John Sebastian

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John Benson Sebastian (born March 17, 1944) is an American singer/songwriter, guitarist, harmonizer, and autoharpist.

He is best known for his founding of The Lovin' Spoonful, as well as his impromptu appearance at the Woodstock festival in 1969 and No. 68. "Welcome Home" was a hit on 1976. In 2000, the Lovin' Spoonful was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Early life

Sebastian was born in New York City and grew up in Italy and Greenwich Village. John Sebastian (né John Sebastian Pulisi), his father, and his mother, Jane (born Mary Jane Bishir), were both a radio script writer and a renowned classical harmonica player. Vivian Vance ("Ethel Mertz") of I Love Lucy, his godmother, was a close friend of his mother. Garth Williams, a friend of his father, was his godfather and first babysitter. Eleanor Roosevelt was a neighbor who lived across the hall from her.

Sebastian grew up with music and musicians, including Burl Ives and Woody Guthrie, as well as seeing such artists as Lead Belly and Mississippi John Hurt in his own neighborhood. In 1962, he graduated from Blair Academy, a private boarding school in Blairstown, New Jersey. He stayed at New York University for just over a year but left early as he became more interested in musical pursuits.

Personal life

Sebastian has been married three times. Jean "Butchie" Webber, who later became Butchie Denver after she married actor Bob Denver, was his first wife. Butchie, according to Steve Boone, was a young supporter and mentor of the Lovin' Spoonful's who clandestinely married Sebastian in the early 1960s in order to reduce his chances of being recruited for service in the Vietnam War. In 1966, the two married. Sebastian married Loretta "Lorey" Kaye, a waitress for Steve Paul's The Scene in 1968, the couple divorced in 1968.

Sebastian married Catherine Barnett, a photographer and artist who has created many album covers, in 1972. The couple have two children together.

Sebastian has suffered with throat infections that have eventually affected and changed his singing voice, but he has continued to tour and perform.

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Early career

Sebastian started to be interested in blues music and playing harmonica in a blues style rather than his father's classical style. He met and was inspired by blues musician Sonny Terry and Lightnin' Hopkins (for whom Sebastian served as "unofficial tour guide and valet" while Hopkins was in New York City) through his father's connections. Sebastian became a part of the folk and blues scene in Greenwich Village, which gave rise to folk rock in a small amount.

Sebastian performed on accordance with harmonica, as well as autoharp. For Billy Faier's 1964 album The Beast of Billy Faier, one of Sebastian's first recording appearances was playing guitar and harmonica. He appeared on Fred Neil's album Bleecker & MacDougal, and Tom Rush's self-titled album in 1965. He appeared in The Evening Dozen Jug Band and In The Mugwumps, which later became The Lovin' Spoonful and the Mamas & the Papas. Bob Dylan invited him to play bass on his forthcoming It All Back Home sessions (though Sebastian's participation did not appear on the album) and to support Dylan's new electric touring band, but Sebastian declined in order to concentrate on his own project, Lovin' Spoonful.

Solo career 1960s–1970s

Jimmy Shine, one of Sebastian's first projects after leaving Spoonful, was composing the music and lyrics for a play with music written by Murray Schisgal. It opened on Broadway in December 1968, with Dustin Hoffman as the title character, and ran until April 1969, totaling over 150 performances. Sebastian himself wrote a stage musical version of E.B. in the late 1970s and early 1980s. In a meeting with his godfather Garth Williams, who illustrated White's original book, White's Charlotte's Web was shared by White's Charlotte. The original musical featured 20 songs, some of which Sebastian performed in concert, but the musical was never produced.

Sebastian made an unscheduled appearance at Woodstock in August 1969. He attended the festival as a spectator, but the organizers demanded him to appear after a rain break because they couldn't set up amps on stage for Santana until the water was swept away. Some who have attempted to recreate Sebastian's unplanned set differed, with some claiming he played on Saturday, August 16, immediately after Country Joe McDonald; others saying that Santana followed McDonald and Sebastian after this date; and then some, including McDonald, told me that Sebastian appeared after the festival on Friday, August 15, at some point after Richie Havens opened the festival on Friday, August 15.

