I listened to Begin Here a few days ago (on 25 November because one of the recording sessions for the album was on 25 November 1964), and I noticed a small feature in "Sometimes," which is included as a bonus track on the CD.
The line "I've been hurt so many times before" is sung to a melody something like this:
(I'm not completely sure of the key, although the song does end with a D major chord.)
There's a denser concentration of notes for the word "many" (sung to a pair of sixteenth notes), and to some degree, this gives a sense of its meaning.
I learned part of the bass part for "Sometimes." I'm still missing most of the part during the "Well, I'm so happy..." section. But I figured some is better than nothing. There are glissandi after "I know this love is real," and I might have overdone those a bit.
I'm still unhappy with the guitar part. I'm pretty sure it's accurate as far as tonality, but not as far as rhythm, and what I have sounds dumb.
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.
According to Greg Russo's Time of the Season: The Zombies Collector's Guide, fifty years ago to-day (29 January 1965), "Tell Her No" b/w "What More Can I Do" was released in the U.K. (F.12071).
An EP titled "The Zombies" ("Kind of Girl," "Sometimes" / "It's Alright with Me," "Summertime") was also released in the U.K. (DFE 8598).
I think I've figured out the chords for "Sometimes." Mostly it just alternates between D major and G minor. Quickly alternates, I might add, and it's not the easiest transition to make.
One section ("Well, I'm so happy / When I'm with you…") is really interesting in that it contains a chromatic phrase. I'm not exactly sure what key it's in (I'd guess D major, but there are a lot of accidentals), so I'm not sure if this is notated correctly. (The inversions are how I played it on organ.)
Bb major (F, Bb, D)
G major (G, B, D)
C major (G, C, E)
A major (A, C#, E)
D minor (A, D, F)
I hadn't heard Rod's harmony (which I think is the best part of the song) during those parts (I think they're bridges?) until I got The Decca Stereo Anthology, but now that I know there's also a chromatic phrase during that part, I like it even more.
I think I've figured out a bit of the opening a cappella part too, but I'm not sure enough yet. (On the third disc of Zombie Heaven, there's some early takes of it, and the piano intermittently plays arpeggios of inverted E minor chords so they can be in tune, which further complicates figuring out what key the whole song is in.)
