The newspaper's headline reads "1/2 Spoonful Tips", with the subheading "The Finger in the Pot" alongside a picture of Yanovsky and Boone".
The front page of an underground newspaper, implicating Zal Yanovsky and Steve Boone as informants (Berkeley Barb, February 17, 1967)

In May 1966, Zal Yanovsky and Steve Boone of the Lovin' Spoonful – an American folk-rock band then at the height of its success – were arrested in San Francisco, California, for possessing marijuana. Yanovsky, a Canadian by birth, expected that a conviction would lead to his deportation and a breakup of the band. To avoid this eventuality, the pair cooperated with law enforcement, revealing their drug source at a local party a week after the initial bust.

The Lovin' Spoonful were the first popular music act of the 1960s to be busted for possessing illegal drugs.[1] After Boone and Yanovsky's drug source was arrested in September 1966 and proceedings for his case began that December, the pair's cooperation with authorities was widely reported in the West Coast's burgeoning underground rock press, souring the band's reputation within the counterculture and generating tensions within the group. Yanovsky was fired by his bandmates in May 1967. The Lovin' Spoonful saw diminished commercial success that year, something some authors attribute to the fallout of the drug bust, but other commentators dispute this.

Background

refer to adjacent text
The Lovin' Spoonful in a 1965 promotional photograph; Steve Boone at top left and Zal Yanovsky at bottom right

In 1966, the Lovin' Spoonful were one of the most successful popular-music groups in the U.S.[2][3] Between October 1965 and June 1966, the band's first four singles reached the Top Ten of Billboard magazine's Hot 100 chart, two of which reached number two,[4] and in March 1966 they recorded what became their biggest hit, "Summer in the City", which topped the U.S. charts in August.[5] Originally formed in late 1964 in New York City's Greenwich Village neighborhood, the Lovin' Spoonful were among the earliest popularizers of the genre of folk rock.[6][7] Other early folk-rock acts, like the Byrds and the Mamas & the Papas, relocated to the U.S.'s West Coast,[8] but in 1966, as the center of the American pop-music scene shifted towards San Francisco and Los Angeles,[9] the Lovin' Spoonful remained based in New York City.[8]

The Lovin' Spoonful toured the West Coast several times in the second half of 1965,[10] first appearing only weeks after the release of their debut single, "Do You Believe in Magic",[11] which quickly propelled them to nationwide fame.[12] The band's earliest West Coast shows were at San Francisco's Mother's Nightclub in late July and early August 1965,[13] playing for two weeks at the venue, and they also appeared at the hungry i nightclub.[14] Later in the year, on October 24, the group headlined a dance party at the Longshoreman's Union Hall in the city's Fisherman's Wharf neighborhood.[15][16] The second party to be organized by the concert-production collective Family Dog Productions,[14] the show marked one of the earliest events in the emerging San Francisco scene;[15][17] Erik Jacobsen, the Lovin' Spoonful's producer, reflected, "That whole idea of going and listening to music and getting high started there".[17][nb 1]

Bust and cooperation

A photo of the residential neighborhood overlooking San Francisco Bay
Boone and Yanovsky were arrested in San Francisco's Pacific Heights neighborhood (pictured 2008).

On May 20, 1966, the Lovin' Spoonful arrived in San Francisco for another tour of the West Coast.[20] That day, Boone and Yanovsky attended a party in the city's Pacific Heights neighborhood at the home of Bill Love, the manager of The Committee, a San Francisco-based improv comedy group.[21] Love, who knew Boone and Yanovsky through a mutual acquaintance, sold the pair marijuana,[21] what was then an illegal drug.[22] After Boone and Yanovsky left the party in their rental car, police pulled the pair over, searched the vehicle and discovered the drug.[23][nb 2]

Boone and Yanovsky were arrested and spent the night in jail before being bailed out the following morning by the band's road manager, Rich Chiaro.[25] Bob Cavallo, the band's manager, and Charles Koppelman, who had signed them to his entertainment company, flew to San Francisco to begin managing the situation, hiring the attorney Melvin Belli in the process.[26] The band's two other members, John Sebastian and Joe Butler, were not informed on the details of the bust,[27] and the band performed as scheduled on May 21 at the University of California, Berkeley's Greek Theatre,[28] playing for an hour in-front of 5,500 concertgoers.[29]

