The Lovin’ Spoonful was formed by John B. Sebastian with former guitarist of The Mugwumps, Zal Yanovsky. Drummer Joe Butler and bassist Steve Boone would join, cementing the quartet’s official lineup. While they were a band that blossomed from the Manhattan folk scene in the 1960s, the group’s name took inspiration from the blues. According to an artist biography of Sebastian’s, the name was suggested to the band by a fellow musician described as a washtub virtuoso, Fritz Richmond.
“I told him our sound was kind of like Chuck Berry meets Mississippi John Hurt,” Sebastian recalled, “and he immediately chimed in, ‘Why not call it the Lovin’ Spoonful?’ So, we were named after a John Hurt song.”
That song was Mississippi John Hurt’s “Coffee Blues,” a rollicking song that supposedly had a deeper, more suggestive meaning if listened to close enough. Sebastian himself, who once played with Hurt, explained it was a song about cunnilingus.
“It was always a big crowd pleaser because of his particularly innocent delivery and his guileless way of presenting it,” Sebastian said. “His audience was frequently filled with beautiful college women–he always had appeal for the women in the audience.
“He would usually start by taking a sip from a coffee cup that was onstage. It was usually on a little stool by his chair, and he’d sip from the cup and say, ‘I always have my cup of Maxwell House coffee, ’cause it’s good to the very last drop.’ And then resume playing, and with great innocence play this song that would go, ‘I love my baby by the lovin’ spoonful.’ And as he began to sing about it, by the third or fourth time, when he’d come to the words ‘the lovin’ spoonful,’ everybody would know what he was referring to. It was a set piece for him, and that’s why it was memorable.” From: https://americansongwriter.com/behind-the-band-name-the-lovin-spoonful/