Sebastian's Woodstock set featured three songs from his album ("How Have You Been"), "I Had a Dream," and "Rainbows All Over Your Blues"), as well as two Lovin' Spoonful songs ("Darling Be Home Soon" and "Younger Generation," which he dedicated to a newborn baby at the festival), but not yet revealed John B. Sebastian's Woodstock set included three songs from his collection ("How Have You Been," "I Had a Sebastian was under the influence of marijuana or other psychedelic drugs at the time, hence his spontaneity and casual, unplanned setting. Sebastian has said in later interviews that he was a regular marijuana user at the time and had taken the drug at Woodstock because he wasn't allowed to perform. "There was a natural high [at Woodstock]," he said, and that "in an interview it is the most natural thing to say, 'I'm really high,' but it was actually a small part of the case." In fact, I had a little piece of a pill that someone gave me before going on stage, but it wasn't a good acid feeling." Sebastian appeared on the original Woodstock album and in the documentary film. He has returned to Woodstock '94, playing harmonica for Crosby, Stills, and Nash, as well as playing with his own band, the J-Band.

In September 1969, a month after Woodstock, Sebastian performed a similar collection of solo and Spoonful material at the 1969 Big Sur Folk Festival and was included in the subsequent documentary Celebration at Big Sur (1971).

Sebastian's first solo LP on Reprise Records (a Warner Bros. Records property) in January 1970, his eponymous solo debut, John B. Sebastian, was joined by a number of Los Angeles artists, including Crosby, Stills & Nash. It was Sebastian's highest-charting solo album, debuting No. 1 on the charts. In the Billboard album charts, 20 is ranked 20. MGM Records, MGM, without authorization from Sebastian or his team, also launched the John B. Sebastian album and John Sebastian Live, which were later removed from the market. Cheapo Cheapo Productions Presents Real Live John Sebastian, Sebastian's second reprise album, was shot and sold in an attempt to have an official live album.

Sebastian used a core backing band made up of keyboardist Paul Harris, drummer Dallas Taylor, and bassist Kenny Altman for his third Reprise album, The Four of Us (1971). Harris and Taylor considered joining Stephen Stills' band Manassas, but they declined to form a permanent band with them. Sebastian released "Give Us a Break" b/w "Music for People Who Don't Speak English" in 1972, which did not chart. Sebastian returned to using a rotating group of well-known recording artists and session musicians, including Lowell George (who also co-wrote the album track "Face of Appalachia"), Mark Grisman, Russell DaShiell, Ry Cooder, and Buddy Emmons on his forthcoming album, Tarzana Kid (1974). Sebastian, George, and Everly briefly considered joining a supergroup but decided against it.

Sebastian has claimed that his musical career suffered in the early 1970s from being out of step with emerging artists, such as Alice Cooper, and that buying and selling real estate earned him more money than he did from his music. Sebastian demanded to be released from his Reprise deal, which obliged him to make one more album, after Tarzana Kid's failed to chart. Sebastian did not win in 1976, but it was an unexpected No. There is a single on "Welcome Back," the theme song on the television show Welcome Back, Kotter's welcome back, prompting the company to delay the release of an album, which also called Welcome Back. Sebastian expressed annoyance that Reprise did not do more to advertise the album, his last for Reprise, despite the "monster hit" status of the song "Welcome Back." His later albums were mainly released on independent record labels. Sebastian's only top-40 solo hit, "Welcome Back," a sample from it became the hook for rapper Mase's 2004 hit "Welcome Back."

