"I Could Spend the Day"

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I was practicing some Zombies songs again, and I figured out the bass part for the first twenty seconds or so of "I Could Spend the Day."  Both Zombie Heaven and Into the Afterlife credit this to Argent/White, but the commentary in Zombie Heaven seems to say that it's mostly a Rod Argent song.  So it's not surprising that there are sequential half-steps.

I wrote out the notation too.  I think it's right.  Although, since it's in F major (with one flat) maybe I should have made the incidentals flats instead of sharps.  Also, I drew the natural sign the wrong way.

There's G G# A (measures two to three) and A Bb B C (measures four through six).

This same phrase (or a very similar phrase) occurs later in the song too.

I played the Bb in the descending phrase at the end, but I don't know what happens after that, so I don't know the note value of the Bb, so I didn't write it in.

There are some differences between the Zombie Heaven version and the Into the Afterlife version.  I followed the Into the Afterlife version, although listening more closely, I've realized that I have that D (in the fourth measure) in the wrong octave.

I think this is the first song I've added to the catalogue since "She's Coming Home."

"Changes"

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I was practicing some Zombies songs to-night, and "Changes" came up on shuffle, and I've made a tiny bit of progress on the piano part at about two minutes in.  I'm not confident enough in what I have now to record and post it, but I learned that it's musically foreshadowed by the mellotron part in the verse previous (the first part with "Now silver and gold…"), which could help in figuring it out.

"I Want Her She Wants Me"

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I've been talking about "I Want Her She Wants Me" so much I thought I should do a more complete version.

It started just as an attempt to figure out the harmonies during the bridge ("She told me to be careful…"), which I'm not sure I have right, but then I just did the whole thing.

I triple-tracked the background parts, and even after the first time through the ending repetition of "I want her she wants me," the words kind of lost their meaning, as they do when you repeat them too much.  The interesting thing during that section is the falsetto parts, which I didn't even attempt.

"I Want Her She Wants Me"

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As I mentioned in the previous post, there are some key changes in the bridge in "I Want Her She Wants Me."  (It flips between G major and Eb major four times.)  After realizing this, I got to thinking about the lyrics during the bridge:

She told me to be careful if I loved her
'Cause she had given her heart once before

I realized that the first of the key changes takes place right before loved.  Along with the rest of the lyrics ("She told me to be careful"), that key change seems to imply that a romantic relationship between these two people won't work out.  It's as if the key change on loved indicates a misstep.

At first, I didn't think anything further about this, aside from that it's pretty cool how Rod Argent did this.  But then I realized that Chris White did the opposite in "This Will Be Our Year."

I mentioned this in a post about half a year ago, but in the bridges of "This Will Be Our Year," there's a minor to major modulation right before "'Darling, I love you.'"  (The whole line is, "And I won't forget the way you said, 'Darling, I love you.'")  With this realization, I thought this was super cool.  One song has a key change that seems to portent ill toward a relationship, and an-other song on the same album has a minor-to-major modulation that suggests the opposite - that the declaration of love is a joyous thing.

And then I thought of something else.  I'll admit that I had to look at the track listing to confirm this, but "I Want Her She Wants Me" and "This Will Be Our Year" are sequential tracks.  Not only is there this playing around with the musical accompaniments to love, but they're on back-to-back songs!

If they planned it that way, it's genius.  Even if they didn't plan it that way, it's amazing.

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This post is the fifth of five ideas/realizations I had about Odessey and Oracle.

"She's Not There" b/w "You Make Me Feel Good"

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Fifty years ago to-day (24 July 1964), the Zombies' debut single "She's Not There" b/w "You Make Me Feel Good" was released.  Decca F.11940, if you really want specifics.

"Care of Cell 44" and "I Want Her She Wants Me"

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As I was thinking about "Care of Cell 44," I realized that - along with the key it's (mostly) in (which I've talked about elsewhere) - it has an-other similarity with "I Want Her She Wants Me."

Both songs are based on (mostly) diatonic bass parts.  During the first half of the verses of "Care of Cell 44" and during the first half of the bridge of "I Want Her She Wants Me," the bass plays almost a whole descending scale.  What's weird is that "I Want Her She Wants Me," while the older song, is more inventive in how the chords are positioned on top of this (mostly) diatonic line.

