"I'll Call You Mine"

I listened to the 50th anniversary edition of Odessey and Oracle yester-day and noticed a small feature in "I'll Call You Mine."  Excepting one break, the phrase "Walk in the light of day" is sung to a conjunct melody (G# A B F E D), musically giving an impression of the steps involved in this "walk[ing]."

"I'll Call You Mine"

I'd previously noted the sort of parallelism in the line "Walk in the light of day and talk the night away" in "I'll Call You Mine," but early last month, I was thinking about this again and started wondering if these phrases were also parallel musically.  I'd forgotten about this until recently, but yester-day, I figured out the vocal melody for the first two verses in order to investigate this.

The two halves of the line begin the same way (G# A B), and the last few notes of each, while not exactly the same, trace a diatonic descent (F E D and E D C), so there is a bit of musical parallelism that matches the sort of parallelism in the lyrics.

I was also struck by how much of the melody occurs on the off-beats, and I think this may be significant in light of the lyrics.  The second verse (repeated as the third verse) ends with the line "I was afraid to try to call you mine," and this delivery that comes just after the beat seems to indicate the narrator's hesitancy and reluctance.

"I'll Call You Mine"

Here's the bass part for "I'll Call You Mine," with the guitar chords written in above the staff.  There are eight measures of a piano introduction before this, but I didn't include those in my notation.  Of course, there's also the disclaimer that I may have something wrong.

December 1968 Overdubs

According to the Zombie Heaven liner notes, fifty years ago this month, the Zombies recorded additional parts for songs they originally recorded between 1964 and 1966: "If It Don't Work Out," "Don't Cry for Me," "I Know She Will," "Walking in the Sun," "I'll Keep Trying," and "I'll Call You Mine."  These were all done at Morgan Studios, Willesden.

"Time of the Season" b/w "I'll Call You Mine"

According to Russo's Collector's Guide, fifty years ago to-day (6 May 1968), the Zombies' "Time of the Season" b/w "I'll Call You Mine" (Date 2-1604) was released in the US and Canada.

"Time of the Season" b/w "I'll Call You Mine"

According to both the Zombie Heaven liner notes and Russo's Collector's Guide, fifty years ago to-day (5 April 1968), the Zombies released "Time of the Season" b/w "I'll Call You Mine (CBS 3380).

"I'll Call You Mine"

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I think there might be a little more variation than just a straight G major chord for the beginning of the song (a G major followed by a single B note and then a single G note a third lower), but otherwise, the chords for "I'll Call You Mine" are pretty easy.  I think I have these right, and it's just that they're weird chords, rather than my having something wrong.

Verses:  G major / E major / F major / D major

Choruses:  G major / E minor / D major / C major / G major

"I'll Call You Mine"

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Because I learned the bass part for it about a month ago, I decided to start with "I'll Call You Mine" from the four songs the Zombies recorded fifty years ago to-day.  I attempted the vocals too, which sort of buried the bass part, but whatever.  I was surprised to find that this is only the second time I've recorded "I'll Call You Mine" for this project.  The last time was in 2013.

I'm sure I don't have Rod's harmony part right, and I think there's an-other vocal part I'm missing during the "I'll call you mine"s during the choruses (so I just doubled the one I knew).  The piano part is just a pale representation of what it should be too.

Still, I thought this turned out fairly well, considering my voice isn't as good as any of theirs.

Recording Session

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According to The Decca Stereo Anthology liner notes, fifty years ago to-day (4 May 1966), the Zombies recorded "Indication," "I'll Call You Mine," "Gotta Get a Hold of Myself," and "She Does Everything for Me."

Unlike the previous Zombies sessions (all held at Studio No. 2 at Decca West Hampstead), these were recorded as Lansdowne Studio.

"I'll Call You Mine"

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Earlier, I figured out the bass part for "I'll Call You Mine."  When I listened to The Decca Stereo Anthology about a week ago, I thought a few sections of it sounded pretty easy to figure out, and I already knew the chords (more or less), which helpt.  The 50th anniversary of its recording (4 May 1966, along with "Gotta Get a Hold of Myself," "Indication," and "She Does Everything for Me") is in less than a month though, so I'll just wait until then to record it.  (That also gives me time to remember the chords and practice the small bit I know of the piano part.)

