University of Virginia Library

Midwinters Entertainment

Sebastian: Talent By The Spoonful

By Paul Larsen

In the field of music, the name
Sebastian has long stood for quality.
The Great Sebastian, a catch-phrase
coined years ago by some
financial-oriented agent, has in the
circles of musical aficionados,
demanded respect for one of the
greatest classical harmonica players
of our time. John Sebastian spent
years touring Europe with his
harmonica, building a reputation
that many claim to be unsurpassable.
His son, who not only
inherited the same name but much
of his father's musical skill, has for
the past four years been a major
force in what publicity sheets call
"Good-Time Music."

The inheritance is described by
the modern-day Sebastian as "You
hear a cat practicing in the next
room six hours a day, and you
gotta pick up something." But,
during the early years of young
John's life, his fathers legacy was to
assume little meaning. It was not
until he dropped out from New
York University that John
Sebastian decided to seriously pursue
a life of music.

Bohemian Flavor

Like many youths who grow up
in Greenwich Village, Sebastian was
caught up in the excitement, the
freedom, and the creativity that the
Bohemian life espouses. He went
into the streets, like his father years
before had, and began to play the
harmonica, achieving a style so
unlike his father's that many
friends and followers of the family
felt it was almost a sacrilege. But
Sebastian's new style soon earned
him respect from Village frequenters
and a new following began to
build.

In the streets John found the
nucleus of a group he named the
Even Dozen Jog Band, which
consisted of anywhere between 6
and 13 members, depending on the
weather. The group found a producer
in Paul Rothschild (who later
produced the Doors) but no audience.
They soon broke up and John
was in the streets again.

The Mugwumps Form

At this time he met Zal
Yanovsky, a talented guitar player
whose vibrant personality caught
the imagination of Sebastian. The
two grouped together with Cass
Elliot and Denny Doherty (later of
the Mamas and Papas) to form the
Mugwumps. During this time
Sebastian began to define his style
of music, an easy, soft melody
intertwined around free-flowing
lyrics. The group spent a great deal
of time in the old Shadows night
club on Georgetown's M Street
where they built a respectable
following.
But at that time there
still existed the prevalent middle-class
suspicion of long-hair musical
types and the scattered group of
followers that faithfully turned out
were seldom able to coerce their
friends to come along.

Following the break up of the
Mugwumps, John became disillusioned.
He had been through two
groups without a success and had
little to remember except for dark,
sweaty nights in a half-filled night
club. A period of re-evaluation
followed in which John left city life
for Marblehead, Massachusetts,
where he learned sail-making.

Hopkins And Hurt

But the musical heritage ran too
thick in his blood and John soon
returned to his calling. He lived
with Lightnin Hopkins, the Negro
folk-blues legend. "I spent a couple
of months buying gin for Hopkins,"
John recalls, "and I learned a lot —
got to play exactly like him right
down to the mistakes." By now he
was playing guitar and autoharp,
extending his talent to new areas.

Among those John met during
this time was the great Mississippi
John Hurt, whose lyrics "I love my
baby by the Lovin' Spoonful...the
loving' spoonful" held great significance
to Sebastian. John then
returned to the village, formed a
group which took its name from
the Hurt song, and spent six
months in the basement of a New
York hotel. They then emerged,
were booked at The Night Owl Cafe
in the Village, released "Do You
Believe in Magic?" and the rest is
history.

American Beatles

The "Good Time Music" that
became synonymous with the
Spoonful is a blend of everything
American — the jug band, blues,
folk, country-western, and pre-feedback
electricity. "There's nothing
frantic about what we play," John
once commented. "You don't respond
to our music by screaming."

Yet something moved millions
of listeners to journey to their
record store to pick up hit after hit
during the middle sixties. The
Spoonful, in popularity and influence,
enjoyed a brief reign as
"the American Beatles." Understandably,
it was during the era
before Vox realized that the
American mind could be expanded
with a few more amps.

The list of hits that Sebastian
fathered begins with "Magic" and
runs through "Daydream," "Summer
In The City," "Younger Girl,"
and "Nashville Cats." In 1966 his
group was voted by Cash Box and
Billboard as the most successful
American group and named by the
Beatles as Liverpudlian's favorite
musicians.

Sebastian's songs were played
by almost everyone from Peter
Nero and Nelson Riddle to Pat
Boone and the Four Freshmen. He
had become established as one of
the finest song writers in popular
music, topped only by Paul
McCartney. He was 22.

Break Up

In 1967 the Lovin' Spoonful
began to break up. There are many
rumors as to why, based on subjects
anywhere from drugs to total
individuality, but the consensus
seems to be that John's burgeoning
talent had outgrown his group. For
years Spoonful detractors had insisted
that Sebastian was really the
whole group, his three partners
lesser talents who were used only to
reinforce their leader's music. The
validity of this argument is questionable
at best, for there was a
unique quality about the entire
group that was indescribable. You
just sort of felt the power the four
had.

Whatever the reasons behind the
break-up were, it was perhaps
inevitable that Sebastian would
break away to continue his individual
concept of music in such
efforts as the film scores to "What's
Up Tiger Lily?" and "You're a Big
Boy Now." Recently he coupled his
completion of the score to Broadway's
"Jimmy Shine" with the
decision to re-enter the musical
field as an individual performer.
Tomorrow in University Hall,
Sebastian will display one of the
truly unique and influential talents
of today.