Zalman Yanovsky

★★★ Alive And Well In Argentina RETROWORLD. CD

Lovin’ Spoonful guitarist’s singular 1968 oddity. Consistently mugging to camera during TV performances, the Spoonful’s most loveable member was just too big a personality for them to contain. Finally free to call the shots on this one-off solo album after his 1967 drugs-bust and attendant split from TLS, Zally went apeshit, throwing pig noises, jaw-harp, scatted gibberish and excerpts from both the French and German national anthems at the canvas. Though the title of six-minute instrumental Lt Schtinckhausen does nothing to dispel the air of clown at play, both it and Yanovsky’s instrumental cover of Floyd Cramer’s country waltz Last Date are great. Elsewhere, you wonder why producer Jerry Yester – also Zally’s replacement in The Lovin’ Spoonful, funnily enough – didn’t counsel him to rein in the madness, but Alive And Well In Argentina is a fascinating time-capsule all the same.