"A Man for All Reasons"

I listened to Nexus earlier, and I noticed a Biblical allusion in "A Man for All Reasons."  The last verse ends with the repeated line "Bless the man who's the man of peace."  Based on some of the other Christian imagery and references in Ballard's songs, I think this line is meant to refer to one of the Beatitudes from the Sermon on the Mount.  In Matthew 5:9, Jesus says, "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God."  The phrasing is different from the line in "A Man for All Reasons," but they do have the same general idea.

"Time of the Season"

According to the Zombie Heaven liner notes, fifty years ago this month (August 1967 is as specific as they get), the Zombies recorded "Time of the Season."

"She's Not There"

Yester-day, I was playing around with "She's Not There."  I knew that it's in A minor, so from memory I figured out (roughly) the vocal melody, and I noticed something interesting about it.  To-day I referenced the recording, a section of an old Dutch documentary I found on YouTube a few years ago where Rod Argent goes through the song explaining some things, and a book of notation of Zombies songs published by Alfred Music to confirm what I'd figured out and what I discovered.  The vocal melody is entirely in A minor with only one accidental.  In this section:

But it's too late to say you're sorry
How would I know, why should I care
Please don't bother trying to find her
She's not there

the "there" in "She's not there" is sung to a G#.  To some degree, that change in tonality musically represents the absence.

I also noticed that the bass part before second "Well, no one told me about her..." section (at about (0:47) starts with the same five notes as the vocal melody:

In a couple interviews, Rod Argent's said that he often wrote the bass parts for his songs (I think he's even mentioned the bass part of "She's Not There" specifically), and this is a great example of how - because of that - the various parts are closely related.

"Will You Love Me Tomorrow"

Recently I was thinking about the Zombies' version of "Will You Love Me Tomorrow," which they recorded live for a radio show in 1965.  Apparently I haven't posted the chords before, so here they are.

Verses:
A major | B minor | E major
A major | E major
C# major | F# minor
D major | E major | A major

Bridge:
D major | C# minor
D major | A major
D major | C# minor
F# minor | B major | D major | E major

The last verse is a bit different.  There's an instrumental break over the first half, and after the second half, the D major | E major | A major progression is repeated a few times (for the repeated line "Will you still love me tomorrow?").

"Butcher's Tale"

According to the liner notes of both Zombie Heaven and the 50th anniversary edition of Odessey and Oracle, fifty years ago to-day (20 July 1967), the Zombies recorded "Butcher's Tale."

The liner notes in Zombie Heaven provide additional information about some other Odessey and Oracle songs.  In full, the 20 July entry reads: "EMI Abbey Road No 3 recording: 'Butcher's Tale' (master), 'A Rose for Emily', 'Hung up on a Dream', 'Butcher's Tale' (mono mixing)."  If I understand this correctly, along with recording "Butcher's Tale" on 20 July, the Zombies also completed mono mixes of "A Rose for Emily," "Hung up on a Dream," and "Butcher's Tale."

"Hung up on a Dream"

According to the liner notes of both Zombie Heaven and the 50th anniversary edition of Odessey and Oracle, fifty years ago to-day (10 July 1967), the Zombies recorded "Hung up on a Dream."

In full, the Zombie Heaven liner notes entry for 10 July reads: "EMI Abbey Road No 3 recording 'Hung up on a Dream', 'A Rose for Emily' (reduction master)."  The entry for 11 July, the next day, reads: "EMI Abbey Road No 3 recording: 'Hung up on a Dream' (reduction master)."  I'm not certain, but I'm assuming that "reduction master" means they bounced down elements so they would have more tracks available to record more parts.  As I mentioned back in June, I think this 10 July session may have been when the mellotron for "A Rose for Emily" was recorded because "Hung up on a Dream" certainly features that instrument.

Odessey and Oracle

According to the liner notes of both Zombie Heaven* and the 50th anniversary edition of Odessey and Oracle, fifty years ago this month (July 1967), the Zombies recorded "Beechwood Park," "Maybe after He's Gone," and "I Want Her She Wants Me."  Because Abbey Road was booked, these sessions were held at Olympic Studios.  According to the liner notes of the 50th anniversary edition of Odessey and Oracle, the sessions' being held at Olympic Studios is the reason precise dates aren't available.

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*In the track-by-track section, the Zombie Heaven liner notes list "July or August" for these three songs, but in the chronology, they're all listed under July.

