All Together Now

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I listened to Argent's All Together Now because (according to Russo's Collector's Guide) it was released to-day in 1972.  As usual, I worked on lyric transcription and noticed a few things.

There's some interesting elements in the chorus in "I Am the Dance of Ages":

Ride on the rising tide
Walk on the water
Spray with each burning day
I'm going high

There's alliteration ("Ride on the rising tide / Walk on the water"), assonance ("Ride on the rising tide / Walk on the water"), and internal rhyme ("Ride on the rising tide" "Spray with each burning day").

I think there's a small Bach reference in "Be My Lover, Be My Friend."  The song changes at about 4:01 and goes into an organ interlude.  At about 4:04, there's a trill between A and G - the same trill that starts Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D minor, BWV 565 (I looked up the notation).  I've written about Bach-influenced trills with the Odessey and Oracle material, but I think this is more of an intentional quotation than a mere influence.

Saturday Club

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According to the Zombie Heaven liner notes, fifty years ago to-day (20 April 1965) the Zombies recorded an appearance on the Saturday Club radio show performing "You Must Believe Me," "She's Coming Home," "I Must Move," and "Just out of Reach" (tracks 13-16 on the fourth disc of Zombie Heaven).  The show was broadcast on 1 May 1965.

Bunny Lake Is Missing

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According to the Zombie Heaven liner notes, fifty years ago to-day (10 April 1965), the Zombies filmed their very brief spot for Bunny Lake Is Missing at Associated-Rediffusion TV Studios in Wembley.

"Now I Know I'll Never Get over You"

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I just caught up on Twitter for to-day and saw that the Zombies posted an-other update from the studio.

It looks like they're doing a full band version of "Now I Know I'll Never Get over You" from Colin Blunstone's The Ghost of You and Me for their new album.  They did the same thing with "Any Other Way" - on The Ghost of You and Me it's arranged for strings, but the Zombies did a full band version on Breathe Out, Breathe In.

"What More Can I Do"

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Since Begin Here was released in the UK to-day (at least according to the Zombie Heaven liner notes), I listened to it, and I noticed something about "What More Can I Do."

In the first verse, there's the line "But something always holds me back."  As if to mirror the "hold[ing]… back," there's a caesura between "always" and "holds."

In the second verse, there's a similar but opposite line: "But something always keeps a hold on me," which - along with directly opposing the line from the first verse - doesn't include a caesura.  There're no pauses in the line, and the continuing forward helps to impart the "keep[ing] a hold," as if the lyrics are being pulled along with the rhythm.

So those two lines are opposite in what they say and in how they're articulated.

Odessey and Oracle

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I got to thinking about Odessey and Oracle this morning, and I realized that since "Care of Cell 44" and "Changes" both start with A notes, both sides of the album start with A notes, so there's a kind of tonal consistency in beginning.

"She's Coming Home" b/w "I Must Move"

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According to the Zombie Heaven liner notes, fifty years ago to-day (9 April 1965), "She's Coming Home" b/w "I Must Move" and Begin Here were released in the UK.

Russo's Collector's Guide confirms the release of "She's Coming Home" b/w "I Must Move" (Decca F. 12125), but it lists the UK release of Begin Here (Decca LK 4697) as 30 April.

"Time of the Season"

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Either last night or the night before, I got thinking about the version of "Time of the Season" that the Zombies did at SXSW a few years ago - the one that KEXP uploaded.  I can't be sure because there isn't a clear shot of Rod Argent's hands at the right time, but I think the extra piano chords that he plays also do the diatonic descending bass via a 7th chord thing that's also present in "She's Coming Home," "I Want Her She Wants Me," and "Christmas for the Free."

It at least sounds sort of similar.

"Summertime"

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A few months ago, I realized something singular about the Zombies' version of "Summertime."  And when I say "singular," I mean both interesting and individual; there's an element that isn't present in any of the ten other versions of "Summertime" that I have.

It's the addition of the "there" in the last line of the second verse:

One of these mornings, you're gonna wake up singin'
Then you're gonna spread your wings and take to the sky
But 'til that morning, there ain't nothin', nothin' gonna harm you
With your mommy and daddy, there standing by

When I originally transcribed "Summertime," I wrote that line as "With your mommy and daddy; they're standing by."  There's a slight caesura there, and I guess I thought that it signified the completion of "there ain’t nothin' gonna harm you / With your mommy and daddy," so that "they're standing by" stood by itself.

It makes more sense as "there standing by," but I think "they're" could also be argued for.  It's an interesting lyrical ambiguity, and that "there"/"they're" isn't present in any of the other versions of "Summertime" that I have, including versions by Anne Brown (and since Brown played Bess in the original production of Porgy & Bess, from which "Summertime" comes, her version is pretty much the original), Abbie Mitchell, Betty Roché (by whom I have a complete version and two reprises, although only one of those reprises contains the lines in question), Billie Holiday, The Platters, Sam & Dave, Booker T. & the MGs (which, as an instrumental version, doesn't include any lyrics), Sam Cooke (by whom I actually have two different versions), and Brian Wilson (from the Reimagines Gershwin album).

One of the Sam Cooke versions approaches the "there"/"they're" ambiguity.  After completing the second verse ("With your daddy and mommy standin' by"), he goes into vocal riffs using some of the phrases from those first two verses, including "They're standin' by."

Banging On!

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I just got Bob Henrit's autobiography to-day.  I'll admit that I got it mostly for the parts about Argent, but I'm sure the other parts will be interesting too.  I've read only the first page so far, but I learned the Henrit's father was born the same day that the Titanic sank (14 April 1912).

"Shine on Sunshine"

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According to Russo's Collector's Guide, Argent's Circus came out to-day in 1975.  I listened to it and worked on transcribing the lyrics, but I found only one thing to say about it.

There's an-other instance of Rod Argent's gray image in the first chorus of "Shine on Sunshine":

So shine on, sunshine
Paint my life of gray
So shine on, sunshine
Warm my life away

Ostensibly, this builds on similar lines in "Imagine the Swan" ("For the colors are gone / You've become kind of gray") and "In My Mind a Miracle" from As Far As I Can See: "You turned me 'round / And made the colors true."

In the BBC MasterTapes interviews, Argent mentioned that part of Odessey and Oracle was about color.  The first time I listened to that, I thought he was talking about literal color, like in the song lyrics (although I never actually looked to see if there are any), but in referencing it awhile ago, I heard that part again and started wondering if he was talking about instrumental color (like timbre).  One or both of those might have some connection here.

I also referenced the version of "Shine on Sunshine" that's on Breathe Out, Breathe In, and I discovered that those lines aren't present (I haven't gotten around to transcribing them, but the lyrics are in the liner notes).  Each iteration of the chorus is virtually the same:

Shine on sunshine
Chase the clouds away
Shine on sunshine
Into my life each day

The last repetition has a slightly different last line: "Into my life always."

EDIT: It belatedly occurs to me that - duh! - "Shine on Sunshine" predates "In My Mind a Miracle."  Even though I had the chronology wrong, the images are still similar.