[link to original on tumblr]
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Sunday night, I realized that there's a trill of sorts in the bass part too. Most of the bass part is the recurring phrase D F E D. But when the chords change (at first alternating between D minor and G major but then going up to F major), that descent starts, only to be interrupted. The bass part then follows the ascending chords, resulting in the trill F E F. It roughly corresponds to "but the king's shilling" in the lyrics.
One of my musical projects for this year is to listen to one of Bach's orchestral suites everyday, so I've been thinking about them a lot and realized that those same sorts of trills are in the third movement (at the beginning of the second gavotte) of the third suite (in D major, BWV 1068): D C# D / F# E F# / A G A / D. (I've been listening to the first suite lately, but I'd looked up the notation for the third last fall because I'd thought those trills contained the B-A-C-H motif. They obviously don't.)
On Saturday, I listened to Bach's third partita for solo violin, and I found a similar phrase (also in the gavotte), which I wrote about here. Essentially:
A section of the guitar part in "Beechwood Park" (F# E F#) bears some resemblance too.
I'm highly dubious that the Zombies took those particular trills from Bach's orchestral suite or partita, but it is a specific musical element that shows the baroque influence present on Odessey and Oracle.
Additionally, there's a trill in the introductory organ part for "Hold Your Head Up." (I think it's between G and F#.) It's actually easier to hear in live performances, like the one on Live at Metropolis Studios, where you can see it. Or even the performance that KEXP uploaded. I think that that trill more closely resembles the actual definition because it lasts for a longer period of time. The other examples I've given are just three notes.