A Keyboard Approach

A couple months ago, I subscribed to the Zombies Fan Club's YouTube channel.  This morning, I was very surprised to find two clips from Rod Argent's A Keyboard Approach in my subscription box.  According to Russo's Collector's Guide it came out (on VHS) on 11 August 1992.  A couple times (even as recently as a month or two ago), I went looking for a used copy on Amazon, but I never had any luck.

It's an instructional video that runs just over an hour (66 minutes), but the clips feature only Argent's performances of "Baby Don't You Cry" and "A 4th Gymnopedie" from Red House (1988).

In the video itself, instead of "Baby Don't You Cry," as it's titled on Red House, Argent calls the song "Baby Don't You Cry No More," which is the title it later had on Out of the Shadows (2001).

Argent confirms what I was pretty certain of: "A 4th Gymnopedie" (titled "A fourth gymnopédie" on Classically Speaking) is meant as "a little tribute to" Satie's gymnopédies.  In verifying my spelling there, I discovered that Satie's gymnopédies were published in 1888, so Argent's "A 4th Gymnopedie" from 1988 is from a hundred years later.

A little bit of scrolling credits is included at the end of the video with "A 4th Gymnopedie."  All that's visible is "Fugue in C minor," which I'm assuming is Bach's Fugue in C minor, BWV 846 from The Well-Tempered Clavier, which Argent later recorded for Classically Speaking (1998).

I'm pretty sure that the "Baby Don't You Cry" video was filmed in the same studio where the Zombies recorded Breathe Out, Breathe In.  Here's the video of the title track for comparison:

Obviously, the equipment is moved around, but the windows look the same.

"I Remember When I Loved Her"

I've been reading Romeo and Juliet (for only the second time), and I recently started act 3, scene 2.  It begins with a soliloquy by Juliet in which she wishes for the night to come sooner because Romeo is coming to meet her under cover of darkness.  Addressing the night, she says, "Hood my unmanned blood bating in my cheeks, / With thy black mantle, till strange love grow bold, / Think true love acted simple modesty" (III.ii.14-16).  One of the glosses in my edition explains that "strange" in this context means "unfamiliar."

Of course, this reminded me of "I Remember When I Loved Her" and its "Now we are strange / No more in love."  In the Zombie Heaven liner notes, the only comments by the Zombies themselves are about the word choice there.  Chris White says, "Rod was adamant about that lyric, 'now we are strange, no more in love,'" and Rod Argent says, "It just sounded like quite an elegant phrase, using strange in its old English sense, being estranged or not alike."

It also reminded me of Argent's comment about Shakespeare's language in Johansen's The Zombies: Hung up on a Dream (p. 30):  "The language spoke to me; it had an indefinable, spiritual quality."

I'm not sure if Shakespeare's use of strange in Romeo and Juliet had any direct bearing on Argent's use of strange in "I Remember When I Loved Her," but they do have the same (archaic) meaning in their respective contexts.  Both situations are about love too, although they're going in opposite directions.  Later in the soliloquy, Juliet comments that while she's now married to Romeo, she hasn't really had the chance to experience love.  Their relationship is still in its early stages.  The relationship in "I Remember When I Loved Her," however, is already over and the singer/speaker is looking back on it.

Odessey and Oracle

According to the Zombie Heaven liner notes, fifty years ago to-day (12 June 1967), the Zombies did some work on Odessey and Oracle.  The entry for 12 June reads: "EMI Abbey Road Room 53 recording: 'Friends of Mine', 'A Rose for Emily', 'This Will Be Our Year' (mono mixing)."

It seems that this was the mixing session for the mono versions of these songs; however, "A Rose for Emily" is mentioned again later in the list of production dates.  10 July lists "recording... 'A Rose for Emily' (reduction master)," and an-other mono mixing session with "A Rose for Emily" was on 20 July.

According to the Zombie Heaven liner notes, the cello part "was included in some initial mixes but eventually discarded."  So it seems that this 12 June mixing session was for the version with cello.

"Hung up on a Dream" was the other song recorded at that 10 July session, and because that includes mellotron, I'm assuming that 10 July was also when the mellotron part for "A Rose for Emily" was recorded (which was also later discarded).

"This Will Be Our Year"

According to the liner notes of Zombie Heaven and the 50th anniversary edition of Odessey and Oracle, fifty years ago to-day (2 June 1967) the Zombies recorded "This Will Be Our Year."

Recording Session

According to the liner notes of Zombie Heaven and the 50th anniversary edition of Odessey and Oracle, fifty years ago to-day (1 June 1967) the Zombies recorded "Friends of Mine" and "A Rose for Emily."  This was the first recording session for Odessey and Oracle.