Zal Yanovsky
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Zalman Yanovsky (December 19, 1944 - December 13, 2002) was a founder with John Sebastian of The Lovin' Spoonful rock band in 1964. He played lead guitar and sang.
Perhaps the first rock and roll performer to wear a cowboy hat, he was accustomed to deck himself out in frilled "Davy Crockett" style duds. In this way, Zal set the trend that was soon faithfully followed by many others, such as sixties performers Sonny Bono, Johnny Rivers, and David Crosby.
When Zal appeared on stage, he developed a reputation for throwing his hat in the air, and sometimes into the crowd. Certain songs involved a monotonous beat on the bass guitar, something he was capable of doing, but about which he complained because it made his fingers sore. At least one outdoor concert was cut short because he refused to do a song that required it.
In 1967, Zal found himself in legal trouble for being in an upscale penthouse apartment in downtown Los Angeles, at the time of a big drug bust. Choosing to leave Los Angeles on a jet plane, he went home to his native Canada, effectively quitting the band. In so doing, he evaded the long-arm jurisdiction of the state of California, and successfully avoided prosecution for a marijuana arrest. At the time of the arrest, other musicians found in the apartment were not so lucky as he was, and, having no option to depart from the U.S., were tried and convicted of possession of controlled substances, or frequenting a place where there was drug activity. Had Yanovsky remained in Los Angeles, he could have spoken up and aided in their defense. Failure to appear and testify on behalf of the other musicians in the bust, led to his widespread rejection by the musical community in Los Angeles. Later, as rumors spread of his having fingered his own friends, a significant barrier arose to block licensing and distribution deals for him as a solo performer.
Nevertheless, while back in Canada, he did find the time to record a solo album Alive and Well in Argentina (and Loving Every Minute of It) with tinges of hard rock or heavy metal. One of the tracks on the album had significant parts of its instruments recorded backwards. After leaving the music business, he ran an upscale restaurant in Kingston, Ontario named Chez Piggy.
Never forgotten for his days in the Lovin' Spoonful, he wrote a cookbook that was eagerly collected by fans.
His cause of death was congestive heart failure.