"She Does Everything for Me"

Backdated, archival post

[link to original on tumblr]

---&---

Almost a week ago now, I was thinking about "She Does Everything for Me," and I realized a musicological feature I hadn't noticed before.  In the first verse, there's the line "She won't lead me up with air," and throughout that first verse, the chord progression descends (F# minor, E major, D major, C# major).  The chord progression there further emphasizes what the lyrics have.

Bob Henrit

Backdated, archival post

[link to original on tumblr]

---&---

NAMM Oral History Program: Bob Henrit

I found this via Henrit's Wikipedia page.  There isn't anything about Argent in particular (or even Unit 4+2), but he talks about the drum pattern in Buddy Holly's "Peggy Sue."

Planes and Never Even Thought

Backdated, archival post

[link to original on tumblr]

---&---

Earlier to-day I listened to the two Colin Blunstone albums I got recently (Planes and Never Even Thought).  Here are some thoughts about them (although more about the production credits than the songs themselves).

I was surprised by the extent of the liner notes.  I wasn't really expecting anything, but they were pretty detailed.  They mention that this release (July 2015, as far as I can tell) is the first time these albums have been issued since their original releases in '70s (the copyrights say Planes is from '76; Never Even Thought from '78).  I was pleasantly surprised to find that Gus Dudgeon (who engineered most - if not all - of the Zombies' recordings at Decca's West Hampstead studios) produced Planes (and also contributed some percussion and did brass arrangement) and that Rod Argent played various keyboard instruments on Planes and sang on both albums (he's also credited with vocal arrangements on Planes).  Argent members Russ Ballard and John Verity also did some backing vocals (Ballard on Planes; Verity on both).

I listened to the CD only once so far (so I don't have specifics), but I noticed that one song has melodica and an-other has mandolin.  Both are instruments I have, but I don't often get the opportunity to use them for this project (although I think one of the earlier Blunstone albums also has a song with a mandolin part).

It turns out that "(Care of) Cell 44" wasn't the only song I knew.  The next track (and the final track of Planes) is a cover of Buddy Holly's "Tell Me How."  Planes also has "Only with You," a Beach Boys song from their Holland album.  (I got Holland for Christmas and have listened to it only once so far, so - were it not for the "Wilson/Love" credit and the liner notes' mentioning it's from Holland - I would have been oblivious to this.)

Circus, Planes, and Never Even Thought

Backdated, archival post

[link to original on tumblr]

---&---

Yester-day, I got some more albums that are relevant to this project.  I think I was supposed to get them for Christmas but my parents forgot or something, but anyway, I now have two more Colin Blunstone albums (Planes and Never Even Thought) and a physical copy of Argent's Circus (I've had a digital copy for a few years now).

Planes has an-other version of "Care of Cell 44" (slightly retitled as "(Care of) Cell 44"), which I'm very excited to listen to.  I think I'm going to do the same thing with these as I'm doing for Still Got That Hunger - for a year or so, I'm just going to enjoy them as a listener and not try to analyze them.

I feel like I should also mention that I got a Cannonball Adderly album (Cannonball's Sharpshooters by the Cannonball Adderly Quintet).  Rod Argent's mentioned Cannonball Adderly in a few interviews, so I pickt this out a long time ago (I think last year) and had my parents save it for me for some future time (which - as an unemployed person - is how most of my record shopping is done).

A few months ago, I also found an anthology of Curtis Mayfield & the Impressions that includes "You Must Believe Me" and "It's All Right," which the Zombies covered in radio broadcasts.

I've been doing this sort of thing for about five years now; the Zombies mention someone in an interview, and then sometimes I go and look for albums by them.  I'm not sure it's helpt very much in finding influences on the Zombies' music, but it's certainly given me some great stuff to listen to.

"A fourth gymnopédie"

Backdated, archival post

[link to original on tumblr]

---&---

For my Collection Audit project, I just listened to Rod Argent's Classically Speaking, and it reminded me of a thing I meant to write here months (or even longer) ago.

The final track on Classically Speaking is "A fourth gymnopédie," which is a re-recording of "A 4th gymnopedie" from Argent's Red House album (from ten years earlier).  I don't remember when I realized this, but it continues Satie's gymnopédies.  Satie wrote three, and Argent's is the "fourth."

I haven't really lookt into the music yet, but - just from hearing them - it's fairly obvious that Argent's has some musical similarities with Satie's.

"Out of the Day"

Backdated, archival post

[link to original on tumblr]

---&---

Yester-day I re-learned the opening guitar figure for "Out of the Day."  I'd learned it before but forgot about it or something.  I might not have recorded it before because the hammer-ons in the second phrase are troublesome (and they're still not very good here).  Last night, I also learned the chords.  The rhythm isn't accurate though.

I also learned part of the bass part, but not enough to include it here.  In some respects, it's a lot like the bass register of the organ part in "Butcher's Tale" in that it's mostly comprised of the notes D, E, and F.

"This Old Heart of Mine"

Backdated, archival post

[link to original on tumblr]

---&---

When I made a page of the recording dates recently, I realized that I'd never recorded the guitar part from "This Old Heart of Mine," which I know part of.  (Actually, I realized that I'd never written about it at all.)

