"Shadow of a Doubt"

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I think I've been neglecting Colin Blunstone's solo career, so I started transcribing a few of his songs, which somehow led to learning the chords for "Shadow of a Doubt," which I think has become one of my favorites of his (I'd always liked it, but after looking at the lyrics, I like it even more).  It feels like I've been working on this for a few days, but I only transcribed the lyrics yester-day morning.

There's some alliteration in the first line of the third full verse: "The nosy next door neighbours," which I mention first only because I don't have anything to add to it.  There are more interesting things to say.

Like the first half of the second verse:

Company convivial, the drink went to my head
Conversation trivial, don't ask me what I said
Could have been pure coincidence the moisture in your eye

There's alliteration (with some really interesting phrases and internal rhyme), but the really interesting thing is that trivial doesn't fit into that alliteration.  As if the word itself - like its meaning - isn't important enough to merit that same starting letter.

Also the future tense in the bridge (I think it's a bridge):

What's passed is history I'll never wish to read
You're the very last thing I want, the first thing that I need

The singer/speaker is saying that he doesn't want to relive the relationship, but at some future time.  At the present time, he's still interested in thinking about it.

Also "You're the very last thing I want, the first thing that I need" is a solid example of structural parallelism.

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I'm not sure my voice suits this very much, but it's better than I'd feared.  The chords are sort of all over the place (and - as always - I may have gotten some wrong; I'm not sure there are actually full-blown chords during the bridge either), so I felt having the vocal would help glue it together.  I actually recorded this live (as electric guitar and vocals), but I wasn't paying attention to where the melody was going at one point, so I had to re-do the vocal track (and then I double-tracked it).  There's a bunch of just C and F chords at the beginning and end; they're supposed to have variations, but I know only one so far (the last one before the lyrics start), so those parts aren't that interesting.  Also, the solo is sort of painfully absent.

This is a new song in the catalogue.

"I Do Believe"

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I figured out the guitar arpeggios that comprise most of "I Do Believe" (although I might have one note wrong in one of them).  Interestingly, they're sort of like the arpeggios in Argent's "Like Honey" in that they're also in A minor and they also contain a descending chromatic phrase (G, F#, F, E).  They're more disjunct though, where those in "Like Honey" are more straightforward.

I also transcribed the lyrics for "I Do Believe" and found some interesting things I hadn't noticed before.  Alliteration in the lines "Hanging hard in the air," "There's a fine mist that's falling," "Late at night shadows falling / Through the shapes of despair." and "As the gold hits the ground."

More interesting is an-other reference to dreams: "From the edge of my dreams," which has a lot of precedent in the classic Zombies songs.  There's also some parallel structure in what I guess is the second half of the second verse (although I suppose it could also be the fourth verse, if the verses go in pairs):

Let it rise in my senses
Let it come to my heart
Let it break its defences
Let it tear them apart

Each pair of lines says pretty much the same thing ("rise in my senses" & "come to my heart" and "break its defences" & "tear them apart") but in different ways.

I also referenced the version on Live at Metropolis Studios, which I think predates the version on Breathe Out, Breathe In (I haven't watched the DVD for awhile, but I think Rod Argent says something about how they're still in the process of recording the album and Jim Rodford calls "I Do Believe" a "brand new Rod Argent song.").  In any case, the line there is "Calling loud and extreme" instead of "Calling sweet and extreme."  I can't be sure about this, but it seems as if they changed that line after the performance on Live at Metropolis Studios.

This is the first song from Breathe Out, Breathe In that I've figured out a part of.

"Care of Cell 44"

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I recently re-read Claes Johansen's The Zombies: Hung up on a Dream.  I've read it a few times, but not recently, so I was surprised by how much he gets wrong.  I might write more about that later, but for now I want to address his comments on "Care of Cell 44."  He claims that Paul Atkinson isn't present on the recording, which is just wrong.

I examined the versions on the 30th anniversary edition of Odessey and Oracle from Big Beat.  He's clearly present on the vocal-less backing track (more clearly in the right channel), but comparing that with the final version, I've discovered that they're actually two different takes.  The tempi are different, which is the most obvious evidence, but also the piano part during the bridge is slightly different (despite Johansen's claim that it's harpsichord; it's actually tack piano).

But even in the final version, you can make out the slight change in instrumental coloration (again, more clearly in the right channel) when Atkinson comes in, at the same spot as he does in that other backing track - right before the second verse ("Saved you the room you used to stay in every Sunday…").

Johansen sort of makes a big deal of Atkinson's supposed absence on the track:  "We also know from Paul Atkinson that his relationship was going through a particularly difficult patch at the time.  Is that why he isn't present on the recording?  Is this song, in fact, in vague symbolic form about the crisis he was going through?"  Which is just ridiculous because he is present on the recording.

