"I Can't Make up My Mind"

This year, I'm endeavoring to look into one of the Zombies' Decca-era songs every week (although I've been a bit lax lately).  The song I lookt into two weeks ago was "I Can't Make up My Mind."  While thinking about the bass part, I realized that it has the same rhythm as "Tell Her No," "Whenever You're Ready," and "Time of the Season."  I got rather excited about this, but then I went looking into some old posts and discovered that I already knew this.  I wrote this post in December 2015 in which I acknowledged that similarity in rhythm.  However, I was wrong about where the bar lines should be drawn.  I didn't realize then that "I Can't Make up My Mind" begins on an upbeat, so the rhythm in each bar is the same as some sections of the songs listed above.  That is: two dotted quarter notes followed by two eighth notes.

While writing out notation, I usually find some subtleties that I was unaware of, and that same thing happened with "I Can't Make up My Mind."  There's a chromatic phrase (from G to F) that I'd missed before.

I wrote in the chords above the staff, but in some places, those may be simply implied rather than played out-right.  And, as always, there's the disclaimer that I might have something wrong.

"I Can't Make up My Mind"

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As part of my Collection Audit, this afternoon I listened to a Zombies compilation album titled Greatest Hits, Greatest Recordings (which I got mostly because it has a half hour interview with Rod Argent at the end).  I discovered that I had a wrong word in my transcription "I Can't Make up My Mind."  I thought there were a sentiment spread over two lines as "I need guiding in my choice / Of what to do," but it's actually two separate things: "I need guiding in my choice" and "Oh, what to do."

"I Can't Make up My Mind"

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I was just thinking about the bass part for "I Can't Make up My Mind" and wondering how it would look if notated (I've been getting better at notation and more interested in notation simultaneously; I think they're related).  Anyway, I thought the part during the verses would be two eighth notes and then two dotted quarter notes, so I tried this with my MIDI software, and it worked.

The two eighth notes and two dotted quarter notes looked familiar to me, and I realized that this is the same rhythm that's in the bass parts for "Tell Her No," "Whenever You're Ready," and "Time of the Season."  There are differences though: this isn't the 5th, 7th, octave phrase, and this doesn't start with an upbeat like those do:

The rhythm itself is the same but -  because it's moved over so that it starts on the downbeat and includes different notes - it doesn't really sound the same.

I should note that "I Can't Make up My Mind" is a Chris White song, but those other three ("Tell Her No," "Whenever You’re Ready," and "Time of the Season") are Rod Argent songs.

"I Can't Make up My Mind"

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This is pretty much the same as what I recorded back in September.  The beginning is a bit rough though.

Also, I misremembered how I had to correct the instrumentation.  Back in September, I used electric piano and then realized that I should have used organ, but before I recorded this, I thought, "Right, so I have to use electric piano instead of organ," which is the opposite of what I should have done.

"I Can't Make up My Mind"

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For some reason, I got to thinking about "I Can't Make up My Mind" last night, and I realized that I hadn't figured out the bass part yet.  I knew the chords though, so the bass part wasn't too hard to figure out.  There's one phrase that I'm still a bit unsure of, but maybe that's just because it's different from all the others (they're all three- or four-note phrases, but that one has - I think - three pitches where the rest have only two).

I also figured out the little keyboard part during the solo.  There's the first guitar phrase, which Argent sort of replies to, so it seems as if the solo is going to have this interplay between guitar and organ, but the rest of the organ part during the solo isn't very prominent.

I followed my last recording and used electric piano, but now I think that it's actually organ all the way through.

Begin Here Session

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Fifty years ago to-day (10 December 1964), the Zombies had an-other session for the Begin Here album.  They recorded "Can't Nobody Love You," "The Way I Feel Inside," "I Got My Mojo Working," "You've Really Got a Hold on Me/Bring It on Home to Me," "I Can't Make up My Mind," and "Work 'n' Play."

They also received an award for "She's Not There" - it had been #1 on Cashbox.  I'm fairly certain that most of the pictures of the Zombies in the Decca studio in West Hampstead were taken on this day, as some sort of publicity event because they received that award.

"I Can't Make up My Mind"

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I did some clicking around Wikipedia this morning (I think it was something along the lines of Emerson, Lake, and Palmer's Works Live [which I was listening to] to Keith Emerson to Hammond organ to List of Hammond organ players to Rod Argent), and I rediscovered this Rod Argent interview.  I'd been looking for this, specifically for the part where the interviewer mentions the Beatles' having F major and B major in the same song.

Both F major and B major are in "I Can't Make up My Mind."  F major to B major is the transition in the lines "I need you here" and "I want you by my side."  Since I hadn't recorded a version since last October, I thought I would record and post a new one.  I'm not particularly sure of the electric piano part in this, but the chords (which are all I played) are right.

I've broken up the twelve-string chords into arpeggios, which I'm not sure is right, but it's more accurate than just straight chords.  It sounds a bit twangy because I'm still not quite sure how to record it.

My recording cuts off a bit early because I still don't really know the part during the fade-out.

"I Can't Make up My Mind"

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[link to original on tumblr]

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This comes with the usual disclaimers - I'm pretty sure I have some notes in the solo wrong and I'm not sure if the chords are broken up or not.  Also, I'm missing some notes at the end.