ZOMBIES DISCOGRAPHY
and CAREER OVERVIEW
(important work in color)
1964: Begins Here (December, UK First Album). 1965: Zombies (Featuring She's Not There and Tell Her No) (Parrot Records, January, U.S. First Album with slightly different track list from Begins Here) * Bunny Lake is Missing (RCA, Soundtrack featuring 3 nice Zombies songs). 1968: Odyssey and Oracle (Columbia, July). 1969: Early Days (compilation, London Records). 1974: Time of the Zombies (Epic double LP compilation featuring complete Odyssey and Oracle). 1985: Live on BBC: 1965-1967 (Rhino). 1989: Five Live Zombies (Razor Records). 1991: New World (JSE Records - without Rod Argent). 2004: As Far as I Can See.
I recently made a sunny Saturday afternoon trip to the beach here in San Francisco. It was a warm day and as I drug myself through the sand I was attracted to an impromptu dance party set up along the dunes on a big platform that resembles an elevated cement boxing ring with iron rails around it. What first caught my eye was a bevy of boys and girls running about in the sand and up on the platform. What next caught my eye was a skinny-dipping girl running out of the ocean towards the party. Suddenly music exploded from a sound system set up on the platform: "Good morning to you, I hope you're feeling better, baby."
I stopped in my tracks, totally unprepared for a 1968 Zombies epiphany occurring on a San Francisco beach in the hillbilly-loving Bush administration era of 2004. I turned and went running back to the friends that had made the trek with me. I was pointing and yelling, "The Zombies, The Zombies." Not being as retro-ly connected as me, they could only stare. Finally, one said The Zombies? Which, I guess, is a good question. I tried to explain, but my elation didn't transfer. So I found a dune by myself and watched the party: mod-dressed, neo-beat-looking teen or slightly post-teen rockers as they boogied to Zombies, Sly and the Family Stone, Vines, Hives, Posies, and a bunch of stuff I didn't know.
I probably saw a few of these same people a few nights later when I caught the Zombies and Arthur Lee and Love at a sold-out show at San Francisco's Great American Music Hall. Sometimes I feel like I'm the only one at these sixties' band shows; in fact, sometimes I have been. One can get a bit self-conscious in what is seen by many people as goofy nostalgic predilections. But generally I'm okay with it and it's always nice to have a young Japanese girl sit down beside you and start effusing, "I like the old rock and roll, I really like it" which is what happened in the middle of The Zombies' set. Sitting on the other side of me was a bloke from Wales who saw the Zombies back during the British invasion and he was talking about Colin's "angelic" voice and the band's continued professionalism (he'd seen them in town a couple months before). I mentioned that I'd heard the bass player had died. He hadn't heard that and was surprised. We talked about sixties' artists - Van Morrison, Jefferson Airplane, Kim Simmons - and it ended up he was a "greatest hits" kind of guy. He said he didn't want to hear the Zombies' new music. He wanted to hear the hits. Later, whenever Colin announced a new song, this guy would mock shout an exaggerated "NOOOOO."
I'm the opposite. I give the old bands every opportunity to be like the blues guys of old, storming the stage after years of paying dues, blasting the solid professionalism and the possibility of great moments both old and new. One thinks of great later achievements of artists like the Everly Brothers, Roy Orbison, Marianne Faithfull, Al Green, Alice Cooper - though often nobody is around to notice, and of course the critics are way too non-retro to bother with the honorable perseverance of so many of them in the face of indifference and worse. I'm kind of on the side of the Japanese in matters of this sort.
So after what I thought was a great show by Love, out pop the Zombies. The first surprise is that Jim Rodford is playing bass, a guy who played with Rod's band Argent, but I know him for all the raucous fun he provided at the Kinks' shows I'd seen in the seventies. It becomes evident fast that Colin Blunstone's voice still has it. He's so pure you almost wish he had a bit more vocal damage, a bit more human strain, a little more forced effort. But then you don't because the happy sounds of "Cell 22" start up and it ends up being all you hoped it would be. As the band steps upon the sturdy stones of the Zombies' recording career - "Tell Her No," "She's Not There, etc. - moving into unsure areas with new songs ("Nooooooo") deviating into Argent territory with a nice rendering of "Hold Your Head Up" - slowing down for a maudlin Blunstone ballad - then shifting back into gear with a jam in an old chestnut that I know I've heard, but can't place. The question arises: Who are the Zombies?
Their new album (CD actually) is called As Far as I Can See. It's the same band as at the show - Colin Blunstone, vocals; Rod Argent, keyboards; Jim Rodford, bass, and his brother Steve Rodford on drums; and Keith Airey plays guitar. The results can be characterized as seventies' music, for the most part well-performed romantic ballads with nice musicianship but not much distinction. There's a nice early Beatle-sh excursion into rock and roll on "Time to Move." Rod's keyboard playing is as deft as usual and "Southside of the Street" is a good workout. On "Memphis" and "I Want to Fly" you really want to be carried away on Blunstone's enthusiasm, but close your eyes if it helps cause the effort doesn't come easy. I'd put this album somewhere behind the Yardbirds' recent effort which was lifted by some nice songwriting and some twists on the oldies but goodies. It's even further behind the recent Procol Harum album, which isn't all that far from showing the band at top form with their idiosyncrasies once again distinguishing them from the pack. Of the three albums, the Zombies' effort harkens back to the sixties the least - no psychedelia, no weird trips, no overweening sense of Zombies as an identifiable entity. The great name is a bit squandered. So if we might never hear any of these tunes on a San Francisco beach in the middle of a skinny-dipping dance fest, we are brought back once again to "Who are the Zombies?" and what the hell is this classic album Odyssey and Oracle having such a long lasting impact.
It's hard to tell from the re-releases and compilations and greatest hit packages, but the Zombies only released two or three albums, depending upon how you count, before they broke up back in the mid-sixties. The UK album Begins Here and the US album Zombies (featuring She's Not There and Tell Her No) are variations on the same record with some hits being added to the US version, and some other songs deleted. Both are prime examples of British Invasion material and what was lovable about the sound. What distinguished the best British Invasion bands from the worst was the integrity of the group performance. The Zombies had a great vocalist in Blunstone. The band had a good sense of musicianship versed in rhythm and blues moves. They were never overproduced; you get the terse, streamlined sound of a band playing professional rock and roll. Rod Argent pinned down the solos with his keyboards and the three part harmonies were spot on. What's more, they wrote almost all of the material (Chris White and Rod Argent mainly, with White supplying some of there biggest hits). No horrible strings, no blaring horns, no crappy songs from the strong-armed publisher, no novelty filler - just tight, well-delivered music from a band that knows how to play.
The subject matter is mostly the woes of rejection and warnings of female infelicity. It comes off as heartfelt stuff, and would be punkish if the petulance on display was revved up a notch.
(to be continued)