"I Know She Will"

Earlier this month, I listened to a three-disc set of the Shadows because in Platts' Times and Seasons, I read the story about an early Zombies gig where Paul Arnold played the bass solo in the Shadows' "Nivram" note-perfectly but on the wrong fret (recalled by Colin Blunstone on pages 29-30), and I discovered that there's a very strong similarity between the introductions of the Shadows' "Blue Star" and the Zombies' "I Know She Will."  Both begin with an arpeggiation of the second inversion of A major (although the one in "I Know She Will" is two octaves lower than that in "Blue Star"), and while they have the same rhythm, it falls in different places in the measure ("I Know She Will" has some additional notes in a higher register, too).  The two introductions also simply alternate between two figures (excepting the triads in the higher register in "I Know She Will").

Here are the two parts in notation:

"Blue Star":

"I Know She Will" (I put the triads on a separate staff so the other notes are easier to compare with "Blue Star"):

While there's a definite similarity between these two introductions, it may be just coincidence.  "I Know She Will" was written by Chris White, and I haven't found any link between him and the Shadows.  He joined the band as Paul Arnold's replacement, so he obviously wasn't around for this version of "Nivram," and while Paul Atkinson notes (on page 12 in the Zombie Heaven liner notes and on page 47 in Claes Johansen's Hung up on a Dream) that the Zombies played other Shadows tunes, it's unclear whether White was part of the band then.

The Influence of Elvis Presley's "Hound Dog"

Last month, I got and started reading Robin Platts' Times and Seasons: The Rise and Fall and Rise of the Zombies.  I decided to listen to what musical pieces are mentioned in the book (provided I have them), and the first album I listened to was Elvis 56, specifically for "Hound Dog," whose effect on a young Rod Argent is discussed at some length on the first two pages of the book.  (Incidentally:  I got Elvis 56 a number of years ago because Rod mentioned it specifically in this video from Amoeba Music).  I think I'd previously noticed that the bass part in "Hound Dog" has a dotted rhythm, but the particular context in which I'd listened to it this time made me realize that it may have influenced the rhythm that's present in a number of Zombie bass parts, which - as Rod briefly explains in the BBC Mastertapes program (at ~20:28 in the A-Side) - he often used to write for his own songs.

The bass part in "Hound Dog" varies a little bit from verse to verse, but it's something like this:

While the tonality is different, many bass parts in Zombies songs also have this sort of dotted rhythm.  For example, here's the bass part in the verses of "I'll Keep Trying":

(There are a couple measures in the chorus that I'm a bit unsure about, but otherwise, the entire bass part in "I'll Keep Trying" exhibits this initial pair of dotted quarter notes in each measure, save for the last bar.)

The bass part in the verses of "If It Don't Work Out" also has this rhythm for all but the last two measures, but since there are nine consecutive measures of nothing but D notes, I felt an excerpt of the notation wouldn't be very helpful in illustrating my point.

More often, however, there's a slight difference in the rhythm in that this single quarter note is replaced by a pair of eighth notes, which sometimes precedes the dotted quarter notes and acts as a pick-up.

For example, the beginning of "Whenever You're Ready":

The beginning of "Time of the Season":

And the verse in "Tell Her No":

(These parts may show the influence of Ben E. King's "Stand by Me" more than Elvis's "Hound Dog," though.  As I pointed out before, albeit imperfectly, so I won't link to it, these bass parts share the same rhythm and the same tonality as "Stand by Me":  root, fifth, and seventh.)

"Her Song"

I was thinking about "Her Song" yester-day and noticed a couple features in the lyrics.

The lines "And in the light there I can see / A sleepyhead so close to me" could be understood in two different ways.  "So close to me" seems to be meant primarily literally (in physical proximity), but it could also be taken more metaphorically (in the sense of a deep emotional attachment).

In the line "And ev'rything I have is nothing if it can't belong to you," there's a copulative clause that can be simplified to "ev'rything is nothing."  Because the subject and the predicate nominative have similar forms (both end in "-thing"), there's a sense of balance between the two halves (despite the opposite meanings of "ev'rything" and "nothing"), and consequently, there's a sense of precision in the sentiment.

"Hold Your Head Up"

According to Jim Rodford's Sideman (p. 186), fifty years ago to-day (13 April 1975), Argent performed a concert at the Roundhouse London.  "The titles of the album tracks [on Circus] relate to various circus acts, and we rehearsed the whole album with these acts devising their routines around us."

Last year, the Reelin' in the Years archive posted a video of Argent performing "Hold Your Head Up," and while the date given is 1974, I think it's actually from this 1975 concert that Rodford details.  There are a number of circus acts around the band, and it seems unlikely that there would be a second occurrence of such an extravagant show.

