BIOGRAFIA
ESCRITA POR WILLIAM RUHLMANN
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traduzir, recomendamos o Google Translator)
John Sebastian
has had a varied career as a singer, songwriter, and musician. As the leader of
the folk-rock band the Lovin' Spoonful, he was responsible for a string of Top
Ten hits in 1965-1967 that included the chart-toppers "Daydream" and "Summer
in the City," and he returned to number one in 1976 as a solo artist with
"Welcome Back." He wrote or co-wrote those hits as well as many
others, along with songs used on Broadway and in the movies. And as an
instrumentalist, primarily playing harmonica, he has accompanied a wide range
of artists including Judy Collins, Crosby, Stills & Nash, the Doors, Bob
Dylan, the Everly Brothers, Art Garfunkel, Gordon Lightfoot, Laura Nyro, Graham
Parker, Dolly Parton, Peter, Paul & Mary, John Prine, and Bonnie Raitt.
Sebastian's
father was a classical harmonica player, his mother a writer of radio shows. He
grew up in Greenwich Village, where he applied the knowledge of the harmonica
he gleaned from his father to the music of the folk revival that was taking
place in his neighborhood in the late '50s and early '60s. By the age of 16, he
was stepping onto the stages of coffeehouses and folk clubs, and by the age of
18 he was appearing as a sideman on recordings. In 1964, he joined the Even
Dozen Jug Band, which made a self-titled album for Elektra Records before
splitting up. He was also briefly in the Mugwumps, along with future Lovin'
Spoonful guitarist Zal Yanovsky and future members of the Mamas and the Papas
Cass Elliot and Denny Doherty. In the winter of 1964-1965, he and Yanovsky
began assembling the quartet that would become the Lovin' Spoonful, eventually
adding bass player Steve Boone and drummer Joe Butler. In the meantime, he
continued his session work, including playing bass on Bob Dylan's first
electric album, Bringing It All Back Home.
The Lovin'
Spoonful signed to Kama Sutra Records (an offshoot of MGM Records) and in the
summer of 1965 released their first single, "Do You Believe in
Magic," on which he sang lead vocals (as he did on all the group's singles
while he was a member, in addition to writing or co-writing all their hits). It
peaked in the Top Ten, and so did its follow-up, "You Didn't Have to Be So
Nice," while a Do You Believe in Magic album, released in the fall, spent
eight months in the charts. The third Lovin' Spoonful single,
"Daydream," was a number one hit, accompanied by a Daydream LP that
reached the Top Ten. The group's fourth single, "Did You Ever Have to Make
Up Your Mind?," had already appeared on Do You Believe in Magic, but that
didn't keep it from reaching the Top Five, and the fifth single, the timely
"Summer in the City," became a gold-selling number one hit upon its
release in the summer of 1966. The next Lovin' Spoonful release was a soundtrack
album for the Woody Allen film What's Up, Tiger Lily?, released in September.
Then came their sixth consecutive Top Ten hit, "Rain on the Roof,"
followed by their seventh, "Nashville Cats," which reached its peak
in January 1967, simultaneous with a Top 20 showing for the band's third album,
Hums of the Lovin' Spoonful, which spent six months in the charts. In the
spring, the Lovin' Spoonful scored a second motion picture, Francis Ford
Coppola's You're a Big Boy Now, from which came their next single, the Top 20
hit "Darling, Be Home Soon." "Six O'Clock" gave them
another Top 20 hit by June.
That summer,
the band ran into difficulties. Yanovsky and Boone were arrested on drug
charges, resulting in Yanovsky's departure from the group; his replacement was
Jerry Yester. They also parted ways with their producer, Erik Jacobsen.
"She's Still a Mystery" became their eleventh consecutive Top 20 hit
in November, but Sebastian was becoming dissatisfied, and after completing a fourth
LP, Everything Playing (which produced a minor chart entry in
"Money"), released at the end of the year, he quit the band. During
1968, he began working on solo material, considering, but ultimately rejecting,
an offer to join a trio of his friends who went on to become Crosby, Stills
& Nash. He also wrote some songs used in a Broadway play, Jimmy Shine,
starring Dustin Hoffman; among them was "She's a Lady," a minor chart
entry for him at the end of 1968. That single was released on Kama Sutra, but
Sebastian had determined to leave the label and he signed to Warner Bros.
