Odessey and Oracle

Last night, I tried to figure out the piano in the verses of "Brief Candles."  I was unsuccessful at this, but I did end up learning the chords for the chorus.  After playing them over a few times and thinking that they were familiar, I realized that they're very similar to the chords in the verses of "This Will Be Our Year."

The chorus of "Brief Candles" is:

|: A major | A major 7 | D major | F major | E major :|

D major | A major

D major | B major

The verse of "This Will Be Our Year" is:

A major | C# minor | A major 7 | D major

F major | E major | D major | A major

All but a few of the chords in the chorus of "Brief Candles" are held for a full measure, but the chords in the verse of "This Will Be Our Year" are each held for half a measure.

The bass parts for these two sections play a similar descending line.  Simplified, it's something like A (G#) G F# F E D A.  "This Will Be Our Year" has that G# (under C# minor); "Brief Candles" doesn't.  The bass part in "Brief Candles" also goes on a bit longer (under D major and B major).

These two sections are different enough that they're distinct but similar enough to lend some cohesion to the songs on Odessey and Oracle.  It's worth noting that both were written by Chris White.

"Nothing's Changed"

 

Earlier this year, I was thinking about the Hohner Pianet solo in the alternate take of "Nothing's Changed" (available on the third disc of Zombie Heaven), and I realized that most of it is triplets.  I re-learned it, notated it, and made this short demonstration of it.  The Vox Continental part, which I included in the audio but didn't show in the video, is the same except for an arpeggiated A major at the end.  On their own, the two keyboard parts sound a bit odd; for some context, I also played the guitar chords.  I used The Zombies Greatest Hits, published by Alfred, as a basis, but I didn't follow exactly what the book has (because I don't think it's entirely accurate).  I played C major | C major 7 | D minor 7 | E minor | F major | G major | A major.  Of course, there's the standard disclaimer that I may not have this entirely accurate either.

Drawbar settings I used for the Vox Continental:

16' at 6, 8' and 4' at 8, IV at 8