"Maybe after He's Gone"

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I was thinking about "Maybe after He's Gone" this morning, specifically the third verse.  At first, I just realized that after the line "I'm alone," most of the instruments drop out so that the song is nearly a cappella (there's still a piano part).  The voices are (almost) alone, just like the singer/speaker.

I looked at my transcription though, and - after I fixed my line breaks - I realized two other things:

First, the sentiments "I'm on my own" and "I'm alone" are illustrated in how the verse is a line shorter than the others.  There's a lack in both instances.

Secondly, those full lines are pretty parallel:  "I feel so cold; I'm on my own" and "Night surrounds me; I'm alone."  The similarity of those lines tacitly indicates that the night is cold.

"Telescope (Mr. Galileo)"

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Two days ago, I figured out most of the fuzz guitar part for one of the versions of "Telescope (Mr. Galileo)" on the Into the Afterlife album.  I have the basic phrases, and I think the parts I'm missing are just ornamentation.

I figured out the chords in September 2013, but - of course! - I didn't write them down and forgot them, so I had to re-learn those too.  I made sure to write everything down this time.  I'm pretty sure that the chords aren't actually played in the original (although some might be in the piano part), but having the chords helps in figuring out the other parts.

"Don't Go Away"

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I wanted to learn the whole bass part for "Don't Go Away" before I recorded it, but I got only a few sections (and they're the super easy sections where there are only two or three notes).

I still need to work on getting my twelve-string guitar tone to match Paul Atkinson's.  My arpeggiation of the G major in the introduction is closer to the original now (I still have some doubts), but I need to put some work into the A major arpeggiation.  I think it's a different voicing than what I use, but I find it difficult to make that transition fast enough.

While listening to my recording (just to make sure there weren't any technical flaws), I started playing a few phrases from the vocal melody, and I discovered that it contains both C and C#.  Since the song is (I'm pretty sure) in D major, that C is an accidental.  So now I want to figure out the rest of the vocal melody to find out where those accidentals fall in the lyrics and see if there's any significance to them.  However, I'm suspicious that the "When the first light of the day comes into sight / You'll go from me" sections are in a different key (they contain F major chords), so there might not be anything to those C notes.

"Whenever You're Ready"

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I knew that I'd learned some of the guitar part in "Whenever You're Ready," and last night I refreshed what I know of it (actually learning more than what my last - and only!? - recorded version contains), and then - thanks to The Zombies Greatest Hits published by the Alfred Company - I learned the chords too.  I changed some of what they have (I don't think the F or Bb are major 7ths), but it was immensely helpful.

I'm still struck by how it ends on a C major 7th.  I think the song is mostly in C major, so ending on a C major 7th doesn't provide a sense of resolution, which provides the same sense of waiting expressed in the lyrics - "call me when you're ready / Whenever you're ready."

I also learned the introductory electric piano phrase.

I'd noticed the chromatic phrase in this before (A, Ab, G), but after learning the chords, I discovered that there's actually a Bb major before that part, so there's a chromatic phrase from Bb to G.  That Bb is also in a bass, but it's in a different octave than the A, Ab, G phrase.

"I'll Keep Trying"

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Starting to-day, I'm going to try to record the songs on the 50th anniversaries of their recordings (doing only one a day though).  Of the three for the session to-day, I started with "I'll Keep Trying" because it's probably my favorite guitar part in the whole Zombies catalogue.  I haven't learned anything new for it in the last two years though (perhaps even longer).

One Year

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To-day's Colin Blunstone's birthday, so I listened to One Year this morning.  I don't think I've listened to it since I started doing transcriptions of all of the lyrics, so I noticed a couple things.

The line "I'm sittin' here goin' out of my head" in "Mary Won't You Warm My Bed" recalls the Zombies' version of "Goin' out of My Head."  However, neither song was written by a Zombie.  My vinyl record of One Year credits "Mary Won't You Warm My Bed" to "M. d'Abo," and some internet searching seems to suggest that it's Michael d'Abo.  "Goin' out of My Head" is by Teddy Randazzo and Bobby Weinstein, according to various liner notes of Zombies albums I have.  So while neither song was written by a Zombie, it's interesting that there's that lyric connection.

"Though You Are Far Away" and "Her Song" both have "sleepyhead" in a line.  "Though You Are Far Away" has "Sleepy head, lay close to mine,"* and "Her Song" has "And in the light there I can see / A sleepyhead so close to me."  It's weird how the lines are so similar but they weren't written by the same people.  "Though You Are Far Away" is by Blunstone, and "Her Song" is credited to Argent/White.

Russo's Collector's Guide (which I reference all the time for release dates) claims that "Rod Argent wrote 'Her Song.'"  I'm sort of dubious about this sole authorship, not only because it's credited to both Argent and White but because there's a lyrical resemblance between it and White's "Don't Go Away" from the Zombies' Decca era.  The first line of "Don't Go Away" is "Day comes, sun comes, climbs the other side of the hill," which is fairly similar to "Another day begins to climb" in "Her Song."  (Incidentally, "Don't Go Away" was recorded on Blunstone's birthday in 1965.)