All five of Sebastian's Reprise albums, as well as the non-LP "Give Us a Break" single, were re-released on CD in a limited-edition box set named Faithful Virtue: The Reprise Recordings in 2001. Sebastian's entire Woodstock appearance as well as six previously unreleased songs recorded in mono from a performance at the Winterland Ballroom in San Francisco on October 4, 1969. Sebastian's five Reprise albums were reissued as individual CDs by Collectors' Choice Music in 2006, with new liner notes by Richie Unterberger.

Sebastian appeared on a number of recordings by other artists in the 1960s and 1970s. He performed harmonica with the Doors on the album "Roadhouse Blues" (from the album Morrison Hotel) under the pseudonym G. Pugliese to escape complications with his employment and avoid contact with Jim Morrison, who was also charged with lewd conduct after the Miami concert incident. He has appeared on two Doors Live albums, "Little Red Rooster" on Alive, She Cried, and seven songs on Live in Detroit. Both albums were later re-released, remastered, and repackaged into a single album In Concert, which also included Morrison's introduction of Sebastian to the stage on the "Little Red Rooster" album.

Sebastian has been credited with three instruments on Gordon Lightfoot's 1970 album Sit Down Young Stranger (Reprise RS 6392). He appeared on "Saturday Clothes," electric guitar on "Baby It's Allright," and harmonica on "The Pony Man." When the name of the album unexpectedly became a big hit, the album was retitled If You Could Read My Mind.

Sebastian is credited with playing harmonica on Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young's album "Déjà Vu" by the same name. He had been invited by Crosby, Stills & Nash to join their team as a fourth member before being rejected by Neil Young, who ended their relationship with him. Woodstock Mountain Revue, 1977, he appeared as part of Artie and Happy Trauma's Woodstock Mountain Revue (a.k.a. The Woodstock Mountains (Japan) folk group collaborated on the album. More Music From Mud Acres. Sebastian's other works on which Sebastian appeared include the album Stephen Stills (1970), Timothy Leary's album You Can Be Anyone This Time Around (1970) (on which Sebastian jammed with Jimi Hendrix), and Keith Moon's first solo album, Two Sides of the Moon (1975). He also played "Just When I Needed You Most" in Randy VanWarmer's 1979 hit "Just When I Needed You Most" on the autoharp.

Later career

Sebastian has been active in a variety of music-related fields, not only writing and performing his own material, but also producing soundtrack and instructional material, hosting and appearing on television shows, and even writing a children's book about a harmonica-playing bear.

Sebastian has continued to tour and perform live, both solo and with a variety of backing bands. He had been affiliated with NRBQ, dating back to the early 1980s, when he appeared on NRBQ's album Grooves (1983). He has said that NRBQ "to a large extent picked up where The Lovin' Spoonful left off" because of NRBQ's "wide variety of musical styles, that they are not only competent but accurate at playing," and he expressed appreciation for NRBQ's help during a low point in his career. Sebastian, in turn, aided NRBQ by utilizing them on his own Nelvana and Disney Channel soundtrack projects during a time when litigation barred them from recording. Sebastian has used NRBQ as his own backing band, appeared at their shows regularly, and performed regularly with the band's musicians, and NRBQ founding member Terry Adams refers to Sebastian as a "honorary member" of the band. Despite performing Lovin' Spoonful solo and with NRBQ (who were still identified as "the new Lovin' Spoonful") in the 1980s, he declined to reunite with several former Spoonful members in 1991.

Sebastian appeared with J-Band, a jug band whose Fritz Richmond, jank Rachell, Jimmy Vivino, and Geoff Muldaur throughout the 1990s. In Chasin' Ghost (2005), a documentary about the origins and popularity of jug band music, Sebastian and the J-Band were included. Sebastian made its film festival debut in August 2007 at the Woodstock Film Festival, where he appeared with other musicians in the film, including Geoff Muldaur, Maria Muldaur, Jim Kweskin, and David Grisman). Sebastian reveals in the film "Younger Girl" was influenced by Gus Cannon's "Prison Wall Blues," with musical accompaniment.