I intended to record what I know of it to-day, but I wanted to practice it a bit more first.  I referenced the video of the Zombies performing it in France and noticed that Paul Atkinson is playing the guitar part in octaves.  It's sort of visible here (but obviously more apparent in the original video):

This is a pair of C#s.

The thing is: in practicing it in octaves, I developed a blister on my finger, so actually recording this will have to wait awhile.  I'm still stuck on the bridges too; I know only the verses, and it will probably be underwhelming when I eventually get to it.

Instruments

Backdated, archival post

[link to original on tumblr]

---&---

modestyandmonocles:

7 March '16 To-day's Chris White's birthday. He was the bass player in the Zombies and probably influenced my bass playing more than anyone else. He had a cherry red Gibson EB-3 (during the Decca era, at least), so when I finally got a bass, I got a cherry red Epiphone EB-0 (which looks pretty much the same, but which is much less expensive).

A post shared by David (@modestyandmonocles) on Mar 7, 2016 at 5:58pm PST

I'm reblogging this from what I guess would be considered my personal tumblr, mostly so I can talk about instruments for a bit.

Like I mention in that caption, I got the Epiphone bass because it was closest I could get (economically) to White's Gibson, and I try to get other comparable instruments and equipment.  A few years ago, I got a Burns twelve-string (the same twelve-string that Paul Atkinson had), and about a year and a half after that, I got a Vox amplifier (not the AC-30 that the Zombies used though).

By the time I seriously started this project, I'd had an acoustic guitar for a few years, but I was glad to find that it's the same brand (Washburn) as the one that Keith Airey used for "Maybe after He's Gone" in the 40th anniversary Odessey and Oracle concert (although it might not be the same model; I have a D-9).

I know I've mentioned this more than once, but this is why I'm excited at the prospect of getting a Nord keyboard and using the Nord sample library, which has the Hohner Pianette, mellotron, and I think even the Vox Continental and Hammond organs.  It helps that the Nord keyboards are red like the Vox Continentals too.

At some point, I'd like to make my electric guitar situation more accurate.  I've been using an Epiphone SG-400 (I likt the look of Pete Ham's Gibson SG), but Paul Atkinson had a Gretsch Chet Atkins model (I think the Tennessean, although he said something about wishing he'd gotten the Country Gentleman like George Harrison had) and later a Rickenbacker.  I think the specific Rickenbacker was a 1997 Rose Morris, which - of course - is discontinued and thus even more expensive than normal.

That's probably not even half the equipment I would need to make this project instrumentally accurate, but this is too long already.  I'd like to get the same brands of instruments, but I don't have the money to buy anything right now.  And when I am able to get more instruments, I'm going to focus on the sort of instrument and not the make specifically.  It doesn't make much sense to get a Rickenbacker in order to have a more accurate guitar sound when I could, for instance, get (and learn how to play) a flute to do the Mike Vickers overdubs on the left-over Decca material.  I'm going to (try to) get instruments I don't have any version of rather than more accurate versions of instruments I do have some version of.

"Pure Love: II. Prelude"

Backdated, archival post

[link to original on tumblr]

---&--

As promised, here are the guitar and bass parts to (a very small part of) "Pure Love."  This is actually a bit more than I had when I first mentioned having figured out part of it a few days ago.  There's a bit more to the bass part before this section repeats (albeit with a different organ part on top of it), but it goes quickly, so I'm having trouble figuring it out.

"Play It for Real"

Backdated, archival post

[link to original on tumblr]

---&---

A few days ago, I learned the piano riff from "Play It for Real."

"I Want You Back Again" [single version]

Backdated, archival post

[link to original on tumblr]

---&---

This is the last of the historical anniversary recordings for now.  Last night I refreshed the guitar part and discovered two things.  First, in the single version, it ends on an Eb where the alternate version ends on a C (if I remember correctly).  To some degree, that helps to emphasize the sadness of the tonic C minor chord.  Second (and more interesting), the guitar part for the entirety of "I Want You Back Again" contains all the same notes (no more and no less) as the guitar solo in the Beatles' "Can't Buy Me Love," which I learned earlier this year.  There are only nine notes in both:

The Zombies have often cited the Beatles as an influence, so I think this is a bit more than a coincidence, but I don't think that Argent set out to write a song with a guitar part that contains only the notes in the "Can't Buy Me Love" solo.  That seems too much like writing in the vein of what's popular, which - as he's mentioned multiple times - he doesn't do.  Still, I thought this immensely interesting.

The guitar part during the (still missing) electric piano solo isn't strictly accurate.  I mostly just stayed on the C note, but it's more complex than that.  There's a C, Bb, G figure and something else I couldn't figure out (although I think it's some form of a C minor chord), so I just kept it simple.  I think it's more like the alternate version of "I Want You Back Again" (which, to be honest, I think I like better than the single version).

"Just out of Reach"

Backdated, archival post

[link to original on tumblr]

---&---

Really, the only thing I have to say about this is that I'm surprised I did the keyboard glissando at the end of the solo (of which I still know only a phrase or two).  I'm always worried I'm going to break a key or injure my hand or something, so I'm apprehensive of doing it, especially since the keyboard I've been using for the last three or four years is one I have on extensive loan from my dad.  The Nord keyboard that I've been (hopelessly) looking at getting has keys that are more solid, so maybe my fears would be assuaged with that.