Thursday, February 7, 2013

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!

15 comments:

  1. I LOVE The Zombies! If I lived in Nashville, I would totally make you take me with you. (Paul's not a big fan, so I listen to The Zombies when he's at work.) I am a total sucker for electric organs--I even have one in my living room that's how awesome I think they are.

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    1. They came here in 2004 ish, a week before I came back to town for college winter break, and I heard about it after the fact. INCONSOLABLE. For about a week! When I read in the local newspaper that they were coming back, I almost had a heart attack. I'll give you all the details after I go, I think it's going to be an amazing show! Also, I love that you have an electric organ in your living room. What every home needs! My dad always mentions, when he sees one out an estate sale or the flea market, how they used to have salesmen demonstrating them in the mall in the seventies'-- playing the "Hawaii Five O" theme song over and OVER and over again. I wish I could play!

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    2. I took piano lessons as a kid and I have the whole pedal thing kinda figured out but there are several things wrong with our organ and I don't know if they can be fixed or not. It was a rescue--there were spiders living in it and Paul sucked them up with the shop vac. God knows what else is wrong with it but we keep moving it with us.

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  2. Heck yeah! I remember the time before we could make our own CDS at home. I think the scariest part is that it wasn't THAT long ago!!! I agree with you and the critics that they should have been WAY more popular.I love your music posts!

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    1. Haha, isn't that crazy to think about the pre-burned-cds-era? I just last year managed to, with hoarder style remorse and reticence, get rid of my old dubbed tapes for the albums I now have either on vinyl or my computer. It hurt, though! I need to make you a copy of my newest mix cd, you would appreciate it.

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  3. The group The Cowsills immediately comes to mnd. They were a family group that gave the song "The Flower Girl" some fame and notoriety. I have an affinity for them owed to my cousin a few years my senior. Whenever our family visited their house, we would sit around her portable record player playing their albums and swooning over their album covers as we imagined our families combining kids and become our own yet to be tiled singing group!!! "Hair" is another one of their elusive hits from the day. "The Partridge Family" I believe is patterned from their story. Unfortunately their ultimate history was not a very happy one, but their songs can still make you sing, dance and tap along! By the way, I love the Zombies too and my teenage daughter also likes them a lot as well. Who could not???? Enjoy the concert- I know you will!

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    1. Oh, I remember "The Flower Girl" (the "IknewIknewIknewIknew" chorus popped into my head as soon as you said it!). Isn't it wonderful the kind of memories you can associate with that very specific time in your life when you were listening to that album? I could see the carpet in my old room in my parents house when I was writing this post about the Zombies. I am so glad they're still around making music, much less COMING TO TOWN. Thanks for reading!

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  4. LOVE LOVE LOVE this post! The Zombies were an unequivocally groundbreaking force in music. MC and I had the longest discussion the other night about them. Who but the Beatles and the Beach Boys managed to so solidly explore both clean, old-school surf inspired rock AND textured, gritty sexy hippie rock? I'm sure the show will be awesome, I can't wait to hear about it!

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    1. I am so stoked it's wrong. And the venue it's in is the War Memorial Auditorium in Nashville, which is very intimate and up-close, as compared to some of the bigger places-to-have-such-an-awesome-show. Can't wait to TELL YOU about it, haha! :)

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  5. I've loved The Zombies since the British Invasion and saw them for the first time in Chicago in 1965, I think it was. I also saw them last summer in Fayetteville, Ga and will see them again in Atlanta on March 9th. I can hardly wait! I keep buying their music over and over. First it was 45s and LPs, then cassettes so I could listen to them in the car, then CDs, and now its iTunes digital. Same music, different decade! I also have Argent's music and Colin Blunstones's solo albums, and all the music they've made together since they reunited. I have actually worn out the vinyl records long ago. I do wish I had been able to book passage on the Moody Blues Cruise in late March. Five days on a cruise ship with some of the most excellent talent of 60's and 70's rock and Roll, in the Caribbean no less!

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    1. What a show that must have been in 1965! I was so pleased, listening to their recent output, that Argent and Blunstone are still just as hardworking and talented as they were all those years ago. Also, that cruise you mentioned-- tropical sunsets and several amazing bands? GOOD LORD.

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  6. The Zombie's have posted your link on their facebook! You've arrived, my dear!!

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    1. I woke up this morning, read your comment, went over to their official page, and ALMOST. DIED. How amazing! How amazing is that! From little old me, too!

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  7. One of my blogger friends pointed your blog out to me as she thought I'd enjoy reading your posts, so here I am, new follower.

    Wonderful post anyway! I am a huge Zombies fan and was lucky enough to be at their December BBC Radio 4 Mastertapes sessions and got to ask a question about Odessey & Oracle too. Such a wonderful experience x

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