At a meeting with San Francisco police and the District Attorney, Yanovsky was threatened with deportation back to his native Canada.[30] Belli expressed to Yanovsky and Boone that they were unlikely to win on the merits of their case and that their only way to avoid charges was to cooperate with authorities.[31] The two initially balked at the idea, but they relented to avoid Yanovsky being deported, something they expected would lead to a breakup of the band.[32] Yanovsky and Boone cooperated with authorities to name their drug source,[17] directing an undercover operative to their source at a local party on May 25.[33][34] In exchange, all charges were dropped, their arrest records were expunged, the two did not need to appear in court and there was no publicity related to their arrest.[35]

Fallout

Boone and Yanovsky's arrests marked the first time members of a popular music act in the 1960s were busted for illegal drugs.[1][nb 3] Three weeks later, on June 10, 1966,[38] Donovan became the first high-profile British pop star to be arrested for possession of cannabis.[39] Busts on the Rolling Stones, Buffalo Springfield, the Beatles and on Jimi Hendrix followed over the next three years.[40][nb 4] Boone suggests in retrospect that, owing to the novelty of the situation, the Lovin' Spoonful's management had no plan in place on how to handle the drug bust.[37]

Police initially arrested Bill Love's girlfriend,[43] but she was released without being charged.[21] Love's arrest followed in September 1966,[34] and preliminary hearings for his case began in early December.[9][34] Around that time, knowledge of Yanovsky and Boone's involvement as informants became more widespread on the West Coast, particularly in San Francisco.[9] In an attempt to quash the story, the band's management offered to pay for Love's defense attorney[17] or to pay for his silence regarding the matter, options which he refused.[44] Love was convicted on June 5, 1967, on two counts of the sale of marijuana,[45] and he was sentenced the following January.[46][nb 5]

Counterculture reaction

There were fliers that said, "Groupies: Don't fuck the Lovin' Spoonful – they're finks." ... His (Zal Yanovsky's) thoughts about the band, [the music, the business], and the generation of love, was shattered.[48]

– John Sebastian

The underground press criticized the band over Yanovsky and Boone's decision to act as informants.[17] In early 1967, excerpts of the court transcript were photocopied and hung in public places across San Francisco.[49][50] Chester Anderson, a local journalist active in the counterculture, distributed leaflets regarding the situation to underground newspapers, including the Berkeley Barb, the Los Angeles Free Press and the East Village Other.[44] The Berkeley Barb was the first to cover the bust,[51] placing a story on its front page in February 1967.[34] Love led efforts to boycott the band.[43] In July, he took out a one-page ad in the Los Angeles Free Press which related the story, called for readers to destroy their Lovin' Spoonful records and avoid their concerts and urged female fans to not have sex with the band.[52][53][54]

By early 1967, the Lovin' Spoonful's shows on the West Coast were sometimes picketed by members of the counterculture. Protesters carried signs which accused the band of being "finks" and traitors to the movement, and they encouraged fans to boycott the band and burn their records.[55] Some authors suggest the bust and its fallout was the reason for the Lovin' Spoonful's absence from the Monterey International Pop Festival,[8][56][57] a music festival held in June 1967 on California's Central Coast.[8][nb 6] The music festival signalled a major geographical shift in America's pop music scene,[8] and the author Jon Savage suggests the Lovin' Spoonful's treatment by the counterculture stemmed from the broader inter-city rivalries between the West and East Coast amid the pop scene's transition.[9]

Among the Lovin' Spoonful's defenders was Ralph J. Gleason, the co-founder of the San Francisco-based rock magazine Rolling Stone.[60] Gleason wrote a piece regarding the bust in the magazine's second issue, dated November 1967,[59] in which he argued that the reaction against the band was worse than Yanovsky and Boone's decision to cooperate.[61] He concluded that the band's treatment was, "the biggest underground cancer in the rock scene",[59][62] and he encouraged readers to continue buying the band's records.[63][nb 7]

