"I'll Call You Mine"

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Earlier, I figured out the bass part for "I'll Call You Mine."  When I listened to The Decca Stereo Anthology about a week ago, I thought a few sections of it sounded pretty easy to figure out, and I already knew the chords (more or less), which helpt.  The 50th anniversary of its recording (4 May 1966, along with "Gotta Get a Hold of Myself," "Indication," and "She Does Everything for Me") is in less than a month though, so I'll just wait until then to record it.  (That also gives me time to remember the chords and practice the small bit I know of the piano part.)

In figuring out the bass part, I referenced all of the recordings I have - the one on The Decca Stereo Anthology, two different mixes that are included as bonus tracks on the first copy of Odessey and Oracle I got (over seven years ago!), and the version on Zombie Heaven.  In doing so, I re-discovered that except for the Zombie Heaven version, they're all slightly out-of-tune.  What I mean is: if you play along (and your instrument's in tune), it won't match.  I think they were sped up ever-so-slightly when they were converted to digital, which affects the pitch.

"Indication"

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Collection Audit:

The third (and final) thing I noticed while listening to the Zombies' The Decca Stereo Anthology is in the backing vocals in "Indication."  For the last line of the verses, the backing vocals have a consist descent.  For the first two verses, that melodic arc emphasizes the lyrics:  "Tied down every day and every night" and "I won't be the one to settle down."  Both have "down" in the line, and the melody descends.

"Don't Cry for Me"

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Collection Audit:

The second thing I noticed when I listened to the Zombies' The Decca Stereo Anthology yester-day was some melismas in "Don't Cry for Me."  I'd noticed the descending melisma on "down" before, but apparently I'd neglected to recognize the melisma'd "heart" in the line before it:  "Don't break your heart / Thinking you have let me down."

The descending melisma for "down" is easily explained as a musical representation of the "down," but I was initially confounded by the melisma'd "heart."  The full line is "Don't break your heart," but that melisma does break the heart (into notes of different pitches).

After thinking about it for a while, the only explanation I can come up with (aside from just a simple vocal embellishment) is that the sentiment there is disingenuous.  The singer/speaker says, "Don't break your heart," but he doesn't really mean it.

"I Don't Want to Know"

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Collection Audit:

Yester-day I listened to the Zombies' The Decca Stereo Anthology and noticed a few things.  The first was in "I Don't Want to Know."  There are the lines "I believe what I want / No matter what you do," and I'd always understood the "do" there as representing an action.  "I believe what I want / No matter what action you perform."  But listening to it yester-day, I realized that it could be a sort of abbreviation standing in for the same verb, so "I believe what I want / No matter what you believe." 

The singer/speaker's steadfastness in his belief remains the same, but - depending on how that second line is parsed - he's resisting different things.

"Remember You" [soundtrack version]

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I know the guitar part for the single version of "Remember You" (to some degree of accuracy, at least) but - even aside from the difference in key - it's different in the soundtrack version, and I haven't gotten around to figuring it out yet.  I thought I was going to do the tambourine part too, but after a few takes I discovered that it doesn't repeat (the second verse is different from the first verse), so I'll have to notate that before I can record it.

So this is only the bass part, which I guess works out because that's all I've notated so far:

I wrote it out by hand and then scanned it.  I had to edit the image a bit, and while it's still not the clearest, it's legible.

I don't know how much notation I'll get to writing out, but I'll be adding them as posts (tagged with "notation," if I remember) and also making individual pages for each song.  Obviously, it all comes with the disclaimer that it might be wrong and is in no way official.

"Remember You"

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I've been thinking about "Remember You" a lot lately (because to-day is the 51st anniversary of the soundtrack version's being recorded), specifically the differences between the soundtrack version and the single version.  I'd been under the mistaken impression that the single version was recorded on 2 March*, so I was wondering why the soundtrack version (recorded on the 31st) is less complex.  The bass part is simpler, and there isn't an introductory guitar figure like there is in the single version.

So I just checked the liner notes of The Decca Stereo Anthology (which I'm actually currently listening to) and discovered that I'd forgotten (again!) that the single version was recorded on 27 August 1965.  I'd neglected to include this in the list of (mostly Decca-era) recording dates too.

After sussing out that chronology, everything makes sense now.  I've updated that list of recording dates, and hopefully I won't forget that the soundtrack version pre-dates the single version.

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*The Zombie Heaven liner notes list 2 March 1965 as the recording date, but The Decca Stereo Anthology corrects this to 27 August 1965.

"Nothing's Changed"

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I was surprised to find that this is only the second time I've recorded "Nothing's Changed."  I'm pretty sure the electric piano part isn't super accurate, but I am confident about the A# G# F# phrase.  I hadn't noticed until recently that "Nothing's Changed" has both organ and electric piano.  I don't think the parts overlap anywhere, so it seems that Rod Argent switched instruments while they were recording and that one wasn't overdubbed (although genius player that he is, he probably could have played two keyboards simultaneously anyway, as he has in some recent live versions of "Time of the Season").

I still find myself marveling that they didn't use the alternate take that appears on the third disc of Zombie Heaven.  The solo in that version is much better.

"I Want Some More"

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It bothered me that I was missing just a tiny bit of the bass part to "I Want Some More," so this afternoon I sat down and figured out the rest.

This is just the first verse, but the parts are the same for the other verses.

"I Want Some More"

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Yester-day afternoon I was thinking about the bass part for "I Want Some More" from Colin Blunstone's Ennismore album, so last night - after I figured out and notated the bass part for the soundtrack version of "Remember You" - I figured out part of it.  I have only the first half of the verses so far.  It changes after this, and I'm stuck for now.

"Remember You"

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I just figured out the bass part for the soundtrack version of "Remember You" (to be recorded and posted in a few days when it's the 51st anniversary of the March 31st recording [although I'll probably do "Nothing's Changed" first]).  Knowing the bass part for the single version helped, although I was misled by one part that goes lower in the single version.  It took some time to figure out that it doesn't go that low in the soundtrack version.

It's in 3/4 time, and the rhythms don't seem that complex, so I think I'm going to try to write out the notation for it, just so I have a written record of the differences between the soundtrack and single versions.  Of course, that also means that I have to write out the notation for the single version.

Over the last month or so I've been thinking about what I've been doing here, and I've come to the decision that I need to start posting some notation (even if it's just tabs or chord progressions).  I'd had the notion that because I figured out the parts, I had some kind of ownership of them, that I was the possessor of this arcane knowledge.  But anyone could do what I'm doing: I'm just figuring out the parts.  And if posting those parts in notation (of whatever form) leads to more interest in the Zombies, it can't be a bad thing.  So the bass part of the soundtrack version of "Remember You" should be the first notation I post in full.

"Remember You"

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I was working on figuring out parts for "Nothing's Changed" and the soundtrack version of "Remember You" last night and discovered something.  In the soundtrack version of "Remember You," there are "Remember"s during the piano solo.  Those aren't present in the single version.

"Nothing's Changed"

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The 31st is the 51st anniversary of the recording of "Nothing's Changed" and the version of "Remember You" that's on the soundtrack of Bunny Lake Is Missing.  I just figured out the bass part (and a few organ parts) for "Nothing's Changed."  The bass part is pretty easy; I'm surprised I hadn't figured it out already.

I still know virtually nothing of the soundtrack version of "Remember You," but I do know that it's a whole-step lower than the single version (which I do know some parts for), which should be helpful.