"Brief Candles"

Backdated, archival post

[link to original on tumblr]

---&---

I think I've figured out the opening piano part for "Brief Candles."  This same phrase repeats in the first part of the verses too (the whole of the first line and most of the second).

As I've mentioned before, I'm not a very good keyboard player, so I had to record this in two parts - the melody and the accompaniment.

Songs from 25 November 1964 Session

Backdated, archival post

[link to original on tumblr]

---&---

I've been listening to each group of songs on the 50th anniversaries of when they were recorded, and I found some interesting lyrical things about the batch from the 25th.  (Mostly because I was either transcribing the lyrics or checking transcriptions I'd done earlier.)

In "Tell Her No," there's the line "Just remember she said that to me" - an-other instance of remembering in the Zombies' songs.  Although, unlike the others I've found, it's an imperative.

I also noticed the conjunctions in the first verse of "I Remember When I Loved Her":

She seemed so cold to me
And I remember when I loved her
She seemed so cold to me
But I remember when I loved her

The conjunctions make a huge difference here.  The first ("and") indicates simply that the speaker/singer remembers his past love.  The second ("but") seems to suggest that he still harbors some sort of feeling, whether it's remorse or nostalgia.  This could probably be taken in other ways, but that's how I understand it.  At least for now.

I'm not sure if I'd noticed this or not (apparently I haven't written anything about it), but there's also a reference to dreams (an-other common Zombie theme) in "I Remember When I Loved Her":  "My dream of love has gone."

Finally, the phrasing in the second verse of "I Want You Back Again" seems to be a precedent for the phrasing in the third verse of "If It Don't Work Out."  (I should note that I'm talking about the alternate version of "I Want You Back Again," but the single version may very well have the same phrasing.  I haven't compared the two.)  I'd format the verse from "I Want You Back Again" as:

Since you have left me
I'm all alone
I need your help, I
Can't stand on my own

That "I" is tacked on to the end of the third line even though grammatically it goes with the fourth.  The same sort of thing is in the third verse of "If It Don't Work Out":

One day I know we'll find again the love we had and I
Will know and feel the joys and pleasures that I'm dreaming of

Like I said in a previous post about "If It Don't Work Out," it's like the speaker/singer is so concerned and worried (or perhaps, in that particular verse of "If It Don't Work Out," excited) that he stumbles over his words.  Not surprisingly, considering that similarity, both were written by Rod Argent.  Actually, all of the songs I talked about in the post are by Rod Argent.  "He's our A side writer."

"The Way I Feel Inside"

Backdated, archival post

[link to original on tumblr]

---&---

Over the past week or so I've been intermittently working on writing out the notation for "The Way I Feel Inside."  It's been really interesting notating the vocal part because nearly all of the phrases begin on downbeats.  But I just discovered that I have some of the note values wrong, so everything after those notes is wrong (which is further complicated because I repeated that error when those notes are repeated).

I've been trying to get better at the formal aspects of music, including notation, but I'm still not very good at the rhythms and note values.  It doesn't help that the first part is a cappella and - because of that - sort of rubato.

Begin Here Session

Backdated, archival post

[link to original on tumblr]

---&---

Fifty years ago to-day (25 November 1964) was the second session for the Zombies' Begin Here album.  For the album, they recorded "I Don't Want to Know," "What More Can I Do," and "I Remember When I Loved Her."  They also recorded "Walking in the Sun," "Tell Her No," "I Want You Back Again" (although not the single version), and the rehearsal version of "The Way I Feel Inside" found on disc 3 of Zombie Heaven.

I think this was also the session when the band received the phone call from Al Gallico that "She's Not There" was a #1 hit.  I've read interviews where they said they got that phone call while recording "Tell Her No," which would make it the 25th, but the Zombie Heaven booklet (where I get most of these dates, cross-referenced with the liner notes of the Decca Stereo Anthology) says that the call was during the session on the 24th.

Begin Here Session

Backdated, archival post

[link to original on tumblr]

---&---

Fifty years ago to-day (24 November 1964), the Zombies recorded "I'm Going Home," "Road Runner," and "Sticks and Stones" during the first session for the Begin Here album.

