The Lovin' Spoonful never get credit for being an "Americana" forerunner. The Byrds do, not Lovin' Spoonful.
Due to the number of known entities name-checked in the song, including Mr. Sebastian… from Songfacts: Creeque Alley by The Mamas & the Papas.
The apple don’t fall… From Wikipedia: John Sebastian (classical harmonica player). Harmonica Virtuoso - John Sebastian.
He even looks a little like his son. One of his friends was Anthony Burgess, author of A Clockwork Orange, who mentioned him in his autobiography.
Maybe it's just me, but I always thought that Wes Stace (a.k.a. John Wesley Harding) has a voice very reminsicent of John Sebastian's—in tone, textures, and tessitura (different accent, though). Listen to "Welcome Back," and then try this:
I play Night Owl Blues for friends that listen to the blues. They are always amazed when they find out it's the Lovin' Spoonful. It's the flip side of Daydream i think.
Yeah. Sebastian's and Arlo Guthrie's on-stage patter at Woodstock was waaay embarrassing -- even at the time. Though I thought their performances were both excellent.
A side note of possible interest. Post-Spoonful Yanovsky went on to co-produce (along with Jerry Yester and Erik Jacobsen) a really nice debut album for The Fifth Avenue Band. The album deserves a listen (if you can find it).
I swear John Lennon copied John Sebastian's look. The latter was sporting spectacles in 1965, Lennon didn't until 1966. Sebastian had the mutton chops by 1966, Lennon sported his in 1968. Lennon even combed his hair the same way as Sebastian. 1966 1968
I disagree. On Arlo's part I will say that's exactly 1969 Arlo on stage. Sebastian's was way more real John OFF stage as he was seriously tripping and had not planned to perform hanging out backstage. They roped him into an acoustic fill in. So just remember he's tripping bellz.
And a connection with "Ethel Mertz"... who knew? He had "mutton chop" sideburns that every (almost) High School Male would've loved to have.
I've been looking up the superb quality colour Ed Sullivan appearances that the official ES channel has been uploading. Ed had them on 3 times in 1967, not that I'm complaining but I'm surprised that they appeared that many times in one year on the show (two of them were within 2 months of each other!) The first appearances, Jan 22nd 1967, an all live 'Nashville Cats'
The other song from the 22nd, 'Darling Be Home Soon', with Zal impishly lampooning JS sensitive spotlight midway through:
The were back on March 19th that year with 3 songs, interestingly all 'oldies' from 1965 and 1966. Seems kinda odd, although I wonder if it was to promote their first Best Of album which had come out the previous month. Although the Zal sung 'Bald Headed Lena' isn't on that either!
They then performed (miming this time for obvious reasons) their debut hit 'Do You Believe In Magic?' with some memorably trippy special effects that I still can't work out how they would have been achieved in 1967. When I used to see this clip in docs and the like, I always thought 'wow those are some very psychey set designs for 1965!' It was only the other day I realised that's because it's a 1967 clip of them miming a 1965 song:
Their 3rd and final appearance on Ed Sullivan was on October 15th 1967, with the Jerry Yester line up performing 'She Is Still A Mystery' and 'Only Pity, What A Pity'. The Ed Sullivan Youtube channel has only uploaded the latter so far but we live in hope. With Zal gone, Butler singing the lead and the very different sound, this song presetns a jarring contrast to the first 2 appearances: the folk/blues/jug band gumbo of the classic Spoonful is gone overnight and we're confronted with a more contemporary but I would bet many agree with me less distinctive or compelling sound and image. It's odd to think these 3 appearances all happened inside just 10 months.
