Remembering The Lovin' Spoonful
Among the small number of American bands who challenged the British domination of the pop music charts in the mid-sixties The Lovin' Spoonful were a group whose music was an unlikely mixture of rock & roll, folk music, show tunes and jug band blues.
At the time, the Lovin' Spoonful were considered to be an Americanize version of ye olde Beatles. In addition to catchy hit songs such as ‘Do You Believe In Magic’, ‘You Didn’t Have To Be So Nice' and ‘Summer In The City’, the four members of the band, John Sebastian (Lead Vocals, autoharp, piano, guitar), Zal Yanovsky (lead guitar, vocals), Steve Boone (bass, piano, vocals), and Joe Butler (drums, vocals) offered up a clean wholesome image which claimed the happy-go-lucky teenage girls the world over.
In early 1965, John Sebastian and Zal Yanovsky recruited Steve Boone and Joe Butler for the purpose of forming a band that would play what they called good time music. Their first audition at the Night Owl Cafe in the Village wasn't exactly a world shaking event. Apparently, their onstage sound was so raw and disorganized that the owner of the club eagerly told them not to show their faces at his club again until they were properly rehearsed and professional in their approach to perform music.
The band quickly adjourned to the nearby Albert Hotel where Boone and Butler had a room. After receiving a landslide of complaints from fellow hotel dwellers, the boys in the band moved their rehearsal quarters to the hotel's basement. It was there that the magic of The Lovin' Spoonful were born.
In short time, the band returned to the Night Owl venue and soon had people lining up outside to catch the Lovin' Spoonful in action. By the year's end the band were signed to a recording contract by Kama Sutra Records.
The band's success was largely due to the songwriting talents of John Sebastian. His father (believe it or not) was a classically trained harmonica player of great renown. No doubt this sort of thing gave Sebastian an early foundation in song construction and melody which later enabled him to compose such simple yet earthy songs. Amazingly, Sebastian's major work with the Lovin' Spoonful still stands up to steady listening after all these years.
The band's first album, Do You Believe in Magic, contained ample evidence of Sebastian's budding songwriting talent – the title song (as much an anthem for the Lovin' Spoonful as I Want To Hold Your Hand was for the Beatles), Did You Ever Have To Make Up Your Mind and Younger Girl.
The Spoonful's sound was defined by the essence of Sebastian's songwriting abilities of his warm, friendly voice, energetic background vocal harmonies, an electrified autoharp, occasional harmonica sounds and a solid rhythm section anchoring the entire proceedings. Upon the release of the band's first album, the Lovin' Spoonful proved to be popular favorites because of their happy infectious rock & roll.
In 1966, the band's second album, Daydream, became an instant bestseller as the record yielded several hit singles: Daydream, You Didn't have To Be So Nice and Didn't Want To Have To Do It.
Shortly after the release of the Daydream album, Sebastian and the band provided songs and incidental music for an early Woody Allen film, What's Up Tiger Lily? Sebastian's original songs fit into the format of a film soundtrack quite easily and he was to continue work of this nature when he scored the music for Francis Ford Coppolla's 1967 film, Your A Big Boy Now.
1967 was also the year that the Lovin' Spoonful released their most fully realized album, Hums Of The Lovin' Spoonful.
This album captured the band at the height of their creative powers with such songs as Rain On The Roof, Darlin' Companion and a summer season anthem Summer In The City.
During the same year the band scored big on the charts with Darlin Be Home Soon (part of Sebastian's soundtrack for the previously mentioned Coppola film) and Six O'Clock.
In any event, the Spoonful's underground credibility with many of their fans was severely damaged. Zal Yanovsky was forced to leave the band due to ensuing legal entanglements resulting from a pot bust.
Zal was replaced for the band's last album, Everything Playing, by keyboardist Jerry Yester. Sadly, The Lovin' Spoonful called it quits for good in late 1967, leaving behind their legacy of good time music.
Years later, John Sebastian indicated that the forced layoff the band encountered as a result of the drug bust gave him a chance to reassess his musical direction which at this point was leaning more towards the tie-dyed visions of the Woodstock Generation rather than the goody New York City rock & roll of the Spoonful. At the end of the Lovin' Spoonful, Sebastian concluded that ‘it just wasn’t fun anymore…'
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