The Zombies (1962-1969)

Good morning!

GUYS. I AM SO EXCITED. THE ZOMBIES ARE COMING TO TOWN. Whatever I said about live concerts, dude, forget it. I have become a believer. In one calendar year, 365 days, I will have seen Roky Erickson, Lindsey Buckingham, and Rod Argent/Colin Blunstone on stage. If we could just get Bowie back on the touring circuit, I can't think of another living group I still need to see. This is big, guys! HUGE!

Why do all their single covers look like bad high school yearbook photos? NEVERMIND, I LOVE THEM.

From 1999-2003, whoever was in charge of buying cds for the Madison branch of the public library had a unknowingly large musical influence on what is still to this day queued up on my iPod. Just off the top of my head, Joni Mitchell's Blue, The Cure's Boys Don't Cry, Talking Heads '77, Van Morrison's Astral Weeks, George Harrison's All Things Must Pass, Bill Withers's Still Bill, the Rolling Stones compilation Hot Rocks, and the White Stripes White Blood Cells were all "Hm, this looks good, let's grab this," selections from the Pop/Rock section of their A/V collection that literally changed my life. Odessey [sic] and Oracle, by the Zombies, was one of those albums where I got it from the library, I put in the cd player, I made a cassette copy of it (there were no cd copying capabilities on our shared family computer at the time-- isn't that hard to even wrap your head around?), and WORE. THAT. THING. OUT.

SO. GOOD. SO VERY GOOD.

You might remember the Zombies from the oldies station staple (and huge at-the-time hit) "She's Not There", and if not from that, definitely you've heard the Diet-Coke-can-as-percussion late sixties' single "Time of the Season", somewhere, at some time, in your life. "The Way I Feel Inside" was in The Life Aquatic. They're really one of those bands where it doesn't make good sense that they didn't turn chrysalis-to-butterfly in the way some early sixties' British bands (the Beatles, the Stones, the Who) blossomed from being a popular teen beat, blues-and-R&B-influenced kind of musical draw to being real artists. I wonder if the Zombies could have made it to the seventies', what their musical output would have sounded like.

In trawling the internet for info, I found this Google Books excerpt from Rough Guide to Rock, edited by Peter Buckley, which sheds a little more light on the background of the group:

 See? Even the rock critic writing this survey of their work doesn't understand why they weren't bigger than they were at the time. The music is AMAZING. I've listened to some of the Blunstone solo stuff but will have to check out Argent ASAP. The wonder of the internet, putting all these things at my fingertips.

                          

Their version of "Summertime" from Porgy and Bess, love for Janis Joplin aside, is the best one besides Billie Holiday's (to me) definitive version...all spooky, murky electric organ (that's Rod Argent) and singular vocals (that's Colin Blunstone). Listening to their albums, and all these unexpected little compositional twists and turns, takes me instantly back to a summer I was reading everything I could get my hands on by and about William Faulkner-- the gothic South has very little to do with this British band, but something about the arrangements always reminds of that sinister feeling you get reading about old maid virginal aunts in crumbling antebellum mansions, shrouded in frayed lace and secrets. Am I crazy? I might be crazy. But the Zombies do have a song called "A Rose for Emily", and if any of you remember that story from AP American Literature or a college American lit survey course...well, the Faulkner connection stands!! If I ever start a band, I am following the footsteps of the Zombies and the Doors (another favorite) and employing an electric keyboardist somewhere in that lineup (it's lucky I happen to live with a professional piano player, but even if I didn't I think the electric keyboard is essential!).

My concern, when seeing the listing for the show and giving a high squeal, and calling Matthew to buy us tickets, was that Blunstone or Argent weren't going to be in the line up-- don't you hate it when it SAYS "The Temptations" on the marquee, but no original living member of the Temptations is actually in attendance? Or it's some eighties' band, but just the original bassist and a "tribute singer" in some seminal lead singer's shoes? Well, not to fear-- both of the main creative talents behind that band will be in attendance (Chris White is out, but Argent and Blunstone are really what you should come for), and honestly, they still sound freaking GREAT if this Youtube video from 2012 is any indicator. SO EXCITED.

                       

Anyway! Are you a fan of the Zombies?  Do you have any off-the-beaten-path sixties' artists whose music just takes you up and away? Do you have any concerts you're super excited about coming up? Do tell!

If you're in Nashville and want to grab tickets for the March 10th show, they're still available! Check it out here. That's all for today, but I'll see you tomorrow for Photo Friday!