The song The Lovin’ Spoonful recorded while “wanting to kill someone”
A few too many new releases today sound as though the vocalist is out for blood, but that was pretty abnormal in the late 1960s—the time of flower-powered peace and love. Having said that, if there’s one thing that will always cause blood to boil and tempers to explode, even in the most peaceful settings, it’s failing technology.
In 1966, The Lovin’ Spoonful recorded the feel-good ballad ‘Darling Be Home Soon’ in a single day with a large orchestra in attendance at the studio. The following morning, the band’s lead singer, John Sebastian, was informed that his vocal take had been erased by mistake and that he would have to re-record it.
Well, that was nearly the end for the studio technician, who must have been quaking in the control room upon Sebastian’s arrival. Sebastian recalled, “What you hear on the record is me, a half hour after learning that my original vocal track had been erased. 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.”
It’s a quietly amusing scene to imagine. For me, there’s something about the honesty with which Sebastian remembers this moment that strips away my preconceived ideas about this particular period in music history. Wedged in that jangle pop era of The Byrds and The Beach Boys, The Lovin’ Spoonful existed in a halcyon, almost fictional era where no one (seemingly) had a care in the world. Clearly, this wasn’t the case! It leaves me considering how much the glazes of nostalgia often obscure the true reality of events passed.
‘Darling Be Home Soon’ was written to soundtrack Francis Ford Coppola’s 1966 movie You’re a Big Boy Now. It marked a notable departure from The Lovin’ Spoonful’s typically upbeat, rock-inflected style, something that didn’t sit well with guitarist Zal Yanovsky, who openly disliked the track. To him, it was too sentimental, too polished, a far cry from the band’s signature edge. In retrospect, the song might’ve been doomed from the start.
Listening to the track today with the knowledge of Sebastian’s later vocal overdub, his singing does sound a little insecure. The words get lost behind the orchestra, and you can almost hear his frustration. The track has clearly been layered in a bit of a rush. However, that is precisely what makes the recording interesting.
What I often find most endearing about music is the small errors or anomalies that appear in recordings, like Sebastian’s quivering voice towards the end of ‘Darling Be Home Soon’. These eccentricities give a song colour, sustaining interest much more than a totally polished studio track with no imperfections whatsoever.
Today, our eagerness to omit these sorts of imperfections drains the lifeblood of an honest, human song. This story reminds us that we don’t need to iron out all the natural creases in music; rather, we should celebrate our capacity to make attention-grabbing mistakes.
