ZAL YANOVSKY
Lovin' Spoonful guitarist (1944-2002)
The party line is that if the Lovin' Spoonful were the American Beatles, Toronto-born guitarist Zal Yanovsky, who died in Kingston, Ontario on December 13, 2002, was their Ringo, with his zany antics, comedic mugging, and pronounced proboscis. But his chiming guitar work was also the backbone of the sound based around Spoonful leader John Sebastian's sunny folk-rock songwriting.
Zalman Yanovsky was born December 19, 1944 to a Russian Jewish family in Toronto, Ontario. His first break came with folksters the Halifax Three, which included future Mamas & Papas member Denny Doherty. In 1964, Zal and Doherty hooked up with James Hendricks and Cass Elliot, who'd been in the Big Three with Tim Rose, for a stab at rock as the Mugwumps, which splintered later that year. Through Elliot, Yanovsky met Village folkie John Sebastian. Egged on by the "British Invasion," Sebastian and Yanovsky formed a group that mixed their folk/jug-band background with the new rock sound. In 1965 the Spoonful paid its dues at Village club The Night Owl, creating a buzz with their pioneering folk-rock style. Their joyful 1965 single "Do You Believe in Magic?" and debut LP of the same name brought instant stardom. More hits came in '66, including "Summer in the City" and "Daydream," the title track to their second album. Somehow, they also managed to release third LP Hums and a soundtrack to Woody Allen's first film, What's Up, Tiger Lily?, before the year was out.
In 1967, Spoonful drummer Steve Boone and Yanovsky were arrested in San Francisco for marijuana possession. Zal was given the choice of deportation or fingering the seller, and chose the latter. The dealer went to jail and Yanovsky was made a pariah by the self-righteous hippie culture and rock press. Relations between Yanovsky and the rest of the band deteriorated, and by the end of the year he was replaced by Jerry Yester. Yanovsky's only solo album, 1968's willfully bizarre Alive & Well in Argentina, interspresed R&B cover tunes with strange sonic collages--a commercial failure, a cult favorite, and 100 percent Zally. In '69, he co-produced Tim Buckley's Happy Sad, and the Judy Henske/Jerry Yester psych-folk cult classic Farewell Aldebaran. By the '70s Yanovsky had largely hung his guitar up for good. In 1979, he and wife Rose Richardson started Chez Piggy, a successful restaurant in Kingston. Zally the restaurateur displayed the same joie de vivre as in his earlier career, described as "cook, boss, and floor show, all in one hairy bundle." The Spoonful had a brief 1980 reunion, and a last hurrah in 2000, performing at their induction into the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame.
JIM ALLEN