Intra-band tensions

The public revelations regarding Boone and Yanovsky's cooperation generated tensions within the band.[64] In the months after the bust, Yanovsky began drinking more heavily, and his behavior both on- and off-stage became increasingly erratic.[65][66] He often disagreed with the band's creative direction, which was being increasingly dictated by Sebastian,[17][67] and Boone recalled that the relationship between the Sebastian and Yanovsky became stilted due to the latter's tendency towards rebelling rather than communicating his concerns directly.[68] In late 1966, Boone and Yanovsky collaborated on a song, "The Dance of Pain and Pleasure", which they hoped could serve as catharsis for their situation,[69] but the song was poorly received by their bandmates and Jacobsen, and it was never recorded or developed further.[70] In May 1967, Sebastian convened a band meeting in which he issued an ultimatum that he would leave the group unless Yanovsky was fired.[66] In a subsequent group meeting at Sebastian's apartment, the band informed Yanovsky that he had been fired,[71] and he last performed with the group on June 24, 1967.[72][73][nb 8]

The Lovin' Spoonful saw diminished commercial success in 1967,[17] and they disbanded in 1968.[19] After Yanovsky's departure, only one of the band's singles entered the American top 40.[52] Boone and the author Hank Bordowitz later said that the counterculture's boycott hurt the band's commercial performance,[75][76] Bordowitz suggesting that the band's loss of "counterculture credibility" effectively ended their commercial viability.[76] The author Richie Unterberger counters that the effects of the boycott have likely been overestimated, since "most of the people who bought Spoonful records were average teenage Americans, not hippies".[77] He instead connects the band's commercial struggles to the expanding popularity of the genre psychedelia, to which folk-rock acts struggled to transition, while he also contends that the Lovin' Spoonful's creative struggles likely stemmed from the bust and the resulting "spiralling personal difficulties".[17]

Notes

  1. ↑ In attendance at the Longshoreman's show were members of the Grateful Dead,[18] an acoustic-folk group, who were inspired by the Lovin' Spoonful's performance to similarly "go electric" in their style.[19]
  2. ↑ Boone admitted in his autobiography that he was driving both high and drunk, but he did not recall speeding or driving unusually.[24] Selvin instead writes the pair drew the attention of police after they made "an illegal, high-speed U-turn".[21]
  3. ↑ The country singer Johnny Cash was arrested in October 1965 for attempting to smuggle amphetamines and sedatives across the Mexico–United States border,[36] but his pills were prescription narcotics and not illicit.[37]
  4. ↑ Facing risk of deportation after three separate drug arrests in late 1966, Bruce Palmer, the bassist of the Los Angeles-based rock band Buffalo Springfield, voluntarily departed to Canada in January 1967.[41] Palmer's absence led to difficulties for the group, which disbanded in 1968.[42]
  5. ↑ Boone and the author Joel Selvin each write Love did not spend any time in jail for the offense,[44][47] but Unterberger writes he served a "brief" jail sentence.[17]
  6. ↑ Cass Elliot, a long-time friend of the band and the one who introduced Sebastian and Yanovsky to one another,[58] recalled that some at the festival urged her to stop talking with Yanovsky.[59] She dismissed the suggestion contemporaneously as "ridiculous", adding that he remained "one of [her] best friends".[59]
  7. ↑ Some authors, including Gary Pig Gold, suggest that Rolling Stone led the boycott of the Lovin' Spoonful, but Gleason's piece defending the band was the only coverage the magazine devoted to the situation.[62]
  8. ↑ Boone's only songwriting contribution to the Lovin' Spoonful's 1967 album Everything Playing was "Forever", an instrumental he wrote while reflecting on the bust and Yanovsky's firing.[74]

