"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.

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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.