This is the seventh in a series of examinations of music legends and whether they are true or false.

Click here to view an archive of the previous music urban legends.

While it is technically a little bit early, it’s going to be a hot time, summer in the city today, because this week is a special All Lovin’ Spoonful theme week!

Let’s begin!

MUSIC LEGEND: The Lovin’ Spoonful got their name from a slang term for heroin

STATUS: False

Over the years, basically every band that has a name that is a bit peculiar has had slightly more sinister meaning attributed to the origin of their name.

The Lovin’ Spoonful, the popular American Rock ‘n’ Roll band from the 1960s, is no exception.

The band was formed in New York by lead singer (and the group’s main songwriter) John Sebastian, guitarist Zal Yanovsky, drummer Joe Butler and bassist Steve Boone.

The band became a smash success, with such hit singles as “Do You Believe In Magic,” “You Didn’t Have to Be So Nice,” “Daydream,” “Did You Ever Have To Make Up Your Mind?” and their biggest hit, the 1966 smash hit “Summer in the City.”

In any event, after the group became extremely popular during 1965-1966, a series of misinformation sprung up about the band’s name.

One popular rumor was that the name was a reference to heroin, as in cooking up a “lovin’ spoonful” of heroin.

That does not appear to be the case.

First off all, in 1966, when the rumors began, the group specifically denied them. The band’s manager wrote a letter to Variety after an article implying that the name was a drug reference, saying:

You imply that America’s top new pop group have selected a name that alludes to narcotics. I have known the Lovin’ Spoonful since long before their formation, and I can assure you that they are too mature and too intelligent to engage in this particular form of nonsense.

Sebastian added at the time to the British music magazine Melody Maker, “Over here, they thing that everything sung by young people is a drug song. Daydream came under the same axe, too.”

So besides their denials, honestly, the origin of the band’s name is pretty clear – John Sebastian attributed it to a musician friend of his named Fritz Richmond (like Sebastian, Richmond was involved in a “jugband” style of music), taking the name from a song lyric of Mississippi John Hurt’s classic blues song, “Coffee Blues.”

Here are the lyrics of the song:

(spoken:This is the “Coffee Blues”, I likes a certain brand – Maxwell’s House – it’s good till the last drop,
just like it says on the can. I used to have a girl cookin’ a good Maxwell House. She moved away.
Some said to Memphis and some said to Leland, but I found her. I wanted her to cook me some
good Maxwell’s House. You understand, if I can get me just a spoonful of Maxwell’s House, do me much good as two or three cups this other coffee)
I’ve got to go to Memphis, bring her back to
Leland
I wanna see my baby ’bout a lovin’ spoonful
, my lovin’ spoonful
Well, I’m just got to have my lovin’
(spoken: I found her)
Good mornin’, baby, how you do this mornin’?
Well, please, ma’am, just a lovin’ spoon,
just a lovin’ spoonful
I declare, I got to have my lovin’ spoonful
My baby packed her suitcase and she went away
I couldn’t let her stay for my lovin’,
my lovin’ spoonful
Well, I’m just got to have my lovin’
Good mornin’, baby, how you do this mornin’?
Well, please, ma’am, just a lovin’ spoon,
just a lovin’ spoonful
I declare, I got to have my lovin’ spoonful
Well, the preacher in the pulpit, jumpin’ up and down
He laid his bible down for his lovin’
(spoken: Ain’t Maxwell House all right?)
Well, I’m just got to have my lovin’

That seems to make perfect sense, right?

So I’m going with a definite false to it being a drug reference.

Thanks to Richie Unterberger’s great book, Turn! Turn! Turn!: The ’60s Folk-Rock Revolution for the quotes from Cavallo and Sebastian.

MUSIC LEGEND: The Lovin’ Spoonful got their name from a slang term for male ejaculate.

STATUS: Mostly True

Now as to this SECOND claim, that the band’s name is a reference to male ejaculate, well, that’s a trickier one.