"A Love That Never Was"

Backdated, archival post

[link to original on tumblr]

---&---

When I posted a new version of "A Love That Never Was," I checked the lyrics that I'd transcribed.  I think the only change I had to make was "vague hallucinations."  I'd heard it as "fake hallucinations" when I originally transcribed the lyrics.  I'm actually not really sure which it is, but I'm leaning toward "vague hallucinations" now.  It's not helpful that V & F and G & K sound sort of similar.

In any case, I also found more typical Zombie themes.

Memories: "Memories of a love that never was"

Crying: "No one needs to cry"

Dreams: "Living in a dream"

I haven't really looked into this very much yet, but I think the sun is also pretty prominent in the Zombies' lyrics, and there's a line about it in "A Love That Never Was" - "Weeping from the sun."

I really need to work on a lyrical concordance, and I'm slowly doing that by transcribing the lyrics of a song when I post a new version of it here, but it'll still take awhile.

"A Love That Never Was"

Backdated, archival post

[link to original on tumblr]

---&---

A few months ago, I figured out that I was playing a wrong note in one of the arpeggios in "A Love That Never Was."  Last night, I was playing around with it, and I think I've corrected it.  I'd been playing it as F#, A, D#, F#, but I think it's actually F#, C, D#, A.  As I'd been playing it wrongly, it was the top part of a B7, but if F#, C, D#, A are the constituent notes of a chord, I do not know what chord it is.

I also played the chromatic phrase that I discovered a few months ago on organ.  It's not actually in the song (although I think part of that phrase is in the backing vocals), but I was curious as to how it sounded.

I used my tremolo pedal for some of the arpeggio parts in this, which I'm not sure is accurate, but I'm pretty sure there is some kind of guitar effect.  I missed a note or two in transitioning between guitar parts, and some others aren't very clear, but this was the third or fourth take, so I just went with it.

Also, I discovered that the drumming pattern is similar to that on "She's Not There."

"If It Don't Work Out"

Backdated, archival post

[link to original on tumblr]

---&---

I was listening to my recording of just the bass and organ from "If It Don't Work Out," and I kept thinking that it was "I'll Keep Trying" instead.  And then I realized why: both have sort of an alternating rhythm between the bass part and the piano part (although in "If It Don't Work Out," the bass part is also played on piano, at least during some sections).  I think it's something like the bass playing on the beat and the piano playing on the offbeats (electric piano in the case of "I'll Keep Trying").  Both songs are by Rod Argent who seems to use interesting rhythms like that a lot.  They were recorded only two weeks apart, too - "I'll Keep Trying" on 24 June 1965 (incidentally Colin's 20th birthday) and "If It Don't Work Out" on 8 July.

I transcribed the lyrics this morning, and the song has some really interesting line breaks.  At least as far as I've formatted it.  I went more by phrasing than rhyme scheme, which you could make a case for.  In any case there are some interesting phrasings.  Like, "When she loved me nothing in the world could touch her love, and now / The light of love has gone, can I return the joy she's dreaming of?"  The line break there clearly demonstrates that "now" something is different.

I'm not sure, but "the light of love" might be a reference to the Supremes' "When the Lovelight Starts Shining through His Eyes," which the Zombies did on the BBC (as "When the Lovelight Starts Shining through Her Eyes").  However, I've also found that phrase ("love light") in Herman's Hermits' "You Won't Be Leaving" and even "I'll Be Home for Christmas," so I'm hesitant to assert that it's from "When the Lovelight Starts Shining through His Eyes."  It's certainly possible, but it seems to be a more common phrase than I'd thought.  (Interestingly, they did "If It Don't Work Out" and "When the Lovelight Starts Shining through Her Eyes" for the same radio program - Saturday Club, recorded 20 September 1965 and broadcast 2 October.)

The line break in the second verse ("Will she still care for me the way she did before, will / She turn around and tell me she don't love me anymore") seems to have the singer/speaker stumble in his singing.  Like he runs out of breath in the middle of a sentence because of his insistent questioning and worry.

