Unlike that other 1960's songwriter John Phillips , John Sebastian never really took the Hippy movement very seriously, preferring to write good-time pop for his band The Lovin' Spoonful. His style is epitomised by that great little song "Do You Believe In Magic?" from 1965, a lightweight and uplifting expression of teenage romance. The following year he wrote a trio of classics - "Daydream", "Summer In The City" and "Nashville Cats", the first a languid evocation a young man's fancy in the Summer of Love, the next a hard-edged, slightly angular picture of city living put together with great skill, and the third a playful country throwback which I'm sure the great Hank Williams would have been proud to have written.

The flame of John Sebastian only really shone bright for those two or three exhilarating years, although 1969's "She's A Lady", written during his short solo career, has been called a " modern classic ".
He was most definately a man of his time, but a highly gifted and versatile songwriter nevertheless, and his contribution to the art of songwriting is probably somewhat underestimated.