"Friends of Mine"

Yester-day, I was looking into "Friends of Mine," and while my initial notion didn't pan out, I noticed something much more interesting.

The opening guitar phrases are something like this:

They bear a strong resemblance to the opening Pianet phrases in "Whenever You're Ready," which are something like this:

(They continue for an-other two measures, but I felt this was enough for comparison.)

The exact intervals differ slightly, but both phrases trace the same general four-note arc.  The rhythms are basically the same, too, although they start in different places in the measure.

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.)

"This Old Heart of Mine"

Recently, I re-watched the Zombies' performance of "This Old Heart of Mine" (mislabelled as "I Love You") in France in 1966:

For the first time, I noticed that Paul Atkinson is using a bit of vibrato.

More significantly, I realized that there's a similarity between "This Old Heart of Mine" and "Whenever You're Ready" in that - unless I'm mistaken - the guitar parts in both feature pairs of notes an octave apart.

According to the Zombie Heaven booklet, "Whenever You're Ready" pre-dates "This Old Heart of Mine."  A demo was recorded "April or June 1965," and the released version was recorded on 24 June 1965.  According to the chronology in the booklet, this television appearance (on Dents De Lait Dents De Loups) was on either 29 or 30 October 1966, and the liner notes of The BBC Radio Sessions add that the Zombies recorded further live versions of "This Old Heart of Mine" on 1 November 1966 and 10 October 1967.

The liner notes of both Zombie Heaven and The BBC Radio Sessions seem to indicate that the Zombies used the Isley Brothers' version of the song as a basis for their cover.  I hadn't heard it before, but I found it on YouTube (here's a link to the official lyric video).  It doesn't have these octave pairs (not on guitar, at least), so it seems that this is something that the Zombies added to the song, re-using an element from "Whenever You're Ready."

"Whenever You're Ready"

Last week, I wrote out the notation for the bass part in "Whenever You're Ready."  I noticed before that writing notation forces me to pay closer attention to parts, and while writing out this part, I discovered a significant contrast between the verses and the bridge.

For most of the verse, the rhythm is two dotted quarter notes and two eighth notes:

(Many other Zombies songs feature a similar rhythm, including "I Can't Make Up My Mind," "Tell Her No," "I'll Keep Trying," "If It Don't Work Out," and "Time of the Season," although some of these substitute a single quarter note for the two eighth notes.)

The bridge retains this rhythm for the first half of each measure, but the second dotted quarter note is often tied to a regular quarter note (although the program I used to make this notation tied an eighth note to a half note instead):

There's a contrast between the rhythms of these two sections, and this mirrors the lyrics in the bridge:  "But if you call me / You've gotta treat me in a different way" (my italics).  To some degree, this difference is even emphasized because some of the pitches occur in the same order (E F Bb, in the tenth to twelfth measures in the verse and in the second to fourth and eighth to tenth measures in the bridge), making the contrast a bit more obvious.

Here's a scan of the complete notation, with the disclaimer that I may have something wrong:

"Time of the Season"

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Collection Audit:

Yester-day I listened to Ben E. King's "Stand by Me" on a compilation album.  The bass part sounded suspiciously familiar to me, but because the version on that compilation was a re-recording instead of the original, I had to go and listen to the thirty-second sample on Amazon to make sure what I heard was in the original recording too.  And it was!

My favorite band is the Zombies, and over the past four years or so, I've been trying to learn every part to every song they recorded.  Over the last few months, I noticed the same recurring phrase in the bass parts in three of Rod Argent's songs.  It's the 5th, 7th, and octave notes of the scale of whatever key the song is in, and it's in a rhythm of two eighth notes (the 5th and 7th) then two dotted quarter notes (the octave, twice).

