"The Coming of Kohoutek"

I listened to Berlioz's Symphonie fantastique yester-day, and afterwards, I was thinking about "Dies Irae," which is quoted in the last movement.  A loose quotation of it also appears at the beginning of Argent's "The Coming of Kohoutek," and I realized that its placement at the beginning of the three linked songs that start the Nexus album ("The Coming of Kohoutek," "Once Around the Sun," and "Infinite Wanderer") has some significance and is appropriate for this context.  As Rod Argent explains in this interview,  "the comet [Kohoutek] was heralded as being potentially one of the most spectacular events to occur in the sky for many years.  In the far past, spectacular comet visitations had been linked to all sorts of prophesies of doom and destruction, and I included a very famous musical theme - the Dies Irae, (Day of Wrath), written in the 13th century."  Obviously, the theme heralding the "Day of Wrath" precedes the event that it announces, and likewise, Argent's quotation of the tune comes first in the song.

"The Sun Will Rise Again"

I listened to Colin Blunstone's new Less Is More EP yester-day, and I noticed a small feature in "The Sun Will Rise Again."  In the line "Ev'rything must change," the three syllables of "Ev'rything" are all sung to different pitches, giving a sense of that entirety.  I referenced the versions on The Ghost of You and Me and Different Game, and in both, the pitches are G F# D.

"Care of Cell 44"

Last month, I wrote a post pointing out the similarities between "Care of Cell 44" and the Everly Brothers' "Take a Message to Mary," although I think these similarities are probably just coincidental.  I've been fleshing out some old notes on Ray Charles songs lately, and yester-day I realized that his "Funny (But I Still Love You)" could fall into the same category.  Rod Argent occasionally mentions Charles as an influence (especially for "Edge of the Rainbow," as in this interview at ~57:22, although that's a much more recent example), but I don't know if he was familiar with this particular song.  In any case, like "Care of Cell 44," it's an epistolary song; the first lines are "My dear sweetheart, I'm writing you / Just a few lines to tell you that I'm blue."  I think that's about as far as the similarities go, but it could have been an influence, even if a minor or subconscious one.

"Taking the Wings from Butterflies"

I've been re-reading Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream again, and last week, I ran across the phrase "pluck the wings from painted butterflies" (III.i.156), which reminded me of the Chris White Experience song "Taking the Wings from Butterflies" (on Volume One).  While the phrases are basically the same, I don't know if this similarity is anything more than a coincidence.  Still, I thought I'd note it.

I haven't decided to what degree I'm going to include the Chris White Experience songs here, but this one has a stronger Zombies connection than some since it was recorded during the sessions for the New World album.

"Breathe Out, Breathe In"

This morning, I watched this Zombies concert from eleven years ago to-day.  Later, I was thinking about "Breathe Out, Breathe In," and I realized that the first line ("The city's sitting pretty") exhibits both consonance ("The city's sitting pretty") and assonance ("The city's sitting pretty") and that this euphony matches and perhaps even helps evoke the description "pretty."

Miscellaneous Observations

A couple days ago, I watched a video of the Zombies performing "This Old Heart of Mine" live in France in 1966.  Rod is glimpsed only briefly in the video, but I noticed that the shirt he's wearing seems to be the same one he's wearing on the cover of the I Love You album.  There's a slightly better view of him in the video for "Goin' to a Go Go" from the same appearance:

Here's the cover of I Love You:

In the Zombie Heaven liner notes, Chris White says, "We did the Emperor Rosko TV show, 'Dents De Lait Dents De Loups,' in Paris, with Sylvie Vartan and Marianne Faithfull," and the chronology explains that the Zombies were in Paris on 29 and 30 October 1966.  A number of years ago, I did some research (detailed here) and determined that the picture on the cover of I Love You was taken sometime between 5 and 20 November 1966 in Sweden.  (About seven months after I wrote that post, I found this video in which Rod and Colin mention that the picture was taken in Sweden.)  So the videos in the links above and the I Love You album cover are only a few weeks apart at the most.

