Argent Live at the Paris Theatre

According to Russo's Collector's Guide, fifty years ago to-day (14 December 1972), Argent performed at the Paris Theatre.  Earlier this year, I found a complete recording of the concert.  The date given at the link is 6 January 1973, but the set list matches what Russo details.  Maybe 6 January 1973 was the date the recording was broadcast.

Here's the set list:

• "Be My Lover, Be My Friend"
• "Sweet Mary"
• "Tragedy"
• "I Am the Dance of Ages"
• "The Fakir"
• "Hold Your Head Up"
• "He's a Dynamo"

"It's Magical"

Part of a line in "It's Magical" is "I bless the day you came along."  I think this may be inspired by the Everly Brothers and their song "Let It Be Me," which starts with a similar line:  "I bless the day I found you."  It's worth noting that "It's Magical" was written by Russ Ballard.

For what it's worth:  in Claes Johansen's The Zombies: Hung up on a Dream, Chris White calls the Everly Brothers "the most underrated influence on modern music" (page 58).

"Setting Yourself Up"

In the lines "No one's going to laugh / If you walk out on her" in "Setting Yourself Up," "walk" is sung with a melisma (I think it's B C B A G), musically giving a sense of movement.

"Keep the Curtains Closed Today"

I listened to Colin Blunstone's Journey yester-day and noticed a couple small features.

In "Keep the Curtains Closed Today," "while" in the line "This is our first day for quite a while" is sung with a melisma (D C# A), musically giving a sense either of duration or of degree (for "quite").

"Away" in the line "The future always seems so far away" is sung with the same melisma.  Here, it provides a sense of distance.

I also referenced the version on The Ghost of You and Me (slightly retitled to "Let's Keep the Curtains Closed Today") and discovered that it's a whole tone lower (G major rather than A major).  These words are sung with melismas there too, but they're slightly different, notwithstanding the lower key.  "While" is sung to the notes A G, and "away" is sung to the notes B A G.

"Together"

A little over a year ago, I wrote a post about the bridge in "Together":

And I've come to

Need you like flowers need the rain

Have to love you

As much as seasons have to change in time

I'd noticed that in contrast to the quick note values of most of the section, each word in the phrase "change in time" is held for a full measure and that this prolonging of note values mirrors the "change" there.

Yester-day, I realized that the words themselves illustrate this change too.  In both rhyme and syllable count, the line "Need you like flowers need the rain" complements the line "As much as seasons have to change in time" up until the first half of "change."  The second half of "change" and the phrase "in time" create structural differences between these two lines.  Instead of a pure rhyme, there's merely assonance between "rain" and "change," and the lines have unequal numbers of syllables.  These structural differences illustrate that "change" in a poetic manner.

"Woman"

I recently re-learned the bass part for "Woman" (I'm in the midst of notating it) and found an old post on this blog where I'd written down the guitar and organ phrases (albeit just with note letters and I misidentified the organ as electric piano).  A couple days ago, I realized that since the guitar and organ play the same two-bar phrase, just starting at different points, they form a very simple canon:

My notation shows just four measures, but obviously, these phrases continue.

"You Make Me Feel Good"

I've been reviewing some of the early Decca era songs recently, and this evening I played through "You Make Me Feel Good."  I realized that the song contains only major chords:  E major, G# major, A major, and B major.  Because there isn't any of the "sadness" of minor chords, there's something of a sense of that "feel[ing] good."

Ennismore

According to Russo's Collector's Guide, fifty years ago to-day (20 October 1972), Colin Blunstone's Ennismore (Epic S EPC 65278) was released in the U.K.  The release in the U.S. and Canada (Epic KE 31994) was 26 February 1973.

The same day, "I Don't Believe in Miracles" b/w "I've Always Had You" (Epic S EPC 8434) was released in the U.K.  The release in the U.S. and Canada (Epic 5-10948) was 22 January 1973.