References

  1. 1 2 Matijas-Mecca 2020, p. 148.
  2. ↑ Savage 2015, p. 517.
  3. ↑ O'Grady, Terence J. (1979). "A Rock Retrospective". Music Educators Journal. 66 (4): 34–107. doi:10.2307/3395757. ISSN 0027-4321. JSTOR 3395757. S2CID 192057162.
  4. ↑ "The Lovin' Spoonful Chart History (Hot 100)". Billboard. Archived from the original on November 21, 2022. Retrieved November 19, 2023.
  5. ↑ Richards, Sam (September 2021). Bonner, Michael (ed.). "The Making of ... Summer in the City by The Lovin' Spoonful". UNCUT. No. 292. pp. 92–94 – via the Internet Archive.
  6. ↑ Unterberger 2002, pp. 123–125, 134.
  7. ↑ Helander 1999, p. 236.
  8. 1 2 3 4 5 Fletcher 2009, p. 230.
  9. 1 2 3 4 Savage 2015, p. 518.
  10. ↑ Boone & Moss 2014, pp. 81–84, 102–104.
  11. ↑ Boone & Moss 2014, pp. 81–82.
  12. ↑ Eskow, Gary (August 1, 2008). "Classic Tracks: The Lovin' Spoonful's "Do You Believe in Magic"". Mix. Archived from the original on May 20, 2022.
  13. ↑ Boone & Moss 2014, pp. 81–82: (earliest West Coast shows; early August 1965); Paul, Ivan (July 31, 1965). "Around Town". San Francisco Examiner. p. 15 – via Newspapers.com.: (late July 1965).
  14. 1 2 Gleason, Ralph J. (May 15, 1966). "'Spoonful' Fans Kept Following". The San Francisco Examiner. p. 37 – via Newspapers.com.
  15. 1 2 Jackson 2015, pp. 240–243.
  16. ↑ Selvin 1995, pp. 35–36.
  17. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Unterberger 2003, p. 61.
  18. ↑ Jackson 2015, pp. 244–245.
  19. 1 2 Miles 2009, p. 232.
  20. ↑ Boone & Moss 2014, pp. 121–122.
  21. 1 2 3 4 Selvin 1995, p. 76.
  22. ↑ Boone & Moss 2014, pp. 121–122, 124.
  23. ↑ Boone & Moss 2014, pp. 121–126.
  24. ↑ Boone & Moss 2014, p. 125.
  25. ↑ Boone & Moss 2014, pp. 127–128.
  26. ↑ Boone & Moss 2014, pp. 129–130.
  27. ↑ Boone & Moss 2014, pp. 130, 173.
  28. ↑ Boone & Moss 2014, p. 130.
  29. ↑ Elwood, Philip (May 23, 1966). "Lovin' Spoonful Just Do Skirt Disaster at Berkeley". San Francisco Examiner. p. 35 – via Newspapers.com.
  30. ↑ Boone & Moss 2014, pp. 130–131.
  31. ↑ Boone & Moss 2014, pp. 131–132.
  32. ↑ Boone & Moss 2014, p. 132.
  33. ↑ Boone & Moss 2014, pp. 135–137.
  34. 1 2 3 4 Silenus (February 17, 1967). "The Lovin' Lid". Berkeley Barb. pp. 1, 3. JSTOR 28033116 – via JSTOR.
  35. ↑ Boone & Moss 2014, p. 134.
  36. ↑ Trent, Sydney (May 16, 2021). "White supremacists attacked Johnny Cash for marrying a 'Negro' woman. But was his first wife Black?". Washington Post. Archived from the original on March 31, 2023.
  37. 1 2 Boone & Moss 2014, p. 133.
  38. ↑ Hitchens 2012, p. 102.
  39. ↑ Shea & Rodriguez 2007, p. 67.
  40. ↑
  41. ↑ Einarson & Furay 2004, pp. 144–145, 159–162.
  42. ↑ Einarson & Furay 2004, pp. 160, 240: "... Bruce cooled his heels in Canada for the next four months while the Springfield floundered through a series of personnel shuffles, abandoned recording sessions, and missed opportunities. The band never fully recovered from the loss of an integral member at such a critical juncture. 'When we started having the problems with Bruce and his immigration papers,' offers Richie [Furay], 'that's when the whole thing fell apart.' ... [T]he band broke up [in] 1968 ..."
  43. 1 2 Reising, Russell (2001). "The Secret Lives of Objects; the Secret Stories of Rock and Roll: Cleveland's Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum and Seattle's Experience Music Project". American Quarterly. 53 (3): 489–510. ISSN 0003-0678. JSTOR 30041902 – via JSTOR. ... [The Lovin' Spoonful] cooperated with drug busts to save their own skins ... Bill Love [was] their drug source whose girlfriend got busted as a result of the Spoonful's ratting, [and he] mounted a campaign urging disk jockeys not to play their records, for fans to avoid their concerts, and even for 'groupies not to ball them.'
