"Like Honey" and "Lula Lula"

Backdated, archival post

[link to original on tumblr]

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Way back in May 2012, I noted the similarities between the opening guitar figures for the Zombies' "Lula Lula" (on the New World album) and Argent's "Like Honey" (the first track on Argent).  (I'm actually sort of embarrassed about how insistent I was.  And I think I was wrong; everything I've found credits "Like Honey" to Argent and White.)  After learning both of them (both of the guitar parts at least), I discovered that they both start with an arpeggiated A minor.  Recently, I realized that both also contain chromatic phrases within the arpeggios.

In "Like Honey," the chromatic phrase is in that opening arpeggiated part.  While the higher notes mostly stay around A minor, the bottom note of the arpeggios goes from A to G to F# to F to E (incidentally, this phrase - A G F# F E - is also part of the bass line in the Zombies' "Indication").

"Lula Lula" is the opposite.  In the part after the opening, the bottom note goes up - from E to F to F# to G.

So, along with the same opening arpeggiated A minor, both songs have a chromatic figure from G to E.  One going up and one going down.