Tag Archives: Zombies

Song of the Week – Just Out of Reach, The Zombies

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Ignored             Obscured              Restored

I always loved the music of The Zombies.  They had a string of Billboard Top 10 hits beginning with “She’s Not There” (#2) and “Tell Her No” (#6), and ending with “Time of the Season” (#3) in 1969.

But as you know, the SotW likes to go further into the deep cuts.  So today I offer a cool Zombies’ track from 1965 called “Just Out of Reach.”

“Just Out of Reach” has a cool backstory.  While most of the Zombies’ songs were written by Rod Argent, “… Reach” was written by vocalist Colin Blunstone as one of their contributions to director Otto Preminger’s 1965 movie Bunny Lake is Missing.  It was only the second song Blunstone had written.  Argent and the group’s other main songwriter, Chris White, were on a deadline to produce three songs for the film but ran into a bout with writer’s block.  So, they challenged Blunstone to come up with something… and he did!

“… Reach” is a great example of ‘60s British Invasion/Garage Rock.  Its rhythm reminds me of The Monkees’ “(I’m Not Your) Steppin’ Stone” (1966), though the melody is much different, and it has a cracking, ‘60s sounding Argent organ solo.  It was released as a single in the US but dropped off the charts without even breaking the Top 100.  Too bad because it deserved much better.

Enjoy… until next week.

Song of the Week – Care of Cell 44 and This Will Be Our Year, The Zombies

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IGNORED OBSCURED RESTORED

The story behind the UK band The Zombies is an important slice of rock history.

The group was led by keyboard player and songwriter Rod Argent and had a “signature sound” thanks in large part to the breathy vocals of Colin Blunstone. They enjoyed early chart success during the Beatles’ inspired British Invasion in 1964-65 with the hits “She’s Not There” (US #2) and “Tell Her No” (US #6). Check out this video of their early ’65 appearance on TV:

Follow up releases failed to meet with the same success as these initial recordings but the band soldiered on.

In mid ’67, they followed The Beatles – who had just finished recording Sgt Pepper – into Abbey Road studios to begin recording their next LP. Legend has it that they arrived at Abbey Road only to find Beatles’ recording engineer, Geoff Emerick, dismantling the multi channel tape decks he had jury rigged for the Sgt Pepper sessions. The Zombies persuaded him to leave the set up behind for their use.

The end result was Odessey & Oracle. But initially it received little notice in the UK and wasn’t even scheduled for release in the US. CBS in the US only released it after Al Kooper “discovered” the album in the UK and talked them into it. By this time the band had become discouraged and decided to break up. Soon after, US radio stations began to play “Time of the Season” and it reached #3 in the spring of 1969.

Over time, Odessey & Oracle has become recognized as a psych pop classic. Rolling Stone ranked it at #100 on their list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. The record is also included in MOJO’s collection of The Greatest Albums of All Time. Clearly then, it is much deeper than “Time of the Season”. Let me prove it to you.

The album opens with “Care of Cell 44”, the most cheerful pop song ever written about someone’s lover being released from prison. (“You can tell me about your prison stay…”, “Feels so good, you’re coming home soon…”)

They group gives The Beach Boys a run for their money on the “Good Vibrations” era multi-part harmony.

“This Will Be Our Year” sounds like a lost McCartney tune.

It has a wonderful, clever melody. It begins as a simple piano based ditty but then the horns come in and you can easily imagine it as a Magical Mystery Tour outtake. The lyric is sweet and innocent:

And I won’t forget the way you held me up when I was down
And I won’t forget the way you said, “Darling I love you”
You gave me faith to go on

It’s amazing to me how much sentiment can be packed into a 2 minute pop song!

Enjoy… until next week.