{"id":912,"date":"2018-09-16T16:55:05","date_gmt":"2018-09-16T20:55:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vinyldialogues.com\/VinylDialoguesBlog\/?p=912"},"modified":"2018-09-16T16:55:05","modified_gmt":"2018-09-16T20:55:05","slug":"john-sebastian-reminds-us-of-the-magic-of-the-lovin-spoonful-at-inaugural-pocono-folk-festival","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vinyldialogues.com\/VinylDialoguesBlog\/john-sebastian-reminds-us-of-the-magic-of-the-lovin-spoonful-at-inaugural-pocono-folk-festival\/","title":{"rendered":"John Sebastian reminds us of the magic of The Lovin’ Spoonful at inaugural Pocono Folk Festival"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"John<\/a>

John Sebastian of The Lovin’ Spoonful was the headliner for the inaugural Pocono Folk Festival Sept. 15, 2018, in Delaware Water Gap, PA.
(Photo by Mike Morsch)<\/p><\/div>\n

Singer-songwriter and Rock and Roll Hall of Famer John Sebastian was the headliner for the inaugural Pocono Folk Festival Sept. 15 in Delaware Water Gap, Pennsylvania, and he reminded us – as he has for more than 50 years – just how good his band The Lovin\u2019 Spoonful was in the mid- to late-1960s.<\/p>\n

With hits like \u201cDo You Believe in Magic,\u201d \u201cYou Didn\u2019t Have to Be So Nice,\u201d \u201cDaydream,\u201d \u201cDid You Ever Have to Make Up Your Mind,\u201d Summer in the City,\u201d Nashville Cats\u201d and \u201cDarling Be Home Soon,\u201d Sebastian has written on his website that, \u201cWe were grateful to the Beatles for reminding us of our rock and roll roots, but we wanted to cut out the English middlemen, so to speak, and get down to making this new music as an \u2018American\u2019 band.\u201d Which is exactly what the Spoonful did from 1965 to 1970<\/p>\n

Sebastian is a storyteller, with both his songs and with his in-between-song banter with the crowd, and he brought his A Game to the first-ever Pocono Folk Festival.<\/p>\n

One of my favorite Sebastian stories that evening was about Spoonful co-founder and lead guitarist, Zal Yanovsky. Sebastian said that Yanovsky loved to suggest ideas for new songs, but he didn\u2019t like to write them himself. One of those ideas eventually became \u201cDid You Ever Have to Make Up Your Mind,\u201d written by Sebastian and released as the second single (the first being the title track) off on the Spoonful\u2019s debut album, \u201cDo You Believe in Magic\u201d in November 1965. \u201cDid You Ever Have to Make Up Your Mind\u201d reached No. 2 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 singles chart. The single \u201cDo Believe in Magic\u201d got to No. 9 on the singles chart.<\/p>\n

\"(Photo<\/a>

(Photo by Mike Morsch)<\/p><\/div>\n

But that\u2019s not my favorite Zal Yanovsky story. Around that same time in 1965, right before The Lovin\u2019 Spoonful released its first album, Barry McGuire had a hit with \u201cEve of Destruction\u201d in August 1965.<\/p>\n

McGuire\u2019s circle of musician friends reads like a Who\u2019s Who of 1960s folk-rock royalty then, including Denny Doherty and Cass Elliot, who would go on to star with The Mamas and The Papas; and Sebastian and Yanovsky of The Lovin\u2019 Spoonful.<\/p>\n

But McGuire was the only musician with a steady gig as a member of the New Christy Minstrels, and as such, he was the go-to guy for supplying the marijuana for his group. The rest were just singing for nickels and dimes wherever they could find them and really couldn\u2019t afford the drugs.<\/p>\n

According to McGuire, as he told me in an interview that was featured in \u201cThe Vinyl Dialogues Volume II: Dropping the Needle,\u201d one evening after a New Christy Minstrels\u2019 show at the Latin Quarter, he was looking for a cab to grab a ride to visit Doherty, who had a room at the Hotel Earle in the Washington Square area of New York City. At one time, the Hotel Earle was considered to be in one of the best residential areas of the city. But by the 1960s, the hotel had declined considerably and had a reputation as a seedy boarding house that was home to several musicians trying to make the big time.<\/p>\n

In addition to Doherty, the hotel had played host to Bob Dylan and Joan Baez, John Phillips and Michelle Phillips – the other half of The Mamas and The Papas – Roger McGuinn of the Byrds, Barbra Streisand, and the Rolling Stones, as well as comedians Phyllis Diller and Bill Cosby and writers Ernest Hemingway, Dylan Thomas, and P.G. Wodehouse.<\/p>\n