The bass part for the first half of the verses of "Care of Cell 44" is G, F#, E, D, C, B, A (an unresolved descending G major scale).  The chords on top of that are G major, D major, E minor, D major, C major, B minor, A minor.  The relationships between the bass note and the overlaying chord are root, third, root, root, root, root, and root, respectively.

The bass part for the first half of the bridges of "I Want Her She Wants Me" is G, F, Eb, D, C, B, which isn't a scale, but resembles one.  The chords on top of it are G major, G major dominant 7th, Eb major, G minor, C minor, G major.  What's interesting here is that there are two key changes.  It starts in G major, goes to Eb major, and then comes back to G major.  The relationships between these notes and the overlaying chords are root, dominant seventh, root, fifth, root, and third, respectively.

Here's a chart of both of them:

According to the Zombie Heaven liner notes, "I Want Her She Wants Me" is from 1966 (and the oldest song on the album), and apparently "Care of Cell 44" was written for Odessey and Oracle, so it's interesting that the older one is more adventurous as far as bass note/chord relationships, going so far as to include a key change while still retaining the descending bass line.

I'd also just like to note that this sort of comparison is possible because both sections of these two songs have a pretty steady one-to-one ratio of bass note/overlaying chord.  Lots of other bass/chord rhythms are more complex than this.

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This post is the fourth of five ideas/realizations I had about Odessey and Oracle.

"Care of Cell 44"

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I was thinking about "Care of Cell 44" before I went to sleep (which is apparently a thing I do a lot), and I realized something interesting about it.  I've noted before that Rod Argent frequently employs sequential half-steps in his writing.  Usually, these are in the bass parts, but I found an instance in "Care of Cell 44" where he does this across instruments.

During the second part of each verse ("thinking of me while you are far away"), the bass goes from G to F#, but then the key changes (right before "you are far away," which - interestingly - seems to further underscore the distance), and it goes to Bb.  But right after the key change, the mellotron part comes in, and it starts on an F.  So you still get G to F# to F; it's just not all on the same instrument.

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This post is the third of five ideas/realizations I had about Odessey and Oracle.

"I Want Her She Wants Me"

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I recently figured out the chords for "I Want Her She Wants Me."  (Or at least I think what I have is correct.)  I'd gotten the feeling that they were familiar for some reason, and I finally figured out why: they're similar to the chords for "Remember You."

They're not just an exact copying though.  While they are almost the same, they're positioned differently against the phrasing of the lyrics.

The chords for "Remember You" start with a descent from D to C to G and then stick around on F# for a while ("When I'm thinking back, I won't forget you") before going to B to E to Abm* to D ("And if I should change my mind").  It's the G to F# to B to E that I want to draw particular attention to because that's really close to the chords for "I Want Her She Wants Me."

After the introductory part of "I Want Her She Wants Me" (a bass line and then a cycle of G D C G), the chords move from G to F#m to B to Em ("I close my eyes, and soon I'm feeling sleepy").

So you have G F# B E in "Remember You," and G F#m B Em in "I Want Her She Wants Me."  The bass is doing different things, and the articulation and length of the chords are different, as are the vocals, obviously, but I still think it's interesting to note.

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*It might technically be G#m.  They're played the same, but I'm not sure which key it's in at this point, so I'm not sure of the actual name.

This post is the second of five ideas/realizations I had about Odessey and Oracle.

Odessey and Oracle

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Recently I was looking through the liner notes of the 30th anniversary edition of Odessey and Oracle - the one that includes the lyrics.  I'd been suspicious of the accuracy of these lyrics, specifically the first line of "A Rose for Emily" and part of "Changes."

These liner notes list the first line of "A Rose for Emily" as "The summer is here at last," but I'd always heard it as "Though summer is here at least."  Additionally, though acknowledges the difference in mood - summer is usually seen as a happy time, but the rest of this song is about a woman who doesn't have any love.  Though seems to signal that contrast.

The liner notes also have part of "Changes" as:

I knew her when summer was her crown
And autumn sad
How brown her eyes

The British accents are a bit difficult for me to decipher here; just by hearing it, I can't tell whether it's "sad" or "sighed."  But based on the other lyrics, I think it's "sighed."  I (mostly) agree with these other lyrics that the liner notes list:

I knew her when winter was her cloak
And spring her voice
She spoke to me

I'd always thought it was "In spring her voice she spoke to me," but that's a minor point.

