"Just out of Reach"

Backdated, archival post

[link to original on tumblr]

---&---

I didn't realize this until recording this to-day, but the radio version of "Just out of Reach" omits the guitar phrases from the studio version.  It has only guitar chords.

I think I've figured out the bass part for the solo.  There's the A G D E phrase that's in the backing vocals of the studio version, but the second phrase is the same A C D E phrase from the verses, just an octave higher.

Bunny Lake Is Missing

Backdated, archival post

[link to original on tumblr]

---&---

According to Russo's Collector's Guide, fifty years ago to-day (22 April 1966), the Bunny Lake Is Missing soundtrack (RCA RD 7791) was released, including the Zombies' "Nothing's Changed," "Just out of Reach," and "Remember You."

"I Must Move"

Backdated, archival post

[link to original on tumblr]

---&---

I didn't know it was so long ago, but last year I discovered that the bass part for this radio version of "I Must Move" is different from the studio version.  I think it's just an extra C note and a few rhythmic differences.

The guitar part is pretty much the same, just on electric instead of acoustic.  A few notes that are played individually (and sequentially) in the studio version are played together in this radio version, and I think the opening figure (which recurs) has a glissando where in the studio version the second note is a hammer on.  I've been going back and forth on that though, so I'm not sure.

I still haven't figured out the organ part for either version.

"The Feeling's Inside"

Backdated, archival post

[link to original on tumblr]

---&---

Collection Audit:

Yester-day I listened (for the first time) to the first disc of a three-CD set of Bo Diddley.  I'm listening to the second disc to-day, and I think I found a reference to Ray Charles' "Hallelujah I Love Her So" in "Don't Let It Go (Hold on to What You Got)."  There's the line "She brings me my coffee in her favorite cup," which is very similar to Charles' "She brings my coffee in my favorite cup."  According to the credits for the two compilation albums I have these songs on, "Hallelujah I Love Her So" is from 1955, and "Don't Let It Go (Hold on to What You Got)" is from 1959, so chronologically, that reference is possible, but since I don't know much about Bo Diddley (this is the first album of his material that I have, and this is only the first time I'm listening to it), I'm not sure if that's a viable connection.

This is a sort of relevant post from my Collection Audit project.

I mentioned before that I'm pretty sure this line from Ray Charles' "Hallelujah I Love Her So" inspired the line "She bought you coffee in a special cup" in Argent's "The Feeling's Inside."  But there might be something to this Bo Diddley connection too.  The Zombies covered his "Road Runner," but I don't know how familiar they were with his other work.

I still think Charles is the main referent though because in this interview from a few years ago, Rod Argent specifically mentions Charles as one of the artists he still listens to twenty years later.  In more recent interviews, I think he credited him as an influence for "Edge of the Rainbow" from Still Got That Hunger too.

"She's Coming Home"

Backdated, archival post

[link to original on tumblr]

---&---

From Odessey and Oracle right into a 1965 radio session....

There's a slight difference in rhythm in the piano part at the very end, and the guitar part is done on electric rather than acoustic, but otherwise, this is pretty much the same as the studio recording.  The organ parts in the radio version are a bit difficult to distinguish, so I just played what's on the studio recording.

Recording this brought up something that I've been wondering about for a while:  there are two keyboard parts in "She's Coming Home," and I don't think they could be played simultaneously, so did Ken Jones (the Zombies' producer) play one?  I vaguely remember something in the liner notes for the Beatles' Live at the BBC album saying that George Martin was going to play piano on "A Hard Day's Night" (although he got stuck in traffic or something and couldn't make it), so apparently using more musicians for radio shows was a thing that was done.  And the Zombie Heaven liner notes mention Jones playing on a few other tracks (tambourine on "I Remember When I Loved Her" and piano on "Work 'N' Play").  I'm not sure if that's the case here, but the two keyboard parts seem too involved to be played simultaneously.

Odessey and Oracle

Backdated, archival post

[link to original on tumblr]

---&---

Every year since 2014, I've recorded my own version of Odessey and Oracle.  Starting this year though, I'm posting it on 19 April, the date of its original release in 1968.  Since I started doing this, I've learned some more parts and revised some errors, but there are still parts I have wrong and parts that are simply missing (I don't have a very good singing voice, especially compared to the Zombies' voices, so I didn't even attempt the vocals, and I can't play and don't even own a drum kit, so there's hardly any percussion).