And the chorus has typical Zombie themes of crying and returning home:  "The tears that I cried in vain / Won't bring her home."  Dreaming, an-other common theme in their songs, is mentioned in two of the verses ("can I return the joy she's dreaming of?" and "the joys and pleasures that I'm dreaming of"), but I think they're more aspirational dreams than sleeping dreams.

Finally, if you listen closely to the beginning of the track as it appears on the third disc of Zombie Heaven, you can hear someone say, "Nice and driving, alright?"  I think it's Gus Dudgeon, the engineer, but I'm not certain.

"If It Don't Work Out"

Backdated, archival post

[link to original on tumblr]

---&---

I might have hit a wrong note in the organ part, but I was having some problems with recording it and didn't want to have to do it again.

Most of the bass part is just D notes, so it's not that interesting just by itself.

Also, an-other new one in the catalogue.

"If It Don't Work Out"

Backdated, archival post

[link to original on tumblr]

---&---

While listening to Zombie Heaven yester-day, I thought the bass part for "If It Don't Work Out" sounded pretty easy.  I think I just figured it out (the only difficult part is remembering what rhythm corresponds to what section of the song), along with the organ part at the very end of the bridge, which I'm pretty sure is the only organ part in the whole song.

It's sort of late though, and I still have stuff to do to-day, so I'm not going to record a version to-night.  Maybe to-morrow.

"Will You Love Me Tomorrow"

Backdated, archival post

[link to original on tumblr]

---&---

I just listened to Zombie Heaven Disc 4 and discovered that the solo in "Will You Love Me Tomorrow" is played on both electric piano and electric guitar.  I can play the solo on electric guitar (at least the solo as I played in on electric piano in the version I did about a month ago, which might not be very accurate), but the transitioning back to chords is the difficult thing.

I should also note that I didn't play the guitar chord rhythms right in that version I did last month, but that was intentional.

Zombie Heaven

Backdated, archival post

[link to original on tumblr]

---&---

I listened to the third disc of Zombie Heaven to-day, and I noticed some more things:

1.  At about 1:38 in the instrumental version of "Nothing's Changed," it sounds like Rod Argent is playing rolled chords simultaneously on electric piano and organ (they're not really chords, but that's the best I can describe it), which - especially to someone like me who isn't very good at keyboards - is nothing short of amazing.  (I've tried it; I can sort of do one, but not both at once.)

Those simultaneously keyboard rolls correspond to the solo in the final version, but they're not in the final version!  I really liked the song even before I noticed those keyboard parts, but they add so much that it's unfathomable that they were taken out, especially because the solo that is there is pretty much just guitar chords.  There's part of a descending C major scale in the organ part, but it wasn't until I split the stereo track from the Decca Stereo Anthology that I even knew it was there.

2.  I'm pretty sure that there's twelve-string guitar even on the demo version of "Don't Go Away."

3.  There are organ parts throughout "One Day I'll Say Goodbye."  I feel pretty dumb I hadn't noticed them before, but I hadn't listened to that song for at least a year, and it's only recently that I've started listening really closely to what instruments are in the songs.

Zombie Heaven

Backdated, archival post

[link to original on tumblr]

---&---

I just listened to the first disc of Zombie Heaven for my Collection Audit project (which I'm nearly finished with, for this year at least), and I discovered some things:

1.  I'm pretty sure that "Don't Go Away" uses twelve-string guitar.  I'd thought it was just six-string.

2.  Back in May, I said that the guitar phrases at the end of "Indication" alternate between having glissandi and not having glissandi.  Yeah, that's not true.  There's only one glissando (in the second phrase), which is significant as it's the last phrase before the electric piano part comes in.

"I Remember When I Loved Her"

Backdated, archival post

[link to original on tumblr]

---&---

I figured out a bit of the bass part for "I Remember When I Loved Her" to-day.  The part during the verses is pretty much just the root notes of the chords above, and the first half of the chorus is just arpeggios, but I'm still stuck on the last half of the chorus, the transitions between the verse and chorus, and the part during the solo.  The chords during the solo are the same as those during the verses, but the bass part is different.  There are more notes, and it's more involved.

