Talk:John Sebastian

Untitled
Shouldn't the band Lovin' Spoonful get a page sepserate from its creator, they are two different enough topics. Bigbadbyte
 * I thought so too. Gzuckier 02:54, 21 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Lovin' Spoonful IS John Sebastian, in the same way that the Beach Boys is Brian Wilson, The Who is Pete Townsend, The Kinks is Ray Davis,etc. Without Sebastian, who the hell would remember The Lovin' Spoonful.

Why no mention of Sebastian's DVD for Homespun Tapes recorded in 1992: "John Sebastian Teaches Blues Harmonica"? RoxieR (talk) 16:16, 29 June 2008 (UTC)

I disagree that the "Lovin' Spoonful IS John Sebastian..." That completely disregards Zal Yanovsky's major influence in the Group. And it's just as ridiculous with the Beach Boys, the Who, and the Kinks. Carl Wilson and the rest of the Beach Boys, Keith Moon and Roger Daltrey and ,John Entwistle, and Dave Davies, were all exemplary Musicians and Singers etc.... and they all made very significant contributions to their bands.

albabe -  The Writer /Artist Formally Known as  Al Gordon 21:41, 1 May 2013 (UTC)


 * I know this is a moot point since the Lovin' Spoonful now have their own page, but the Lovin' Spoonful is hardly just John Sebastian. I say this as a longtime fan of both the band and Sebastian solo. In addition to the influence of Yanovsky, after he left Jerry Yester and Joe Butler made very significant contributions to the group.TheBlinkster (talk) 23:21, 31 May 2015 (UTC)

Woodstock
The b&w photo was labeled as Woodstockk reunion 1979 and was changed to 1969. The original was 1969 - is that photo from the original or the reunion and what year was the reunion? Anyone help to fix it? Airproofing (talk) 15:08, 23 April 2009 (UTC)


 * Most likely this is a reunion or another concert. It definitely is not Woodstock since he wore tie die from head to foot. He was the persopn who popularized tie die which someone might write about. There was a woman Annie________ whose last name I forget, maybe Maille or similar who brought tie die to the U.S first, wrote a book about it. Sebastian learned from her and was the first public figure to wear tie die. A small edit: I removed the alias G. Pugliese. Sebastian never used that name. His father, also named John Sebastian, was born Giovanni Pugliese and changed his name before John Jr. was born. grouchyhead  —Preceding undated comment added 20:08, 31 October 2010 (UTC).

Discography
I didn't wanna mess with this really nice page about John, but I do wanna post a query of sorts.

I think it's cool that John has a nicely detailed page here at Wiki... But I'm curious about his Discography. It seems odd to me that the Main Listings are his "Original U.S. vinyl albums." That seems very odd to me and it's very different than most of the other Musician Listings. Shouldn't there just be a "normal" "Album" LIsting? For instance, "Tar Beach" is not a "Miscellaneous album..." it's a John Sebastian album.

albabe -  The Writer /Artist Formally Known as  Al Gordon 21:33, 1 May 2013 (UTC)
 * I'm not the person who set up the page, but I suspect they were trying to differentiate between releases that came out on vinyl (record geeks care about those things) and releases that only came out in some other format like CD, download, tape, etc. I have the Tar Beach CD, I don't think it was ever put out on vinyl. Regardless, as you say it is silly to call actual John Sebastian records with his own self-written songs on them "miscellaneous releases". Should be all in one table and if necessary to state the format (vinyl, CD only, etc.), add a column to the table.TheBlinkster (talk) 23:28, 31 May 2015 (UTC)

To revisit the "Discography" issue: I've been working on some improvements to the page. As you said it was a pretty nice page but there was some info left out or in error, and also, organizing by themes makes it easier to see what the person has done in his (very long) career better than just having a long list of entries like "in 1992 he recorded A, toured with B and did this other thing C." One of the areas that needed to be cleared up was the Discography, which was kind of a hodgepodge of albums Sebastian recorded, a few things where he just made a guest appearance (that either need a separate table or don't belong in a discography at all since he's made hundreds of guest appearances like most musicians of his era have), and some other stuff like instructional recordings that has cropped up in a book discography or two but again, are better off in a section of their own. The table entitled "original US vinyl records" doesn't make much sense anymore because all of those have been re-released on CD multiple times by this point in different packages. It's also a bit disrespectful to put his post-Reprise releases in a "misc albums" category, since "Tar Beach" especially is just as much of a John Sebastian album as "John B. Sebastian" was. So, I have tried to sort out the most important releases and re-releases into a new expanded table. It needs more inline citations probably; there are sources for all of the info, but I wanted to first just get it organized and then go back and add cites later. I am planning to add separate tables later for the guy's "various artists" album contributions (the Woodstock albums and some other interesting stuff) and for his original soundtrack work (such as films for which he composed as opposed to the 1,000 licensings of old Lovin' Spoonful hits). Hopefully this will work a little better for people seeking a decent discography reference. TheBlinkster (talk) 17:10, 8 June 2015 (UTC)

Woodstock (2)
In the article it is mentioned the following fact:

"Sebastian was popular among the rock festival cir cuits. He had a memorable, albeit unscheduled appearance at Woodstock, appearing after Country Joe McDonald's set, playing songs such as "I Had A Dream," "Rainbows All Over Your Blues," "Darling Be Home Soon" and "Younger Generation," which he dedicated to a newborn baby at the festival."

