Results 1 to 5 of 5

Thread: Zal Yanovsky: any fans?

  1. #1
    Member Lopez's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2012
    Location
    Medford, Massachusetts
    Posts
    5,648

    Zal Yanovsky: any fans?

    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.
    Lou

    Looking forward to my day in court.

  2. #2
    Geriatric Anomaly progeezer's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2012
    Location
    Madison, WI
    Posts
    11,318
    I always thought he was at least a tasty guitarist, but the biggest thing I remember about him is that he was (at least marginally) a doppelganger for both Howard Stern and Joey Ramone.
    "My choice early in life was either to be a piano player in a whorehouse or a politician, and to tell the truth, there's hardly any difference"

    President Harry S. Truman

  3. #3
    Yup, I always liked his seminal input with the Spoonful - and the fact that they could never "really" be without him. I think a lot of their appearance as the penultimate "good time" pop/rock group stemmed from Yanovski's joyful presence (although he didn't really write too many tunes for them). They were a wonderful act in their heyday.

    But I only heard the odd tune here and there from his solo carreer.
    "Improvisation is not an excuse for musical laziness" - Fred Frith
    "[...] things that we never dreamed of doing in Crimson or in any band that I've been in," - Tony Levin speaking of SGM

  4. #4
    Member Chris Kemp's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2012
    Location
    Monterey, CA
    Posts
    20
    "Voodoo in My Basement" off of "Hums" kicks ass!

  5. #5
    Interesting that we're talking about Zal so soon after the REM thread. The first time I heard Zal's name was in a Peter Buck interview in Guitar Player circa 84 or 85, I think. Peter said Zal was one of his biggest influences.

Bookmarks

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •