I have a bunch of things I need to get around to writing. Here's something about "I Want Her She Wants Me" that I realized back in April:
The bass part at the end of the song just repeats the same figure (G D E G' E D G), and in some ways, this figure represents the mutual wanting in the title and lyrics. There are two G notes in the figure, and they're an octave apart. The phrase involves moving from one G up to the second and then back down to the first. So the ascent represents "I want her," and the descent is the reciprocal "She wants me."
According to the liner notes for both Zombie Heaven and The Decca Stereo Anthology, fifty years ago to-day (23 October 1966), the Zombies recorded "Goin' out of My Head" - the last song they recorded while at Decca. (The Decca Stereo Anthology also notes that "orchestral overdubs on 'Goin' out of My Head' [were] probably recorded at a later date.")
Unlike most of the Zombies' Decca-era recordings, this wasn't at Studio No. 2 in Decca West Hampstead. Zombie Heaven says just "Kingsway," but The Decca Stereo Anthology is more specific, citing "De Lane Lea, Portland Place."
I recently re-discovered Khan Academy, and I've been going through the Music Basics course. This morning I watched this video, which says that flats and sharps cannot be mixed in a key signature. I was wondering about that earlier this month when I posted my notation of the cello part in "A Rose for Emily." So while my notation is wrong from what I guess I would call an academic point of view, it's right from a tonal point of view. I wrote some notes in the wrong method, but they're still the right notes (I think).
Yester-day I watched the Zombies' concert at The Water Rats (be aware that there are a lot of quickly flashing lights in the video). It's a great performance. Tom Toomey and Steve Rodford both have brief solos in "She's Not There," which is a new feature, and it was good to see Jim Rodford playing his Mustang bass. The last time I saw it was during the Breathe Out, Breathe In sessions. And Rod Argent includes a quotation of Bach's Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben, BWV 147 in the solo in "Hold Your Head Up."
Anyway, I was reminded of the guitar riff that's been included in live versions of "She's Not There" since at least 2011. There were a couple times I'd thought it sounded pretty easy, and I finally figured it out last night.
In my recording, I have just the bass part that links the first chorus and the second verse and that guitar riff.
Here's the tab:
I referenced four different videos of live performances (on KEXP, SummerStage, the first Vintage TV appearance, and this second Vintage TV show at The Water Rats) to be as accurate as possible in that tab. (There's also the DVD of Live at Metropolis Studios, which I think may be the first appearance of that riff, but I didn't feel like digging it out.) I figured it out from audio recordings, and I was playing the last note in the third phrase (an A) as an open string, but in each of those videos, Tom Toomey plays it on the fifth fret of the E string.
I hadn't really considered the origin of this phrase before, but after figuring it out, I have a suspicion that Rod Argent's behind it. He wrote the song, so it makes sense, but there's also one of his trademark three-note chromatic phrases at the end (G G# A).
I have more notation this week (albeit late at night because my internet connection's been atrocious)! For the last week or two, I've been working on the cello part in "A Rose for Emily" (I'm hoping that becoming familiar with the cello part will help in figuring out the mellotron part). After spending some time trying to figure it out from the version on Zombie Heaven, I realized that by splitting the track, I could hear it better because it was a bit more isolated. And then I split the track with cello and mellotron from the 30th anniversary edition of Odessey and Oracle, and I found that it's even easier to hear there. So I think what I have is more accurate than if I'd just listened to the tracks as they are on the CDs.
I'm a bit unsure of the key, but I put it in A major because that's what the song resolves to. I have a couple piano markings, but they apply only to the notes they're above (C#s).
It wasn't until going over this again before I scanned it that I discovered that there's an-other Argentian three-note chromatic phrase. At the end of the fifth line into the sixth, there's G# A Bb. (Although maybe I shouldn't be mixing sharps and flats like that.)
For some reason, as I was going over this, it kept reminding me of "Greensleeves," but - so far, at least - I can't really find any resemblance.