Let’s take a look at the lyrics again…

(spoken:This is the “Coffee Blues”, I likes a certain brand – Maxwell’s House – it’s good till the last drop,
just like it says on the can. I used to have a girl cookin’ a good Maxwell House. She moved away.
Some said to Memphis and some said to Leland, but I found her. I wanted her to cook me some
good Maxwell’s House. You understand, if I can get me just a spoonful of Maxwell’s House, do me much good as two or three cups this other coffee)
I’ve got to go to Memphis, bring her back to
Leland
I wanna see my baby ’bout a lovin’ spoonful
, my lovin’ spoonful
Well, I’m just got to have my lovin’
(spoken: I found her)
Good mornin’, baby, how you do this mornin’?
Well, please, ma’am, just a lovin’ spoon,
just a lovin’ spoonful
I declare, I got to have my lovin’ spoonful
My baby packed her suitcase and she went away
I couldn’t let her stay for my lovin’,
my lovin’ spoonful
Well, I’m just got to have my lovin’
Good mornin’, baby, how you do this mornin’?
Well, please, ma’am, just a lovin’ spoon,
just a lovin’ spoonful
I declare, I got to have my lovin’ spoonful
Well, the preacher in the pulpit, jumpin’ up and down
He laid his bible down for his lovin’
(spoken: Ain’t Maxwell House all right?)
Well, I’m just got to have my lovin’

If you read the lyrics of Hurt’s song, it’s hard to look at it as anything BUT sexual innuendo, right (you have to love Hurt, in the above piece, trying to expressly say, “No, no, you see, it’s about coffee! Just coffee!” In a slight bit of “to be fair,” though, Maxwell House HAD used the slogan “Loving spoonful” before Hurt wrote his song).

So since they took a lyric from Hurt’s song that was sexual innuendo in the first place, then that would mean that they are taking the sexual innuendo as well, right?

Sebastian noted in the past that people’s reactions to the name when they were trying it out tended towards that response, so it is not like he did not know that people would take it that way, so I lean towards saying “true” to the name being a reference to male ejaculate. However, I’ve seen plenty of people act like it is a pointed reference to male ejaculate, and I don’t know – when your innuendo is once removed from the original reference, it seems to lose a lot of any pointedness.

MUSIC LEGEND: The Lovin’ Spoonful were the original choice for the TV series that eventually became the Monkees.

STATUS: True

In 1966, in response to the massive popularity of The Beatles and their two popular films following the band on various madcap adventures, A Hard Day’s Night and Help!, filmmakers Bob Rafelson and Bert Schneider decided that they would try to do an American version of A Hard Day’s Night, only as a television program.

At first, the producers figured that the easiest way for them to do this was to get an already established band and build the series around them the same way that the Beatles had their films built around them.

They zeroed in on the Lovin’ Spoonful, as the band definitely had a certain zany, lighthearted spirit to them (“Do You Believe In Magic?,” “Daydream,” etc.).

However, after an audition process, the producers figured it was more trouble than they expected. For one thing, the Spoonful were writing their own music at this point, and the show was not interested in giving up the publishing rights to the songs written for the show, so it really did not make sense for either parties, and the producers instead turned to open auditions for the show, using the now famous following ad in Variety…

Madness!!
Auditions
Folk & Rock Musician-Singers
For Acting Roles in New TV Series
Running Parts for 4 Insane Boys, Age 17-21
Want Spirited Ben Frank’s Types
Have Courage To Work
Must Come Down For Interview

Pretty much every wannabe actor or struggling musician in Los Angeles showed up, including Stephen Stills, soon to make it big in Buffalo Springfield and Crosby, Stills and Nash.

Eventually, they weeded the group down to four guys, Davy Jones, Micky Dolenz, Michael Nesmith and Peter Tork (Tork was there on Stills’ recommendation – only Nesmith actually applied to the ad, Dolenz and Jones were sent by their agents).

They became the Monkees.

The show ran for three seasons from 1966-1968 and had a number of hit songs and the four members of the group are still pretty famous today!

The Lovin’ Spoonful, on the other hand, lost their only founding member left, John Sebastian, by the time the Monkees even went off the air (I’ll tell you what happened to Zal in a moment).

