Jul 04 - 10:11 PM (#1231853)
Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: Get together
From: woodsie

"Soldiers die and Empires fall" Don't know where that came from, it's certainly not the way Dino Valenti, Jefferson Airplane or The Youngbloods sang it! Mind you it's not a bad line, is it!

13 Jun 22 - 07:51 PM (#4144371)
Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: Get Together (Chet Powers)
From: Joe Offer

Joe-do cleanup

13 Jun 22 - 09:00 PM (#4144374)
Subject: ADD: Let's Get Together (Chet Powers)
From: Joe Offer

These are the lyrics we have in the Rise Up Singing Songbook. They're a composite of the popular recordings of this song.

LET'S GET TOGETHER
(Chet Powers)

Love is but a song we sing
Fear's the way we die
You can make the mountains ring
Or make the angels cry
Though the bird is on the wing
And you may not know why

C'mon people now,
Smile on your brother
Everybody get together
Try to love one another, right now!

Some will come and some will go,
We shall surely pass
When the one that left us here,
Returns for us at last
We are but a moment's sunlight,
Fading in the grass
(CHORUS)

If you hear the song I sing,
You will understand
You hold the key to love and fear
In your trembling hand
Just one key unlocks them both,
It's there at your command
(CHORUS)

Notes from the Wikipedia article:
"Get Together", also known as "Let's Get Together", is a song by American rock band The Youngbloods, originally included in their 1967 self-titled debut album The Youngbloods. It was written in the mid-1960s by American singer-songwriter Chet Powers (stage name Dino Valenti), from psychedelic rock band Quicksilver Messenger Service. The single was The Youngbloods' only Top 40 on Billboard Hot 100—peaking at number five in 1969.

13 Jun 22 - 11:02 PM (#4144379)
Subject: Lyr/Chords ADD: Get Together (Chet Powers)
From: Joe Offer

This is my transcription of the 2007 remaster of a recording of the song by the songwriter Dino Valenti, also known as Chet Powers.

LET'S GET TOGETHER
(Chet Powers)

Love is but the song we sing
And fear's the way we die
You can make the mountains ring
Or make the angels cry
Know that love is on the wing
And you need not know why

Some will come and some will go,
We will surely pass
When the one that left us here (very unclear)
Returns for us at last
People, we are but a moment's sunlight
Fading on the grass

Well, if you heard the song I sing
Then you will understand
You hold the key to love and fear
All in your trembling hand
One key unlocks them both, you know,
And it's at your command

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dKtWtjIIBQI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dKtWtjIIBQI

And here's a 1990 live performance by Dino Valenti: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IzVurGfO6Ss - lots of significant lyrics differences in this version.

The Wikipedia article about Chet Powers/Dino Valenti is very interesting.

14 Jun 22 - 03:21 AM (#4144386)
Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords ADD: Get Together (Chet Powers)
From: GerryM

I listened to many versions before singing it at the Mudcat singaround earlier today. The "soldiers die and empires fall" line might have come from Jomi Mitchell. So far as I know, she never recorded the song, but she did sing it in her concerts back in the day, and there's a Youtube recording of her singing it at an outdoor concert, maybe at a music festival, with Crosby Stills and Nash, and John Sebastian on stage with her.

My guess: Valenti never settled on one consistent set of lyrics, and what other artists recorded depended on what version Valenti sang when they got it from him.

I heard the Mitchell Trio recording (with John Denver) before the Youngbloods released theirs.