Sixteen - Sweetish
My 16 favorite Zombies songs (in more or less sequential order):
Gotta Get Ahold of Myself
Whenever You're Ready
This Will be Our Year
She Does Everything for Me
You've Really Got a Hold on Me/Bring it on Home
Indication
Remember You
If it Don't Work Out
I Know She Will
Don't Cry for Me
How We Were Before
Hung up on a Dream
Walking in the Sun
You Make Me Feel Good
Leave Me Be
Don't Go Away
------
What? You want link to MP3s? Ha. Sorry.
You say you want limited commentary? Well OK!
Gotta Get Ahold of Myself - The ultimate falling over the edge song. Strangely, for as much as I love the Zombies (and I love them like no other band) I don't try to decipher their lyrics. I prefer to let the whole thing wash over me and take what I can from it. I (hopefully) have many years to learn about their amazing songs little by little. So, for all I know, this song could be about growing tomatoes. I only know what it seems to me - which is....which is...it's about the extremes of keeping in control. From a mild verse to a balls-out (for The Zombies) chorus, this band has rarely sounded so desperate. (You have to turn it up to appreciate it)
Whenever You're Ready - It's all about the non-acceptance acceptance. When you want something desperately, but realize you can't have it, you 'accept' it. You tell yourself, your friends that it's OK. It'll happen when it happens - but you'll never be happy with that timetable.
This Will be Our Year - Probably...certainly written as the ultimate in optimism. As every coin has a flip side, this song can easily become the opposite. Irony. Despair.
She Does Everything for Me - A surprisingly tense song about sexuality. You have to realize that up until the late 60s, everything sexual was planted firmly in metaphor. "She does everything for me to make me feel alright," may have meant something acceptable to the masses, but we know better. It's about a girl that didn't put out. He got hisself a better one. Heh!
You've Really Got a Hold on Me/Bring it on Home - Can one top Smokey Robinson and Sam Cooke? I doubt it, but if it's possible, this is the evidence. Between the under-rated lyircs of the original, Colin's amazing voice, and the perfect harmonies, this song delivers more emotion in 3:40 than most artists manage in a career.
Indication - As rockin' as the Zombies ever got. And it's pretty damn rockin'. I love it for that, period. So intense. Was there ever a band that wrote better intros?
Remember You - Gentle and reminiscent...slightly misleading, as the chorus kicks in with an intense pounding. No band was ever as good at maintainging a melodic baseline while vascillating between easygoing lilting and pounding intensity.
If it Don't Work Out - It's interesting when The Zombies get riled up. They never go completely nuts - there's always a great deal of melody and arrangement - but when they let loose, something great almost always happens. The two bar piano break towards the end is worth the price of admission alone on this one.
I Know She Will - I dont like "mood music." It tries too hard. If you wrote a good song, you don't have to "set a mood," it just happens. This is one of those songs. There's so much going on, it can barely stay in one mode for more than four bars. One of the best things about The Zombies is how they shift from mode to mode without negatively affecting the flow of a song. This is perhaps the best example of such.
Don't Cry for Me - Unrepentant drumming meets a vocal that starts out aggressive, then thinks twice about it all. Blunstone and Argent got all the attention, but how awesome was their drummer? (No, I admit I don't know his name)
How We Were Before - Not their strongest song, but Colin's vocal is absolutely inhuman. It's really unreal and unfair that someone could possess a voice so far beyond what anyone else can ever do.
Hung Up on a Dream - God, I hate the stereo mix of this song. That said....that said...this isn't the best song, second-best or even third-best song from O&O, but it inexplicably takes me somewhere...
Walking in the Sun - How good were The Zombies? They can make an avowed hippie music-hater such as myself forget he's listening to hippie drivel and buy into it completely. This really isn't an amazing composition, but the four bars where the bass takes off is superb. And the bridge is pretty damn good, too. The Zombies were the best at rescuing menial material with shifts in rhythm - the ride takes over and the bass usually doubles time. Nothing else about the song really changes, but this simple trick worked wonders. It's no surprise modern Pop composers Jason Falkner and Carl Newman honed in on this.
You Make Me Feel Good - Might not have made the top sixteen on any given day, but the clean-ness of the harmony lead vocal and the buzzy acoustic guitar fills are irresistible.
Leave Me Be - I hate how The Zombies big hits are all melancholy and minor. It's just a mis-representation of them. But here's a very minor song that fits in with the sound of their hit singles. I like it anyway. Not one of their songs I listen to regularly, but it creates a mood and world all its own. Listen with headphones. Touching.
Don't Go Away - For all this bands UNREAL ability to craft feelings and moods, this song might be the most powerful. I've always said that a song doesn't have to be slow to be touching and meaningful. This one proves it. I can't believe anyone could listen to this song and not FEEL something.