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*I wasn't sure if it was "lay" or "laid," so I referenced the lyrics in the liner notes of On the Air Tonight (which features a re-recorded version).  In doing so, I discovered that the new version changes that line to "Sleepy head, rest next to mine."  The next line is "And I'll whisper quietly in your ear," which seems to suggest that it's "lay."

Recording Session

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According to the liner notes for both Zombie Heaven and The Decca Stereo Anthology, fifty years ago to-day (24 June 1965, Colin Blunstone's 20th birthday), the Zombies recorded "I'll Keep Trying," "Don't Go Away," and "Whenever You're Ready."

"Maybe after He's Gone"

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I played through parts of "Maybe after He's Gone" last night, and I later realized that there's more to the line "her smile, her tears are part of me."  I initially noticed this in January, but I didn't explain it that well.  Back, then, I noticed that the melody for "her smile" goes up (G to C) and the melody for "her tears" goes down (G to E).  So then I realized that the happy element has a rising melody, and the sad one has a falling melody.

But last night, after playing through it again, I noticed that there's also a sort of resemblance as far as shape goes.  The corners of the mouth move up when it smiles, just like the rising melody from G to C.  And tears fall from the eyes, just as the melody falls from G to E (which - incidentally - I think is a minor third, which helps to emphasize that sadness, since minor keys and intervals are often perceived as sad).

"Butcher's Tale"

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Yester-day I was playing "Butcher's Tale," and I realized that the shaking section ("And I can't stop shaking / My hands won't stop shaking / My arms won't stop shaking / My mind won't stop shaking")  is comprised of (mostly) the same notes that provide the bass part for the verses.  The "And" is on a C, but otherwise, those phrases cycle through D, E, F, F, E, D (ending on an E), and the bass part for the verses is a repeated D, F, E, D.

I'm not sure if there's anything extra-musical about this (as if it's meant to connect those shaking sections with the verses), but it at least provides a unifying musical element to the song.

"The Feeling's Inside"

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I usually date the notes I write of things to look into, but I neglected to do that for this one.  I think it was early January 2014 though because I'd been listening to the Ray Charles set I have.  Anyway, I'm listening to that again so I can (finally) check a possible connection between "Hallelujah I Love Her So" and Argent's "The Feeling's Inside."

"Hallelujah I Love Her So" contains the lines "Every morning 'fore the sun comes up / She brings my coffee in my favorite cup," which is fairly similar to "She bought you coffee in a special cup" in "The Feeling's Inside."  (The first line of "The Feeling's Inside" is "When you woke up on this cold winter's day," which seems to suggest morning.)  Both songs also mention a sort of euphoria related to love - "And if you're feeling very good today" in "The Feeling's Inside," and the titular "Hallelujah I love her so" in "Hallelujah I Love Her So."

I'm slightly more sure of this connection because in this Rod Argent interview, he mentions Ray Charles, but - like most of these - it's still just conjecture.

"Butcher's Tale"

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I got thinking about "Butcher's Tale" this morning when I was trying to go to sleep, and I realized two things about it:

1.  The line "And the preacher in his pulpit" has alliteration, and - unlike most of the alliteration I mention - this instance is actually significant.  The alliterative sound is the P, which is a plosive.  So that recurring P sound mimics the sound of the bombs and shells and that singer/speaker would encounter on the battlefield.

2.  There's internal rhyme in the line "Sermon: go and fight, do what is right."  And - again - there's significance to this (it's also the only internal rhyme in the song).  It's suggestive of a larger pool of rhetorical devices that the preacher might use in his sermon.

I checked the recording, and that line ("Sermon: go and fight, do what is right") is the only line during the verses that has legato chord transitions.  During the rest of the lines, there's a staccato interchange between chords and the bass notes.  So, musically, there's something different about that line too.

When I looked at my transcription to confirm these lines, I noticed that the line following "Sermon: go and fight, do what is right" is "But he don't have to hear these guns."  The intentional mis-use of "don't" ("he don't" instead of "he doesn't") illustrates further distance between the singer/speaker and the preacher.  There's the ideological distance and resentment that the song specifically mentions ("But he don't have to hear these guns / And I bet he sleeps at night" and "If the preacher he could see those flies / Wouldn't preach for the sound of guns"), but there's also the distance illustrated by that rift of language - the preacher uses rhetorical devices where the soldier can't even make his subject and verb agree.  The pleonastic "he" in "If the preacher he could see those flies" also seems to underscore this distance.

"Summertime"

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I'm not sure if I played the very last guitar notes right.  I know it's a slow arpeggiation of A minor, but I'm not sure which notes exactly.

Also, I've been thinking about what I'm doing, and I'm not sure if it's really worth it just to re-record versions of all of these if I know the parts already.  So I'm going to postpone this for now, and for the next group of recorded songs ("Kind of Girl," "Sometimes," "Woman," and "Leave Me Be," recorded 31 August and 5 September), I'm going to try to learn some more parts before I record them.  So I guess I'm turning this re-record-the-catalogue project into the same thing I do with Odessey and Oracle* - record a version each year and hope that I've learned some more parts in the meantime.  I'll add more songs as the 50th anniversaries of their recordings come around, so I'll have a few coming up next week.



*Incidentally, I've been thinking of moving my Odessey and Oracle recordings to 19 April (because that's when the album was released) instead of early January.