In figuring out the bass part, I referenced all of the recordings I have - the one on The Decca Stereo Anthology, two different mixes that are included as bonus tracks on the first copy of Odessey and Oracle I got (over seven years ago!), and the version on Zombie Heaven.  In doing so, I re-discovered that except for the Zombie Heaven version, they're all slightly out-of-tune.  What I mean is: if you play along (and your instrument's in tune), it won't match.  I think they were sped up ever-so-slightly when they were converted to digital, which affects the pitch.

Odessey and Oracle

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I listened to Odessey and Oracle to-day (with bonus tracks), and I discovered a lot of new things!

"Care of Cell 44"

The last three lines of the first verse all start with words that end in "-ing," but their meaning is sort of ambiguous.

Good morning to you I hope you're feeling better, baby
Thinking of me while you are far away
Counting the days until they set you free again
Writing this letter hoping you're OK

The "thinking" seems to go along with the "you're" from the previous line, so: "I hope you're feeling better [and] thinking of me...."  (Although the "thinking of me..." could also be a participial.)  The subject of "counting" could be either the "you" or the singer/speaker.  "I hope you're... counting the days..." or "[I am] counting the days."  (Again, "counting the days..." could be a participial too, modifying either the "you" or the speaker/singer.)  The subject of "writing" is clearly the speaker/singer.  Things could be divided a couple different ways there.

"A Rose for Emily"

There's an extra line in the second and third verses (which I knew), but this time I realized the significance of the music's repetition there.  The chords under the second half of "The roses in her garden fade away" (A and Bm) are also used for the next line: "Not one left for her grave."  Musically, there's a return to "the roses in her garden," as if to check if there's one for her grave.

"Maybe after He's Gone"

There's some parallelism in the lines "I feel I'll never breathe again / I feel life's gone from me."  Particularly because both start with "I feel," "I'll never breathe again" is equated to "life's gone from me."

"Brief Candles"

I got thinking about the "tight" in the first line: "There she sits her hands are held, tight around her glass."  In that rendering, it's an adjective, but it could also be parsed as a flat adverb:  "There she sits her hands are held tight[ly] around her glass."  There's no real difference in the meaning, but grammatically it's different.

I also discovered a consistency in the rhyme scheme.  Each verse has a rhyme scheme of AABB, but the B's carry over: the last two lines of the first verse end with "stay" and "way;" the those in both the second and third verses end with "say" and "way."

I think I noticed this before but forgot to write about it: the vocals are double-tracked during Blunstone's verse (as are the others'), except for the second "say" in "He does not say a single word, no word of love to say."  It draws attention to itself because that second voice is missing, and it musically portrays the lack of a "word of love."

"I Want Her She Wants Me"

The continual repetition of "I want her she wants me" at the end mirrors the cyclical nature of the statement itself.  It just keeps going around.

"Butcher's Tale"

I noticed this earlier, but I've neglected to write about it:  the repetition of the "can't/won't stop shaking" line reflects the inability to cease.

A new thing I noticed though is the rhyme scheme of the first verse, which is different from all the others.  The first verse has ABAB ("trade," "fee," "stayed," "see") where the others are ABCB.  So as the speaker/singer looks back on his past life ("A butcher, yes, that was my trade...") things have a stronger coherence than they do once he goes to war.

"Friends of Mine"

I'd previously noted the parallelism in "That's something to see; that's nothing to hide," but I noticed a new one in the chorus:  "And they've got something it's so hard to find" parallels with "And they've got something you don't often find."  It's not as strictly parallel as some other instances, but it's pretty close.

—Bonus Tracks—
"I'll Call You Mine"

I've been meaning to mention this since 19 April:  although "I'll Call You Mine" is a bonus track, it works really well sequenced after "Time of the Season" (as it is on one of the Odessey and Oracle CD re-issues I have) because they're in relative keys.  "Time of the Season" is in E minor, and "I'll Call You Mine" is (at least mostly) in G major.