Here are some new things since last year's O&O:
- I'd been continuing the bass part in one section of "Beechwood Park" for too long, so I corrected that.
- I learned a bit more of the piano part for "Brief Candles" (although since I still can't play the two hands simultaneously, I had to record them separately, so they're a little out-of-sync at times).
- I acquired a tambourine and finger cymbals, so I could do some of the percussion in "Changes."  While it shouldn't sound any different, I played the two hands of the piano part simultaneously, which I couldn't do last time.  (I attribute this new-found ability to my practicing the bass register of the piano part while simultaneously playing the mellotron part from the second verse; after being able to do that, playing just a single A note in the treble is easy.)
- I'm pretty sure that there's an E minor 9 and an E minor with a G note on top in the guitar part in "I Want Her She Wants Me" where previously I'd been playing just a straight E minor.
- I used different inversions for the guitar chords in "Time of the Season," which sound a little more accurate, although the rhythm there still isn't completely accurate.

I should also note that I overdubbed the piano phrase at the end of "This Will Be Our Year," but since there's a ritardando there, my instrument parts don't match up very well.  In September, I think I learned some of the trombone part, but because I'm not too confident in it and was running out of time, I didn't attempt it this year.  The opening harpsichord part in "I Want Her She Wants Me" isn't right, but that's how I've been playing it for a year or two, and I haven't figured out the real part yet.  Likewise, some of the organ phrases in "Beechwood Park" aren't accurate, but they're a loose representation of what should be there.

An Update on Recording the Annual O&O

Backdated, archival post

[link to original on tumblr]

---&---

I have only a few keyboard parts left (piano for "Brief Candles," "Hung up on a Dream," and "This Will Be Our Year"); I have to re-do the guitar part for "Friends of Mine" because I discovered that what I thought was an F major is actually a G7 (which - oddly enough - is the same mistake I made with the end of "Care of Cell 44" when I did the 2014 O&O); and I'm undecided about whether I'm going to try the trombone parts for "This Will Be Our Year."  Then, there's all the mixing and editing, but that shouldn't take too long.

After recording the mellotron part for "Changes" yester-day, I figured out the bottom vocal harmony for the chorus (the part that Hugh and Paul sang), and I plan on writing and posting something about that, but it won't be until after I've posted the annual O&O.

Really, the main purpose of this update is to say that (after only two days), I quit my job because it was horrendous.  So flute acquisition will have to wait a long time, although I probably earned enough money to buy the first Manfred Mann album, which - like Begin Here - also features "I Got My Mojo Working."  I have Muddy Waters' version, but I still haven't gotten around to listening to it.

"Butcher's Tale" and "Friends of Mine"

Backdated, archival post

[link to original on tumblr]

---&---

I was thinking about this a few days ago, but I forgot until earlier to-day.

Part of the chord progressions for "Butcher's Tale" and "Friends of Mine" are sort of the same, which makes some sense since they're both Chris White songs.

There's a progression in "Butcher’s Tale" that's F major, Bb major, F major, A major, and there's a progression in "Friends of Mine" that's C major, F major, C major, E major.  There's a significant difference though in that "Butcher's Tale" is in D minor and "Friends of Mine" is in C major, so if you write those sections of the chord progressions in Roman numerals, it's III VI III V for "Butcher's Tale" and I IV I III for "Friends of Mine."  The relationship between each group of four chords is the same even though they start on different scale degrees and are in different keys.

I should add a disclaimer to this that while I think I'm right, I don't have any training in music theory so I could have gotten this wrong.

Odessey and Oracle

Backdated, archival post

[link to original on tumblr]

---&---

To-day I started in earnest in recording my annual Odessey and Oracle (I have all of the guitar parts and some mellotron parts so far), but - to my own surprise - I got a telephone call that I have a job (after almost two years of looking) and I start to-morrow, so I'm not sure if I'll actually finish this by the 19th.  I really have no idea what to expect from employment (aside from money so I can buy [and learn to play] a flute for that part in "I Know She Will").

Anyway, I discovered a few things just in recording what I have so far:

There's some assonance in "I Want Her, She Wants Me" - "I sleep so easy."  That repeated sound sort of represents the ease of the sleep; it's a mellifluous sound.  Also, what I thought was just a regular E minor chord has some variations; it's more like E minor, E minor 9, E minor with a G on top (which is apparently not called E minor 10), and then back through E minor 9 to a regular E minor.  There's a phrase constructed of the notes E, F#, G in the harpsichord part at the same time.