I had to learn the bass part to King's "Stand by Me" to be sure, but it follows this same pattern (or, rather, since "Stand by Me" is older, those Rod Argent songs follow the same pattern).  In interviews, Argent frequently mentions the Zombies' Christmas show at the Brooklyn Fox in 1964 and how Ben E. King and the Drifters were an-other act on the same bill, so I'm assuming he was familiar with "Stand by Me."

In King's "Stand by Me," that 5th, 7th, octave phrase is in A major (so, E, G#, A, A).  In the Zombies' songs, it's in E major in "Tell Her No" (B, D#, E, E), in C major in "Whenever You're Ready" (G, B, C, C), and in E minor in "Time of the Season" (B, D, E, E).  After I realized that connection, I kept playing that part, just because I was so excited I found a precedent for this motif I'd found in these Zombies' songs, and I discovered that there's a further similarity between the bass parts of "Stand by Me" and "Time of the Season."  After that 5th, 7th, octave phrase, there's a diatonic descent in the same two-eighth-notes-then-two-dotted-quarter-notes rhythm (A, G#, F#, F# in "Stand by Me" and E, D, C, C in "Time of the Season"):

 

(click the image to enlarge it)

So for the first four bars of the verses, the bass part in "Time of the Season" is the same as the bass part in "Stand by Me," just in E minor rather than A major.

Via my Collection Audit project, I found a precedent for that 5th, 7th, octave phrase in a few of Argent's bass parts.

"Whenever You're Ready" and "Time of the Season"

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For a really long time (at least months, probably even a year or more), I thought the opening bass parts for "Whenever You're Ready" and "Time of the Season" had some similarity.  I got thinking about this last night, and I finally realized that they sound similar because they're essentially the same part.

While they're in different tempi, the rhythms are the same (I think I've notated them correctly):

Aside from the key, the notes that comprise the parts are the same degree on the scale.  It's the 5th, the 7th, and the octave (the root).

"Whenever You're Ready" is in C major, so it's G (the 5th), B (the 7th), and C (the octave).  "Time of the Season" is in E minor, so it's B (the 5th), D (the 7th), and E (the octave).

I should note that these aren't the same intervals.  The interval between the 7th and the octave is a half-step in a major scale but a whole-step in a minor scale.  So you couldn't transpose the opening bass part for "Whenever You're Ready" up a few steps and get the opening bass part for "Time of the Season," but they are incredibly similar.  For instance, the classic clap and exhale from "Time of the Season" fits during the opening of "Whenever You're Ready."

After I realized this, I thought it really interesting just because it seems to be such a feature of Argent's writing (that rhythm in "Time of the Season" is a fairly frequent topic in interviews), but then I remembered the story about "Hold Your Head Up" and how Chris White wrote it from a riff Argent (the band) improvised when playing "Time of the Season."  It seems that in concerts Rod Argent often introduces "Hold Your Head Up" with that story.  But because that phrase in the bass parts for "Whenever You're Ready" and "Time of the Season" are essentially the same, that story could have an even broader scope.

"Whenever You're Ready"

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I was just playing through "Whenever You're Ready" (just for the sake of it), and I discovered some odd features about the bridge.

First, I discovered that there's an ascending chromatic phrase in the chords:

(A, C, E)
(E, G, B)
(F, A, C)
(Bb, D, F)
(D, F#, A)
(G, B, D)

The bridge is the optimistic part of the song, looking forward to change ("You've gotta treat me in a different way"), and that rising chromatic phrase seems to confirm that musically.

But then I realized that it starts with an A minor chord.  I think this is a fairly common feature of songs - the bridge goes to the relative minor.  In this case, it goes from C major to A minor.  So it's weird that the major sections (the verses) have the sad parts ("I've been hurt like this before," "I've cried like this before," et cetera), and the minor section (the bridge) has the optimism.

It's worth noting that the other chromatic phrase I found in the song is a descending phrase in the verses

Saturday Club

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Verulam Cover Project:

According to the Zombie Heaven liner notes, fifty years ago to-day (20 September 1965), the Zombies recorded "If It Don't Work Out," "Whenever You're Ready," "It's All Right," "Will You Love Me Tomorrow," and "When the Lovelight Starts Shining through Her Eyes" for "Saturday Club."  The show was broadcast on 2 October.