I did notice a new thing too.  During this section:

I couldn't chance to break the spell we had
The happy times we had, and yet the times were sad
Just for me, baby, you understood then
I was afraid to try to call you mine

Blunstone is singing the lead vocal, and Argent is doing the harmony vocal.  But Argent's harmony vocal drops out for the third line.  So there's only one voice (Blunstone's) singing "Just for me...."  It emphasizes the exclusivity.

"Don't Cry for Me"

An-other thing I've neglected to write about:  the "down" in the lines "Don't break your heart / Thinking you have let me down" is broken into syllables (a melisma), and the later notes are lower in pitch, so the word itself is going down.

"Smokey Day"

Like the "tight" in "Brief Candles," there are words here that could be either adjectives or flat adverbs:  "Soft, serene, she dances" or "Soft[ly], serene[ly] she dances."

"She Loves the Way They Love Her"

Surely I must have noticed this before, but I don't think I've written about it:  in the first line of the third verse, there's a multitude of internally-rhyming words:  "Crying, dying, sighing, whining, shining in the microphone."

"A Girl Like That"

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When I listened to Colin Blunstone and Rod Argent's Out of the Shadows yester-day, one of the things I found was an instance of day and night parallelism in "A Girl Like That":

Spend my days without love
Spend my nights alone

I'm not sure if it's intentional, but it recalls the parallelism of "Walk in the light of day and talk the night away" from "I'll Call You Mine."  It's sort of opposite though in that "I'll Call You Mine" describes togetherness and that part of "A Girl Like That" is about solitude.

Odessey and Oracle

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I listened to Odessey and Oracle (with bonus tracks!) to work on transcribing the lyrics (which I think I'm almost finished with), and I noticed a lot of things.  I'm still slightly astounded that I'm only now discovering some things about this album, but at the same time, I hope I continue to do so because it just makes me love it so much more.

In the verses of "Beechwood Park," certain words are repeated within a line, ostensibly to further the images.  There's "Do you remember summer days just after summer rain" and "Do you remember golden days and golden summer sun."

Also in "Beechwood Park," there's assonance (and internal rhyme with "dark" and "park") in the line "And we would count the evening stars as the day grew dark in Beechwood Park."

If you isolate the backing vocals for the verses of "Hung up on a Dream," you can get some (perhaps relevant, perhaps irrelevant) statements:  "Gentle love / turned me on to sounds unheard" and "Sometimes I think I'll never find / Gentle love."

I'm still not sure about the lyrics in "Changes," but what I currently have is:

I knew her when summer was her crown
And autumn sighed how brown her eyes 

I knew her when winter was her cloak
In spring her voice she spoke to me

In checking my transcription, I noticed that the poetic device here isn't line-ending rhyme, but internal rhyme:  "crown" with "brown" and "cloak" with "spoke."  I also noticed that the summer/autumn couplet appears two more times than the winter/spring couplet, which - along with "Do you remember summer days just after summer rain" from "Beechwood Park" - seems to emphasize summer on the album.

"Butcher's Tale" has a very obvious domestic element:

I want to go home
Please let me go home
Go home

I'm sort of embarrassed that I didn't think of that when I initially listed instances of home in the Zombies' songs.

In "Friends of Mine," the line "It feels so good to know two people so in love, so in love" sort of parallels the line "Feels so good you're coming home soon" in "Care of Cell 44."  Both are just a single line (in "Friends of Mine," I think it's technically a pre-chorus, and I believe it constitutes the entire chorus in "Care of Cell 44"), and both mention that it "feels so good."

—

I also found some things in the bonus tracks.

The line "Walk in the light of day and talk the night away" from "I'll Call You Mine" is such a perfect line.  There are two instances of internal rhyme ("walk" with "talk" [which, incidentally, is a line-ending rhyme in the bridge of "Care of Cell 44"] and "day" with "away") and a sort of parallelism with the temporal elements ("day" and "night").

