Time That I Spent Without You

When Francis Ford Coppola needed a soundtrack in 1966 for his first feature film, You’re a Big Boy Now, he chose John Sebastian of The Lovin’ Spoonful who was one of the decade’s most successful songwriters.  Coppola gave Sebastian instructions to write a song for an important love scene, where the naive protagonist is seduced by a more knowing woman.  The director played The Mamas and the Papas’ ‘Monday Monday’ over the scene to indicate the musical mood and tempo that he was looking for and John Sebastian came up with ‘Darling Be Home Soon’.  This song was released on the 1967 You’re A Big Boy Now Soundtrack album and the single charted #44 in the UK and went to #15 in the US on the Billboard pop chart.  Sebastian realized that most loves songs composed by male artists they were singing about being lonely while they were on the road, so he decided to flip the script by reversing the roles and making the guy be the one that was waiting for his girlfriend to return from the road.  His lyrics were filled with companionship, conversation and mutual encouragement where they were talking and laughing together.

In early 1964, John Sabastion and lead guitarist and singer Zal Yanovsky formed a band in Greenwich Village.  Yanovsky contacted Bob Cavallo, the former manager of the Halifax Three and the Mugwumps, who agreed to manage Sebastian and Yanovsky’s group even though they had not yet performed publicly, had no songs and did not yet have a name for their band.  They were trying to come up with a name when John ran into Fritz Richmond, a washtub bassist musician that played the coffeehouse circuit, and he asked him for suggestions.  Fritz asked what they sounded like and John replied that they were a cross between Chuck Berry and Mississippi John Hurt.  Fritz suggested the name Lovin’ Spoonful, which came from a line from Hurt’s 1963 song, ‘Coffee Blues’ and they went with that.  The group started out of the gate with four hits, ‘Do You Believe in Magic’, ‘You Didn’t Have to Be So Nice’, ‘Daydream’ and ‘Did You Ever Have to Make Up Your Mind?’ and then they went to #1 with ‘Summer in the City’.  After the success of that song, Bob Cavallo found out that the 27-year-old Francis Ford Coppola wanted the group to record original music for a film that was still in production.  The film was a dark comedy about a young awkward naive inexperienced immature virgin guy that is coming of age in New York and being seduced by a young woman who knew a lot more than he did.

Come
And talk of all the things we did today
Here
And laugh about our funny little ways
While we have a few minutes to breathe
Then I know that it’s time you must leave

But, darling, be home soon
I couldn’t bear to wait an extra minute if you dawdled
My darling, be home soon
It’s not just these few hours, but I’ve been waiting since I toddled
For the great relief of having you to talk to

And now
A quarter of my life is almost past
I think I’ve come to see myself at last
And I see that the time spent confused
Was the time that I spent without you
And I feel myself in bloom

So, darling, be home soon
I couldn’t bear to wait an extra minute if you dawdled
My darling, be home soon
It’s not just these few hours, but I’ve been waiting since I toddled
For the great relief of having you to talk to

So, darling
My darling, be home soon
I couldn’t bear to wait an extra minute if you dawdled
My darling, be home soon
It’s not just these few hours, but I’ve been waiting since I toddled
For the great relief of having you to talk to

Go
And beat your crazy head against the sky
Try
And see beyond the houses and your eyes
It’s okay to shoot the moon

Darling be home soon
I couldn’t bear to wait an extra minute if you dawdled
My darling, be home soon
It’s not just these few hours, but I’ve been waiting since I toddled
For the great relief of having you to talk to

Written for Glyn’s Mixed Music Bag #25, May Monthly Challenge Week 25 where we need to find a song by any group or solo singer beginning with the letter K or L.