"Keep the Curtains Closed Today"

I listened to Colin Blunstone's Journey yester-day and noticed a couple small features.

In "Keep the Curtains Closed Today," "while" in the line "This is our first day for quite a while" is sung with a melisma (D C# A), musically giving a sense either of duration or of degree (for "quite").

"Away" in the line "The future always seems so far away" is sung with the same melisma.  Here, it provides a sense of distance.

I also referenced the version on The Ghost of You and Me (slightly retitled to "Let's Keep the Curtains Closed Today") and discovered that it's a whole tone lower (G major rather than A major).  These words are sung with melismas there too, but they're slightly different, notwithstanding the lower key.  "While" is sung to the notes A G, and "away" is sung to the notes B A G.

"Together"

A little over a year ago, I wrote a post about the bridge in "Together":

And I've come to

Need you like flowers need the rain

Have to love you

As much as seasons have to change in time

I'd noticed that in contrast to the quick note values of most of the section, each word in the phrase "change in time" is held for a full measure and that this prolonging of note values mirrors the "change" there.

Yester-day, I realized that the words themselves illustrate this change too.  In both rhyme and syllable count, the line "Need you like flowers need the rain" complements the line "As much as seasons have to change in time" up until the first half of "change."  The second half of "change" and the phrase "in time" create structural differences between these two lines.  Instead of a pure rhyme, there's merely assonance between "rain" and "change," and the lines have unequal numbers of syllables.  These structural differences illustrate that "change" in a poetic manner.

"Woman"

I recently re-learned the bass part for "Woman" (I'm in the midst of notating it) and found an old post on this blog where I'd written down the guitar and organ phrases (albeit just with note letters and I misidentified the organ as electric piano).  A couple days ago, I realized that since the guitar and organ play the same two-bar phrase, just starting at different points, they form a very simple canon:

My notation shows just four measures, but obviously, these phrases continue.

"You Make Me Feel Good"

I've been reviewing some of the early Decca era songs recently, and this evening I played through "You Make Me Feel Good."  I realized that the song contains only major chords:  E major, G# major, A major, and B major.  Because there isn't any of the "sadness" of minor chords, there's something of a sense of that "feel[ing] good."

Ennismore

According to Russo's Collector's Guide, fifty years ago to-day (20 October 1972), Colin Blunstone's Ennismore (Epic S EPC 65278) was released in the U.K.  The release in the U.S. and Canada (Epic KE 31994) was 26 February 1973.

The same day, "I Don't Believe in Miracles" b/w "I've Always Had You" (Epic S EPC 8434) was released in the U.K.  The release in the U.S. and Canada (Epic 5-10948) was 22 January 1973.

"Tragedy" b/w "He's a Dynamo"

According to Russo's Collector's Guide, fifty years ago to-day (16 October 1972), Argent's "Tragedy" b/w "He's a Dynamo" (both edited versions) (Epic 5-10919) was released in the U.S. and Canada.

"Never My Love"

A couple days ago, I was thinking about the Association's "Never My Love" and realized that in the lines "When I've asked you to spend your whole life / With me," "life" is held for almost two measures in the lead vocals and sung with a melisma in the backing vocals and that both of these articulations provide a sense of the entirety of that "whole."  I also referenced the version by "Neil MacArthur" (Colin Blunstone's pseudonym from the late 1960s) and found that while it's a bit different, these elements are present there too.  The backing vocals in this section don't have words, just "ah"s, but "life" is sung with a melisma in the lead vocal (C# B) and held for almost a whole measure.

Begin Here

Yester-day, I lookt at the cover of Begin Here, and I realized that it has a certain similarity with the cover of the Beatles' With the Beatles.

The main similarity is the lighting.  In both, the band members' faces are lit primarily from one side, although, obviously, this effect is pushed to its extreme on the Beatles' album cover.

The Zombies have often cited the Beatles' influence.  I guess I'd always considered it only as a musical influence, but this seems to be an instance of a visual influence.