Gotta Get Ahold of Myself
Whenever You're Ready
This Will be Our Year
She Does Everything for Me
You've Really Got a Hold on Me/Bring it on Home
Indication
Remember You
If it Don't Work Out
I Know She Will
Don't Cry for Me
How We Were Before
Hung up on a Dream
Walking in the Sun
You Make Me Feel Good
Leave Me Be
Don't Go Away
------
What? You want link to MP3s? Ha. Sorry.
You say you want limited commentary? Well OK!
Gotta Get Ahold of Myself - The ultimate falling over the edge song. Strangely, for as much as I love the Zombies (and I love them like no other band) I don't try to decipher their lyrics. I prefer to let the whole thing wash over me and take what I can from it. I (hopefully) have many years to learn about their amazing songs little by little. So, for all I know, this song could be about growing tomatoes. I only know what it seems to me - which is....which is...it's about the extremes of keeping in control. From a mild verse to a balls-out (for The Zombies) chorus, this band has rarely sounded so desperate. (You have to turn it up to appreciate it)
Whenever You're Ready - It's all about the non-acceptance acceptance. When you want something desperately, but realize you can't have it, you 'accept' it. You tell yourself, your friends that it's OK. It'll happen when it happens - but you'll never be happy with that timetable.
This Will be Our Year - Probably...certainly written as the ultimate in optimism. As every coin has a flip side, this song can easily become the opposite. Irony. Despair.
She Does Everything for Me - A surprisingly tense song about sexuality. You have to realize that up until the late 60s, everything sexual was planted firmly in metaphor. "She does everything for me to make me feel alright," may have meant something acceptable to the masses, but we know better. It's about a girl that didn't put out. He got hisself a better one. Heh!
You've Really Got a Hold on Me/Bring it on Home - Can one top Smokey Robinson and Sam Cooke? I doubt it, but if it's possible, this is the evidence. Between the under-rated lyircs of the original, Colin's amazing voice, and the perfect harmonies, this song delivers more emotion in 3:40 than most artists manage in a career.
Indication - As rockin' as the Zombies ever got. And it's pretty damn rockin'. I love it for that, period. So intense. Was there ever a band that wrote better intros?
Remember You - Gentle and reminiscent...slightly misleading, as the chorus kicks in with an intense pounding. No band was ever as good at maintainging a melodic baseline while vascillating between easygoing lilting and pounding intensity.
If it Don't Work Out - It's interesting when The Zombies get riled up. They never go completely nuts - there's always a great deal of melody and arrangement - but when they let loose, something great almost always happens. The two bar piano break towards the end is worth the price of admission alone on this one.
I Know She Will - I dont like "mood music." It tries too hard. If you wrote a good song, you don't have to "set a mood," it just happens. This is one of those songs. There's so much going on, it can barely stay in one mode for more than four bars. One of the best things about The Zombies is how they shift from mode to mode without negatively affecting the flow of a song. This is perhaps the best example of such.
Don't Cry for Me - Unrepentant drumming meets a vocal that starts out aggressive, then thinks twice about it all. Blunstone and Argent got all the attention, but how awesome was their drummer? (No, I admit I don't know his name)
How We Were Before - Not their strongest song, but Colin's vocal is absolutely inhuman. It's really unreal and unfair that someone could possess a voice so far beyond what anyone else can ever do.
Hung Up on a Dream - God, I hate the stereo mix of this song. That said....that said...this isn't the best song, second-best or even third-best song from O&O, but it inexplicably takes me somewhere...
Walking in the Sun - How good were The Zombies? They can make an avowed hippie music-hater such as myself forget he's listening to hippie drivel and buy into it completely. This really isn't an amazing composition, but the four bars where the bass takes off is superb. And the bridge is pretty damn good, too. The Zombies were the best at rescuing menial material with shifts in rhythm - the ride takes over and the bass usually doubles time. Nothing else about the song really changes, but this simple trick worked wonders. It's no surprise modern Pop composers Jason Falkner and Carl Newman honed in on this.
You Make Me Feel Good - Might not have made the top sixteen on any given day, but the clean-ness of the harmony lead vocal and the buzzy acoustic guitar fills are irresistible.
Leave Me Be - I hate how The Zombies big hits are all melancholy and minor. It's just a mis-representation of them. But here's a very minor song that fits in with the sound of their hit singles. I like it anyway. Not one of their songs I listen to regularly, but it creates a mood and world all its own. Listen with headphones. Touching.
Don't Go Away - For all this bands UNREAL ability to craft feelings and moods, this song might be the most powerful. I've always said that a song doesn't have to be slow to be touching and meaningful. This one proves it. I can't believe anyone could listen to this song and not FEEL something.
posted by Billy K at 12:51 AM
<< Home