Just earlier tonight i heard this song for the first time in a long time. I'd always liked it, though.
The person responsible is Amanda Nazario, who singles it out for the rougher sound of John Sebastian's voice. Nazario is up there with Charlie Lewis as my favorite FMU personalities. She does recaps of years-old Simpsons episodes that I just have to kind of stand up and figure out the applause.
3 comments:
nice to know that wfmu continues on alive'n'well (did listen to one of ms nazario's simpson clips, which was very well done)...
we only just this past year reacquired our collection of lovin spoonful hits (for whatever reason, it didn't include 'four eyes', which i had to get separately). sebastian was like a one-man tin pan alley back then. 'summer in the city', 'believe in magic', 'daydream', 'be home soon' - no one back then was more top of the charts prolific than him...
&, speaking of john sebastian (well, you brought him up), let us return to those thrilling days of yesteryear, & 'semiconscious' infamous john sebastian story':
the date: june 14, 1970. the place: anaheim stadium, l.a., cal. the band: the who (with opening acts leon russell & john sebastian). for the complete birds-eye low-down (as nick danger would say), see this pretty funny 'i was there!' account (hafta scroll down a little bit)...
most of which i can vouch for (particularly the guys (the was more than one) moving through the crowd with handfuls of orange sunshine), because, yeah, i was there, too, camped somewhere around the pitcher's mound, facing the stage at home plate. that's the good news. the bad news? i'd scored a nice hit of acid for the show earlier, but had gotten so excited thinking about going that i'd gone ahead & taken it the evening before (what was i thinking? i wasn't!). the unfortunate result of this error in judgement? i, like everyone else at the show, took my hit of sunshine, but, unlike everyone else, i couldn't get off!!! meaning i was very likely the only person in the crowd in their right (quote/unquote) mind :( ...
but, hey, what's funny is that this's also the rock show of all the rock shows i saw while in l.a. that i remember the most about, so there's that. & possibly my most distinct memory of the show was something that happened during john sebastian's set...
(to be continued...)
after the spoonful broke up, he'd gone solo, & continued to do well. anyway, here he was, sitting on a folding chair & playing an acoustic guitar. very cool, a few spoonful songs, & then he starts in on his first solo hit, 'she's a lady'. really lovely tune, eh? thing is, around halfway through, this mammoth, topless, completely zonked babe somehow makes it up on stage, & begins making a beeline straight for him! his response? surprisingly enough, he stands & starts swatting her with his guitar, while security finally manages to respond & cart her off. it was a real 'whoa!' moment for me (stoned or not), but it didn't seem to keep anyone (self included) from continuing to have a great time...
anyway, that's my infamous john sebastian story. & no, i've never really felt quite the same about him (& especially that song!) since then (tho that hasn't gotten in the way of continuing to enjoy the rest of his music, obviously)...
a brief footnote: a check of that shows set list (at the bottom of that blog entry i linked to) confirms my memory that this show, the last of the tour, was indeed the last time that the 'true' who (daltrey, townshend, entwistle, moon - accept no substitutes!) ever performed all of 'tommy'...
Indeed 'FMU is still on the air. It is indeed a blessed event given the moribund and homogeneous state terrestrial radio has been in these past couple of decades. Of course it's only partially a terrestrial station. Not only are some of their best shows streaming podcasts that never see the air - and thus aren't FCC regulated - but some of their talent lives far from the NY/NJ area and do their shows remotely from home.
Those Sebastian/Spoonful songs you mention have all brought me joy at various points. Very definitely "Darling Be Home Soon." And "Four Eyes." And to bring up another one myself, "Nashville Cats."
The upside of the orange sunshine not doing its stuff is that you can be absolutely sure that you actually saw what you saw. (I know secondhand that acid isn't really an all-enveloping Sensurround hallucinogen, but your perception and memory of the event could have been markedly different.) Now as for that particular groupie, I can only guess that she was on something, or otherwise confused. Silly girl, you show up at the hotel room topless, not the stage.
But yeah, that is a strange memory to associate with one of America's more courtly pop singer-songwriters. I can see how it might color your perceptions.
Kind of an odd detail about it being the last time the 'riginal Who performed Tommy. They'd be together until '78, and there would certainly be an audience demand. Actually, come to think of it, it's starting to make sense.
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