I thought I knew all of the mellotron parts on the album, but recording them for "Hung up on a Dream" has made me realize that I am missing some there.  I also found some alliteration in "Hung up on a Dream" - "Sometimes I think I'll never find / Such purity and peace of mind again."  It sort of demonstrates the same thing that the lyrics themselves mention - "purity and peace."

Rather than writing notes on my arm so I know when I come in with the mellotron parts for the verses in "Care of Cell 44" (like I did a few years ago), I notated the mellotron part for the verses.  The mellotron part during the bridge should be pretty easy to notate too, so hopefully I can post the notation for the entirety of the mellotron part sometime soon.  I've been trying to think of Zombies songs that have straight-forward guitar chords, and "Care of Cell 44" qualifies for that too, so it'll probably be the first song for which I post more than one notated part.

Colin Blunstone Interview

Backdated, archival post

[link to original on tumblr]

---&---

This is pretty extensive interview with Colin Blunstone.

He mentions the plaque that commemorates the Zombies' first rehearsal and gives the date as Easter 1961.  Easter 1961 was on 2 April, so there's a rough estimate of the specific day the Zombies started.

"I Must Move"

Backdated, archival post

[link to original on tumblr]

---&---

When I listened to The Decca Stereo Anthology about a week ago, I noticed that there's a harmony part for the first half of the humming section in "I Must Move."  (There are probably a lot of harmony parts in Zombies songs that I don't know as well as I should.)  I figured it out a couple days ago, after I discovered that what I thought was an organ part in "Just out of Reach" is actually a backing vocal.

I'm pretty sure that it's just a descending chromatic phrase (D, C#, C), but that final C is sort of dissonant because it's above a G major chord (G, B, D).

I recorded this with electric guitar and reed organ.  I didn't feel like setting up a microphone to record acoustic guitar, and my voice is too low for it to have sounded good if I sang it.

To some degree, the harmony part here is a precedent to that in "Maybe after He's Gone," where there are chromatic phrases in both harmony parts during the choruses (Rod's part is E, D#, D, C#; Chris' is A, F#, F, E).

Come to think of it, there's a harmony part like this in "She's Not There" too.  I'm pretty sure that the "(too) late to say you're sorry" is sung to F#, F, E.

"Just out of Reach"

Backdated, archival post

[link to original on tumblr]

---&---

After I figured out the bass part for "I'll Call You Mine" last night, I decided I needed to focus on the radio session that the Zombies did on 20 April 1965 (broadcast on 1 May) because that comes before the 4 May 1966 session (I still need to get started on recording my annual Odessey and Oracle too, which I'd like to have finished by 19 April, the original release date).  I referenced the four tracks from the radio session and discovered a lot about "Just out of Reach," specifically about a four-note phrase in the verses.

First, I have to correct what I've said earlier:  I'd thought that this four-note phrase was played on organ, but it's actually part of the backing vocals.  I took the studio version from The Decca Stereo Anthology and split the two channels, and it's clearly audible on both channels.  If it were an organ part, it would be on only one.

So I can notate that in the proper clef now:

While I'm writing about that four-note phrase, I should finally get around to mentioning something I noticed in the autumn.  In the Beatles' "Every Little Thing," there's a similar phrase at the end of each verse.  It's played in octaves on piano (so this held a bit more credence when I thought that the four-note phrase in "Just out of Reach" was on organ), but while it's also four notes, it's only three pitches:

The melodic arc that both phrases describe is roughly the same:  a two-note descent and then a two-note ascent.  The rhythms are about the same too.

I don't think this is enough evidence to assert that "Just out of Reach" was inspired by "Every Little Thing" (although it's possible); I just thought it was interesting.

Anyway, last night I discovered something else interesting about this phrase:  in that live version for radio, that four-note phrase shows up in the bass part during the organ solo (although the rhythm is still that from the verses).  The bass part during the verses is slightly different too (there's an extra note and a different rhythm), but I thought it very exciting that that four-note phrase shows up during the organ solo.

I haven't yet learned the entirety of the bass part for that live version, but that's an-other part I'd like to notate so that I can more easily see the differences between the studio version and the live version.  I feel I should note that there's only about two months between the two recordings.  The studio version was recorded 2 March, and this radio version was recorded on 20 April.

(If I remember correctly, the live version from Live at the Bloomsbury Theatre, London features different guitar chords too, so it seems that "Just out of Reach" has evolved quite a bit since first being recorded.)