"Whenever You're Ready"

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There are only minor changes between this and the last recording I did.

I learnt the introductory electric piano part a little better.  Last time, I had just single notes, but I think the C (the final note in the phrase) has a G under it.

I'd been playing the guitar part during the first part of the verses in octaves just because I thought it sounded better (and was more fun to play that way).  I think it's that way in the original too.  It sounds like there are octaves in the live version.  In the process of recording this, I realized that there are some newer live versions that I should reference (including the Live at Metropolis Studios version, which I can even reference visually since there's a DVD).

Via The Decca Stereo Anthology version (which is the version I used as a template for this), I discovered that in the transition to the bridge, the guitar doesn't play chords; it doubles the C B A phrase that the bass plays.

Saturday Club

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According to the Zombie Heaven liner notes, fifty years ago to-day (20 September 1965), the Zombies recorded "If It Don't Work Out," "Whenever You're Ready," "It's All Right," "Will You Love Me Tomorrow," and "When the Lovelight Starts Shining through Her Eyes" for "Saturday Club."  The show was broadcast on 2 October.

"Whenever You're Ready" b/w "I Love You"

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According to Russo's Collector's Guide, fifty years ago to-day (3 September 1965), the Zombies' "Whenever You're Ready" b/w "I Love You" was released in the U.K.

"Whenever You're Ready" b/w "I Love You"

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According to Russo's Collector's Guide, fifty years ago to-day (16 August 1965), the Zombies' "Whenever You're Ready" b/w "I Love You" (PAR 9786) was released in the U.S. and Canada.

"Whenever You're Ready"

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I knew that I'd learned some of the guitar part in "Whenever You're Ready," and last night I refreshed what I know of it (actually learning more than what my last - and only!? - recorded version contains), and then - thanks to The Zombies Greatest Hits published by the Alfred Company - I learned the chords too.  I changed some of what they have (I don't think the F or Bb are major 7ths), but it was immensely helpful.

I'm still struck by how it ends on a C major 7th.  I think the song is mostly in C major, so ending on a C major 7th doesn't provide a sense of resolution, which provides the same sense of waiting expressed in the lyrics - "call me when you're ready / Whenever you're ready."

I also learned the introductory electric piano phrase.

I'd noticed the chromatic phrase in this before (A, Ab, G), but after learning the chords, I discovered that there's actually a Bb major before that part, so there's a chromatic phrase from Bb to G.  That Bb is also in a bass, but it's in a different octave than the A, Ab, G phrase.

Recording Session

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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."

"Whenever You're Ready" / "You'll Go from Me"

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I listened to the demos of the songs that were recorded sometime this month fifty years ago, and I noticed something about "Whenever You're Ready" and "You'll Go from Me"/"Don't Go Away."

The second line of each verse in "Whenever You're Ready" ends with "like this before" or "like before" (often with a "yeah" capping the line):

First verse:

Well, I've been hurt, but I still love you
I've been hurt like this before, yeah

Second verse:

I know you laugh, but I still love you
And though I've cried like this before, yeah

Third verse:

And never hurt me 'cause I love you
Never hurt me like before

"You'll Go from Me"/"Don't Go Away" also exhibits this repeating sort of feature in that both verses start with "Through the night."  The first verse starts with "Through the night I can feel you love me," and the second with "Through the night you'll tempt my feelings."

I checked the demos against the final versions, and both versions exhibit these traits.

Recording Session

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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.

"Whenever You're Ready"

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After recording this, I found that I had a version of just the bass part that dates from 12 September 2012.  So this is long overdue.

I've been working on learning the guitar parts, and The Decca Stereo Anthology has helped somewhat, but the riff is the only guitar part I know so far.