"Sweet Mary"

Recently, I learned the Fender Rhodes part at the beginning of Argent's "Sweet Mary."  (What I have is probably not entirely accurate, but it's pretty close, at least.)  It's well beyond my level of notational ability, so I made a video in order to have some record of it.

 

I used one of the Rhodes sounds (EPiano Rd2) on my Hammond SKX, which I got a few months ago.

To-day's also Rod Argent's birthday.

"This Will Be Our Year"

Recently, I got Live from Studio Two, the live album and DVD of the Zombies' performance at Abbey Road Studios last September.  I haven't watched the DVD yet, but I listened to the CD a few days ago.  It occurred to me that over the years, there's been something of an expansion of the last lines of "This Will Be Our Year" - "And this will be our year / Took a long time to come."  Even on Odessey and Oracle, the tempo there slows a bit, but it's developed over the years as the Zombies play the song live.  On Live at the Bloomsbury Theatre, it's more or less the same as on Odessey and Oracle; the tempo just slows a bit.  I'm pretty sure though that in every other live version I've heard (Odessey and Oracle Revisited, Live at Metropolis Studios, Stage on Sixth performance, KEXP performance, the Daytrotter Session, Summer Stage Concert, Extended Versions, the 2015 performance of Odessey and Oracle on NPR, and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction performance), there's a longer break between the two lines and Rod Argent plays a piano phrase there.  Because of this expansion, these live versions actually give a better sense of the duration of that "long time" than the original studio version does.

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While looking up those live versions, I also discovered that the Stage on Sixth performance (15 March 2013) and the KEXP performance (16 March 2013) were on sequential days!

Argent Live at the Paris Theatre, 14 December 1972

I'll probably post about this again in a few months when the fiftieth anniversary rolls around, but I recently discovered a complete recording of Argent's performance at the Paris Theatre.

In March 2018, I found a partial recording ("Be My Lover, Be My Friend," "Sweet Mary," "Hold Your Head Up," and "He's a Dynamo").  Apparently, the original page is gone, but it was re-posted in February last year.

In January 2020, I found an-other partial recording ("Be My Lover, Be My Friend," "Sweet Mary," "I Am the Dance of Ages," and "He's a Dynamo").

Recently, I went looking for that first recording again, and I found the full performance in the related posts.  Here's the set list:

• "Be My Lover, Be My Friend"
• "Sweet Mary"
• "Tragedy"
• "I Am the Dance of Ages" (with a bit of "Rejoice" as an introduction and a quote of "God Bless Ye Merry, Gentlemen" in the solo)
• "The Fakir" (including what seems to be the fast, arpeggiated Pianet part from "Pleasure")
• "Hold Your Head Up"
• "He's a Dynamo"

The first recording I found was dated simply 1972; the second says 1 July 1972; and the third says 6 January 1973.  I think the actual date is 14 December 1972.  In his Collector's Guide, Greg Russo gives that date along with this set list and this location.

In the audio file itself, Bob Harris explains that "This is the first concert program that they've done for quite some time, and in fact, it's one of our rare opportunities of getting the chance to listen to them live these days 'cause for the next month or so, they'll be going into the studio to put the final touches to their fourth album, which should be released sometime early in February."  According to Russo, Argent's fourth album, In Deep, was released in March 1973 (the 23rd in the U.K. and the 26th in the U.S. and Canada).

"Hold Your Head Up" b/w "Closer to Heaven"

According to Russo's Collector's Guide, fifty years ago to-day (5 June 1972), Argent's "Hold Your Head Up" (3:15 edit) b/w "Closer to Heaven" (Epic 5-10852) was released in the U.S. and Canada.

"Sweet Mary"

Yester-day, I listened to Ring of Hands (and All Together Now), and I noticed a small feature in "Sweet Mary" that I've commented about in a few others songs already.  In the backing vocals, there's the line "All alone when I wanted you so bad."  "All alone" alliterates, and since the two words begin with the same sound, there's a sense of that singularity.

"Tragedy" b/w "Rejoice"

According to Russo's Collector's Guide, fifty years ago to-day (26 May 1972), Argent's "Tragedy" b/w "Rejoice" (Epic S EPC 8115) was released in the U.K.

"Care of Cell 44"

A number of years ago, I wrote some posts about musical elements in "Care of Cell 44" that seem to undermine the apparent happiness and optimism.  Yester-day, I was thinking about the bass part during the bridge, and I realized that it's one of these elements too.

The lyrics there are:

We'll walk in a way we used to walk

And it could be so nice

We'll talk in a way we used to talk

And it could be so nice

I've noted before that for "a way we used to walk," the lead vocal is on the off-beats, illustrating perhaps that the two people in this relationship were at odds with each other.

For almost all of the bridge, the bass plays on the off-beats too.  It's something like:

Musically, this seems to illustrate that the "way we used to walk" was out of step.

All Together Now

According to Russo's Collector's Guide, fifty years ago to-day (21 April 1972), Argent's album All Together Now (Epic S EPC 64962) was released in the U.K.  The U.S. and Canada version (Epic KE 31556) was released on 26 June.

"Butcher's Tale"

I was thinking about "Butcher's Tale" last night, specifically:

And I can't stop shaking

My hands won't stop shaking

My arms won't stop shaking

My mind won't stop shaking

I realized that there are a couple features here that illustrate the incessant nature of this shaking.

Of course, there's the repetition of the word itself and even of the structure of the lines.  Different body parts are substituted, but each line ends with the phrase "won't stop shaking" (the rhetorical term for this structure is epistrophe).

The first line is a bit different, but the other three lines are all sung to the same melody, something like:

The repetition of this melody not only contributes to the incessant feeling, but it also emphasizes the lines' similarity.

"Hung up on a Dream"

Last night, I was thinking about "Hung up on a Dream," and I realized that the line "And turned me on to sounds unheard" bears some resemblance to part of John Keats' "Ode on a Grecian Urn":  "Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard / Are sweeter; therefore, ye soft pipes, play on."  Both comment on "unheard" sounds.

In Claes Johansen's Hung up on a Dream, Argent says that Shakespeare's "language spoke to me; it had an indefinable, spiritual quality."  This line in "Hung up on a Dream" may be an instance of Keats' language eliciting a similar response, or it could just be a coincidence.

"I've Always Had You"

Yester-day I listened to the 50th anniversary edition of One Year for the first time.  One of the bonus tracks is a demo of "I've Always Had You," which later appeared on Ennismore.  This is a minor point, but I noticed that "good and bad" in the line "I've travelled far, through good and bad" is a merism.

"Care of Cell 44"

I was thinking about "Care of Cell 44" recently and had two thoughts:

First, it would make more sense to understand the "good morning" at the beginning of the song more metaphorically than strictly temporally.  It's an epistolary song ("writing this letter..."), and the letter could be read at any time of the day, not just the morning.  As a metaphor, though, this "good morning" could represent the renewal of the relationship that the narrator describes ("we'll get to know each other for a second time").

Second, a change in the bass part seems to indicate the narrator's growing eagerness.  For the first three verses, most of the bass part is half notes, but in the verse after the bridge, the bass part is mostly quarter notes.  To some degree, this provides a musical sense of increasing excitement, as if the narrator's heart is beating faster in anticipation of meeting his girlfriend again.