Special from ANN MOSES in Hollywood, New Musical Express, 26 August 1966
JOHN SEBASTIAN
Three years to perfect marbles
TO BE TRANSPORTED at a young age from the cold haunts of Greenwich Village in New York to a castle on the sunny slopes of Italy could make quite an impression on a young lad. It did on Spoonful leader, John Sebastian.
“I didn’t notice it until I came back from our second stay in Italy when I was 12 years old,” John recalls. “I became aware of prejudice for the first time.
“When we came back, I went to camp. It was a very upright place and I didn’t like it there. There seemed to be a lot of irrational discipline and prejudice, which wasn’t just racial.
“I was pretty much white, Anglo-saxon, Protestant, so it wasn’t directed specifically at me. But I was conscious of it. I didn’t ever go back.”
John has particularly clear memories of the years when he was growing up and the mention of games sparks him to rattle off a number he played.
“I was good at soccer and played a lot of marbles. The first two years I played marbles I always lost, but by the third year I was pretty good.
Cowboys
“I used to play cowboys, but there was only me. I used to play alone a lot. When I was young enough to play those games, we lived on a big property and the neighbours weren’t too close.
“I also used to draw. I still do occasionally, but I don’t sit down and sketch all the time. Sometimes I want to relax and painting helps.”
When John was in Italy, he began to collect puppets and still has them at his home in New York. Over the years his collection grew and he now owns over 30. His favourite is not a hand-carved Italian puppet, as one might imagine, but a Disney character called Widget.
He remembers dressing like the average New York City five-year-old, in T-shirts and jeans. “When I went to Italy I started getting a lot of clothes made for me because it was very easy and very cheap. The thing I remember most, though, was that they were made of wool and always itched!”
A married, full-grown man today, it is hard to visualize John at the age of five infatuated with a kindergarten teacher! “She was only there for two days, because she was only a substitute teacher.
“I don’t even remember what she looked like, but I’ve been told by my folks that I really dug her. I don’t remember it at all, actually.”
Children can have impetuous moments and John had his. He remembers an incident that turned out to be very embarrassing.
“I was shooting with a gun that shot out smoke O-s. I was playing with a friend of mine. I walked into the room and shot the thing off. My father really yelled blue murder at me. He probably thought it was a real gun! There were a couple of people in the room and when my dad yelled I got so embarrassed I couldn’t move.”
Don’t be surprised if some of these anecdotes turn up in Lovin’ Spoonful songs — because John kept saying: “That would make a good lyric.” Some of them would, too!
STEVE BOONE
Best present — a hunting suit
STEVE BOONE is the quietest member of the Lovin’ Spoonful. On stage he’s the least buoyant and in a conversation his contributions are few. Semi-long quotes come about from a ratio of one question per sentence.
“What are some of the things you did as a child?” I asked Steve, and he replied with his typical all-encompassing answer. “Everything there was to do in the whole wide world.”
Fact is, while he didn’t really do everything, he spent the early years of his childhood at the resort his parents owned and operated in Pennsylvania.
“Everything I did had to be within about a one-mile radius. One of the features for my folk’s resort was that you could ‘get away’ for a weekend. Well, that was putting it mildly.
“Outside of the little community it was like a wilderness. So I didn’t have too many good friends. All my friendships lasted about two days.”
It was only natural that Steve would become interested in the sports that were popular at the resort. His favourite Christmas present he recalls as “a hunting suit. I don’t know why it was the best, I just liked it. Maybe it’s because I still remember it now.” Hunting became the number one activity.
Before moving to his current home (and favourite) on Long Island in New York, Steve’s family spent six months in Florida. The days were hot, there was no work for a boy Steve’s age, and he began water ski-ing and sailing.
Speed crazy
He smiled, “I’ve always been crazy about speed. While I was in Florida I used to watch the speed boats and I’m getting my own soon!”
Throughout his teen years, Steve was unenthusiastic about school. “I never liked to read. I’ve only read through about five books. I’ve read A Tale Of Two Cities and Silas Marner which were required in school. I’ve read a few short stories.
“Right now I’m reading a book — the title is something about ‘Streamlined Tangerine’ — I can’t remember. It’s just written about today by a very aware person.”
Following high school, Steve spent a year and a half in college, probably because at the time he couldn’t think of anything else to do. “I soon got bored and quit.”
His interest in music was not noticeably aroused until he was 17 years old. “I was given a guitar for Christmas — that’s when I started playing, I taught myself.
“I never had a formal education in music, I just picked up the different instruments I play. I’ve learned most everything I’ve tried. I’m still learning.”
One thing Steve never outgrew was his passion for cars. When he was a youngster, making model cars took up much of his time. “I loved all kinds of cars — model cars, amusement park cars, little red fire engines. My favourite car in the whole wide world is the Ford GT 40. My only hang up is I have no time to race!”
Today, Steve’s daydreams are of brighter things than when he was young. In those days when he would have dreamed of his fun, fantastic life as a Spoonful!
ZAL YANOVSKY
Played game called ‘Death’
WHEN YOU ASK Zally, of the Lovin’ Spoonful, about his childhood days, the great Yanovsky recalls them much too vividly. The entire time you keep hoping he’s joking saying to yourself: This can’t be for real… can it? Take as an example a simple question like “what games did you play as a child?” Zally will gaze into space, drag on his cigarette, look you straight in the eye and say: “Death! That’s when you get the little Italian kid on the block and you kill him!”
But how about the usual children’s games like cowboys and Indians? No, Zally didn’t play the usual games because he wasn’t what you’d call the “usual child.”
“We played cowboys and ichiebums. Either you were an ichiebum or a cowboy. Ichiebum is like an injun. You run around and shoot each other. We all played cops and robbers, which speaks for itself. I was always the robber.”
Zal grew up in Canada on the third floor of a triplex apartment. More than anything else he remembers a not-so-friendly neighbour, “the witch,” Mrs. McD. “She was horrible! She was rotten! We used to break her windows and tear out her flowers.”
Harassing
When they weren’t harassing Mrs. McD. summer found Zally and friends playing volleyball and baseball and swimming in the gutter. In the summer it got really hot so the city would open the fire hydrants and the water would run into the streets. “That’s how we ‘maintained our cool’.”
JOE BUTLER
Bicycle helped him get away
THOUGH JOHN is the recognized leader of the Spoonful, Joe Butler is the one who always sees that things get done. You often find him staying behind after a gig to pick up what everyone else has forgotten.
His talent for “underground” leadership seems to be a natural development from childhood. He recalls, “In my neighbourhood everybody was older than me, so they were pretty active and I had to keep up with them.
“By the time I got out of grammar school, I was stronger than most kids my age, because when I was five and six, my friends were eight and nine.
“My favourite toy was my first bike. It gave me freedom from my house. I had three sisters, so a lot of my activity centred outside of the house. I had no guys around, so I’d run out and build swings and hang out in the woods a lot.
“I lived in Great Neck, New Jersey, about 30 minutes from New York city. The biggest event when I was a kid was going into the city. We’d take the train. You could sneak on the cars and hide in the bathroom or keep walking through cars.
Thrown off
“We had no identification, so if they caught us we’d just give them phony names. They’d say ‘we’re going to call your parents’ and then throw us off at the next stop. So even if you were thrown off at every stop, you could still make it into the city.
“I had lots of jobs. I worked all through high school. I had a newspaper route and I ran a delicatessen. The man who owned it used to go out on deliveries and leave me in charge.
© Ann Moses, 1966
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