Hotter Than a Match Head: Life on the Run with The Lovin’ Spoonful

As in most autobiographies I've read by rockers, it's pretty much the authors opinions ; humble or pretentious. Steve goes through it with a good sense of humor & an eye on the Prize; rock n' roll fame & fortune. When it came to his love of sailing & trips to distant lands to smuggle controlled substances, I lost a bit of interest. Also, I find the mea culpa, as almost with all musicians dealing with their addictions, tedious.However, the Spoonful stories & reminiscence's, & background on those fellow players he's shared the stage with, I found fascinating. I enjoyed the Lovin' Spoonfuls music & would rank them (along with the Rascals) as one of the great American bands of the 60s. If that is your feeling towards his band you will enjoy reading Steve Boone's "Hotter Than a Match Head".

This is tough to rate. I read a fairly large number of books on '60's and '70's music; often for me there's not enough pertinent info on the creation of the music. That's not true in this case. Butler does an excellent job in that regard. However, for me this is tempered from the very beginning, wherein he writes at length about sinking his boat- the one he was using to transport drugs. To sell. I'm not a fan of law evaders and while Boone's story of his and Zal's bust while a member of the Lovin' Spoonful was inciteful, there was so, so much more about his drug taking and drug selling, with very little remorse, that I was ultimately left with a bad taste in my mouth. It should be noted that he bought the rights to the Lovin' Spoonful name, and occasionally performed with the band, although there have been no recent concerts, and John Sebastian was never involved..

You can’t make this up! All the twists and turns along Steve Boone’s life and career were of great interest to me as a working musician and a longtime Lovin Spoonful fan. It was good to get the inside story of what really happened.A candid account of a very interesting life. A well written book that never bogged down.

This book was interesting and educational. It was never common knowledge the issues that drove the band apart, so learning more about the band was well worth the read.

I was a big fan of the Spoonful in the 60s, enjoying their hit singles and albums, particularly witnessing their artistic progression from their debut album through Daydream and Hums. Around the start of 1967, they inexplicably seemed to self-destruct and disappear from radio airplay and the music scene. At the time, I assumed it was a product of the inherent short life cycle of bands, exacerbated (although I didn't know the word then) by Sebastian's increasing dominance as songwriter and lead singer. Only later did the word filter down about a mysterious drug bust in 1966 that resulted in the departure of Zal from the band and the demonization of the group as "finks" and tools of the Man by the emerging counterculture. This book, by bassist Steve Boone (Zal's fellow bustee), tells the true story about that event and its destructive impact on his and Zal's lives and the band's dynamics. Boone pulls no punches, and fesses up to decisions that he made while under legal fire that, in hindsight, may not have been the best. It's also a story of the evolving state of the print media and record business and attitudes about musicians and marijuana by their previously adoring fans. The book also vividly relates the details about the formation, maturation and dissolution of a group that produced some of the greatest music of the 1960s. A good, good read.

WHAT A TALE ! ! I was RIVETED! , and knocked off steve’s book in less than two days , a true, can’t put it down read! I PRAY to this band now! (I liked them plenty in the 60’s , amazing songs , playing and arrangements! ) I’m 65 now, ALWAYS ready to listen to some spoonful !To hear how the songs emerged, who contributed what, e.t.c. Was/is fascinating. Many tales made me sad ! Steve Boone is right, re: how the spoonful SHOULD get MORE RESPECT !!A really wonderful band, I plan to re-investigate the ‘lesser’ songs with the knowledge I now have. And Steve: you WOULD have made a HELL of a pilot ! , (This from a thwarted flier myself!)Thanks so much for a REALLY GREAT READ ! Best thing I have read in some time! (And Zally a really great and unique guitarist!) it is SO sad to hear yet ANOTHER tale of how would-be management badly manipulated someones’ art !! , -something for the ‘youngsters’ to listen to, and HEAR !!..ah, ‘business’ !!

Lovin' Spoonful were favorites of mine in the 60s, so I was pre-disposed to like this book, and I did. It got a little bit thick and repetitive, but it's an account, and a good one.

Very enjoyable, I am a Spoonful fan however this might be of interest to anyone who grew up in the 1960s.

This is Steve Boone's very interesting inside history of the Lovin' Spoonful. It reveals a lot of the tensions between main composer John Sebastian and the others. Bassist Boone clearly resents not being given credit for his co-writing of You didn't have to be so nice and Summer in the City. There are digs at the failing of Sebastian's voice (at the time the book was written). Yet the two of them currently play together joyously. (Look up the YouTubes of the Wild Honey Orchestra (with Joe Butler and Mark Sebastian) and Sebastian and Boone at Joe Marra's birthday.) Nor does it go as far forward as the firing of Jerry Yester, but if you love the Spoonful's music, this is a 'must read'.

An interesting read but many will complain there is too much non-Spoonful material here. After all, no one is buying this book to read about Boone's pre-Spoonful bands. However, in the interest of fairness, his post-Spoonful career as a sailing pot smuggler on the high seas (get it? the "high" seas?) is pretty harrowing and gripping. His struggles with his own studio are interesting and his marital/romantic foibles are not what anyone buys the book for...who on earth would listen to a rock musician advise anything about marriage? Not me, and I am a rock musician.For a full story of this amazing, important, practically forgotten band who codified Americana for us all please also read Simon Wordsworth's Do You Believe In Magic?: The Story Of The Lovin' Spoonful which is on the Amazon imprint and for sale somewhere on this very website.It is notable and very sad how every rock memoir by a guy in a famous band has so much whining at the expense of the other band members. If you read both this work and Wordsworth's book you will get a bellyful...ironic, considering these guys lived a life of a God for three years while 97% of the rest of the musical community struggled.

This is a great companion to Simon Wordsworth's 'Do you believe in magic' biog of the Spoonful. Steve tells his story well and expands on certain parts of the Wordsworth biog -unsurprisingly on the bits that concern him! , and gives a great insider view on this classic 60's band. I found his writing style fine and his post spoonful stories very interesting, the guy has lived and survived. The final few pages see Steve trying to assess why the Spoonful aren't held in higher esteem in rock history. Well Steve, don't worry, anyone with taste knows how good you were and i thank you, John, Zally, Joe and Jerry for the great music you made.

perfect copy delivered very quickly. Usual great service from this seller,would recommend highly and am very pleased.

great