"I'll Keep Trying"

Last week, I was thinking about "I'll Keep Trying" and had a couple realizations about the chorus, specifically this section:

'Cause I'll keep tryin' 'til you come on home

Keep tryin' 'til my time has come

Keep tryin' 'til you come on home to me

It's sung to a melody something like this:

The notes to which the "tryin'"s are sung have the longest values (aside from the one to which "me" at the end is sung), and this extended duration matches the persistency of "keep."

The repetition of "keep tryin'" (as anaphora in the lead vocals and as a sort of stretto in the overdubbed backing vocals) also gives a sense of constancy.

The Influence of Elvis Presley's "Hound Dog"

Last month, I got and started reading Robin Platts' Times and Seasons: The Rise and Fall and Rise of the Zombies.  I decided to listen to what musical pieces are mentioned in the book (provided I have them), and the first album I listened to was Elvis 56, specifically for "Hound Dog," whose effect on a young Rod Argent is discussed at some length on the first two pages of the book.  (Incidentally:  I got Elvis 56 a number of years ago because Rod mentioned it specifically in this video from Amoeba Music).  I think I'd previously noticed that the bass part in "Hound Dog" has a dotted rhythm, but the particular context in which I'd listened to it this time made me realize that it may have influenced the rhythm that's present in a number of Zombie bass parts, which - as Rod briefly explains in the BBC Mastertapes program (at ~20:28 in the A-Side) - he often used to write for his own songs.

The bass part in "Hound Dog" varies a little bit from verse to verse, but it's something like this:

While the tonality is different, many bass parts in Zombies songs also have this sort of dotted rhythm.  For example, here's the bass part in the verses of "I'll Keep Trying":

(There are a couple measures in the chorus that I'm a bit unsure about, but otherwise, the entire bass part in "I'll Keep Trying" exhibits this initial pair of dotted quarter notes in each measure, save for the last bar.)

The bass part in the verses of "If It Don't Work Out" also has this rhythm for all but the last two measures, but since there are nine consecutive measures of nothing but D notes, I felt an excerpt of the notation wouldn't be very helpful in illustrating my point.

More often, however, there's a slight difference in the rhythm in that this single quarter note is replaced by a pair of eighth notes, which sometimes precedes the dotted quarter notes and acts as a pick-up.

For example, the beginning of "Whenever You're Ready":

The beginning of "Time of the Season":

And the verse in "Tell Her No":

(These parts may show the influence of Ben E. King's "Stand by Me" more than Elvis's "Hound Dog," though.  As I pointed out before, albeit imperfectly, so I won't link to it, these bass parts share the same rhythm and the same tonality as "Stand by Me":  root, fifth, and seventh.)

"I'll Keep Trying"

 

I'm not sure this was really worth doing because it's so short, but here's the Hohner Pianet solo in the Zombies' "I'll Keep Trying."  The guitar plays basically the same thing, just an octave higher and articulated slightly differently (there are some glissandi between the notes, and the C in the third measure is held longer).  For a bit of context, I also included the bass part.

December 1968 Overdubs

According to the Zombie Heaven liner notes, fifty years ago this month, the Zombies recorded additional parts for songs they originally recorded between 1964 and 1966: "If It Don't Work Out," "Don't Cry for Me," "I Know She Will," "Walking in the Sun," "I'll Keep Trying," and "I'll Call You Mine."  These were all done at Morgan Studios, Willesden.

"I'll Keep Trying"

Backdated, archival post

[link to original on tumblr]

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Starting to-day, I'm going to try to record the songs on the 50th anniversaries of their recordings (doing only one a day though).  Of the three for the session to-day, I started with "I'll Keep Trying" because it's probably my favorite guitar part in the whole Zombies catalogue.  I haven't learned anything new for it in the last two years though (perhaps even longer).

Recording Session

Backdated, archival post

[link to original on tumblr]

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According to the liner notes for both Zombie Heaven and The Decca Stereo Anthology, fifty years ago to-day (24 June 1965, Colin Blunstone's 20th birthday), the Zombies recorded "I'll Keep Trying," "Don't Go Away," and "Whenever You're Ready."

Recording Session

Backdated, archival post

[link to original on tumblr]

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Some of the recording dates listed in the Zombie Heaven liner notes are just the month and year, so sometime this month fifty years ago, it seems that the Zombies recorded demos for "Whenever You're Ready," "You'll Go from Me" (later released as "Don't Go Away"), "I Know She Will," and "I'll Keep Trying."

I'm fairly certain that this session was before the 24th because that's when they recorded the final versions of "Whenever You're Ready," "Don't Go Away," and "I'll Keep Trying."  (A final version of "I Know She Will" wasn't recorded until 8 July.)

In the track-by-track section, the Zombie Heaven liner notes list "April or June 1965" as the recording dates for the demos of "Whenever You're Ready" and "You'll Go from Me," but in the chronology section, it has all four demos listed under "?-6" (sometime in June).

The demos of "Whenever You're Ready" and "You'll Go from Me" are on the third disc of Zombie Heaven, but the demos of "I Know She Will" and "I'll Keep Trying" are bonus tracks on a re-issue of Begin Here.  It doesn't make sense to me that they're split up, but at least they were all released.

"I'll Keep Trying"

Backdated, archival post

[link to original on tumblr]

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I don't really have anything to say about this one.

"The Coming of Kohoutek" / "It Never Fails to Please Me" / "I'll Keep Trying"

Backdated, archival post

[link to original on tumblr]

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I learned a few bits of Argent's "The Coming of Kohoutek" earlier, and I figured out a better way to play one of the guitar parts in "It Never Fails to Please Me" from the Into the Afterlife album.

I also realised that the parts I had sort of made up for "I'll Keep Trying" are actually pretty accurate.  Since they're probably as accurate as I'm going to get, I'm just going to say I'm done with that.  I may record a version of just the guitar part to-morrow.  I know the bass part too, but I've already done a version with that, and it hasn't changed.