John Sebastian celebrates his 80th birthday today. He was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2008. I had a great time compiling a set of videos in his honor last year. I can’t let Sebastian’s big 8-0 pass without inviting readers to take another look back with this revised and expanded edition.
Sebastian grew up in Greenwich Village in a musical family. He is saturated in American music — a multi instrumentalist whose best instrument may well be harmonica. I can pick out his distinctive harmonica sound as an uncredited session player on tracks by Tim Hardin, Tom Rush, and other mainstays of the ’60’s folk scene.
Sebastian was the front man and songwriter who wrote the hits for the Lovin’ Spoonful in the last half of the 1960’s. I was crazy about them during their brief run. With its blues and jug band references as well as its good-time feeling, the band’s work sent me deeper into American popular music. I wanted to take a look back through deep tracks rather than hits.
I saw the band play at the old Minneapolis Auditorium the week that Hums of the Lovin’ Spoonful was released in late 1966 and then saw Sebastian playing with David Grisman in December 2009 at the Cedar Cultural Center on a snowy night in Minneapolis. Sebastian and Grisman were appearing together on the first stop of a short tour in support of their 2007 disc Satisfied.
I found myself entering the Cedar with Sebastian as he emerged from a restaurant next door to the theater. I shook hands with him and asked if he remembered coming through town in late 1966 to play with the Spoonful right after the release of Hums. “Not yet,” he said, giving a suitably ’60’s answer to a ’60’s question.
During the show Sebastian discussed his career, beginning with his upbringing in Greenwich Village. He recalled going to see Mississippi John Hurt perform in the Village and trying to figure out the fingering he used on guitar. He also invoked Sleepy John Estes, but Hurt seemed to be his musical hero. He said he had met up with Grisman as a freshman at NYU in 1962. Sebastian and Grisman first teamed up to join the Even Dozen Jug Band with others including Joshua Rifkin, Steve Katz, Stefan Grossman, and Maria D’Amato (the future Maria Muldaur) at the tail end of the folk boom.
You can hear Sebastian on harmonica in this Even Dozen Jug Band number that also turned up with reworked lyrics on the second track of the Spoonful’s debut album. “On the Road Again” was written by J.B. Jones and William Shade of the Memphis Jug Band. Richie Unterberger’s liner notes on the EDBJ reissue are characteristically excellent.
When I saw him at the Cedar with Grisman in 2009 Sebastian had lost his singing voice, but he croaked musically. I was struck by the pure tone he elicited from the guitar and the lyrical style he brought to his playing on it. He coaxes an even more lush sound from the harmonica. He is one talented musician (as is Grisman).
What’s Shakin’ was a sampler released with songs by the Paul Butterfield Blues Band, Tom Rush, Al Kooper, and Eric Clapton with Stevie Winwood on Elektra in May 1966. It had three covers and one original by the Spoonful that I believe are the band’s first recordings. “Don’t Bank On It Baby” was the Sebastian original. It is derivative of Chuck Berry, but it’s not bad. Sebastian wails away on the harmonica in the background.
Do You Believe in Magic was the title of the Spoonful’s first album and their first hit on Kama Sutra. Who was Brownie McGhee and what the heck was “Sportin’ Life” all about? That was for Sebastian to know and for me to find out.
Daydream was the title of the Spoonful’s follow-up album and the single of the title song was a big hit. You can tell that Paul McCartney was listening at this point. “Good Day Sunshine” takes off from “Daydream.” But I am mostly passing the hits by here. Give a listen to “Day Blues” (vocal by Zal Yanovsky — Zal was the guy with the day blues). Sebastian wrote it with Spoonful drummer Joe Butler. I thought the Spoonful came into their own on Daydream.
“It’s Not Time Now” explored the other side of Sebastian’s romanticism.
The Spoonful peaked with Hums that November. They led their Minneapolis show off with “Jug Band Music” from the album. The album itself led off with “Lovin’ You.”
Alison Krauss produced Beyond the City for the Cox Family in 1995. I’m sure she asked them to cover the old Spoonful song. It was still sounding pretty, pretty good.
“Darlin’ Companion” is also from Hums.
The Spoonful were briefly hot enough that they were asked to contribute the music to soundtracks for Woody Allen’s What’s Up Tiger Lily? (1966) and Francis Ford Coppola’s You’re a Big Boy Now (also 1966). There were a few gems on the soundtrack albums. “Darling Be Home Soon” was the best of the soundtrack songs and made it onto the charts.
Last year I heard from a friend who includes Cheapo-Cheapo Productions Presents Real Live John Sebastian (1971) among his prized possessions. Sebastian acknowledged him as “the guy who bought that record” at one of his shows. Allmusic says of Sebastian on the album: “A virtual jukebox, he made the history of popular music seem like endless fun, and he made people who heard the album wish they’d been at the show.” Again, Richie Unterberger’s liner notes on the reissue are excellent. Here Sebastian performs the Jimmie Rodgers classic “Waiting for a Train” in a loving fashion, complete with yodel.
Sebastian returned to traditional blues and jug band music in later years. His cover of Blind Willie McTell’s “Statesboro Blues” may whet your appetite for more of his work in this vein, if not for the Allman Brothers’ cover of the song. That’s Rory Block on the guitar and vocal. I hope you recognize the guy on the harmonica at this point.
Sebastian revisited the Spoonful songbook with guitarist Arlen Roth in 2021. My high school classmate Charlie Alden played a killer version of the Spoonful’s “Didn’t Want to Have to Do It” (from Daydream). Here is the 2011 version with Roth’s daughter, Lexie Roth, on the vocal parts.
Both B.J. Thomas and the Everly Brothers covered Sebastian’s “Stories We Could Tell” in 1972, before Sebastian himself got around to recording it a couple years later. It’s a song about life on the road. In the touching version below, Maria Muldaur rejoins Sebastian to assist on the vocal. Their fraying voices seem to me to enhance the theme of the song — “Before we have to say our last farewell…” Best wishes to John Sebastian at 80.
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