Sunday 3 April 2011

Well no one told me about her the way she lied...

Quick Hit for Psychedelic Sunday

“She’s Not There”, The Zombies (1964)

The band “Argent” put out a hit in 1972 with a song called “Hold Your Head Up” - You know the one!  Rod Argent was a founding member of the English Rock band “the Zombies” who had a number of hits in the sixties, including, “Time of the Season”, and “Tell Her No”.

“She’s Not There” was the haunting debut single for the Zombies in the summer of ’64. It went to number 12 on the U.K. charts, top ten in the U.S., and #2 in Canada.  This folk-influenced, almost jazz tune sounds very much like a ‘period piece’ now – something you would see them dancing to on the cartoon ‘Spiderman’ or something.  Despite that, it is still a great song and actually number 291 on Rolling Stone magazines top 500 rock songs. 


In the ‘Summer of Love’ in 1967, the Zombies recorded “Odyssey and Oracle” at the Abby Road studios, where the Beatles had recorded “Sgt. Pepper” and Pink Floyd had recorded “Piper at the Gates of Dawn” earlier that year.  Really the best work of the Zombies is this concept album that was largely overlooked at the time but is now revered among critics. The indifference they received to this excellent work pretty much broke up the Zombies for good. Too bad really. Damn Beatles!

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