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May I Slack For A Thousand Years: “Daydream” by The Lovin’ Spoonful

By Marcello Carlin



Another number two on both sides of the Atlantic, and almost certainly the only hit record to incorporate the word “bulltoad” in its lyric, John Sebastian found himself and his band touring with the Supremes in late 1964 and toyed with the idea of writing a “Where Did Our Love Go”/”Baby Love”-type song. This eventually became “Daydream,” possibly the first slacker record to appear here – albeit a Greenwich Village folk club/jug band notion of slackerdom - and certainly the earliest indication that something dreamy called psychedelia was about to come in and dominate, although Sebastian has always insisted that there is no drug subtext; the aim was just to have a top ten hit with a laidback, feel-good record. In “Daydream”’s case one is almost taken back to the thirties, with its palpable kinship to Hoagy Carmichael’s “Lazybones” and its lovely semi-random roundelays of whistling, harmonica and distant Bill Frisell-like guitar echoes.

Later that same year, “Summer In The City” showed us the obverse side of the New York coin – loud, sweaty, noisy, something of the night – and went all the way to number one. But there was enough attractive about “Daydream” to interest the Beatles; both this and its predecessor “Do You Believe In Magic?” were in Lennon’s personal jukebox, while McCartney was sufficiently inspired by the song to write “Good Day Sunshine” later in the year. We'll be getting back to the Spoonful again before the year is out - and we are already a very long way away from the placid whistling of Gary Lewis and the Playboys.

Date Record Made Number Two: 9 April 1966
Number Of Weeks At Number Two: 2
Record At Number One: “(You’re My) Soul And Inspiration” by The Righteous Brothers
UK Chart Position: 2

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