"How We Were Before"

Earlier this week, I wrote out the bass part for "How We Were Before."  In doing so, I discovered a couple notes I'd been playing wrong and also an odd measure of 6/4 at the end of the verses (the last measure in the second line).  As always though, there's the disclaimer that I may have something wrong.

"Indication" b/w "How We Were Before"

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According to Russo's Collector's Guide, fifty years ago to-day (15 July 1966), the Zombies' "Indication" [edited down] b/w "How We Were Before" (Parrot 45 - 3004) was released in the U.S. and Canada.

"Indication" b/w "How We Were Before"

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According to both the Zombie Heaven liner notes and Russo's Collector's Guide, the Zombies' "Indication" b/w "How We Were Before" (Decca F.12426) was released in the U.K. fifty years ago to-day (17 June 1966).

I Love You

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Like I mentioned earlier, I listened to I Love You this morning, and I noticed a few other things:

The backing vocals in "How We Were Before" sing the chromatic phrase that's in the chords.  I don't know how I missed it before.  Also, I'd never thought about this before, but the bongos that Hugh Grundy used on "How We Were Before" are probably the same ones that he later used on "Changes" from Odessey and Oracle.

The guitar phrases in "You Make Me Feel Good" have glissandi.  I'd sort of been playing the second (the G# to A) that way, but the first is (I think) D# to E, not just E.

I haven't really figured out either, but the organ parts for "Leave Me Be" and "Sometimes" seem to have a bit of a relation.  Specifically, a three-note phrase that starts on the fifth of whatever chord is being played.  Both have a D major chord above which there's a A, B, C, B, A, B, C, B sort of figure.  I'm not extremely confident on that though.

At the end of "She Does Everything for Me," someone (I think it's Rod Argent) sings along to the last guitar phrase, and I realized that it's the same thing that he does at the end of "Indication," except that's with the electric piano part.

"How We Were Before" / "If It Don't Work Out"

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I just listened to those five songs that were recorded fifty years ago yester-day (I forgot to do it yester-day because I was busy with other things).  Anyway, two things:

The second line of every verse in "How We Were Before" starts with an adverb:  "Gradually through on us," "Continually long to be again," and "Mercifully turned to be again."

There's a bit of parallelism between two verses of "If It Don't Work Out."  The first verse asks, "Can I return the joy she's dreaming of?," and the last verse ends with "I / Will know and feel the joys and pleasures that I'm dreaming of."

"How We Were Before"

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I'm glad I decided to record these songs on the anniversaries of their original recordings because the older versions I did (the few that there are) have a lot of errors in them and aren't the best quality.  "How We Were Before" is a good example of how bad they are.

I discovered that if I use a thinner pick with my twelve-string guitar it sounds better.  Still, I'm not sure that this guitar part is super accurate.  I'm pretty sure of the chords, but the arpeggiations are something else.  A few months ago, I figured out a way to play it that emphasizes the chromatic phrase in the chords, and that's at least close to what's in the original.  I should really split the version on The Decca Stereo Anthology and study the twelve-string part.

Recording Session

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According to the liner notes of both Zombie Heaven and The Decca Stereo Anthology, fifty years ago to-day (8 July 1965) the Zombies recorded "How We Were Before," "I Love You," "If It Don't Work Out," "I Know She Will," and "Don't Cry for Me."

"Losing You"

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A few days ago, I was thinking about "Losing You" from the New World album.  So far I've figured out only the guitar chords (and since I didn't write them down, I've forgotten some parts).  But the first few chords (unaccompanied by anything save some percussion) are Dsus4, D major, Gsus4, G major.  In thinking about the song, I realized that those four chords contain two sequential half-steps.  G to F# in Dsus4 (D, G, A) to D major (D, F#, A), and C to B in Gsus4 (G, C, D) to G major (G, B, D).

This is more like the Bb, A, C, B of the B-A-C-H motif than Rod Argent's half-steps, which are sequential in a linear way in addition to a chronological/musical way (by which I mean that his sequential half-steps usually overlap so that the last note in the first pair is the first note in the second pair, as in A, G#, G in "Whenever You're Ready").

So "Losing You" is interesting in that it's a Colin Blunstone song that demonstrates a Bach influence (even if it's conjectured).  It makes me wonder how much of a precedent there is for this Bach influence in Blunstone's earlier writing.