  44. 1 2 3 Boone & Moss 2014, p. 171.
  45. ↑ Anon. (July 7–13, 1967). "Lovin' Lidful May Uncop". Berkeley Barb. p. 3. JSTOR 28033130 – via JSTOR.
  46. ↑ Wiig, Howard C. (December 29, 1967 – January 4, 1968). "Spoonful Retraction Raises Hope". Berkeley Barb. p. 3. JSTOR 28033153 – via JSTOR.
  47. ↑ Selvin 1995, p. 77.
  48. ↑ Fletcher 2009, pp. 230–231.
  49. ↑ Anon. (April 1967). "Lovin' Spoonful Scandal". Mojo Navigator. No. 14. p. 25. A couple months ago, photocopies of a page compiled from an official court transcript ... began appearing in public places around the city. Immediately all manner of gossip began spreading.
  50. ↑ Goldstein, Richard (March 23, 1967). "The Psychedelic Yenta Strikes Again!". The Village Voice. pp. 32, 34 – via Rock's Backpages. In San Francisco, where the alleged treason took place, one shopkeeper hung a copy of the Hums [of the Lovin' Spoonful] album near a sign which read 'These men are informers.' Also displayed was a supposed court transcript, which cited the two [Zal Yanovsky and Steve Boone] and the group's manager for aiding the cops.
  51. ↑ Boone & Moss 2014, p. 172.
  52. 1 2 Shea 2023, p. 245.
  53. ↑ "Letters: Spoonful". Los Angeles Free Press. August 11, 1967. p. 12. JSTOR 28039676 – via JSTOR. Editor's note: The full page ad on the Spoonful was paid for by the person who wound up in jail as a result of the whole mess. The Free Press gave him the opportunity to air his grievance and proposals, as it would do with any dissenting viewpoint, but was not by that act endorsing any demonstrations.
  54. ↑ The Defense Fund and Freedom League of the Brotherhood of Smoke (July 28, 1967). "Do You Believe in Magic?". Los Angeles Free Press. p. 8. JSTOR 28039674 – via JSTOR.
  55. ↑ Boone & Moss 2014, pp. 178–180.
  56. ↑ Lydon, Michael (September 22, 2009). "Monterey Pop: The First Rock Festival". The Criterion Collection. Originally written in 1967 for Newsweek magazine, whose editors reduced it from 43 to 10 paragraphs. Printed in full in the book Flashbacks (2003; ISBN 978-0-415-96644-3).
  57. ↑ Brodey, Jim (July 28, 1967). "Singing, Spoonful Style". Los Angeles Free Press. p. 11. JSTOR 28039674 – via JSTOR. The Spoonful was to have been at the Pop Festival. They were advertised as being there; they weren't. The Festival grounds are located within a 150 miles radius of the San Francisco Court's jurisdiction. If the Spoonful enter that 150-mile radius circle, they can be subpoenaed.
  58. ↑ Unterberger 2002, p. 75.
  59. 1 2 3 4 Gleason, Ralph J. (November 23, 1967). "Perspectives: Like Zally, We Are All Victims". Rolling Stone. p. 9.
  60. ↑ Boone & Moss 2014, pp. 187–188.
  61. ↑ Boone & Moss 2014, pp. 187–189.
  62. 1 2 Bishop, Moe (August 18, 2011). "Zal Yanovsky". Vice. Archived from the original on October 22, 2023.
  63. ↑ Boone & Moss 2014, p. 188.
  64. ↑ Boone & Moss 2014, p. 173.
  65. ↑ Fletcher 2009, p. 231.
  66. 1 2 Boone & Moss 2014, pp. 173–175.
  67. ↑ Boone & Moss 2014, p. 165.
  68. ↑ Boone & Moss 2014, pp. 165–166.
  69. ↑ Boone & Moss 2014, p. 166.
  70. ↑ Boone & Moss 2014, pp. 166–167.
  71. ↑ Boone & Moss 2014, pp. 175–176.
  72. ↑ Boone & Moss 2014, p. 176.
  73. ↑ Rees & Crampton 1991, p. 317.
  74. ↑ Boone & Moss 2014, pp. 126, 184–185.
  75. ↑ Boone & Moss 2014, pp. 178–180, 187–189.
  76. 1 2 Bordowitz 2011, chap. 6.
  77. ↑ Unterberger, Richie. "The Lovin' Spoonful biography". AllMusic. Archived from the original on May 14, 2023. Retrieved November 19, 2023.

Sources

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