Thanks to Eric Lefcowitz’s great Monkees bio, The Monkees Tale, for the information!

Now, here’s a special extra legend, due to the names ones being pretty slim (but they looked silly when I had them together as one legend).

MUSIC LEGEND: Zal Yanovsky left the band because he turned in his drug dealer to avoid deportation.

STATUS: Seems Mostly True

Zalman “Zal” Yanovsky passed away in 2002 due to congestive heart failure. He luckily lived long enough to see the Lovin’ Spoonful be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

His reputation, though, took a severe hit in the late 60s.

Before that, Zal lived an interesting life. Born in Toronto, he lived for a time at a kibbutz in Israel, before being expelled (the story is that it involved him running into a building with a tractor). Back in Canada, he teamed up with fellow singer Denny Doherty and formed a trio (the third member of the group, Dick Byrne, quit music soon afterwards). After their trio split, Yanvosky and Doherty formed a folk group with John Sebastian and Cass Elliot called the Mugwumps.

The Mugwumps were not particularly successful, and Sebastian was fired from the group before the group fell apart on its own.

The most famous aspect of the Mugwumps was the fact that they had two members of the Mamas and the Papas (Doherty and Elliot) and two members of The Lovin’ Spoonful on the group.

In fact, the Mugwumps’ music was not even released until the Mamas and the Papas released the song “Creeque Alley,” which detailed the history of the group, referencing the Mugwumps often, including the lines:

Zal and Denny workin’ for a penny
Tryin’ to get a fish on the line.
In a coffee house Sebastian sat,

Zally said, “Denny, you know there aren’t many
Who can sing a song the way that you do; let’s go south.”
Denny said, “Zally, golly, don’t you think that I wish
I could play guitar like you.”
Zal, Denny, and Sebastian sat (at the Night Owl)
And after every number they’d pass the hat.

When Cass was a sophomore, planned to go to Swathmore
But she changed her mind one day.
Standin’ on the turnpike, thumb out to hitchhike,
“Take me to New York right away.”
When Denny met Cass he gave her love bumps;
Called John and Zal and that was the Mugwumps.

Mugwumps, high jumps, low slumps, big bumps—
Don’t you work as hard as you play.
Make up, break up, everything is shake up;
Guess it had to be that way.
Sebastian and Zal formed the spoonful;
Michelle, John, and Denny gettin’ very tuneful.

In any event, Zal was in the Spoonful and was a popular member of the group as its lead guitarist. However, in 1967, he was arrested for drug possession.

As the story goes, if he did not turn in his dealer, he would be deported. So he did, and even though the group paid for the dealer’s trial expenses, the dealer still ended up doing some time.

I think that part is pretty much true – I’ve seen enough different sources from the time all repeat it that I think it is most likely the truth.

What follows NEXT is the tricky part. Okay, so Zal was not deported, but he leaves the group ANYways.

Was it a legal thing? Was he kicked out by the band? Did he leave of his own accord? Did he leave, as some suggested, because of the hit to the band’s reputation when a member turned on his drug dealer (not a “hip” thing to do, by any means)?

In the years since, Zal talked about his departure in pretty vague terms, saying “As I look back, I opened the door and they kicked me out”

That seems pretty much to clearly suggest a mixture of Zal feeling guilty for his actions and the band also feeling like he was a liability due to the incident.

Note that he DID suffer, reputation-wise, from the move. When he released a solo album in Canada, no one would review it, so he actually ended up writing the review of it himself for the Toronto Daily Star!

So I think it seems likely that yes, the drug bust WAS the reason he left the group. I’m confident enough to give it a mostly true, and hey, if I’m wrong, you got three other legends, right?

By the end of the 1970s, Yanvosky was out of the music scene period, and was involved in television and, most famously, as the owner of a popular restaurant in Canada called Chez Piggy.

Okay, that’s it for this week!

By the way, feel free to check out the OFFICIAL Lovin’ Spoonful web site to see what’s going on with them!

Feel free (heck, I implore you!) to write in with your suggestions for future installments! My e-mail address is bcronin@legendsrevealed.com