Odessey and Oracle

Backdated, archival post

[link to original on tumblr]

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Every year since 2014, I've recorded my own version of Odessey and Oracle.  Starting this year though, I'm posting it on 19 April, the date of its original release in 1968.  Since I started doing this, I've learned some more parts and revised some errors, but there are still parts I have wrong and parts that are simply missing (I don't have a very good singing voice, especially compared to the Zombies' voices, so I didn't even attempt the vocals, and I can't play and don't even own a drum kit, so there's hardly any percussion).

Here are some new things since last year's O&O:
- I'd been continuing the bass part in one section of "Beechwood Park" for too long, so I corrected that.
- I learned a bit more of the piano part for "Brief Candles" (although since I still can't play the two hands simultaneously, I had to record them separately, so they're a little out-of-sync at times).
- I acquired a tambourine and finger cymbals, so I could do some of the percussion in "Changes."  While it shouldn't sound any different, I played the two hands of the piano part simultaneously, which I couldn't do last time.  (I attribute this new-found ability to my practicing the bass register of the piano part while simultaneously playing the mellotron part from the second verse; after being able to do that, playing just a single A note in the treble is easy.)
- I'm pretty sure that there's an E minor 9 and an E minor with a G note on top in the guitar part in "I Want Her She Wants Me" where previously I'd been playing just a straight E minor.
- I used different inversions for the guitar chords in "Time of the Season," which sound a little more accurate, although the rhythm there still isn't completely accurate.

I should also note that I overdubbed the piano phrase at the end of "This Will Be Our Year," but since there's a ritardando there, my instrument parts don't match up very well.  In September, I think I learned some of the trombone part, but because I'm not too confident in it and was running out of time, I didn't attempt it this year.  The opening harpsichord part in "I Want Her She Wants Me" isn't right, but that's how I've been playing it for a year or two, and I haven't figured out the real part yet.  Likewise, some of the organ phrases in "Beechwood Park" aren't accurate, but they're a loose representation of what should be there.