Records' Reprise subsidiary. Kama Sutra, however, felt he still owed them an
album, and a legal battle ensued which delayed the release of his debut solo
album for a year. Although Reprise won the right to release John B. Sebastian,
and did so in January 1970, Kama Sutra's parent company, MGM, using
second-generation tapes of the record in its possession, also put out its own
version of the LP, which was then withdrawn.
In the
meantime, Sebastian had made an inadvertent but memorable appearance at the
Woodstock Festival in August 1969. Not scheduled to appear, but nevertheless
present backstage (and somewhat the worse for wear due to recreational drug
use), he was pressed into service during a set change and gave a brief,
well-received performance. Hobbled by the MGM counterfeit, John B. Sebastian
nevertheless managed to make the Top 20 in the spring of 1970 and Sebastian's
solo career really took off when he was featured on the chart-topping Woodstock
soundtrack album in May and in the documentary film that opened in August.
Unfortunately, MGM wasn't through harassing him. The label obtained a tape of a
concert he performed in July 1970 and released it under the title John
Sebastian Live. Another legal battle ensued, and this album too was withdrawn.
But Sebastian was determined to put out a competing album as well, and the
result was Cheapo-Cheapo Productions Presents Real Live John Sebastian,
released in March 1971. Both albums took advantage of the singer's iconic
status as a rock festival favorite, brandishing his acoustic guitar, wearing a
tie-dyed denim suit, and pleasing giant crowds at such Woodstock-like events as
the Atlanta Pop Festival, the Isle of Wight Festival, and the Festival of Life
in 1970-1971.
Sebastian
released his second studio album, The Four of Us, in August 1971, featuring the
ambitious title track, which took up all of side two; it sold disappointingly.
Tarzana Kid, which followed in September 1974, missed the charts entirely, and
Sebastian's recording career was virtually moribund when he was asked to write
a theme song for a new television series, Welcome Back, Kotter, which premiered
in September 1975. Sebastian was also heard singing his song, "Welcome
Back," over the credits each week. Welcome Back, Kotter became a success,
and Reprise released a single version of the song, which topped the charts in
May 1976 and went gold. A Welcome Back LP also returned Sebastian to the album
charts. But that disc completed his recording contract, and "Welcome
Back" proved to be a one-off success rather than a real commercial
comeback.
For the next
17 years, Sebastian performed concerts, made guest appearances on other
artists' records, and did occasional soundtrack work. In 1993, the independent
Shanachie Records label finally put out his fifth studio album, Tar Beach. He
then teamed up with a group of old friends and returned to playing the jug band
music he had started with back in Greenwich Village more than 30 years before,
forming a group he called John Sebastian and the J-Band and issuing I Want My
Roots (1996) and Chasin' Gus' Ghost (1999). As part of the Lovin' Spoonful, he
was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2000.
Discografia
Do You Believe
In Magic?
(com Lovin’
Spoonful, 1965)
Daydream
(com Lovin’
Spoonful, 1966)
Hums Of Lovin’ Spoonful
(com Lovin’
Spoonful, 1966)
You’re A Big
Boy Now
(com Lovin’
Spoonful, 1967)
Revelation Revolution
69
(com Lovin’
Spoonful, 1968)
Everything
Playing
(com Lovin’
Spoonful, 1968)
John B
Sebastian (1970)
John Sebastian
Live (1970)
The Real Live
John Sebastian (1971)
The Four Of Us
(1972)
Tarzana Kid
(1974)
Welcome Back
(1976)
King Biscuit
Flower Hour (1979)
Blues
Harmonica (1982)
Tar Beach (1993)
I Want My
Roots (1996)
Chasin’ Gus’
Ghost (1999)
One Guy, One Guitar
(2001)
Satisfied (2007)