Sebastian's live appearances in the 2000s included performances with country blues duo Paul Rishell and Annie Raines in 2002; touring with Maria Muldaur and her Garden of Joy jug band in 2009; and occasional appearances with mandolinist David Grisman, who appeared in the Even Dogger Band in the 1960s and most recently collaborated on a CD album album release, Satisfied.

Sebastian began to occasionally publish CD albums from a variety of small brands after leaving Reprise. Although a number of these recordings were based on compilations or live performances of his older material from the 1960s and 1970s, several, such as Tar Beach (Shanachie, 1993), and Satisfied (with David Grisman), have received significant new recordings. Tar Beach in particular had eleven previously unreleased songs written or co-written by Sebastian; four songs were written by Sebastian and songwriter Phil Galdston, with whom Sebastian also worked on the score for the Sig Shore-directed feature film The Act (1984). Sebastian had written several of the songs on Tar Beach more than a decade before the album's introduction, according to Colin Larkin. I Want My Roots (Music Masters, 1996) and Chasin' Gus' Ghost (Hollywood, 2000), two later releases, concentrated on Sebastian's J-Band experience.

Sebastian is a regular contributor to film and television soundtracks. He has written and performed songs for a number of children's films and TV shows, in particular. He wrote the music and acted as the singing voice of "Daniel Mouse," a Canadian-based Nelvana animated television special about two mice struggling to flourish in the music industry. He performed for many more Nelvana productions, including Strawberry Shortcake Meets the Berrykins (1983), The Care Bears Movie (1985), The Care Bears (1987), and "Care Bear Countdown," Nelvana's The Care Bears Family TV series's "care Bears" (1989). He also wrote and performed the theme song/narration for Nelvana's TV pilot The Get Along Gang; however, none of it was retained when DIC Entertainment took over the project. He wrote and performed the theme song of the KNBC syndicated children's program That's Cat (1976–1979), as well as hosted a 1986 Disney Channel family special titled What a Day for a Daydream.

Sebastian has produced several television shows about 1960s and 1970s music, including paid subscription sets, a syndicated live music and interview service, and a half-hour version of 1960s bands on variety shows. In March 2007, he hosted a Lovin' Spoonful retrospective broadcast on PBS, focusing on a variety of Spoonful numbers in between vintage video clips of the band up to the time he left.

Sebastian wrote JB's Harmonica, illustrated by his godfather Garth Williams' illustration of a young bear whose musical ambitions are dominated by his legendary musician father's talents.

Sebastian has produced a series of instructional DVDs, CDs, downloads, and booklets, as well as (prior to the use of digital media) analog tapes for learning to play guitar, harmonica, and autoharp, as well as learning specific styles or songs. Homespun Tapes, a company founded and operated by folk musician Happy Trauma, is a website that sells educational materials. Sebastian Teaches An Easy Guide to Tuning Your Guitar, John Sebastian Teaches (and "Welcome Back"), John Sebastian Teaches Anohiya's Spoonful Hits, Learn to Play Autoharp, and The Fingerpicking Blues of Mississippi John Hurt: A Selection of Classic Songs From Sebastian's As an Instructor.

Sebastian appeared as himself on "Rock of Ages" in November 1992, as himself, as well as other 1960s rock stars Spencer Davis, Richie Havens, Robby Krieger, Mark Lindsay, and Peter Noone.

Sebastian appeared in Blinking Lights and Other Revelations, Eels' 2005 debut.

Sebastian appeared on CBS News Sunday Morning on January 12, 2014, to discuss his time with and without the Lovin' Spoonful, Eric Clapton, and the Martin guitar.

Sebastian appeared on Richard Barone's Sorrows & Promises: Greenwich Village in the 1960s, playing harmonica, autoharp, and making a vocal cameo on Barone's interpretation of Lovin's Spoonful song "Do You Ever Have to Make Up Your Mind?" "The product of a few years ago."

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