According to the article "Woodstock" his appearance was after Santana, which appears after Country Joe McDonald.

Can somebody clear that? — Preceding unsigned comment added by RobbyRob de (talk • contribs) 21:58, 26 December 2014 (UTC)


 * I think the problem here is conflicting sources. There is at least one reliable-appearing book source ("Woodstock: Three Days that Rocked the World") that has Sebastian going on after Country Joe on Saturday.  However, the Woodstock Wikia, http://woodstock.wikia.com/wiki/Setlist#cite_note-0, which I would suspect has more sources including chronological tapes of the show, plus their community likely put a lot of time into discussing running order, has Country Joe followed by Santana and then Sebastian. If I had to bet on one, I'd pick the wikia over the book.  Supposedly Santana was told they were going to go on late and were all of a sudden moved up to 2 pm, and Sebastian wasn't on the schedule at all and was just sent out there because it started to rain and they needed an acoustic set to fill in some time, so it's all pretty confused. TheBlinkster (talk) 00:00, 1 June 2015 (UTC)

There's no way to prove it, but John definitely played on Friday at Woodstock. I was there (age 16). I still remember him talking about a woman who was giving birth at the festival: "That kid's gonna be far out!" (They might have included that in the movie.) Paulmlieberman (talk) 18:11, 29 July 2016 (UTC)


 * I can’t believe in 5 years nobody caught the gaff in that last comment. Fact is if you really were there everyone knows your memory can’t be relied on. 73.61.21.171 (talk) 02:49, 10 June 2021 (UTC)

Woodstock unraveled
OK, I think that any doubt of his slot at Woodstock can be solved with a bit of research. I have three different sources which all put Sebastian in the same order. According to those sources, two of them go as far as to pinpoint the actual time of day that he performed. However, all of these sources put him on stage on Saturday afternoon, following Santana, and preceding The Keef Hartley Band. The first source, https://www.woodstock.com/lineup/ puts him in this order of performers. A sister Wikipedia page, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_performances_and_events_at_Woodstock_Festival puts the time of his performance at 3:30pm – 3:55pm on Saturday. The last source cited is actually a combination of two sources. https://store.rhino.com/woodstock-50-back-to-the-garden-the-definitive-anniversary-archive-1.html?intcmp=190503%2Frhino%2Frhi%2Flan%2Fs_pr%2Fimg%2Fbdy%2Fww%2Fwoodstock-50-pre-order-definitive-archive makes the following claim: "Limited to 1,969 individually numbered copies, WOODSTOCK - BACK TO THE GARDEN: THE DEFINITIVE 50th ANNIVERSARY ARCHIVE features 38 discs, 432-tracks - 267 previously unreleased - a near complete reconstruction of Woodstock clocking in at 36 hours, with every artist performance from the festival in chronological order." The Public Radio station WXPN, right now, as I am writing this, is playing this entire Rhino set, with the claim that it is being presented in the same time line as the Rhino package, and as it happened in 1969. https://thekey.xpn.org/2019/08/14/xpnstock-schedule/ This reassess the time slot as having his performance begin at 3:30 PM on Saturday. Be advised that the WXPN schedule is off by one day, because it adhered to the original calendar dates of the original festival, as opposed to the actual Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday days of the week, as the actual Woodstock. I do believe that this should be pretty substantial evidence to put this issue to rest. Kaytrox (talk) 19:20, 17 August 2019 (UTC)

John B. Sebastian is not a "Jr."
Just noting that although some articles over the years have referred to "John Sebastian Jr." and "John Sebastian Sr." (referring to John's father the classical harmonicist), technically they are not a Sr. and Jr. since the father did not have the middle name of "Benson" (his full name was John Sebastian Pugliese). I believe the "Benson" came from John B's mother's side of the family. TheBlinkster (talk) 08:42, 3 September 2015 (UTC)

