By the time I bought into the Lovin' Spoonful they'd already released 6 singles and four albums. I'd sung along to all the radio songs but the first 45rpm I got was 'Nashville Cats'. It wasn't their most commercially successful track, but I have to tell you, it was catchy ! On the strength of that and it's b-side 'Full Measure' I went out and got 'Hums of the Lovin' Spoonful', the album those songs came from. The bonus of course was that the album also included 2 previous single releases, the lovely lilting 'Rain on the Roof' and the international #1 'Summer in the City'
*ADULT CONTENT*
Much the same as some other bands, The Lovin' Spoonful got their name from a very tongue-in-cheek source (perhaps tongue-in-something, not necessarily cheek).
10cc took their name from a slightly larger than average amount of male ejaculate.
Steely Dan used the name of a strap-on dildo from William S. Burroughs novel 'Naked Lunch'.
The Lovin' Spoonful's name came from 'Coffee Blues', a song by the legendary Mississippi John Hurt (reviewed in VV 10 August 2020). John Sebastian had been performing with Hurt and when he told Fritz Richmond he was getting a new band together, Fritz suggested the name. The song itself had the term 'lovin' spoonful repeated throughout. Supposedly singing about Maxwell House coffee and that it can "Do me much good as two or three cups this other coffee" it soon becomes clear that the song isn't so much about coffee as it is about the girl who makes it for him -
"Good mornin', baby, how you do this mornin'?
Well, please, ma'am, just a lovin' spoon, just a lovin' spoonful
I declare, I got to have my lovin' spoonful"
John Sebastian maintains the song is about cunnilingus, although as with 10cc, "lovin' spoonful" has been conjectured as referring to the amount of ejaculate released by a human male during a typical orgasm. Maybe it was just coincidence, let's give them the benefit of the doubt, but most of The Lovin' Spoonfuls music was released on just one record label.
Kama Sutra.
*END OF ADULT CONTENT - AS YOU WERE*
John Sebastian was brought up in Greenwich Village amongst all the artists and musicians who gravitated there. His father played classical harmonica and so his music roots were a given. When John formed The Lovin' Spoonful he took guitarist Zal Yanovsky from a folk group called the Mugwumps and shortly after two other members of that group left. Mama Cass and Denny Doherty became one Mama and one Papa. For anyone who has ever listened to The Mamas & The Papas singing 'Creque Alley' you will have heard all about it ..
'When Denny met Cass he gave her love bumps
Called John and Zal and that was the Mugwumps .....
.... Sebastian and Zal formed the Spoonful
Michelle, John, and Denny gettin' very tuneful"
I mentioned the record label that the Lovin' Spoonful released most of their songs on. Originally though they signed with Elektra, but there are only 4 songs on the Elektra label and they form part of a compilation with other early recordings by The Paul Butterfield Blues Band and Eric Clapton and the Powerhouse. The album was called 'What's Shakin'' and came out in 1966. By then they'd had over half a dozen charting hits, 'Do You Believe in Magic', 'You Didn't Have to be so Nice', 'Did You Ever Have to Make up Your Mind' and of course 'Daydream'.
'Daydream' proved to be popular with both Lennon and McCartney. The single was on Lennon's personal jukebox and McCartney said that 'Good Day Sunshine' was his attempt to write something similar to 'Daydream'. The last of their single releases to resonate with me was the 1967 track 'Darling Be Home Soon'. As much as I like the Spoonful's version, it's the Joe Cocker rendering on his album 'Cocker Happy' (reviewed VV 27 October 2020) that really does it for me. Joe gives it a different, gutsier feel and really drives it home. He can even make sense of the ludicrous lyric that was thrown in to rhyme with ...
"I couldn't bear to wait an extra minute if you dawdled".
The best that John Sebastian came up with was ...
"It's not just these few hours, but I've been waiting since I toddled"
TODDLED .. really?
John left the group in 1968 and apart from appearing with the other originals in Paul Simon's film 'One-Trick Pony' in 1980 and a single song at the 2000 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction he hasn't performed with the group since.
He did a solo set at Woodstock in 1969 where he sang a few Spoonful songs and some from his upcoming solo album. Despite everything else he's done under his own name though, perhaps he's best known for one song - the theme to the TV show 'Welcome Back, Kotter' aptly named 'Welcome Back'.
There are those acts whose music you hear from time to time and sometimes think .. 'Oh, that's a great song' but can't for the life of you remember who sings it. As likely as not, it's The Lovin' Spoonful or John Sebastian.
Lovin' Spoonful - Nashville Cats
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