"Tragedy" b/w "He's a Dynamo"

According to Russo's Collector's Guide, fifty years ago to-day (16 October 1972), Argent's "Tragedy" b/w "He's a Dynamo" (both edited versions) (Epic 5-10919) was released in the U.S. and Canada.

"Never My Love"

A couple days ago, I was thinking about the Association's "Never My Love" and realized that in the lines "When I've asked you to spend your whole life / With me," "life" is held for almost two measures in the lead vocals and sung with a melisma in the backing vocals and that both of these articulations provide a sense of the entirety of that "whole."  I also referenced the version by "Neil MacArthur" (Colin Blunstone's pseudonym from the late 1960s) and found that while it's a bit different, these elements are present there too.  The backing vocals in this section don't have words, just "ah"s, but "life" is sung with a melisma in the lead vocal (C# B) and held for almost a whole measure.

Begin Here

Yester-day, I lookt at the cover of Begin Here, and I realized that it has a certain similarity with the cover of the Beatles' With the Beatles.

The main similarity is the lighting.  In both, the band members' faces are lit primarily from one side, although, obviously, this effect is pushed to its extreme on the Beatles' album cover.

The Zombies have often cited the Beatles' influence.  I guess I'd always considered it only as a musical influence, but this seems to be an instance of a visual influence.

"Don't Go Away"

Lately, I've been re-learning some parts that I'd forgotten and never wrote down.  Last night, I re-learned the chords for "Don't Go Away."  I posted about this in my Instagram stories along with a clip of the song, and I discovered something I'd never heard before tacked onto the end:  the Zombies dedicating a copy of "Remember You" to the winner of some sort of contest in Record Mirror.  I found the track on YouTube:

There's a brief note about this on the bottom of page 74 in Russo's Collector's Guide:  "A 'Remember You' UK acetate with a personalized message from The Zombies was issued as a Record Mirror prize in 1966.  Only one copy is known to exist."

Anyway, here are the chords for "Don't Go Away":

|: D major | C major | G major | A major :|

F# major | G major | A major | D major

F# major | G major | A major

|: D major | C major :|

|: G major | C major | A major | F major | D major :|

|: A major | G major :|

F major | G major

|: D major | C major :|

|: G major | C major | A major | F major | D major :|

|: A major | G major :|

F major | G major

|: D major | C major | G major | A major :|

F# major | G major | A major | D major

F# major | G major | A major

|: D major | C major :| D major

As always, there's the disclaimer that I may have something wrong.  Also, note that some parts of this are simplified; for instance, the repeated D major | C major section is more of a guitar figure, not just strummed chords.

Odessey and Oracle

Last night, I tried to figure out the piano in the verses of "Brief Candles."  I was unsuccessful at this, but I did end up learning the chords for the chorus.  After playing them over a few times and thinking that they were familiar, I realized that they're very similar to the chords in the verses of "This Will Be Our Year."

The chorus of "Brief Candles" is:

|: A major | A major 7 | D major | F major | E major :|

D major | A major

D major | B major

The verse of "This Will Be Our Year" is:

A major | C# minor | A major 7 | D major

F major | E major | D major | A major

All but a few of the chords in the chorus of "Brief Candles" are held for a full measure, but the chords in the verse of "This Will Be Our Year" are each held for half a measure.

The bass parts for these two sections play a similar descending line.  Simplified, it's something like A (G#) G F# F E D A.  "This Will Be Our Year" has that G# (under C# minor); "Brief Candles" doesn't.  The bass part in "Brief Candles" also goes on a bit longer (under D major and B major).

These two sections are different enough that they're distinct but similar enough to lend some cohesion to the songs on Odessey and Oracle.  It's worth noting that both were written by Chris White.