"Sometimes"

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I think I've figured out the chords for "Sometimes."  Mostly it just alternates between D major and G minor.  Quickly alternates, I might add, and it's not the easiest transition to make.

One section ("Well, I'm so happy / When I'm with you…") is really interesting in that it contains a chromatic phrase.  I'm not exactly sure what key it's in (I'd guess D major, but there are a lot of accidentals), so I'm not sure if this is notated correctly.  (The inversions are how I played it on organ.)

Bb major (F, Bb, D)

G major (G, B, D)

C major (G, C, E)

A major (A, C#, E)

D minor (A, D, F)

I hadn't heard Rod's harmony (which I think is the best part of the song) during those parts (I think they're bridges?) until I got The Decca Stereo Anthology, but now that I know there's also a chromatic phrase during that part, I like it even more.

I think I've figured out a bit of the opening a cappella part too, but I'm not sure enough yet.  (On the third disc of Zombie Heaven, there's some early takes of it, and the piano intermittently plays arpeggios of inverted E minor chords so they can be in tune, which further complicates figuring out what key the whole song is in.)

Also, this is an-other new one in the catalogue.

"Care of Cell 44"

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I split "Care of Cell 44" into the left and right channels, and the a cappella parts are a bit easier to hear in the right channel when it's isolated, so I'm pretty sure I've figured it out more accurately.

This isn't accurate as far as instrumentation though, obviously.

"Leave Me Be" b/w "Woman"

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Fifty years ago to-day (16 October 1964), the Zombies' second single was released: "Leave Me Be" b/w "Woman" (Decca F.12004)

"She Does Everything for Me"

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My novice audio engineering skills make themselves known with this.  I think the audio's peaked except for the introductory electric piano phrase and the very end, but it's still listenable.  (I would try to fix it, but I don't keep the project files for these, so I'd have to re-record the whole thing.)  I always have problems recording the guitar part for this.  I double-tracked it here with two different settings, which might have resulted in some of the audio peaking.

I got a word wrong - "Now I've found a girl that / I love instead" instead of "Now I've found a girl who / I love instead"

I can't do falsetto at all, so I dropped the falsetto backing vocals by at least an octave, probably two.

I don't think I'd ever really noticed that there are hand-claps in this song.  This is only the second time I've tried recording hand-claps.  This turned out better than that other time.

"Will You Love Me Tomorrow"

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I think this is the first Zombies song that I've done that they didn't record "properly."  They did this live on the BBC.

Last month, I got a CD of the Shirelles greatest hits, and I listened to it for the first time to-day.  Since it includes "Will You Love Me Tomorrow" (they did the original), I tried figuring out the Zombies' version.  I got the chords and at least an approximation of the electric piano solo (although I kept the organ part underneath, unlike the recording).  I'm not sure of the harmonies, so when the backing vocals' lyrics were the same as the lead vocals', I just sang them the same way (so because some parts are essentially quadruple-tracked [double-tracked lead vocals and double-tracked backing vocals] they're louder than I'd like).

I think Colin sings, "When I can feel the magic of your sighs" in the second verse (which I followed), but in the Shirelles' version, it's "Can I believe the magic of your sighs."  He also goes straight to "Will you still love me tomorrow" as the last line of the first verse, but that form doesn't come until the second verse.  The first is "But will you love me tomorrow."  Also, he takes the "and" out of the line "So tell me now, and I won't ask again," which makes him seem more insistent as a singer/speaker than that in the Shirelles' version.

I think there might be some connection between "Will You Love Me Tomorrow" and "She Does Everything for Me."  Both are mostly in A major with the prominent exception of a C# major.  The Zombies recorded "Will You Love Me Tomorrow" for Saturday Club on 20 September 1965 (and it was broadcast on 2 October 1965), and "She Does Everything for Me" was recorded in May 1966, so chronologically it's possible that "Will You Love Me Tomorrow" influenced "She Does Everything for Me."

"She's Coming Home"

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When I wrote that giant post about the bass lines in "Care of Cell 44" and "She's Coming Home," I went back to the songs to verify some things.  And I noticed that there're a few extra bass notes transitioning from the chorus of "She's Coming Home" into the bridge.  I knew about the transitional notes from the bridge to the second verse, but I'd missed the ones going into the bridge.

Also, I reversed the process I did for figuring out the organ notes - I split the stereo track and put the left channel into mono, and I discovered that there's a piano part during that second verse.  It's just the E notes that are also in the bass part.  There're really slight though, almost as if they were being mixed out (mine are too noticeable here, but I did the best I could).  I think it works better without that piano part, but I'm trying to be accurate with these.

