Issue No. 11 of Johnny Be Good features one of 45 songs from the book, Anatomy of a Song: The Oral History of 45 Iconic Hits That Changed Rock, R&B and Pop, by Marc Myers. Read John Pearson's review here. Order from Amazon here. Listen to the book on Libro (9 hours, 34 minutes). Each blog will spotlight a song from the book and a guest blogger’s color commentary. Click here to subscribe. Each issue of Your Weekly Staff Meeting will highlight the latest blog.
John Sebastian Celebrates 80!
Today’s blogger is John Pearson.
Song: #11 of 45
Title: “Darling Be Home Soon”
Singer: John Sebastian
Released: February 1967
I APPRECIATED THIS:
Yesterday, March 17, 2024 (St. Patrick’s Day), was John Sebastian’s 80th birthday! So it’s appropriate that we asked AI to outfit this singer/songwriter in green, with apologies—since his parents emigrated from Italy. (His father was “a classical chromatic harmonica player born John Sebastian Pugliese.”)
We asked AI to generate an “Irish” image of John Sebastian—to celebrate his 80th birthday on St. Patrick’s Day 2024.
I’m the “guest” blogger for this chapter in Marc Myers’ book because all our guest bloggers are having way too much fun with this 45-song project. (Hey! Leave some fun for me!)
Most music aficionados will remember the group, Lovin’ Spoonful, “led by singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist John Sebastian.” According to Myers, the four members of this pop-rock band had 14 hits on the Billboard pop chart (1965-1969), including “Do You Believe in Magic?” “Daydream,” and “Summer in the City.”
After Lovin’ Spoonful recorded “Darling Be Home Soon” in just one day—disaster struck! Sebastian tells Myers: “The next day, when we returned, our producer, Erik Jacobsen, was pale. The guy cleaning up my vocal track had mistakenly erased it.”
Ironically, that mishap fueled John Sebastian’s emotional rerecording. With the “wound still fresh,” Sebastian rerecorded the solo part. He notes, “You can even hear my voice quiver a little at the end. That was me thinking about the vocal we lost and wanting to kill someone.”
When the band disbanded in 1969, Sebastian ended up at Woodstock—but not on the program. The producers, however, needed a last-minute fill-in, handed an acoustic guitar to Sebastian and he performed five solo songs, including “Darling Be Home Soon.” He entertained an audience of 400,000. “The feeling was delicious.”
For more, read Marc Myers’ column in the WSJ, Dec. 28, 2016, “The Story Behind ‘Darling Be Home Soon’ by the Lovin’ Spoonful’s John Sebastian. How a request by a young Francis Ford Coppola led to the 1966 hit.”
Listen to “Darling Be Home Soon,” sung by John Sebastian. The white tie-dyed jean jacket, which he wore at Woodstock, is now at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
MY FAVORITE QUOTES:
• Ironic! The lyrics: “...And now a quarter of my life is almost past/I think I've come to see myself at last…” (John Sebastian, now in his “fourth quarter,” celebrated his 80th birthday on March 17, 2024!)
• “Hit singles had a catchy opener, lyrics that told a compelling story, a chorus that listeners could sing, and instrumental riffs and hooks that aroused excitement.”
WHERE WERE YOU WHEN YOU FIRST HEARD THIS SONG?
When John Sebastian was on stage at Woodstock, August 16, 1969, I was wrapping up my first summer as the director of Camp Hickory, a Christian camp in Illinois. (Pop rock was not on the program. But songs like “Pass It On” were popular.) That fall I would continue my two-year master’s program at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Deerfield, Ill. Oh—one more thing: In just 21 days, I would marry Joanne Anderson, a Chicago social worker. Life was full. I’m guessing I didn’t hear this song until several years later. (Gratefully, I wasn’t saying goodbye to my darling.)
JOHNNY BE...GOOD, BETTER, OR BEST?
Over lunch at Panda Express last week, I asked my friend and guest blogger, David K., for his musical musings on “Good/Better/Best.” David K. saw Sebastian perform live multiple times.
• GOOD: John Sebastian was a good singer. His Woodstock performance of “Darling Be Home Soon” evokes the perfect emotion for what David K. calls the “tootsie-cutesy” genre!
• BETTER: Sebastian is unique as a “multi-instrumentalist.” Francis Ford Coppolo asked the Lovin’ Spoonful to record original music for the film, “You’re a Big Boy Now.”
• BEST: David K. call Sebastian a “great songwriter.” Mark Myers writes, “Many of these hits were sweet, innocent love songs enriched by Sebastian’s warm, woody vocals, but they were deceptively sophisticated in construction.”
John Pearson (before he retired) with his “Have PowerPoint—Will Travel” road show.
THIS ISSUE'S COMMENTARY BY John Pearson
JOHN PEARSON is officially “retired” but does exit his bunker occasionally for a few projects. His musical tastes today run the gamut:
• Country Western (Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, and the Grand Ole Opry, plus the series, “The Song Writers”)
• Gospel (see the recent PBS Series)
• Documentaries: “The Greatest Night in Pop” (view the trailer)
• Hymns: Read John’s review of The One Year® Book of Hymns.
In addition to this Johnny Be Good blog, Pearson also writes Your Weekly Staff Meeting eNews (archives at John Pearson’s Buckets Blog), and the Pails in Comparison blog. From 2011 to 2020, he wrote the ECFA blog, Governance of Christ-Centered Organizations. He is the author/co-author of 10 books. John launched this blog series on January 5, 2024.
NEXT UP! Song #12 of 45, “Light My Fire,” sung by The Doors, with commentary by Suzy West.
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It all started in 2023, when John Pearson read and reviewed a "fun" book, Anatomy of a Song: The Oral History of 45 Iconic Hits That Changed Rock, R&B and Pop, by Marc Myers. Read John's review here. Order from Amazon here. Listen to the book on Libro (9 hours, 34 minutes).
If you'd enjoy being one of 45 guest bloggers, along with John Ashmen, Dick Nelson, Suzy West, Dave Barton, Paul Palmer, Bill Butterworth, Jim West, Melinda Schmidt, Jason Pearson, Gary Rea, Callista Dawson, John Walling, Ed Barrett, Larry Beatty, and others, read more here and contact John Pearson. Click here to subscribe to this blog and enjoy the toe-tapping musicians in each weekly blog post—reminding you of these iconic songs of yesteryear.