Recently a friend lent me a copy of Zal Yanovsky's Alive and Well in Argentina (with the A and B side of the "As Long as You Are Here"). Very interesting record. (By the way, Zal shuffled off this mortal coil 10 years ago last month.) On first listen, I thought this is nuts. On repeated listens I kept thinking this is nuts as it grew on me. He does a really crazy version of "Little Bitty Pretty One" with a lot of grunting in the background; very much like Fred Frith did years later with "Dancing in the Streets." Most of the singing on the record is a bit off key, probably purposely; however, he sounds just like John Sebastian. Two versions of his single "As Long as You Are Here" are included on the reissue - the album version and the single version. They seem the same, but the single version is speeded up to shorten the song by 25 seconds. No wonder it was a dud; the sped-up version is not good compared to the regular-speed album version. A la Napoleon XIV, the flip side of the single was the same song but backwards and without vocals. There's also a languid version of the George Jones tearjerker "Brown to Blue." As goofy as the album is, I like it a lot and think that Zal was quite the creative talent. Too bad he was mostly seen as the comic relief in the Lovin' Spoonful.
Has any one been to Zal's restaurant, Chez Piggy, in the Toronto area? Not been there myself. Looks good on their website.
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