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ROCHES T E R A N D B E Y O N D.
John Sebastian found massive fame with The Lovin’ Spoonful, a band that at one time was compared to The Beatles. Now he performs solo in a show featuring both his music and his stories. PHOTO PROVIDED
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An Evening of Music and Conversation with John Sebastian SATURDAY, DECEMBER 7 CAFÉ VERITAS, FIRST UNITARIAN CHURCH, 220 S. WINTON ROAD 7:30 P.M. | $25-$28 | CAFEVERITAS.ORG
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[ INTERVIEW ] BY RON NETSKY
It was one of the great moments of the 1960’s. While helping out backstage at the Woodstock Festival, John Sebastian was asked to perform a song to stall for time. Midway through “Darling Be Home Soon,” he was so taken with the half-million young people in front of him that he slipped out of the song’s narrative, making one word plural: “Go — and beat your crazy heads against the sky...,” he sang. The euphoria of that moment came a year after Sebastian had left The Lovin’ Spoonful, one of the top bands of the
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1960’s. With the Spoonful, he’d written and sung Top 10 hits like “Daydream,” “Do You Believe In Magic,” and “Nashville Cats.” He’ll be singing his classics and reminiscing about his life in music when he performs at Café Veritas on Saturday, December 7. We reached Sebastian recently by phone at his Woodstock home. An edited transcript of the interview follows. CITY: Your father was a great classical harmonica player. How did that affect you? John Sebastian: When you listen to
somebody play an instrument for sometimes six, eight hours a day — that’s what the demands on a classical virtuoso are — it does point you in a direction, if you have any inclination. The other thing that was very important is, I understood that my father was the greatest virtuoso on his instrument in the world, but not
necessarily a rich guy. Not necessarily successful in the common American measurement. And that music is to be done only if the joy is there. But then it becomes a very hard job. After the Spoonful years, I would come across people who were very musically talented but because of their background they had no measuring stick for what musicians really do all day, or they thought the degree of success would be commensurate with their effort — a lot of things that are American values. All of a sudden, it ain’t necessarily so. Your mother wrote radio shows. What was she like?
It was like having baby Tina Fey in radio: transgressive humor right on the edge of acceptability, but very funny. As time went on she evolved as a writer until she was writing about a Renaissance woman and doing research in the Laurentian library. continues on page 18