\"(Photo<\/a>

(Photo by Mike Morsch)<\/p><\/div>\n

But that evening, McGuire found his regular marijuana dealer in a quandary. The guy needed some ready cash in a hurry and he offered McGuire a great deal on a half-kilo of marijuana.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought, well, I can\u2019t pass this up. So I bought half a brick, put it under my arm and down I went to Denny\u2019s place,\u201d said McGuire.<\/p>\n

When he got there, McGuire was uncertain how to break open such a large amount of marijuana without spilling most of it on the floor. Yanovsky was there and suggested turning the coffee table upside down, creating something of a trough, which would contain the grass if it spilled.<\/p>\n

The musicians didn\u2019t waste any time indulging and were all smoking and laughing when a few minutes later, in walked Sebastian. He had brought with him the first 12-string Rickenbacker guitar that any of them had ever seen. Yanovsky was already known as a killer guitar player, so naturally, he couldn\u2019t wait to try out the new instrument.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, it was summertime and the windows were open. Denny\u2019s place was on the first floor and by now it\u2019s three o\u2019clock in the morning,\u201d said McGuire. \u201cSmoke was drifting out across the sidewalk and everybody was getting loaded and singing \u2018Go Johnny go, go Johnny go-go-go.\u2019 And Zally was playing the guitar and I was sitting in the windowsill looking at this room full of doped-out crazy people singing. There was an upside-down coffee table with a half-kilo of grass in it and I was thinking, Johnny is going to jail<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n

McGuire decided to play it safe, so without telling anyone he climbed out the first floor window, grabbed the first available cab and headed home.<\/p>\n

The next night, it was pretty much the same routine. McGuire did the Minstrels\u2019 show at the Latin Quarter, then took a cab over to Doherty\u2019s place at the Hotel Earle, ostensibly to see who from the previous night\u2019s party had gotten arrested.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>

The official poster of the first-ever Pocono Folk Festival, signed by John Sebastian.
(Photo by Mike Morsch)<\/p><\/div>\n

Thinking that the party was over, McGuire knocked on the door and immediately, Yanovsky appeared in the doorway, a surprised look on his face. Yanovsky stuck his head out into the hall, looked left and right, and said, \u201cMcGuire, how did you get out into the hall?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHe didn\u2019t even know I was gone, twenty-four hours later,\u201d said McGuire.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a story that McGuire has told many times during his performances. And it\u2019s those friends and the times they had that would become the inspiration for the autobiographical hit single, \u201cCreeque Alley,\u201d written by John Phillips and Michelle Phillips, that hit No. 5 on the U.S. Billboard Pop Singles chart in 1967.<\/p>\n

The small, intimate crowd at the Pocono Folk Festival showed its appreciation for Sebastian with a warm response and by singing along with the songs that they knew. I got a chance to meet Sebastian at the merch table after his set. He was as friendly and engaging as he was on stage and I got him to sign an official Pocono Folk Festival poster, which will look real nice in my music room.<\/p>\n

The entire festival lineup provided a pleasant and laid back day of music. Organizer Jim Della Croce is to be complimented for having the vision to put the festival together and I hope he can grow it in the coming years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Singer-songwriter and Rock and Roll Hall of Famer John Sebastian was the headliner for the inaugural Pocono Folk Festival Sept. 15 in Delaware Water Gap, Pennsylvania, and he reminded us – as he has for more than 50 years – just how good his band The Lovin\u2019 Spoonful was in the mid- to late-1960s. With […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":104,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[138,210,273],"class_list":["post-912","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-tvdbook","tag-john-sebastian","tag-pocono-folk-festival","tag-the-lovin-spoonful"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vinyldialogues.com\/VinylDialoguesBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/912"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vinyldialogues.com\/VinylDialoguesBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vinyldialogues.com\/VinylDialoguesBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vinyldialogues.com\/VinylDialoguesBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/104"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vinyldialogues.com\/VinylDialoguesBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=912"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/vinyldialogues.com\/VinylDialoguesBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/912\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1108,"href":"https:\/\/vinyldialogues.com\/VinylDialoguesBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/912\/revisions\/1108"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vinyldialogues.com\/VinylDialoguesBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=912"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vinyldialogues.com\/VinylDialoguesBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=912"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vinyldialogues.com\/VinylDialoguesBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=912"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}