Review Summary: Revelation: John Sebastian was The Lovin' Spoonful all along.
The Lovin' Spoonful's short reign of supreme (if you could even call it that) was over. After four long years and several hit singles, founding member -- and lead singer and songwriter -- John Sebastian decided to leave the band in 1968, in order to pursue a solo career. While the previous album "Everything Playing" would've been a worthy ending to The Lovin' Spoonful's career, the rest of the band thought otherwise. Nobody was expecting a return from the three remaining members without Sebastian. Drummer Joe Butler takes the role as lead singer instead. Steve Boone plays bass as usual and new member Jerry Yester plays guitar and keyboard while also taking care of the backing vocals. The band has invited a number of different songwriters for this one, since they're not as confident with the songwriting as Sebastian. All of these alterations have set them up for a massive revolution (or revelation).
One thing that hit me immediately when listening to "Revelation: Revolution '69" is that it's different. Very different. This isn't The Lovin' Spoonful sans John Sebastian; this is a whole new band. Which it is. What you have to understand is that Sebastian was the frontman. He was the brain and the voice behind "Do You Believe in Magic", "Daydream" and "Summer In The City". When people heard his voice they thought of The Lovin' Spoonful. And the decision to keep on making music in the same name was bound to be a mistake. Songs like "Amazing Air" and "The Prophet" sound like desperate attempts at making something different. Even the song titles alone are ridiculous. "Amazing Air" tries its best to throw psychedelic and "weird" sound effects at you to hide the song beneath them. It also has the worst lyrics to ever be featured in a song by the band. They're downright embarrassing. With lines like
"Amazing air, beautiful night/Softer than diamonds/Blacker than white" it's hard not to wonder if they even tried. "The Prophet" has the same kind of vague and empty lyrics. Although it's arguably a stronger song, it feels a bit too preachy for my taste. It's almost like they tried to make it seem more important than it really is, and that applies to the album itself. So why bother putting it under the name of The Lovin' Spoonful? The album cover even states "The Lovin' Spoonful featuring Joe Butler". They could've just started a new band, but that probably would've been too hard for them; it's obviously easier to make music with a recognizable name.
"Never Going Back" is a farewell to the old The Lovin' Spoonful, and John Sebastian himself, where Butler sings -- without any sentimentality at all, it seems -- [i]"I'm never going back to Nashville anymore."[/] Well, in hindsight it looks like he should've gone back and buried what dignity the band had left. Instead we're being brought a self-important mess with some humiliating attempts at psychedelic rock thrown into it. The perfect example of this is the track "War Games". During its long and tedious seven minutes, there isn't a single note of music being played (as far as I can tell). This one has Butler's name on it and I hope he regrets it to this very day. What the song consists of is a bunch of sound excerpts from different films. I would call it pretentious but I feel that it's not really necessary at this point. The two singles, however, "(Till I) Run With You" and "Revelation: Revolution '69", are both pretty good actually. I wouldn't say that they're among The Lovin' Spoonful's best. But compared to the rest of the album, they're great. The songs are well-written and feel like solid pop songs. Joe Butler delivers two consistent vocal performances, something that has -- like many other things -- been dearly missed from this album. As stand-alone songs they're not that interesting, though.
"Revelation: Revolution '69", the album, isn't that interesting either. What could've ended on a high, in reality ended on a depressing low. It's one thing to conclude their career on a bad note, but this is embarrassing at times. The Lovin' Spoonful ended with "Everything Playing" and that's how it should be. I consider "Revelation: Revolution '69" to be a bad spin-off that't hopefully going to disappear into obscurity. A happy ending would've been nice, of course. Sadly, The Lovin' Spoonful isn't the band to turn to if you want consistent music. If you're expecting something fantastic you're going to be disappointed, and that's one thing that's actually consistent throughout their discography. There are couple of exceptions in "Daydream" and Everything Playing" (check those out if you haven't) and they won't disappoint you. But the thing about The Lovin' Spoonful is that they never tried to break any new ground. Their goal wasn't to make a masterpiece LP like "Revolver" by The Beatles or "Pet Sounds" by The Beach Boys. They wanted to have fun and, maybe, create a couple of hit singles in the process. And they sure did succeed in that department. There's always a nice atmosphere on their albums and that's why I decided to review all of their studio albums. No, they won't be remembered like the bands mentioned above -- most people don't even know they exist -- but, that's why I like them. You have to discover them and appreciate them for what they were: a couple of musicians and a songwriting genius who somehow got lost in the folk community and ended up on the radio in the late 60's.
This review brings my The Lovin' Spoonful spree to an end. I thank all of you who actually took the time to read these and I hope I've inspired you to take a look at this band. Because they do have some lost gems that are worth sifting through some of their albums for. I do recommend that you get a hold of one of their greatest hits collections if you can't stand the inconsistency that comes with The Lovin' Spoonful. If you do, make sure that it has "Didn't Want To Have To Do It" on it! It truly is a fantastic song, and perfectly defines what the band is all about.