Still, you have the structural parallelism between "summer was her crown" and "winter was her cloak," so it makes sense to me that that parallelism would also apply to further words and that they would relate to speech and respiration  - "Autumn sighed" and "She spoke to me."

Those were my qualms up to that point.  But just recently, in looking through the lyrics, I found that among the friends listed in "Friends of Mine" are "Jim and Christy."  But the Zombie Heaven liner notes lists them as "Jim and Christine."  The on-screen text on the 40th anniversary concert DVD also has "Christine."

With the cases of "A Rose for Emily" and "Changes," I had only my own dissent, but now I have more viable evidence.  The Christy/Christine thing for me is the final straw that sort of invalidates the lyrics as listed in the 30th anniversary edition liner notes.

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This post is the first of five ideas/realizations I had about Odessey and Oracle.

Odessey and Oracle

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Last night, I had about five different ideas/realizations about Odessey and Oracle songs, but instead of writing a massive and possibly confusing text post about all of them, I'm going to split them into individual posts, which I'll stick in my queue in increasing order of importance.

Just so that this post has some value: I recently learned that the cover art for the Beatles Sgt. Pepper, which was recorded in the same year as Odessey and Oracle and in the same studio, cost £1500.  According to some sources, Odessey and Oracle as a whole cost £1000 to record.  It's really weird to think about.

Covers

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This might be kind of obsessive, but I've started a list of songs that the Zombies covered but didn't record, not even on radio broadcasts.  Because I don't know their arrangements, I probably won't go about learning them; I just think it's interesting.  (I do want to learn "Perfidia" but just because I love that song.)

So far, I've only skimmed through the liner notes to Zombie Heaven (and added "Malagueña" because I remember that being noted in Claes Johansen's book), so this is incomplete (not like it will ever be definitive anyway).  I've added specific artists where they were noted.

• "Wonderful Land" - The Shadows
• "Nivram" - The Shadows
• "Shakin' All Over"
• "Peggy Sue"
• "Big Man" - The Four Preps
• "Roll Over Beethoven"
• "Sweets for My Sweet" - The Searchers
• "Mrs. Brown You've Got a Lovely Daughter" before Herman's Hermits
• "From Me to You" - The Beatles
• "Lawdy Miss Clawdy"
• "What'd I Say" - Jerry Lee Lewis and Ray Charles
• "FBI" - The Shadows
• "Perfidia" - The Ventures
• "A Change Is Gonna Come" - Sam Cooke
• "You Better Move On" - Arthur Alexander
• "Baby What You Want Me to Do" - Jimmy Reed
• "Malagueña"

I remember reading somewhere that around the time Odessey and Oracle was being recorded, they were also doing the Turtles' "Happy Together," but until I find it in print again, I'm not going to officially add it to the list.

"Nut Rocker" could probably also be added to the list, as that's what secured Rod Argent's place as keyboardist in the group (rather than lead singer), but I'm not sure if the band ever played it.

Update

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I've belatedly realized that since I learned the guitar chords for "I Want Her She Wants Me," I now know all of the guitar parts on Odessey and Oracle.

So that's exciting.

"I Want Her She Wants Me"

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I think I've got the chords for "I Want Her She Wants Me" figured out, along with a few of the non-chordal harpsichord parts.

Also, I think this is the first thing I've posted where I used my new amp.

"I Want Her She Wants Me"

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I just spent about an hour trying to figure out the chords for "I Want Her She Wants Me" (it did not seem to last that long).  I'm really close to having the whole thing.  I think there's only one chord I have left to figure out, but for now I'm stumped on it.

But I learned some really interesting things.  Fascinating, even.

At the beginning of the "She told me to be careful if I loved her" part, the chords go from G to G7, which is the same transition at the end of "Care of Cell 44."  Normally, I wouldn't place such importance on this because it's just a transition from one chord to an-other.  However, that bridge part also contains a transition from Cm to G, which is also a change in "Care of Cell 44" (and which also appears in the bridge).  Not surprisingly, both songs are (mostly) in the same key - G major.  For a while I've been wondering whether part of the cohesion of Odessey and Oracle might be just from the keys that the songs are in.  Most of the first side is in G major.