"Nothing's Changed"

 

Earlier this year, I was thinking about the Hohner Pianet solo in the alternate take of "Nothing's Changed" (available on the third disc of Zombie Heaven), and I realized that most of it is triplets.  I re-learned it, notated it, and made this short demonstration of it.  The Vox Continental part, which I included in the audio but didn't show in the video, is the same except for an arpeggiated A major at the end.  On their own, the two keyboard parts sound a bit odd; for some context, I also played the guitar chords.  I used The Zombies Greatest Hits, published by Alfred, as a basis, but I didn't follow exactly what the book has (because I don't think it's entirely accurate).  I played C major | C major 7 | D minor 7 | E minor | F major | G major | A major.  Of course, there's the standard disclaimer that I may not have this entirely accurate either.

Drawbar settings I used for the Vox Continental:

16' at 6, 8' and 4' at 8, IV at 8

"Can't Nobody Love You"

A couple months ago, I dug out my old notation of the bass part in "Can't Nobody Love You" (which I wrote out in 2015).  Recently, I made a better copy of it and even found some errors to fix (I had an F in place of a C, and I had the last two notes in the wrong octave).  The standard disclaimer that I may have something wrong still applies, though.

I started the notation where the bass part starts, and I wrote the chords in above the staff, but because the bass part doesn't start at the beginning of the song, there are a few chords that aren't written in.  For the guitar solo, I put just a single measure of rest with a fermata.  I don't know the proper way to deal with a section like that, and this is the best I could come up with.

"Sweet Mary"

Recently, I learned the Fender Rhodes part at the beginning of Argent's "Sweet Mary."  (What I have is probably not entirely accurate, but it's pretty close, at least.)  It's well beyond my level of notational ability, so I made a video in order to have some record of it.

 

I used one of the Rhodes sounds (EPiano Rd2) on my Hammond SKX, which I got a few months ago.

To-day's also Rod Argent's birthday.

"This Will Be Our Year"

Recently, I got Live from Studio Two, the live album and DVD of the Zombies' performance at Abbey Road Studios last September.  I haven't watched the DVD yet, but I listened to the CD a few days ago.  It occurred to me that over the years, there's been something of an expansion of the last lines of "This Will Be Our Year" - "And this will be our year / Took a long time to come."  Even on Odessey and Oracle, the tempo there slows a bit, but it's developed over the years as the Zombies play the song live.  On Live at the Bloomsbury Theatre, it's more or less the same as on Odessey and Oracle; the tempo just slows a bit.  I'm pretty sure though that in every other live version I've heard (Odessey and Oracle Revisited, Live at Metropolis Studios, Stage on Sixth performance, KEXP performance, the Daytrotter Session, Summer Stage Concert, Extended Versions, the 2015 performance of Odessey and Oracle on NPR, and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction performance), there's a longer break between the two lines and Rod Argent plays a piano phrase there.  Because of this expansion, these live versions actually give a better sense of the duration of that "long time" than the original studio version does.

---

While looking up those live versions, I also discovered that the Stage on Sixth performance (15 March 2013) and the KEXP performance (16 March 2013) were on sequential days!

Argent Live at the Paris Theatre, 14 December 1972

I'll probably post about this again in a few months when the fiftieth anniversary rolls around, but I recently discovered a complete recording of Argent's performance at the Paris Theatre.

In March 2018, I found a partial recording ("Be My Lover, Be My Friend," "Sweet Mary," "Hold Your Head Up," and "He's a Dynamo").  Apparently, the original page is gone, but it was re-posted in February last year.

In January 2020, I found an-other partial recording ("Be My Lover, Be My Friend," "Sweet Mary," "I Am the Dance of Ages," and "He's a Dynamo").

