"Leave Me Be"

The other thing I noticed when I listened to The Decca Stereo Anthology a few days ago is that the "-more" of "anymore" in the line "You'd better leave me be till I don't need her anymore" in "Leave Me Be" is sung with a melisma (C B, I think).  Musically, this gives something of a sense of the word's meaning.

"Leave Me Be"

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And so the time has come again where I record a batch of songs starting on the anniversary of their original recording (the 51st, in this cast).  Incidentally, I've neglected to mention that I tagged most if not all of the anniversary posts with "zchronology," and I'll continue to do that as I add more (I queued the September dates to-day).

I started with "Leave Me Be" because I already know most of it.  I played just chords for the organ part because I haven't learned it exactly yet.  In recording this, I also discovered a D note in the bass that I'd been missing, so I made a little bit of progress after all.

I Love You

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Like I mentioned earlier, I listened to I Love You this morning, and I noticed a few other things:

The backing vocals in "How We Were Before" sing the chromatic phrase that's in the chords.  I don't know how I missed it before.  Also, I'd never thought about this before, but the bongos that Hugh Grundy used on "How We Were Before" are probably the same ones that he later used on "Changes" from Odessey and Oracle.

The guitar phrases in "You Make Me Feel Good" have glissandi.  I'd sort of been playing the second (the G# to A) that way, but the first is (I think) D# to E, not just E.

I haven't really figured out either, but the organ parts for "Leave Me Be" and "Sometimes" seem to have a bit of a relation.  Specifically, a three-note phrase that starts on the fifth of whatever chord is being played.  Both have a D major chord above which there's a A, B, C, B, A, B, C, B sort of figure.  I'm not extremely confident on that though.

At the end of "She Does Everything for Me," someone (I think it's Rod Argent) sings along to the last guitar phrase, and I realized that it's the same thing that he does at the end of "Indication," except that's with the electric piano part.

"Leave Me Be"

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It occurred to me that I hadn't done a version of "Leave Me Be" since learning the bass and organ parts (or some of the organ part), so I did this last night.  It didn't turn out as well as I wanted (I tried doing a video, but I had a lot of problems), but it's much better than the last version I did.

"Tell Her No" b/w "Leave Me Be"

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Fifty years ago to-day (28 December 1964), the Zombies' "Tell Her No" b/w "Leave Me Be" was released in the U.S. and Canada (PAR 9723).

"Leave Me Be" b/w "Woman"

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Fifty years ago to-day (16 October 1964), the Zombies' second single was released: "Leave Me Be" b/w "Woman" (Decca F.12004)

"Leave Me Be"

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Yester-day I figured out the bass part and some of the organ part for "Leave Me Be."  I just played chords for the organ part because I don't have all of it figured out yet.

I went back and listened to the demo version to see if it would help in figuring out anything, and I realized that the demo version has electric piano where the final version has organ.  It's the same with "Woman" and "Kind of Girl," which were demoed at the same time as the "Leave Me Be" demo and recorded at the same time as the final version of "Leave Me Be."  So apparently, it was between 13 and 31 August 1964 (between recording those demos and recording the final backing tracks) that Rod Argent got his Vox Continental organ.

I might have a bit of the guitar solo wrong too, but I've been playing it that way for at least a year.

Recording Session

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Fifty years ago to-day (5 September 1964), the Zombies recorded the vocal tracks to "Leave Me Be," "Kind of Girl," "Sometimes," and "Woman."

Recording Session

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Fifty years ago to-day (31 August 1964), the Zombies recorded the backing tracks to "Leave Me Be," "Kind of Girl," "Sometimes," and "Woman."

Recording Session

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Fifty years ago to-day (13 August 1964), the Zombies recorded demos of "Sometimes," "Woman," "Kind of Girl," and "Leave Me Be" at Ryemuse Studios.

Three of these can be heard on the third disc of Zombie Heaven.

"Leave Me Be"

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January's Cloak:

A cover of the Zombies' "Leave Me Be."

"Leave Me Be" / "Lula Lula"

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I'm not absolutely certain on either of these, but I think I figured out the rest of the solo for "Leave Me Be" and the two or three chords (or rather chord shapes, since they're not strummed) in "Lula Lula."

In related news, most of the Zombies songs I know are the ones that Chris White wrote….