Thursday, May 27, 2004
"It's The Time of the Sea-eea-son for Loooo-viiiiiiing!!! "
Yesterday Afternoon, at the Bar:
The Zombies, Odyssey and Oracle
No lie. I needed a beer. It must have been written all over my face. My friend told, not asked me, as we left school that we were going to the bar nearby. He wanted to watch the soccer game, I wanted to forget about the day I had just had. And so we went. Now understand: this was an establishment we use to frequent. Then some people hanging out there got annoying - and really: what's the point of drinking beer with annoying people? - and my fave bartender stopped working friday afternoons. It's rare that you go into a bar and disc after disc hear pieces of your own music collection. This barkeep seemes nearly psychic about my moods. If it was a particularly rough week capped off by a rainy Friday, it would be Rain Dogs (Tom Waits). There were a few fridays when I would just wanna rock and magically i would enter the bar in the middle of Clash fanfare, or order my first drink to "Jumpin' Jack Flash" or "Radio, Radio". Hell: one time, after a few rounds, he just gave me a five dollar bill out of the tip jar and told me to put some "good" music on the juke. So it was a pleasant surprise when we went in on a wednesday, not only was my fave bartender (who i hadn't seen in months) there, AND willing to put on the soccer game for my comrade, but he ALSO was rocking out to the Odyssey and Oracle, a beautiful album recorded during a very ugly time in The Zombies' career. This album was really the band's swan song as they broke up just after its release and it's biggest single, "Time of the Season", was released and became a MAJOR hit after the group had already gone their separate ways. While Rod Argent when on to form Argent (of "Hold Your Head Up" fame), the rest of the band either faded into obscurity or other random musical or music-business-related-type professions I don't really know much about. When this album was initially released, it did't do much. While the music world was rife with more concept based albums post Pet Sounds/Sgt. Pepper's, this very Baroque-sounding (maybe it was heavy use of the harpsichord) just didn't stick until the aforementioned single, "Time of the Season" beacame a hit. I stumbled onto this record on yet another MP3 disc from the guitar player in my old band. It took me a while to get to it, but once I did, I realized it was pretty close to the record Brian Wilson may have wanted to make between Pet Sounds and the mythically non-existent "masterpiece" Smile. Odyssey and Oracle not only has some great Rod Argent keyboard work and incredibly solid songwriting, but manages to capture the free-flowing, arty, textured sound of the late 1960's without falling into the trappings of psychedlic ridiculousness. There are even some great pre-Emo moments on this record. It was a great ditraction from and welcome relief for a shitty, shitty day at school. Hats off to my fave barkeep in Brooklyn for discovering this album for himself and putting it on at just the right time.
The Zombies, Odyssey and Oracle
No lie. I needed a beer. It must have been written all over my face. My friend told, not asked me, as we left school that we were going to the bar nearby. He wanted to watch the soccer game, I wanted to forget about the day I had just had. And so we went. Now understand: this was an establishment we use to frequent. Then some people hanging out there got annoying - and really: what's the point of drinking beer with annoying people? - and my fave bartender stopped working friday afternoons. It's rare that you go into a bar and disc after disc hear pieces of your own music collection. This barkeep seemes nearly psychic about my moods. If it was a particularly rough week capped off by a rainy Friday, it would be Rain Dogs (Tom Waits). There were a few fridays when I would just wanna rock and magically i would enter the bar in the middle of Clash fanfare, or order my first drink to "Jumpin' Jack Flash" or "Radio, Radio". Hell: one time, after a few rounds, he just gave me a five dollar bill out of the tip jar and told me to put some "good" music on the juke. So it was a pleasant surprise when we went in on a wednesday, not only was my fave bartender (who i hadn't seen in months) there, AND willing to put on the soccer game for my comrade, but he ALSO was rocking out to the Odyssey and Oracle, a beautiful album recorded during a very ugly time in The Zombies' career. This album was really the band's swan song as they broke up just after its release and it's biggest single, "Time of the Season", was released and became a MAJOR hit after the group had already gone their separate ways. While Rod Argent when on to form Argent (of "Hold Your Head Up" fame), the rest of the band either faded into obscurity or other random musical or music-business-related-type professions I don't really know much about. When this album was initially released, it did't do much. While the music world was rife with more concept based albums post Pet Sounds/Sgt. Pepper's, this very Baroque-sounding (maybe it was heavy use of the harpsichord) just didn't stick until the aforementioned single, "Time of the Season" beacame a hit. I stumbled onto this record on yet another MP3 disc from the guitar player in my old band. It took me a while to get to it, but once I did, I realized it was pretty close to the record Brian Wilson may have wanted to make between Pet Sounds and the mythically non-existent "masterpiece" Smile. Odyssey and Oracle not only has some great Rod Argent keyboard work and incredibly solid songwriting, but manages to capture the free-flowing, arty, textured sound of the late 1960's without falling into the trappings of psychedlic ridiculousness. There are even some great pre-Emo moments on this record. It was a great ditraction from and welcome relief for a shitty, shitty day at school. Hats off to my fave barkeep in Brooklyn for discovering this album for himself and putting it on at just the right time.