The bridge also contains a chord change from Eb to Gm.  The Gm is the second inversion (or at least I play it that way), so the transition is basically lowering the tonic in Eb by a half-step (Eb G Bb > D G Bb).  That same change is in "She's Coming Home" (although a half-step higher - from E to G#m).  In the liner notes to Zombie Heaven, Rod Argent explains that he took part of the chord progression for "She's Coming Home" from Howells' "Nunc Dimittis."  I'm not sure, but I think the chord progression in question is E G#m C#m B, which includes the chord change also present in "I Want Her She Wants Me."  Most of "She's Coming Home" is just an alternation between E and A (throwing a C in between them during the chorus), so unless it's the very end of the chorus (B, Bb, A, which is characteristic of Argent's writing in that it includes two sequential half-steps) or the bridge (C#m F# A B), the E G#m C#m B progression is what Argent took from Howells.  If I'm right in that, it's interesting that that particular progression (or at least part of it) makes its appearance in two of Argent's songs.  If I'm wrong, it's still interesting that he uses the same transition in two different songs.

Chronology

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I've been going through the chronology in the liner notes to Zombie Heaven and the updated chronology in the liner notes of The Decca Stereo Anthology because a lot of important 50th anniversaries of Zombies-related things are coming up and I'd like to be able to schedule posts about them, and I discovered something weird.

The Zombie Heaven liner notes list two different dates for the demo session (yielding "Summertime" and "It's Alright with Me") at Jackson's Studio in Rickmansworth.  The chronology lists it as 19 April, but in the entry for the demo version of "Summertime" included on disc three, it lists the recording date as 29 April (both dates in 1964).

Interestingly, Odessey and Oracle was released on 19 April 1968, so for the sake of continuity, it'd be interesting if they really did record those demos on 19 April.  That way, the Zombies as a recording entity both begin and end on 19 April - from the demo session for "Summertime" and "It's Alright with Me" to the release of Odessey and Oracle.

I'll have to do some more research though.

"This Will Be Our Year"

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In December last year, I wrote a short post talking about the bass part for "This Will Be Our Year" (which is a chromatic phrase from A down to E), specifically how in recent live shows, Jim Rodford plays it with an octave between each note.  I'd made the connection between this and some organ part, which - at the time - I couldn't place.

I later found out that the organ piece I had in mind was Robert Schumann's fourth fugue ("Mässig, doch nicht zu langsam") on the theme of B-A-C-H, Op. 60 (found here):

After discovering this, I realized that the connection I was positing wasn't valid because, while Schumann's piece does contain sequential half-steps (like the bass part for "This Will Be Our Year"), they're not separated by octaves.

However, listening to an album of Liszt's organ works to-day, I discovered that he (Liszt) also wrote a fugue on the theme B-A-C-H.  So I looked it up, and those two half-steps in Schumann's fugue are that B-A-C-H theme: B flat, A, C, B natural (presumably it's also in the Liszt fugue, but I didn't look up the notation for that).  According to the Wikipedia article for BACH Motif: "In German musical nomenclature… the note B natural is written as H and the B flat as B, [so] it forms Johann Sebastian Bach's family name.”

So while the specific half-steps in Schumann's fugue weren't adopted into the "This Will Be Our Year" bass part, they are connected to Bach, whom Rod Argent was interested in.  And if Bach's playing around with half-steps was what interested Rod Argent in the same thing, there could still be a connection between the B-A-C-H theme and Rod Argent's bass parts, which often contain two sequential half-steps ("Whenever You're Ready" has A, Ab, G, for instance).  That might not be the case here, as "This Will Be Our Year" is a Chris White song (which I always seem to forget), but this still illustrates a connection between Bach and the Zombies, whether or not his work was a conscious influence.

Possibly Interesting Thing I Recently Learned

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I've been reading this book about George Gershwin, and a few chapters ago, I read that Gershwin met Herbert Howells in the early 1920s.  Both Gershwin & Howells influenced the Zombies' music (the Zombies covered Gershwin's "Summertime," and Rod Argent took part of the chord progression from Howells' "Nunc Dimittus" for "She's Coming Home"), so it's cool to know that they'd met each other.