From "Imagine the Swan," the line "And it's there in my room to remind me of you" seems to be an-other instance of the Zombies' remembering things in their songs.  It's "remind" instead of "remember," but it's still a similar sentiment.

I also started paying attention to the backing vocals during this section:

For the colors are gone
You've become kind of grey
And you're not like the swan
That I knew yesterday

Now the pictures are wrong
You've become kind of grey
I'll imagine the swan
That you were yesterday

During the first two lines, the backing vocals are descending (the second descent starts at a lower pitch than the first, so it's a continual descent, not just a repetition of the first descent).  During the third line, it's a single note, and during the last line, there are interruptions.  So, taken as a whole, those backing vocals indicate the decay that the lyrics themselves are talking about ("the colors are gone / You've become kind of grey").

The lyrics of "Smokey Day" are still proving to be difficult to decipher, but I did notice an instance of consonance in the line "Smokey day, hey, bring the dust of dusky evening."

And I found instances of crying and dreaming in "She Loves the Way They Love Her," although the crying seems more theatrical than emotional:

Crying, dying, sighing, whining, shining in the microphone
Dreaming dreams of future time when she and me are all alone

It's sort of obvious, but there's assonance in that first line - "crying," "dying," & "sighing" and "whining" & "shining."  That assonance is sort of present in the "time" in the second line too.

Falling Fifth

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I've been thinking about the pieces in the Zombies' repertoire that start with a falling fifth (because I recently learned that "Indication" also starts with a falling fifth).  I wrote a post about this a few months ago, but in it, I sort of imply that "I'll Call You Mine" is a Rod Argent song.  That's not the case; it was written by Chris White.  (Other songs that start with a falling fifth are "She's Not There" and "Hung up on a Dream.")

Still, it illustrates that their writing was pretty similar at times.  (Along with starting pieces with falling fifths, they both also used chromatic bass parts and really interesting relationships between bass parts and chords.)

Falling Fifth

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I'm going to start posting some more analytical things here too, besides just my trying to figure out how to play the songs.  Because often in learning how to play the songs, I discover other interesting things about them.

—

A few months ago, I noted that "Hung up on a Dream" and "I'll Call You Mine" both start with a falling fifth (from D to G).

For whatever reason, I was thinking of this last night, and I realized that "She's Not There" also starts with a falling fifth, in the bass part.  Although that's E to A.

The falling fifth was something that Robert Schumann apparently used often and in reference to his wife Clara.  Rod Argent listened (and probably still does listen) to a lot of classical music, but I don't know if Schumann's falling fifths are where he got the idea to start those three songs with falling fifths (or if he listened to Schumann at all).  I'm sort of disposed to think not because they don't function in the same way.  Argent's falling fifths start the pieces with something of a jolt.  But I think the connection is still worth noting.

Falling Fifth

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I just realized that both "Hung up on a Dream" and "I'll Call You Mine" start with a falling fifth (D to G).

"I'll Call You Mine"

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I remember reading an article about the Zombies that said something about "distantly related chords" in "You Make Me Feel Good," which was sort of hilarious because the chords in "You Make Me Feel Good" are pretty standard.  It's mostly just the tonic, sub-dominant, and dominant chords in E major - which are the basis of nearly every three-chord song.  The only weird thing is the G# major, but even that still fits in the E major scale - it's a chord built on the major third.

But "I'll Call You Mine"…  Now that has weird chords.  So much so that I'm still questioning whether I have them right.  The chorus is pretty standard fare - G Em D C.  But the verses!  I think it's something like G E F D (which is what I play).

It seems weird to me that there are chords so close together yet none of them are minor.  Or even built on accidentals.  I would say that this is in G major, but the F major chord conflicts with that because the F has a sharp in the G major scale.  So….

Also, I play the piano riff (or most of it) on guitar because I don't know it that well on piano yet..  Also because playing it on guitar is simpler (I don't need to play so many notes, most of which I don't know yet).