John Sebastian Tied and Dyed

John Sebastian Tied and Dyed

San Francisco finally ended the group’s existence in 1967. The bust included all of the Spoonful except for John. The guys who were arrested traded names for freedom and things were never the same. In 1967, San Francisco was the place to be and not the place to cop out and they got put down pretty badly.

Since the release of the movie version of Woodstock, John Sebastian has been synonymous with festivals. He wasn’t even scheduled to play at Woodstock. He got a ride in on a helicopter because his friend was doing equipment for the Incredible String Band. “When it started to rain,” he says, “the producers asked if I would play since they knew I didn’t need to use an electric guitar. I borrowed a guitar and my set was really shitty. It was one of my worst in quite a long time.

“I was very wasted on acid and I really didn’t know what was coming down. Even though the people seemed to enjoy the show, I still knew I wasn’t too good. It was the mood of the festival and everything else going on there.

“The trouble with a lot of festivals since Woodstock, is that promoters think they can have another Woodstock. It’s insane. Woodstock is in the past and besides, it wasn’t planned to come off the way it did. It just kinda happened that way. Putting barbed wire around festival grounds is not the way to do it — it’s just plain crazy.

Since his non-scheduled Woodstock set, he has played at festivals in all parts of this country and in other countries. At the Randall’s Island festival this past summer, an assorted group of self-styled radicals and revolutionaries took over the stage to expound their politics to the audience. They refused to give up the stage, so after waiting four hours to go on, John walked out and started his set.

“The people,” John explains, “didn’t want to sit around and listen to all the shit so I started to play and no one stopped my set. The people who were talking on stage were boring everyone and besides that, they’re not even revolutionaries. They’re not even radicals. They drive up in daddy’s new car and then try to tell people their ‘revolutionary’ ideas.”

Recently, he performed at the Isle of Wight festival where he was unintentionally reunited on stage with Zal Yanovsky. John had begun his set when Kris Kristoferson told him that Zally was there so he asked him to come up and play. It was the first time they have played together publicly since the days of the Spoonful. The entire set lasted for two and a half hours and according to John, it was the best set he played in quite some time.

“If I ever want to release a live album, it will be the set from there. Everything went right; it was great playing with Zally, it was a great festival and a lot of fun,” he explained.

While in England for the festival, John had Jimi Hendrix up to the room for a three hour session. “Jimi and I played accoustic guitars and had a real fine time. It was the first time I had really gotten to know and talk to him and I’m glad that we had a good time because that’s the way I’ll remember him,” John explains.

Before Neil Young joined Crosby, Stills & Nash, there had been some talk that John Sebastian would become the fourth member of the group. “It was always kind of a joke,” John said. “We called ourselves the Reliability Brothers but it never really got serious. I asked if I could join them and they said sure, they said they could really use a drummer. I said thanks, but ... I really wasn’t into the group scene as I had just left the Spoonful not too long before to be by myself. I introduced them to Dallas Taylor and we still all get together as often as we can to play. A bunch of those guys and some other friends played on my album and we all had a lot of fun.”

“I enjoy performing for people, but not at places like the Troubadour where they’ve already had a couple of drinks before I start. I like to play when there’s lots of room to move around and people can have a good time,” he says. “The only reason I played there was because I have one of those long term contracts which states I gotta keep cornin’ back.”

His album for Warner Brothers, John B. Sebastian was released about six months ago after many hassles. He was involved in contractual difficulties with Mike Curb and MGM who went so far as to release the exact same album on their label. MGM then released a bootleg of Sebastian that was probably one of the worst records ever released (from a technical standpoint).

“Mike Curb (MGM president) was holding a Spoonful contract that MGM hadn’t seen fit to exercise in three years,” John says. “I don’t see why they (MGM) wanted to hurt me. If they would have pulled this a year ago, I would have been through. If I owed them an album, I gladly would have recorded one with new material. I didn’t want to release the same material again.

“The bad thing about this,” he explains with deep emotion in his voice, “is that no one knows it was a bootleg. It is the most shocking piece of music I’ve ever heard of. I want people to know that the album was not at all representative of my work.”

As this could set a dangerous precedent that other record companies might follow, John said that the artists has nothing he can do. “He gets fucked up and down the line as rock ‘n’ roll just moves too fast. It moves six months faster than our legal system.”

Jeff Sherwood