I'd noticed before that the first few notes of the solo in "How We Were Before" (D, A, B, A, F#) are the same (even in the note values) as those in the introduction of the Byrds' version of Dylan's "Mr. Tambourine Man," which, apparently, McGuinn took from Bach's "Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring."  (Interestingly, both parts are played on twelve-string guitars too.)  So I'd always thought that Argent had a hand in that part of "How We Were Before" - because of that Bach connection.  But with this similarity to Bach on a Blunstone song on an album that Argent had almost no involvement with (he played keyboards on only one track), I'm not sure what to think about that part in "How We Were Before."

"How We Were Before"

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Two days ago, I was playing around with some guitar chords, and I realized that "How We Were Before" includes a chromatic phrase… sort of.

I'm not sure that the chords are played as straight chords; I think they're broken into arpeggios or something.  Still, there's a chromatic phrase within the chord progression.

D major (D, F#, A)

D major 7th (D, F#, A, C#)

D major dominant 7th (D, F#, A, C)

G major (G, B, D)

G minor (G, Bb, D)

D major (D, F#, A)

Although, since it's in D major, it might technically be A# instead of Bb.  So the chromatic phrase is D, C#, C, B, A#, A.

Excepting the numerous instances three-note chromatic phrases, I think this is the third chromatic phrase I've found now.  (The other two are in the bass parts of "Indication" and "This Will Be Our Year.")

"How We Were Before"

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I've known most of the bass part for "How We Were Before" for a few years, but I discovered that I'd simplified the part during the bridge ("And as you've waited for me…").  I'd figured it out (correctly) two different times, but I forgot to record it and then forgot how to play it.  So I figured out it again and finally did record it.

I wrote it down too.  I've started a binder where I'm going to write down lyrics, chords, and some notation.

This is supposed to use twelve-string guitar, but I just used acoustic because it's easier to play.

I Love You

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I realize I haven't been doing very much on this project lately, but by the end of the week, I'll be completely done with university, so I'll have some more time to work on this.  I do have some songs I've been meaning to update ("Is This the Dream," "Remember You," and "Beechwood Park" in particular).

In the meantime, I just wrote a post about the I Love You album as part of my Collection Audit project:

I went a bit out-of-order this morning and listened to the Zombies compilation album I Love You.  The Zombies have been my favorite band for the past five or six years, yet I'm still finding new things about their music (although I don't know whether that means they're a incredibly nuanced band or whether I'm not very good at listening). 

I finally determined that "How We Were Before" features twelve-string guitar.  I'd been suspicious of this (I'd played parts of it on my own twelve-string and thought it sounded pretty good), but now I'm fairly certain of it. 

I discovered that Rod Argent uses organ on "Woman."  This realization came after noticing the really long sustain on the G major chord during the guitar solo.  It just keeps going, which means it has to be organ rather than electric piano. 

For the first time, I noticed the three distinct vocals parts at the end of "Don't Go Away."  Two parts are alternating with "don't go away," but the third is just an "ooh." 

This album includes some stereo mixes of songs (which in some cases are different stereo mixes than those that appear on The Decca Stereo Anthology), so on some songs, things were placed in sonically different places, which made it easier to distinguish some parts.  This is the case on "I Love You," and because of that I heard some interesting rhythmical interplay between the guitar and the bass during the "if I can find / the words in my mind" part. 

Another suspicion that was confirmed is the guitar glissandoes at the beginning of "Remember You."  I'd been suspicious of these since I listened to The Decca Stereo Anthology about a month ago.  The guitar part at the beginning alternates between two D's an octave apart and a D and some-other-note-that-I-still-have-to-determine that then slides up to a D. 

Also, I may have found a reference to "She's Not There" in "She Does Everything for Me."  "She's a girl who makes me feel / That you're not there, you weren't real" recalls the "she's not there" from "She's Not There."  The "she" in "She Does Everything for Me" seems to have replaced the "she" in "She's Not There."  In any case, it's an interesting parallel, as "She's Not There" was the Zombies' first single for Decca, and "She Does Everything for Me" was the B-side of their last single for Decca.  Also, kudos to Rod Argent for getting the relative pronoun correct.

I got that album for my 17th birthday, and now I'm 22, but I'm still finding new things in the Zombies' music.

Also, I just checked my posts for "How We Were Before," and when I did a rough version last September, I actually did use twelve-string.  So apparently I forgot I knew it had twelve-string.

"How We Were Before"

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I'm pretty sure the chords are broken into arpeggios during the "And as you've waited for me" part, but I'm still a bit unsure of how they are broken up, so I just play them straight.  Or attempt to.  Barre chords on twelve string guitar are still really difficult for me, but it's necessary to play some of these chords that way.  Like Gm.

I've been working on the bass part for this too, but there are still a few parts I'm unsure of, so I've held off on that for now.