Now I want to go through the whole Decca Stereo Anthology, split all the tracks and listen to the left and right channels individually.

"Work 'n' Play"

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Yester-day, I played along to the four Zombies songs that use twelve-string guitar, and I learned the ending part of "Work 'n' Play."  It's just arpeggios, so I feel like I should have figured it out earlier.

This recording isn't the best (my piano playing, which I'm not sure is all that accurate, is sloppy [as always], the end gets more and more out-of-sync the longer it goes on because the original fades out so I had problems keeping in time with it, and I accidentally hit the open A string in the guitar part), but the last version of "Work 'n' Play" I did (almost a year ago) wasn't even with the correct instruments, so this is some improvement at least.

"He's a Dynamo"

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For whatever reason, I got to thinking about Argent's "He's a Dynamo" this morning, and I realized that the melody in the verses is almost entirely one note.  This reminded me of something I read somewhere about how the Beatles tried writing a song like Little Richard's "Long Tall Sally," where the melody was only one note.  I think this resulted in "I'm Down," but I can't find whatever I read again to verify this.

So now I'm wondering whether "He's a Dynamo" was Argent's attempt to write a song like "Long Tall Sally," with a melody of only one note.

"She's Coming Home" and "Care of Cell 44"

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I was thinking about the thematic similarities between songs again, specifically "She's Coming Home" and "Care of Cell 44."  Both are about a girl's returning home to a guy.  But, musically, the homecoming in "Care of Cell 44" is more exciting than that in "She's Coming Home" because the bass lines during the verses of "Care of Cell 44" are (mostly) diatonic, where the bass part during the verses of "She's Coming Home" just sits on an E note until the second half of the last line.  It's only during the choruses and the bridge that it moves, and even then, it's usually the root of whatever chord is on top of it.  The bass part for "Care of Cell 44" is almost constantly moving and doesn't hold so strictly to the root note of the overlaying chords.

The speaker/singer of "She's Coming Home" seems to be stationary, indicated by the line "She sent word to me" (which, admittedly, is in the chorus, rather than the bass-stationary verses), where the speaker/singer of "Care of Cell 44" is mobile, indicated by the line "Come up and fetch you, saved up for the train fare money."  So he's actively involved in reuniting with his girl, where the speaker/singer of "She's Coming Home" is just sitting there, waiting for his girl to return to him.  Both of these positions seem to be indicated by the fluidity - or lack thereof - of the accompanying bass parts.

The bass part in "Care of Cell 44" does just sit on a G note during the bridge ("We'll walk in a way we used to walk / And it could be so nice…"), but there it sort of mirrors the speaker/singer's wish to revive the frozen past.  He's looking back nostalgically ("in a way we used to walk") and forward hypothetically, hence the future tense ("we'll walk") and the subjunctive case ("it could be so nice").

This nostalgia-accompanied-by-a-static-bass-note sort of appears (figuratively, of course) in the second verse of "She's Coming Home" too (the verse with chordal organ accompaniment).  There's the nostalgia in the line "Our love was such a sweet and gentle thing," which is accompanied by the bass playing only E notes.  Musically, the second verse isn't very different from the first - it has the same chords and bass part; it's just that the chords are played on organ and guitar rather than on piano, as in the first verse - so the nostalgia-accompanied-by-a-static-bass-note works better in "Care of Cell 44," where the static bass part occurs only during the part where the lyrics involve that nostalgia.  That way, it's musically distinct.

After that part in "She's Coming Home," there's the line "I threw our love away without a thought," where the bass plays the recurring descending phrase in the song (E, D#, C#, B), sort of reflecting the throwing away mentioned in the line (it doesn't quite match up to the lyrics).

Most of the bass part in "Care of Cell 44" is also descending, but there are rapid ascending phrases after them (plus the recurring and mostly upward-moving phrase that - on piano - opens the song), almost to reflect the song as a whole: the sadness of the girl's going to prison and being separated from the speaker/singer followed by the joy of the anticipated reunion.

It's probably just that Rod Argent got better writing bass parts between the time of "She's Coming Home" and "Care of Cell 44" (they're two years apart - March 1965 & August 1967), but it has an interesting meaning when looked at without that real-world, behind-the-scenes factor.

Of course, there's also the (very likely) possibility that I'm just looking at this too closely and ascribing too much importance to certain musical elements.

Also, can I just draw attention to the line "Kiss and make up, and it will be so nice" in "Care of Cell 44"?  I didn't pay much attention to it the first few hundred times I listened to the song (I usually pay attention to the music, not the lyrics), but it seems that the speaker/singer is in some way responsible for the girl's imprisonment.