Читать книгу The Mojo Collection - Various Mojo Magazine - Страница 121

Record label: CBS

Produced: Rod Argent and Chris White

Recorded: Abbey Road and Olympic Studios, London; June–November 1967

Released: April 19, 1968 (UK) June 1968 (US)

Chart peaks: None (UK) 95 (US)

Personnel: Rod Argent (p, o, Mellotron, bv); Chris White (b, bv); Colin Blunstone (v); Paul Atkinson (bv, g); Hugh Grundy (bv, d)

Track listing: Care Of Cell 44; A Rose For Emily; Maybe After He’s Gone; Beechwood Park; Brief Candles; Hung Up On A Dream; Changes; I Want Her She Wants Me; This Will Be Our Year; Butcher’s Tale (Western Front 1914); Friends Of Mine; Time Of The Season

Running time: 33.04

Current CD: Big Beat CDWIKD181 30th anniversary edition adds: stereo and mono mixes of each track from the album plus: A Rose For Emily (Alternate Version 2); Time Of The Season (Alternate Mix); Prison Song (backing track)

Further listening: The all-killer/no-filler 4-CD box set Zombie Heaven (1997)

Further reading: The Zombies: Hung Up On A Dream (Claes Johnansen, 2001); Alec Palao’s fine liner notes to Zombie Heaven; also check out the Zombies Fan Page, http://web.telia.com/~u18203287/music/zombies.htm; www.rodargent.com; www.colinblundstone.co.uk (official)

Download: Not currently legally available

The Zombies were hardly the stuff of teenage fantasy, carrying no aroma of danger or wild innovation. But beneath the tidy suits, nice jumpers and thick spectacles beat the hearts of five terrific musicians, more-than-merely-gifted writers who – in She’s Not There and Time Of The Season – created two of the decade’s most evocative and enduring hits.

They were almost classic one-hit wonders, the beautiful and timeless She’s Not There proving impossible to follow. It hit around the world and provided them with plenty of experience on the road, but further singles performed poorly and their debut album was a disappointing, but typical, rag-bag of blues covers and low-wattage originals. But chief writers Rod Argent and Chris White had a few ideas about ditching their old formula and making a proper album, and they took their plan to CBS Records. CBS liked it.

On June 1, 1967, the attention of the entire rock world was fixed upon the release of The Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, or so they say. The entire rock world except, that is, for five former beatsters holed up at Abbey Road, commencing the recording of their psychedelic masterpiece. At The Beatles’ behest, the studio technicians had jerryrigged various 4-track recording machines so the group would have more tracks to work with; when The Zombies walked in to start recording, engineers Geoff Emerick and Phil MacDonald were busily disconnecting those same machines. Paul Atkinson later recalled, ‘We said, “What are you doing? Plug those back in again.” And they said, “No, no, please. We’ve had six months of this. It’s been driving us crazy. We want to unplug all this stuff and get back to recording normally.”’

Odessey And Oracle (the title was misspelt by the sleeve designer) was a tightly arranged album that utilised their engineers’ skills to the full. Despite cutting corners by using a mellotron instead of orchestra and flute, The Zombies still wound up having to spend £200 of their own money to pay for a stereo mixdown.

The record came out to almost universal indifference. A disheartened Paul Atkinson quit the band and Rod Argent took it as the final sign: ‘We may as well split then.’

Within weeks, the angelic-voiced Blunstone was working at an insurance company. Meanwhile, CBS recording artist and A&R man Al Kooper persuaded his label to issue it Stateside. Several extracted singles flopped before DJs unexpectedly picked up on Time Of The Season. In the spring of 1969 the song soared to Number 3 in the American charts. Nevertheless, Rod Argent resisted pressure from CBS to reform the band and The Zombies’ curious career, book-ended by two huge hits, was finally laid to rest.