Digitaldreamdoor.com
I noticed that an IP address had deleted a source on the basis that "digital dream door is not a valid source". The same IP address appears to be going around deleting digitaldreamdoor.com sources everywhere else on Wiki they are found. While I understand the concerns about digitaldreamdoor.com, in this particular case the source is being used because it was attributed on the official site of a person with firsthand knowledge of this festival (Country Joe MacDonald) to Chip Monck, who is another person with firsthand knowledge of the festival. It is also being offered along with several other source to show how the memories of those who were definitely there differ, not to prove that one setlist or the other is the absolute truth. Due to the attribution and the purpose of the use here, I think the source should be kept, and therefore reverted the change back. If anyone else has thoughts, please feel free to discuss here. TheBlinkster (talk) 00:00, 27 January 2016 (UTC)
 * I do understand your point, although I believe that a better source would be more suitable (in the present case, since the claim is cross-verified in a way, then I guess it's OK). Let's keep it as it is in the meantime, but I still believe that DDD's use as a source should be kept at an extreme minimum because of the amateur nature of this website.88.182.48.88 (talk) 14:01, 29 January 2016 (UTC)
 * I agree, I would really like to use something else. If there is a book with Chip Monck's setlist in it that anyone knows or has I would be happy, nay thrilled, to swap that in. In the meantime thank you for being understanding about it. TheBlinkster (talk) 01:26, 30 January 2016 (UTC)

External links modified
Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just added archive links to 1 one external link on John Sebastian. Please take a moment to review my edit. If necessary, add after the link to keep me from modifying it. Alternatively, you can add to keep me off the page altogether. I made the following changes:
 * Added archive http://web.archive.org/web/20121106013911/http://www.geocities.com/johnsebastianfiles/reillythe4ofus.html to http://www.geocities.com/johnsebastianfiles/reillythe4ofus.html

When you have finished reviewing my changes, please set the checked parameter below to true to let others know.

Cheers.—cyberbot II  Talk to my owner :Online 23:36, 27 February 2016 (UTC)

External links modified
Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just modified 4 one external links on John Sebastian. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20100210200516/http://www.johnbsebastian.com/bio.html to http://www.johnbsebastian.com/bio.html
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20100124141438/http://www.billyfaier.com:80/ to http://billyfaier.com/
 * Corrected formatting/usage for https://www.liveauctioneers.com/item/10770633_e-b-white-john-sebastian-charlottes-web
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20150406103246/http://www.classicbands.com/JohnSebastianInterview.html to http://www.classicbands.com/JohnSebastianInterview.html

When you have finished reviewing my changes, please set the checked parameter below to true or failed to let others know (documentation at ).

Cheers.— InternetArchiveBot  (Report bug) 11:13, 14 September 2016 (UTC)

External links modified
Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just modified 2 external links on John Sebastian. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20132304071900/http://www.furious.com/perfect/folkniks.html to http://www.furious.com/perfect/folkniks.html
 * Corrected formatting/usage for https://www.liveauctioneers.com/item/10770633_e-b-white-john-sebastian-charlottes-web

When you have finished reviewing my changes, you may follow the instructions on the template below to fix any issues with the URLs.

Cheers.— InternetArchiveBot  (Report bug) 22:19, 25 April 2017 (UTC)

External links modified
Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just modified 4 external links on John Sebastian. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20090116015159/http://sonylegacy.iventastage.com/The-Lovin-Spoonful/Biography.aspx to http://sonylegacy.iventastage.com/The-Lovin-Spoonful/Biography.aspx
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20150924025403/http://popcultureblog.dallasnews.com/2014/09/welcome-back-john-sebastian-playing-live-at-poor-davids.html/ to http://popcultureblog.dallasnews.com/2014/09/welcome-back-john-sebastian-playing-live-at-poor-davids.html/
 * Added archive https://archive.is/20120724145130/http://www.doors.com/magazine/detroit.html to http://www.doors.com/magazine/detroit.html
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20150621035719/http://www.homespuntapes.com/Instructors/john-sebastian to http://www.homespuntapes.com/Instructors/john-sebastian

When you have finished reviewing my changes, you may follow the instructions on the template below to fix any issues with the URLs.

Cheers.— InternetArchiveBot  (Report bug) 21:28, 28 November 2017 (UTC)

Italy?
"Sebastian was born in New York City and grew up in Italy and Greenwich Village." I suspect the mention of Sebastian growing up in Italy and the Village after being born in NYC is "vandalism" as there is no mention that fleshes out his childhood in Italy. I'm removing the mention of Italy as a result. THX1136 (talk) 21:21, 11 June 2018 (UTC)
 * I have no idea why you would assume something reasonable like an Italian-American spending part of his youth in Italy is "vandalism" rather than simply flagging it as unsourced. In any event, Sebastian has stated in interviews a number of times that he lived in Italy for significant periods of time with his family when he was growing up; his father would take the family there regularly in the course of pursuing his own classical music career. I am adding it back with sources. TheBlinkster (talk) 14:26, 18 August 2019 (UTC)

He was also on the Bleecker & MacDougal album by Fred Neil
Maybe someone knows more! 2A02:A449:E4AB:1:FA2F:65FF:FED8:BC37 (talk) 23:33, 25 February 2023 (UTC)

Lyrics
Is anyone aware of any article analyzing John's lyrics? They strike me as witty and gentle, in contrast to a lot of his contemporaries. I think he's kind of unique, but can't find a source to back that up. Thanks. Daveler166 (talk) 17:09, 10 May 2024 (UTC)