Name: Allison
Age: 24
Location: New York, NY
Occupation: Writer, artist, jug band enthusiast
Favorite Spoon: John
Favorite Spoonful Album(s): Hums of the Lovin' Spoonful, Everything Playing
Favorite Spoonful Songs: (in random order) Pow! (Theme from What's Up, Tiger Lily?), Do You Believe In Magic?, It's Not Time Now, Warm Baby, My Gal, Bald Headed Lena, Try a Little Bit, Rain on the Roof, Nashville Cats, Fishin' Blues, Henry Thomas, Alley Oop, Younger Girl, You Didn't Have to Be So Nice, Jug Band Music, Darling Be Home Soon, Only Pretty What a Pity
Other Music I Like: The Beatles, the Beach Boys, Buddy Holly, the Monkees, Green Day, the Decemberists, Memphis Jug Band, Even Dozen Jug Band, CSN, Sam Cooke, the Rolling Stones, the Rascals, the Turtles, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Lightnin' Hopkins, Doc Watson, Cannon's Jug Stompers, Paul McCartney, roots, Americana, Motown. I basically like all music from Robert Johnson to Lady Gaga and everything in between.
The above picture was taken at Bleecker Bob's record shop on Third Street in Greenwich Village, which was once the location of the Night Owl Cafe where the Spoonful basically got their start. (I bought the record and subsequently got yelled at for taking pictures. Haha.)
I remember the very first time I ever saw the words "the Lovin' Spoonful" in print. I was probably 12 or 13 years old at the time, and I had bought a reprint of a Tiger Beat Monkees Spectacular on eBay. There was an article in which Davy Jones listed his favorite bands, and the Spoonful was one of them. The name of the band intrigued me, and I figured they were some British band. Anyway, somewhere along the line I must have actually listened to them and liked them.
Fast forward a bit and it's 2000, and the Spoonful are inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Growing up in northeast Ohio, I had begun to visit the Rock Hall regularly, and I distinctly remember seeing John Sebastian's autoharp in the inductee cases, along with a stripey shirt and vest. I remember thinking "oh, wow, that's his autoharp!" (Pretty awesome for a 14-year-old.)
It wasn't until the summer of 2004 when I started hanging out with my then-new best friend Beth, who was also a Spoonful fan, and she let me borrow her copy of the greatest hits. That album was pretty much the soundtrack to our golden summer of concerts, driving, and general tomfoolery. Since then, I've been a big fan of the music.
My fandom was taken to new heights in January 2009 when I randomly got a craving to listen to the Spoonful while going through a Monkees obsession. Originally, I thought the Spoonful would be a good supplement to my re-mounting interest in the Pre-Fab Four, but it soon blossomed into its own beast, and I wanted to know everything about and hear everything by the Spoonful. This was fueled also by my move to NYC and my life in the Village, where I became caught up in learning everything I could about the scene in the 60s.
This site is the product of me being frustrated with the lack of Spoonful on the web. They were one of the most influential bands of all time, and don't receive the recognition they deserve. And even though I'm a humble fan, I hope this site can be a point of reference about their history, and their mark on music, as well as an entertaining piece of fodder, for what it's worth. I just love the Spoonful.