The Lovin' Spoonful |
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Mon. October 18.1999 9:00 AM EDT |
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Lovin' Spoonful Resurgence Sparked By Rock Hall NodSeminal folk-rock band's out-of-print catalog to be reissued next year. by Staff Writer Christopher O'Connor |
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The Lovin' Spoonful had been eligible for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for nearly a decade before they were nominated. ( ) |
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The Lovin' Spoonful's catalog is out of print and their current
lineup doesn't include lead singer/songwriter John Sebastian, but
the seminal 1960s folk-rock band is experiencing a revival. Nine years after they became eligible for the
"I don't care if we don't get in," Sebastian said from his home in Woodstock, N.Y., last month. Sebastian, who left the band in 1968, said he was grateful for the renewed interest, which includes plans to reissue the Spoonful's classic '60s albums. But he downplayed the Spoonful's influence on subsequent rock music — a major criterion for inclusion in the Rock Hall of Fame — and preferred to talk instead about the musicians who influenced the Spoonful. Referring to Spoonful guitarist Zal Yanovsky, Sebastian said, "Zallie called the day we found out [about the nomination], and we talked for just a minute. We're rooting for Harvey [Fuqua] and the Moonglows." The Moonglows, also nominated this year, were a doo-wop group whose '50s hits include "Sincerely" and "Ten Commandments of Love." Not everyone is so indifferent about the Spoonful's possible Hall of Fame induction. The nomination has fueled efforts at Buddha Records to reissue the Lovin' Spoonful catalog and assemble an anthology of album tracks, unreleased songs and live material. Bassist Steve Boone, 56, who still performs as the Lovin' Spoonful with drummer Joe Butler and guitarist Jerry Yester, said he wants the band to be in the Hall. "It's kind of a surprise there hasn't been more interest," said Boone, who lives in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. "The music is surely universal in its appeal. The type of music we performed seems to be popular again." The Boone-Butler-Yester lineup plans to release Live at the Hotel Seville, featuring acoustic versions of the band's greatest hits, Nov. 2. Artists become eligible for the Hall of Fame 25 years after the release of their first album. The Spoonful's first was 1965's Do You Believe in Magic? Sebastian, Yanovsky, Boone and Butler rose from New York's Greenwich Village coffeehouse scene, which also produced Bob Dylan. Between September 1965 and January 1967, the Lovin' Spoonful frequently were in the U.S. top 10. Their hits ranged from the breezy, Autoharp-driven "Do You Believe in Magic?" (RealAudio excerpt) to the jovial acoustic strum of "Daydream" (RealAudio excerpt) to the R&B-flavored "Did You Ever Have to Make Up Your Mind?" (RealAudio excerpt). Their lone #1 song was the anthemic pop song "Summer in the City," which Boone co-wrote with Sebastian. None of those songs, which remain staples of oldies and classic-rock radio, were longer than two and a half minutes. Sebastian said the bandmembers were "students" of such rock pioneers as Fats Domino and Phil Spector — both now in the Hall of Fame — and Huey "Piano" Smith, whom he called "the professors." Sebastian said Yanovsky was greatly influenced by bluesman Elmore James, another Hall of Famer. Boone named country singer Buck Owens as a major influence. From all those influences, Sebastian said, "We felt like we had something that was an obvious hybrid that no one else had thought of. We had skills that weren't rocking skills, that were not finger-picking skills. We believed very strongly that this was going to happen. It wasn't an experiment." Alex Miller, Buddha Records' 41-year-old vice president, said he has fond memories of growing up listening to the Spoonful's music. He's assembling an anthology for release on Buddha and planning to reissue the band's albums — Do You Believe in Magic?, Daydream and Hums of the Lovin' Spoonful (1966), The Best of the Lovin' Spoonful (1967), Everything Playing (1968) and Revelation: Revolution '69. The latter album were recorded without Sebastian. Miller said he hopes to release the reissues by the middle of next year. The Lovin' Spoonful began to dissolve in May 1966 amid controversy surrounding Boone and Yanovsky's arrest for possessing marijuana in Berkeley, Calif. Reports surfaced that the two became informants for police. Yanovsky quit the group in 1967 and was replaced by Yester. Sebastian, who left to pursue a solo career in 1968, said the group was victim of bad timing. He said he thought the bust happened "just a little too soon," before the counterculture blossomed on a national scale. "It was unfortunate this whole bust thing came down around Zal and Steve," Sebastian said. "It really did cause a cynicism that was poison to what we were doing. That cynicism cost us our little corner of the music we had going. It simply had to go somewhere else" (RealAudio excerpt of interview). Boone, who said he had to overcome shame after his arrest, blamed some rock journalists who distrusted police for causing some of the group's headaches. "In the end result, did anyone go to jail? No," he said. "Did anything done by the Lovin' Spoonful cause any harm? No." After leaving the group, Sebastian found success as a solo artist. He performed a solo set at the original Woodstock festival in 1969, and scored his biggest hit in 1976 with "Welcome Back," the theme song for the television show "Welcome Back Kotter." He formed the J-Band — a jug band — in 1991, and released the album Chasing Gus' Ghost with them in June. Erik Jacobsen, who produced nearly all of the Lovin' Spoonful albums and now produces for rockabilly-pop singer Chris Isaak, called the Spoonful "true inventors of folk-rock." "Those guys were folk players," Jacobsen said from his San Francisco home. "They were acoustic players. They were the first guys to put those things down on record. They were [the] leading edge of a huge cultural thing. They were the original psychedelic thing. They took acid and smoked pot. They acted zanily and crazily." |
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