"It's Only Money, Pt. 1"

When I was looking at the lyrics of "It's Only Money, Pt. 1" recently in order to compare them to a line in "The Jester," I noticed that there's anaphora in the lines "Pay the butcher; pay the baker / Pay the taxman; pay me later."  This repetition illustrates the frequency and number of payments that must be made.  Additionally, the first three of these clauses are sung to nearly the same melody (the pitches are the same [D E G E], but the rhythm differs a bit), highlighting this effect.

"The Jester"

In "The Jester," there's the line "It is within your fortune lies," and perhaps just coincidentally, this bears some resemblance to a sentiment in Argent's earlier "It's Only Money" (both parts):  "It's not what's at the door / But the money you have in your soul."

"Highwire"

I listened to Argent's Circus yester-day to mark the fiftieth anniversary of its U.K. release, and for the first time, I noticed an allusion in "Highwire."  About halfway through the song, there's the line "With amazing grace and sweet sensation captured by the high flier," which seems to contain a nod to the spiritual "Amazing Grace" ("Amazing grace - how sweet the sound / That saved a wretch like me!").  I find some of the singing on Circus hard to understand; otherwise, I'm sure I would have discovered this reference earlier.

Circus

According to Russo's Collector's Guide, fifty years ago to-day (4 April 1975), Argent's Circus (Epic S EPC 80691) was released in the U.K.  The U.S. and Canada release (Epic PE 33422) had been on 10 March 1975.

"Brief Candles"

I was thinking about "Brief Candles" this morning and had a realization about the coda.  In the stereo mix, the piano (along with the bass) is in the left channel, and the right channel contains merely its reverb.  This particular distribution of the sound creates a sense of space, and consequently, the isolated position of the instruments is emphasized.  This sort of separation matches the solitude of the characters in the lyrics ("She only needs to be alone" in the first verse and "He's alone" in the second).

"Her Song"

When I watched the Odessey & Oracle {Revisited} concert, I noticed a similarity between "Her Song" and the Beatles' "Because."  "Her Song" has the recurring clause "You are love to me," which is the same sentiment as "love is you" in "Because," simply inverted.  "Because" predates "Her Song" by only a couple years, but I suspect that this similarity is just a coincidence, not a conscious echo.  Still, I thought I'd note it.

Odessey and Oracle

Yester-day was the anniversary of the concert that was recorded for the Odessey & Oracle {Revisited} CD and DVD (on 8 March 2008), so I watched it again.  In the original album liner notes, there's a quote from Shakespeare's The Tempest:

Be not afraid;

The Isle is full of noises

Sound, and sweet airs that give delight and hurt not.

Sometimes a thousand twangling instruments

Will hum about mine ears; and sometimes voices

Caliban says this to Stephano and Trinculo in Act 3, Scene 2 (roughly lines 131-134), although in the two editions of the play that I have, it's formatted a bit differently:

Be not afeard.  The isle is full of noises,

Sounds and sweet airs that give delight and hurt not.

Sometimes a thousand twangling instruments

Will hum about mine ears, and sometime voices

That, if I then had waked after long sleep,

Will make me sleep again

I recently re-read The Tempest and noticed a detail that, purely coincidentally, is related to this 40th anniversary concert version of "Butcher's Tale."  During the concert, Rod comments on the "1896 Victorian pedal organ similar to the one [used on the original recording] that Chris gave away many years ago and I had to go searching for for these concerts."  In a few shots, it can be seen that the organ was made by the Clarabella Organ Co.:

In The Tempest, Alonso's daughter (who's merely mentioned in the play, at II.i.68, 240, 253, and V.i.209) is named Claribel, which is just a slightly different form of Clarabella.

In re-reading The Tempest, I also noticed that the word oracle appears a couple times.  At the beginning of Act 4, Scene 1, after Prospero tells Ferdinand that Miranda "will outstrip all praise," Ferdinand replies, "I do believe it / Against an oracle" (lines 11-12), and in Act 5, Scene 1, Alonso, reflecting on his experience on the island, says,

This is as strange a maze as e'er men trod,

And there is in this business more than nature

Was ever conduct of.  Some oracle

Must rectify our knowledge.  (lines 242-245)

Caliban's lines are quoted in the liner notes, so maybe one of these instances of oracle had something to do with the album's title.

The title also seems to reference the Greek epic poem The Odyssey, and it occurred to me that The Odyssey and The Tempest both deal with maritime voyages (although most of The Tempest occurs after a shipwreck).

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For what it's worth:  on Rod's birthday a couple years ago, the Zombies' social media accounts (Facebook, Instagram) posted an old picture of him at an organ, and this seems to be the original "Butcher's Tale" organ.

"Moving On"

In The "Odessey": The Zombies in Words and Images, I recently read about "Moving On."  Rod comments specifically on the line "What doesn't kill me will fill me with life," and I realized that because this line features internal rhyme, there's a sense of that abundance of being "fill[ed]."