Recently, I went looking for that first recording again, and I found the full performance in the related posts.  Here's the set list:

• "Be My Lover, Be My Friend"
• "Sweet Mary"
• "Tragedy"
• "I Am the Dance of Ages" (with a bit of "Rejoice" as an introduction and a quote of "God Bless Ye Merry, Gentlemen" in the solo)
• "The Fakir" (including what seems to be the fast, arpeggiated Pianet part from "Pleasure")
• "Hold Your Head Up"
• "He's a Dynamo"

The first recording I found was dated simply 1972; the second says 1 July 1972; and the third says 6 January 1973.  I think the actual date is 14 December 1972.  In his Collector's Guide, Greg Russo gives that date along with this set list and this location.

In the audio file itself, Bob Harris explains that "This is the first concert program that they've done for quite some time, and in fact, it's one of our rare opportunities of getting the chance to listen to them live these days 'cause for the next month or so, they'll be going into the studio to put the final touches to their fourth album, which should be released sometime early in February."  According to Russo, Argent's fourth album, In Deep, was released in March 1973 (the 23rd in the U.K. and the 26th in the U.S. and Canada).

"Hold Your Head Up" b/w "Closer to Heaven"

According to Russo's Collector's Guide, fifty years ago to-day (5 June 1972), Argent's "Hold Your Head Up" (3:15 edit) b/w "Closer to Heaven" (Epic 5-10852) was released in the U.S. and Canada.

"Sweet Mary"

Yester-day, I listened to Ring of Hands (and All Together Now), and I noticed a small feature in "Sweet Mary" that I've commented about in a few others songs already.  In the backing vocals, there's the line "All alone when I wanted you so bad."  "All alone" alliterates, and since the two words begin with the same sound, there's a sense of that singularity.

"Tragedy" b/w "Rejoice"

According to Russo's Collector's Guide, fifty years ago to-day (26 May 1972), Argent's "Tragedy" b/w "Rejoice" (Epic S EPC 8115) was released in the U.K.

"Care of Cell 44"

A number of years ago, I wrote some posts about musical elements in "Care of Cell 44" that seem to undermine the apparent happiness and optimism.  Yester-day, I was thinking about the bass part during the bridge, and I realized that it's one of these elements too.

The lyrics there are:

We'll walk in a way we used to walk

And it could be so nice

We'll talk in a way we used to talk

And it could be so nice

I've noted before that for "a way we used to walk," the lead vocal is on the off-beats, illustrating perhaps that the two people in this relationship were at odds with each other.

For almost all of the bridge, the bass plays on the off-beats too.  It's something like:

Musically, this seems to illustrate that the "way we used to walk" was out of step.

All Together Now

According to Russo's Collector's Guide, fifty years ago to-day (21 April 1972), Argent's album All Together Now (Epic S EPC 64962) was released in the U.K.  The U.S. and Canada version (Epic KE 31556) was released on 26 June.

"Butcher's Tale"

I was thinking about "Butcher's Tale" last night, specifically:

And I can't stop shaking

My hands won't stop shaking

My arms won't stop shaking

My mind won't stop shaking

I realized that there are a couple features here that illustrate the incessant nature of this shaking.

Of course, there's the repetition of the word itself and even of the structure of the lines.  Different body parts are substituted, but each line ends with the phrase "won't stop shaking" (the rhetorical term for this structure is epistrophe).

The first line is a bit different, but the other three lines are all sung to the same melody, something like:

The repetition of this melody not only contributes to the incessant feeling, but it also emphasizes the lines' similarity.

"Hung up on a Dream"

Last night, I was thinking about "Hung up on a Dream," and I realized that the line "And turned me on to sounds unheard" bears some resemblance to part of John Keats' "Ode on a Grecian Urn":  "Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard / Are sweeter; therefore, ye soft pipes, play on."  Both comment on "unheard" sounds.

In Claes Johansen's Hung up on a Dream, Argent says that Shakespeare's "language spoke to me; it had an indefinable, spiritual quality."  This line in "Hung up on a Dream" may be an instance of Keats' language eliciting a similar response, or it could just be a coincidence.

