The Lovin' Spoonful - NIGHT OWL CAFÉ, New York City, 2-1965 PLUS | ALBUMS THAT SHOULD EXIST

 

The Lovin Spoonful - Live at The Night Owl Cafe 1965 - Albums That Should Exist

I have said enough about The Lovin’ Spoonful about how I ‘discovered' them for myself when barely a teen and followed them right through to John B at Woodstock and everything he’s done since. I still count ‘Hums’ amongst my favourites and yet by the time of the last album was losing interest in the band (as were they?) problems with Zal and new members from The Association’s Jerry Yester and songs like Priscilla Millionaira too (although Money was fun!) maybe revealed more than any band member truly wished and post break-up the band without John continued later to tour as the Spoonful with their back catalogue repertoire, it was pretty pointless without John and Zal to be fair. Having said all that, the brilliant Albums That Should Exist has come up with a gem for fans with a live quality set made up of numbers played at New York’s Night Owl Café and is a real find and well worth a listen. 

Paul says:

"I must say, I'm tickled pink to post this, because I was sure no worthy live recordings of the Lovin' Spoonful in their prime existed. But, low and behold, there is this one.

Some musical acts from way back when got lucky with having good live recordings that survived and others did not. For instance, the Byrds with their five original members from 1964 to 1967 were extremely popular, with two Number One hits, yet there doesn't seem to be any surviving live recordings of them other than some TV appearances here and there. I thought that was the case with the Lovin' Spoonful too. I'd looked high and low, and didn't find anything, except for some TV appearances just like the Byrds.

However, the other day, I came across this. It's a soundboard recording from the band's early days, right around the time they signed a record contract. They played lots of concerts at the Night Owl Cafe in Greenwich Village in New York City, and for some reason just this one set was recorded and has survived. Only the first ten tracks here are from that show. That includes a couple of their well known songs, "Good Time Music" and "Didn't Want to Have to Do It," but no hits per se. Most of these songs are cover versions that they never put on record.

Since that recording is rather short, only 25 minutes in total, I decided to fill out the album with some other live recordings. I decided to include all the songs they played for the Ed Sullivan Show. They often just lip-synced to their TV appearances, but for the Ed Sullivan Show they actually played live. Plus, the Ed Sullivan Show has a YouTube page where they've uploaded excellent sound quality versions of all of these. I edited these so the applause from one track leads into the next, making all three appearances sound like one continuous performance.

It so happens that the Lovin' Spoonful made three appearances on the Ed Sullivan, all in 1967. That's a nice complement to the Night Owl Cafe performance, because it mostly contains hits from a bit later in their career. I considered including more performances from other TV shows, but there isn't much that sounds really good. For instance, the only versions of the band's 1966 Number One hit "Summer in the City" I could find were lip-synced.

I did a little research on the Night Owl Cafe. It turns out that this was almost officially released in 1999. But all the band members approved the release except for their main singer and songwriter John Sebastian. So the release was nixed, but it was leaked out as a bootleg. Apparently, this is the only good live recording from the 1960s that the band members know of."

This album is 43 minutes long.

01 talk 
02 [Get Your Kicks On] Route 66
03 Good Time Music 
04 My Gal
05 Didn't Want to Have to Do It 
06 Almost Grown 
07 Bring It with You When You Come 
08 talk
09 Alley Oop 
10 My Baby's Gone 
11 Nashville Cats 
12 Darlin' Be Home Soon
13 Bald Headed Lena
14 Daydream
15 Do You Believe in Magic 
16 Only Pretty, What a Pity 
17 She Is Still a Mystery 

All of which is spot on and I have never heard a live set like it from the boys. Fascinating!

check out their other Lovin' Spoonful related posts including the equally fascinating Wild Honey Orchestra benefit concert in Glendale in 2020 here . . . . .