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Yester-day, I listened to Colin's Journey album because it was the fiftieth anniversary of its U.K. release, and I realized that the title may be a nod to Odessey and Oracle since journey and odyssey are synonyms.

Journey

According to Russo's Collector's Guide, fifty years ago to-day (23 February 1974), Colin Blunstone's Journey (Epic S EPC 65805) was released in the U.K.  The U.S. release (Epic KE 32962) was on 26 August.

Also released on 23 February 1974 was the single "Weak for You" (edited) b/w "Keep the Curtains Closed Today" (Dut. Epic EPC 2132), apparently a Dutch only release.

Nexus

According to Russo's Collector's Guide, fifty years ago to-day (22 February 1974), Argent's Nexus (Epic S EPC 65924) was released in the U.K.  The U.S. release (Epic KE 32573) was on 22 April.

Also released on 22 February 1974 was the single "Thunder and Lightning" (edited) b/w "Keeper of the Flame" (Epic S EPC 2147).

"I Want Her She Wants Me"

I was thinking about "I Want Her She Wants Me" last week, and I realized that one section of the bass part at the beginning of the song is similar to a section of the bass part in "Summertime."

Notating the bass part in the introduction to "I Want Her She Wants Me" is still beyond me, but the first few phrases fit nicely in 3/4 (the majority of the song is in 4/4, though):

where the first G in each measure is a hammer-on.

In "Summertime," there are some very similar phrases, first occurring at ~0:23, under the "high" of "and the cotton is high":

where the first E in each measure is a hammer-on.

The interval between the two pitches in "I Want Her She Wants Me" is a half-step, and the interval between the two pitches in "Summertime" is a whole step, but otherwise, these figures are the same.  In both songs, the figure also occurs three times in succession.

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This similarity between the bass parts reminded me of a similarity between the backing vocals that I noted years ago.  I revisited the parts and improved my accuracy, but I'm still not sure I have everything note-perfect.

The backing vocal in "Summertime" is something like:

It's a bit different the second time.  Instead of just E F# in the last line, the E F# G# F# figure is repeated.

The backing vocals in "I Want Her She Wants Me" are something like:

Common to both is the sequence E F# G(#) F# in fairly even note values.

"Care of Cell 44"

I was thinking about "Care of Cell 44" a couple days ago, and I realized that it has some similarity with the Everly Brothers' "Take a Message to Mary."  Both songs are about someone in prison and a letter or message either to or from that person ("Writing this letter hoping you're OK" in "Care of Cell 44" and the recurring title phrase in "Take a Message to Mary").

While the Everly Brothers did have some influence on the Zombies, I think this similarity is probably a coincidence.  In this interview (starting at ~32:37), Rod Argent talks about how he wrote the song, specifically how it changed as he was writing it:  "I just started out one day with the phrase, and I thought, you know, I started writing a love song really:  'Good morning to you; I hope you're feeling better, baby / Thinking of me while you are far away,' and then I thought, 'Well, why is she far away?' and then I thought, 'Well, let's not do the normal cliché; let's imagine a situation, you know, that's got some, uh, a little bit of bite to it,' and then I just imagined this thing...."  In the Zombie Heaven liner notes, he comments, "There was no inspiration behind it really."  If the Everly Brothers' song was an influence, it seems like it was only a subconscious one.  Still, I thought I'd note it.

"To Julia (For When She Smiles)"

When I listened to Into the Afterlife a couple days ago, I also had a small realization about "To Julia (For When She Smiles)."  The reason that Julia was the name chosen for the song may be that it's related to July.  In any case, it's an appropriate name for the song's summertime setting. 

"I Could Spend the Day"

I listened to Into the Afterlife yester-day and noticed a couple things.  I'd previously noted the internal rhyme in one line of "I Could Spend the Day" ("deeper sleep"), but I realized the significance:  this extra rhyme (in addition to the normal line-ending rhymes) provides a sense of that greater degree, highlighting the comparative adjective.