Alex “Zack” Zytnik, a founding member and lead guitarist of the Australian rock band Tamam Shud, passed away late last year, with the news just now making rounds in media outlets. He was 79.
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Widely celebrated as “Aussie rock royalty,” the veteran musician died on Nov. 1, per social media posts. Fan Nicci Davidson shared the news of Zytnik’s passing across several fan groups for the band through November. The cause of death has not been disclosed.
“Vale to Aussie rock royalty, Alex Zitnik (Zac) who passed away today,” Davidson wrote on Facebook. “Zac has left an indelible mark on the Australian classic rock scene of the 60s and 70s which brought to life the surf rock culture of Newcastle… RIP Zac you will be sadly missed but your music will live on. Hopefully, they’ll give you a gig in rock n’ roll heaven.”
Zytnik began his musical journey as the lead guitarist for The Four Strangers, a band formed in Newcastle in 1964. The lineup included Eric Connell on bass, Dannie Davidson on drums, and Gary Johns on rhythm guitar. The group released a single track, “The Rip,” before a lineup change saw Lindsay Bjerre replace Johns, taking over rhythm guitar and lead vocals, per Howlspace.
The group underwent several lineup and name changes before choosing Tamam Shud in 1967. Peter Barron replaced Connell on bass guitar at that time, as well.
Alex “Zack” Zytnik’s Work with Tamam Shud Influenced Australian Psychedelic Rock for Decades
Zytnik was with the band for only two more years and worked on their 1969 album Evolution. However, his impact on Australian psychedelic rock was significant and lasting.
According to The Daily Mail, four tracks from Evolution were featured in a surf film of the same name. After Alex’s departure, Tamam Shud contributed songs to the soundtrack of the iconic 1972 surf film Morning of the Earth.
The band also had the privilege of performing at the inaugural outdoor rock festival, The Pilgrimage of Pop, held in 1970 in Ourimbah on the NSW Central Coast.
Tamam Shud disbanded in 1972. They reunited in 1993 to work on their third album, Permanent Culture, which was released in 1994. However, the group parted ways again in 1995.
Meanwhile, rock historian Ian McFarlane called the band one of the first in Australia inspired by the psychedelic sounds of San Francisco’s Haight-Ashbury scene in the 1960s.
“As an outgrowth of the acid-rock movement, Tamam Shud was able to translate the music into a uniquely Australian context,” McFarlane wrote, per The Daily Mail. “Tamam Shud became inextricably linked with the surfing fraternity, with audiences seemingly transfixed by the band’s enveloping acid-surf progressive rock.”