"I've Always Had You"

Yester-day I listened to the 50th anniversary edition of One Year for the first time.  One of the bonus tracks is a demo of "I've Always Had You," which later appeared on Ennismore.  This is a minor point, but I noticed that "good and bad" in the line "I've travelled far, through good and bad" is a merism.

"Care of Cell 44"

I was thinking about "Care of Cell 44" recently and had two thoughts:

First, it would make more sense to understand the "good morning" at the beginning of the song more metaphorically than strictly temporally.  It's an epistolary song ("writing this letter..."), and the letter could be read at any time of the day, not just the morning.  As a metaphor, though, this "good morning" could represent the renewal of the relationship that the narrator describes ("we'll get to know each other for a second time").

Second, a change in the bass part seems to indicate the narrator's growing eagerness.  For the first three verses, most of the bass part is half notes, but in the verse after the bridge, the bass part is mostly quarter notes.  To some degree, this provides a musical sense of increasing excitement, as if the narrator's heart is beating faster in anticipation of meeting his girlfriend again.

"Hold Your Head Up" b/w "Keep on Rollin'"

According to Russo's Collector's Guide, fifty years ago to-day (11 February 1972), an edited version (2:52) of Argent's "Hold Your Head Up" b/w "Keep on Rollin'" (Epic S EPC 7786) was released in the U.K.  The U.S. and Canada release (Epic 5-10852) was on 10 April.

"Say You Don't Mind" b/w "Let Me Come Closer to You"

According to Russo's Collector's Guide, fifty years ago to-day (28 January 1972), Colin Blunstone's "Say You Don't Mind" b/w "Let Me Come Closer to You" (Epic S EPC 7765) was released in the U.K.  Apparently, "Let Me Come Closer to You" was listed as just "Let Me Come Closer."

One Year

According to Russo's Collector's Guide, fifty years ago to-day (24 January 1972), Colin Blunstone's One Year (Epic E 30974) was released in the U.S. and Canada.

This is the specific edition I have (the only Blunstone album I have as a record).  Here are some pictures:

On the paper sleeve (the sleeve the record goes into before going into the cardboard sleeve), there's a short article on Argent:

ARGENT:
A New British Sound

There's a whole new thing coming out of the English music scene these days.  It's a new approach.  A new excitement.  A new sound.  It's the music of the tightly knit quartet led by Rod Argent.  (Ken Emerson of Fusion calls him "the best organist/pianist in rock.")  They are called:  Argent.

The group made their initial impact with their first album.  it catapulted the unit into English Top Ten charts and recognition as one of the most successful working bands in the British Isles.  They are now star performers in America, too - with appearances at the Boston Tea Party, New York's Fillmore East, Chicago's Kinetic Playground and The Whiskey in Los Angeles.  The boys have gotten around in a hurry.  So has "the good word" on them.

Guthrie Bester of Penthouse Magazine describes the effects:  "There are three parts to the Argent sound.  One is the pure and tensil [sic] line of the soloists, especially on guitar and organ.  The second is the clear, polished vocal work, individually and together.  And finally there is the material, one of the best original repertoires in rock.  Argent, in fact, was one of the first groups to get into what has become the new British sound.  Low-keyed, melodic, often unamplified songmaking that promises to be the big sound after the era of non-Cream that we have been into the last year.  Watch carefully now while rock and roll gets listenable and lovely, without losing any of its punch.  If you want to know where it's all going, listen to Argent.  Because Rod and company are helping to get us there."

Ring of Hands is the second Argent album.  it is uncommonly provocative, assuredly imaginative.  It sings of love and intimacy and other strange phenomena that create mind-paintings.  Argent is pure silver and gold.

Colin Blunstone's Collected

Yester-day, I happened to see the cover of Colin Blunstone's Collected compilation album, and I realized that (to some degree and probably just coincidentally) the cover art resembles that of the Beatles' A Hard Day's Night.

The entirety of the cover of Collected and each individual Beatle's row on the cover of A Hard Day's Night both show the same person with a variety of expressions.