This same sort of thing happens in "Time of the Season."  While the verses in that don't have any chordal accompaniment, the bass parts during the organ solos are more elaborate versions of those that occur during the verses.  So "Time of the Season" resembles "I Remember When I Loved Her" in that they both have more complex bass parts during the keyboard solos.

"I Can't Make up My Mind"

Backdated, archival post

[link to original on tumblr]

---&---

I did some clicking around Wikipedia this morning (I think it was something along the lines of Emerson, Lake, and Palmer's Works Live [which I was listening to] to Keith Emerson to Hammond organ to List of Hammond organ players to Rod Argent), and I rediscovered this Rod Argent interview.  I'd been looking for this, specifically for the part where the interviewer mentions the Beatles' having F major and B major in the same song.

Both F major and B major are in "I Can't Make up My Mind."  F major to B major is the transition in the lines "I need you here" and "I want you by my side."  Since I hadn't recorded a version since last October, I thought I would record and post a new one.  I'm not particularly sure of the electric piano part in this, but the chords (which are all I played) are right.

I've broken up the twelve-string chords into arpeggios, which I'm not sure is right, but it's more accurate than just straight chords.  It sounds a bit twangy because I'm still not quite sure how to record it.

My recording cuts off a bit early because I still don't really know the part during the fade-out.

"The Way I Feel Inside"

Backdated, archival post

[link to original on tumblr]

---&---

I forgot to note that the penultimate chord in "The Way I Feel Inside" is actually an E diminished (E, G, Bb, although it's inverted as Bb, E, G).

So far, this is the only diminished chord I've found in any of the Zombies' songs, although there's always the possibility that I've figured out something wrong and neglected one.

"Walking in the Sun"

Backdated, archival post

[link to original on tumblr]

---&---

Last night I was practicing "The Way I Feel Inside" again because I don't want to forget it (I'll have to notate it), and since "Walking in the Sun" was right next to it alphabetically, I gave that a try.  And I ended up getting most of it.  The F major to F minor transition was the hardest part.

There might be a more substantial guitar part for this, but I just played individual notes.  (I was going to play it in octaves, which I think would be more accurate, but I have a callous on my finger from practicing it in octaves last night and it hurts too much to play it that way now, so.)

I also figured out some of the parts in the orchestrated version.  I tried playing those on electric piano, but it didn't work really well, so I stuck with chords instead.

Also, an-other new one in the catalogue!

"The Way I Feel Inside"

Backdated, archival post

[link to original on tumblr]

---&---

Last night, I had some time to waste, so I tried figuring out the organ part in "The Way I Feel Inside," not really expecting to get anywhere.

But in figuring it out, I realized that - duh! - it follows the same chords as the rehearsal version (which I figured out last September).  So figuring it out was actually pretty easy, but I felt really stupid for not having realized earlier that they would use the same chords.

I actually played intervals of thirds (except for the final B major and possibly the last E major to E minor transition [I don't remember]) because full chords sounded too heavy.  There's a falling third in the first section (F# to D#), which then ascends to E (I think), which I'm not sure is very accurate.

The bass was pretty easy to figure out once I had the organ chords.  Except for a few extra notes that I figured out this evening (transitional G#s), it's all in the organ part.  And, typical of Rod Argent's writing, there are two instances of sequential half-steps: B to C to C# and B to A# to A.

"Wonderful"

Backdated, archival post

[link to original on tumblr]

---&---

When I decided to transcribe the lyrics to some Colin Blunstone songs, I started with "Wonderful" from Journey.  I'd never noticed the intricacy of the rhyme scheme of the first verse:

I can see the bright line
Of the runway light shine
Coming on the night flight
From out the sky

In the first two lines, there are actually two words at the end of each line that rhyme with the next line ("bright" with "light" and "line" with "shine").  And the third line ends with two words ("night flight") that rhyme with the first of the pair from the previous two lines ("bright" and "light").

The other verses don't follow this pattern, but even writing just one verse with this arrangement seems difficult to me, so I think it's understandable that the other verses don't follow it.