"Don't Go Away"

Lately, I've been re-learning some parts that I'd forgotten and never wrote down.  Last night, I re-learned the chords for "Don't Go Away."  I posted about this in my Instagram stories along with a clip of the song, and I discovered something I'd never heard before tacked onto the end:  the Zombies dedicating a copy of "Remember You" to the winner of some sort of contest in Record Mirror.  I found the track on YouTube:

There's a brief note about this on the bottom of page 74 in Russo's Collector's Guide:  "A 'Remember You' UK acetate with a personalized message from The Zombies was issued as a Record Mirror prize in 1966.  Only one copy is known to exist."

Anyway, here are the chords for "Don't Go Away":

|: D major | C major | G major | A major :|

F# major | G major | A major | D major

F# major | G major | A major

|: D major | C major :|

|: G major | C major | A major | F major | D major :|

|: A major | G major :|

F major | G major

|: D major | C major :|

|: G major | C major | A major | F major | D major :|

|: A major | G major :|

F major | G major

|: D major | C major | G major | A major :|

F# major | G major | A major | D major

F# major | G major | A major

|: D major | C major :| D major

As always, there's the disclaimer that I may have something wrong.  Also, note that some parts of this are simplified; for instance, the repeated D major | C major section is more of a guitar figure, not just strummed chords.

Odessey and Oracle

Last night, I tried to figure out the piano in the verses of "Brief Candles."  I was unsuccessful at this, but I did end up learning the chords for the chorus.  After playing them over a few times and thinking that they were familiar, I realized that they're very similar to the chords in the verses of "This Will Be Our Year."

The chorus of "Brief Candles" is:

|: A major | A major 7 | D major | F major | E major :|

D major | A major

D major | B major

The verse of "This Will Be Our Year" is:

A major | C# minor | A major 7 | D major

F major | E major | D major | A major

All but a few of the chords in the chorus of "Brief Candles" are held for a full measure, but the chords in the verse of "This Will Be Our Year" are each held for half a measure.

The bass parts for these two sections play a similar descending line.  Simplified, it's something like A (G#) G F# F E D A.  "This Will Be Our Year" has that G# (under C# minor); "Brief Candles" doesn't.  The bass part in "Brief Candles" also goes on a bit longer (under D major and B major).

These two sections are different enough that they're distinct but similar enough to lend some cohesion to the songs on Odessey and Oracle.  It's worth noting that both were written by Chris White.

"Nothing's Changed"

 

Earlier this year, I was thinking about the Hohner Pianet solo in the alternate take of "Nothing's Changed" (available on the third disc of Zombie Heaven), and I realized that most of it is triplets.  I re-learned it, notated it, and made this short demonstration of it.  The Vox Continental part, which I included in the audio but didn't show in the video, is the same except for an arpeggiated A major at the end.  On their own, the two keyboard parts sound a bit odd; for some context, I also played the guitar chords.  I used The Zombies Greatest Hits, published by Alfred, as a basis, but I didn't follow exactly what the book has (because I don't think it's entirely accurate).  I played C major | C major 7 | D minor 7 | E minor | F major | G major | A major.  Of course, there's the standard disclaimer that I may not have this entirely accurate either.

Drawbar settings I used for the Vox Continental:

16' at 6, 8' and 4' at 8, IV at 8

"Can't Nobody Love You"

A couple months ago, I dug out my old notation of the bass part in "Can't Nobody Love You" (which I wrote out in 2015).  Recently, I made a better copy of it and even found some errors to fix (I had an F in place of a C, and I had the last two notes in the wrong octave).  The standard disclaimer that I may have something wrong still applies, though.

I started the notation where the bass part starts, and I wrote the chords in above the staff, but because the bass part doesn't start at the beginning of the song, there are a few chords that aren't written in.  For the guitar solo, I put just a single measure of rest with a fermata.  I don't know the proper way to deal with a section like that, and this is the best I could come up with.