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February 21, 2007
Retrohump Day - The Zombies
The Zombies are perhaps the least famous British invaders of the 1960s Anglo-centric takeover of music. Equally infamous for being casualties of an era that defined success by chart placement and hit singles as they are for an adventurous sound that handicapped them to only modest success compared to the stratospheric rise of peers like the Beatles and the Beach Boys.
The Zombies will always be relegated to the shadows of those bands' critical and commercial successes. However, they deserve mention besides juggernauts of influence due to the eccentric energy they breathed into their music. It's important to recognize the context of those times when tossing around the labels of eccentricity.
Conservative by today's standards, but in relation to the pop music of the day it was way out there. The Zombies where evolving rock music and tweaking the building blocks for progressive rock even as the newly minted, still newborn baby of rock and roll gestated along (m.s. note - not to be confused with prog-rock). In terms of posterity, not terrible company to be in. Though I'm sure even a small sliver of Brian Wilson sized royalty checks would be welcome. The Zombies are history's odd men out.
All that baiting for the hits:
The Zombies - "She's Not There"
Dapper and cool is singer Colin Blunstone's modus operandi. His slightly vampy, in-place dance teases and rolls with the tension of the song. And damn, that voice is buttery smooth.
The Zombies - "Time of the Season"
Some serious fashion on display along with what I can only guess where pretty shocking sexual images for those times. Bikinis! Hands fondling knees! Its like Benny Hill and Robert Altman circa The Long Goodbye got together to make this one. NSFW if you are still in 1968.
The Zombies - "Tell Her No" Shindig television show - 1965
Embedding into the lush fabric of MS.com is currently prohibited. Fortunately for those that click through you'll see a passionate performance and a prancing Blunstone. Or, as much as you can be prancing in 1965.
Argent - "Hold Your Head up"
Takes me back to high school nights of driving around in beat up junkers while listening to classic rock stations. Logging dozens of miles every weekend night doing nothing but activities revolving around enriching evening events like meet ups at 7-11 (DQ, et al), purposefully getting lost, or returning to one of the many soulless fast food joints that litter the suburban landscape. Other joint-related recreation may (or may not) have played prominent (or nonexistent) roles throughout this suddenly opened window of memory (allegedly). Um,..what did I just say? Maybe I'm getting teenage nostalgia mixed with a story my friend once told me. Right.
Here you have the man behind the Zombie ivories with his post-Zombies band. Argent reached modest levels of success and this was by far their greatest hit. Speaking of hits, did Rod Argent get beat up for coming up with such a criminally inexcusable name for a band? Does this fall under the 'things-got-weird-in-the 70s' clause we are all supposed to ignore? Does this?? Almost ruins the badassness of calling your previous band the Zombies. Almost.
//The Zombies - fan site
//The Zombies - Oddysey and Oracle - buy
//The Zombies - The Singles Collection: A's & B's, 1964-1969 - buy
Posted by Merry Swankster at February 21, 2007 12:53 PM
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Comments
Argent -->"Hold Your Head Up" is a timeless number. The intro is aws! Never saw the video. I thought i was seeing "Steppenwolf" at first!
Thanks for the blog!
Posted by: Casey at February 22, 2007 02:19 PM
