As Far as I Can See

Backdated, archival post

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This morning, I listened to As Far as I Can See because - according to Russo's Collector's Guide - it was released to-day in 2004.  And - inevitably! - I noticed some things.  I worked on transcribing the lyrics although I later remembered that they're in the liner notes, which is helpful because I'd thought "black orchids" was "black rockets."

Because I just listened to "Imagine the Swan," I want to believe that the line "Made the colors true" in "In My Mind a Miracle" is a reference to the colors and their fading in "Imagine the Swan" ("For the colors are gone").  But more on that later.

There's the really obvious Odessey and Oracle reference in the line "In you I found my Odyssey and Oracle" (odyssey is spelt correctly in the liner notes), but more interesting is the following line: "No longer blind, I see because of you."  The blindness is linked with the oracle.  Traditionally, seers and prophets were often physically blind in a sort of exchange for their ability to see the future.  (I say "traditionally," but the only one I can think of is Tiresias.)

For years now, I've wondered if "I tried my best, but I could not cope / From the end of a telescope" in "Southside of the Street" is a reference to "Telescope (Mr. Galileo)" from Into the Afterlife.

"I Want to Fly" is interesting in that there's an internal mosaic rhyme that's dependent on a caesura:  "Some lay sleeping / Deep inside a lullaby"  The way Colin Blunstone articulates this, there's a pause after the "in" of "inside," so that "sleeping" rhymes with "deep in."

There's also mosaic rhyme in "As Far as I Can See" in the lines "From a blue horizon / That I keep my eyes on."  I haven't looked into the lyrics as much as I'd like to, but I don't remember any instances of mosaic rhyme in the "classic Zombie" catalogue (from 1964 to 1967-ish), so I felt it a technique worth noting here.

"As Far as I Can See" also seems to have a reference to home:

There's a safe house waiting
That I know is waiting
Some way down the line.

It's not called a "home," but the same idea is still presented.  Rhyming "waiting" with "waiting" further emphasizes the safety.

There are more typical Zombies themes in "With You Not Here."  There's crying in the lines "No feeling left beyond the tears" and "Don't know where I go from here / 'Cause there's really nothing clear / Beyond the tears," and there's dreaming in "There's only an empty space / Where once we crowded our hopes / And shared all our dreams."

More interesting than those though are the lines "The color's faded now / The world is grey."  This is a stronger allusion to the lines in "Imagine the Swan" – "For the colors are gone / You've become kind of grey," but even if that's just a coincidence, there's still the connection between those lines in "With You Not Here" and the line "You turned me round and made the colors true" in "In My Mind a Miracle."  So regardless whether there's the connection between eras of the Zombies catalogue, there is a connection within this album itself.

"Wings against the Sun" also has some elements that I think are references to past Zombies songs.  The first two lines are "In your eyes appear the mystic roses of spring / Inspiring songs of approaching summer," which I think includes two references: "A Rose for Emily" (which also mentions summer) and - because of the resemblance between "mystic" and "misty" - "Misty Roses" from Colin Blunstone's One Year album.  The word mist is in the preceding song "With You Not Here," which I think provides a shred more evidence that they were thinking about past songs while they were writing these.  The "Odyssey and Oracle" in "In My Mind a Miracle" certainly testifies to it.

In listening to "Together," I found an-other one of those sneaky historical references - one that had gone over my head for the six years I've owned this album.  I'm fairly certain that the last part of the couplet "And I've come to need you like flowers need the rain / Have to love you as much as seasons have to change in time" is a reference to "Time of the Season."  (Incidentally "I've come to need you like flowers need the rain" strongly resembles "I need you / Like the flower needs the rain" from America's "I Need You.")

"Golden days" from "Look for a Better Way" also appears in "Beechwood Park," but because it's not such a distinctive phrase, I'm not sure if this is a reference or just a coincidence that illustrates how consistent the Zombies' writing has been (despite the fact that "Beechwood Park" is a Chris White song and "Look for a Better Way" a Rod Argent song, although Chris White does contribute backing vocals for it).

In looking through the liner notes to confirm the lyrics I've quoted, I also discovered that Andrew Powell helped with scoring the orchestral arrangements.  I'm fairly certain this is the same Andrew Powell who arranged and conducted the orchestra for all of the Alan Parsons Project albums (excepting Vulture Culture).