Editing The Lovin' Spoonful (section)

==== Earliest lineup ====

From 1962 to 1964, [[Steve Boone]] played bass guitar in several [[Long Island]] rock bands with the drummer [[Joe Butler]].{{sfn|Unterberger|2002|p=123}} They both played in the Kingsmen, a band led by Boone's brother, Skip, before Boone quit in mid-1964 to spend time visiting Europe. Skip and Butler changed the band's name to ''the Sellouts'' and moved to Greenwich Village, holding a residency at [[Trude Heller's]] club as one of the neighborhood's earliest rock groups.{{sfn|Boone|Moss|2014|pp=11–15, 23–24, 32}}

In December{{nbsp}}1964,{{sfn|Unterberger|2002|p=123}} at the insistence of Butler, Boone went to the Village Music Hall, a small music club on West 3rd Street in Greenwich Village.{{sfn|Boone|Moss|2014|pp=34–35}} There, he met Sebastian and Yanovsky,{{sfn|Boone|Moss|2014|p=36}} and though he had no background in folk music,{{sfn|Unterberger|2003|p=123}} Boone soon bonded with the two over their shared musical influences, including [[Elvis Presley]], [[Chuck Berry]], [[the Everly Brothers]], [[Buddy Holly]], [[Motown]], the Beatles and other [[British Invasion]] acts.{{sfn|Boone|Moss|2014|p=36}} Sebastian played him his composition "[[Good Time Music]]" – the lyrics of which derided early 1960s [[rock and roll]] while extolling the Beatles and other new music – and the three musicians [[jam session|jammed]] different Chuck Berry and R&B numbers.{{sfn|Boone|Moss|2014|pp=35–38}} Sebastian invited Boone to Jacobsen's apartment afterwards, where Boone met Jacobsen as well as [[Jerry Yester]] of the [[Modern Folk Quartet]], a local folk music group.{{sfn|Boone|Moss|2014|p=39}} That week, Boone attended Sebastian's performance at a Greenwich Village club.{{sfn|Boone|Moss|2014|pp=39–41}} Sebastian's show, made up of a quickly assembled group of Fred Neil, [[Tim Hardin]], [[Buzzy Linhart]] and [[Felix Pappalardi]], greatly impressed Boone,{{sfn|Boone|Moss|2014|pp=39–41}}{{sfn|Unterberger|2002|p=124}} who later remembered it as "one of the most significant nights in my musical life."{{sfn|Unterberger|2002|p=124}} He also recalled: "I was stunned. I had never heard such power in a folk group before."{{sfn|Unterberger|2002|p=124}} The performance motivated Boone to enter the Greenwich Village folk scene and join Sebastian and Yanovsky's group.{{sfn|Unterberger|2002|p=124}}

The band was still in need of a drummer, and Boone suggested Jan Buchner, a part-timer with the Kingsmen who came at the recommendation of both Skip and Butler.{{sfn|Boone|Moss|2014|p=48}} Buchner, who went by the stagename Jan Carl, was the manager of the Bull's Head Inn, a small inn located in [[Bridgehampton, New York|Bridgehampton]] on Long Island, and which he offered as a rehearsal space during the inn's winter closure. The band rehearsed at the Bull's Head for several weeks in December{{nbsp}}1964 and January{{nbsp}}1965, and they also played at local bars in Bridgehampton at night.{{sfn|Boone|Moss|2014|pp=48–51}}

In late{{nbsp}}1964 and early{{nbsp}}1965, to keep earning money before his new band had earned a contract, Sebastian continued performing as a studio musician on other artists' recordings.{{sfn|Boone|Moss|2014|p=47}} In this period, he played harmonica on [[progressive folk]] records for several acts, including [[Fred Neil]], [[Jesse Colin Young]] and [[Judy Collins]].{{sfn|Unterberger|2002|p=75}}{{refn|group=nb|Sebastian played harmonica on [[Vince Martin (singer)|Vince Martin]] and Neil's 1964 album ''Tear Down the Walls'' and on several 1965 albums, including Neil's ''[[Bleecker & MacDougal]]'', Young's ''[[Young Blood (Jesse Colin Young album)|Young Blood]]'' and Collins's ''[[Fifth Album]]''.{{sfn|Unterberger|2002|pp=75, 123}}}} In January{{nbsp}}1965,{{sfn|Heylin|2021|p=297}} the musician [[Bob Dylan]] asked Sebastian to play bass guitar on his newest album, ''[[Bringing It All Back Home]]''.{{sfn|Boone|Moss|2014|p=53}} The album's first day of sessions, January{{nbsp}}13, featured only Dylan on an acoustic guitar and, for a few tracks, Sebastian playing bass guitar, but none of the recordings were used on the final album.{{sfn|Heylin|1996|p=65}}<ref name="OB">{{cite web |last=Björner |first=Olof |author-link=Olof Björner |title=Still On The Road: 1965 Concerts, Interviews & Recording Sessions |url=https://www.bjorner.com/DSN00785%20(65).htm |website=About Bob |access-date=September 8, 2023 |archive-date=August 22, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220822153419/https://www.bjorner.com/DSN00785%20%2865%29.htm |url-status=live }}</ref>{{refn|group=nb|According to the Dylan researcher [[Olof Björner]], Sebastian played bass on unused takes of "[[Love Minus Zero/No Limit]]" and "[[She Belongs To Me]]" and harmonica on "[[Outlaw Blues]]".<ref name="OB" /> The recordings were officially released on the 2015 album ''[[The Bootleg Series Vol. 12: The Cutting Edge 1965–1966|The Cutting Edge 1965–1966]]''.{{sfn|Flanagan|Wilentz|2015}}}} Dylan returned the next day to re-record much of the material, rearranging the songs attempted the day before so they instead featured an electric backing.{{sfn|Heylin|1996|p=66}} Dylan invited Sebastian to return for a separate session held that evening,{{sfn|Heylin|1996|p=66}} in which they recorded a remake of the song "[[Subterranean Homesick Blues]]".<ref name="OB" /> Boone –  one of the few people Sebastian knew with a car and driver's license – offered to drive him to the session.{{sfn|Unterberger|2002|p=110}}{{sfn|Boone|Moss|2014|p=51}} Sebastian was not a trained bass player and, after struggling to play the part, he suggested that Boone play instead,{{sfn|Unterberger|2002|pp=109–110}}{{sfn|Boone|Moss|2014|pp=51–54}} but neither musician's contributions ended up on the final album.{{sfn|Heylin|1996|pp=65–66}}{{refn|group=nb|Later authors have sometimes doubted that there was an evening session on the 14th,{{sfn|Heylin|2021|p=297}}{{sfn|Unterberger|2002|p=110}} but [[American Federation of Musicians|AFM]] records indicate Sebastian and Boone were present for a three-hour session.{{sfn|Heylin|2021|p=297}} The pair are in photographs of the session taken by the photographer Daniel Kramer.{{sfn|Heylin|2021|p=297}}}}