Like their undead namesakes, the Zombies experienced their most lasting success posthumously, with the ever-growing popularity of their 1968 orchestral pop masterpiece, Odessey and Oracle, and its massively resonant single, “Time of the Season”. With their sophisticated songwriting, superb musicianship, and the singular voice of lead singer Colin Blunstone, the Zombies, like their L.A. counterparts Arthur Lee & Love, seem to grow more popular with each new generation.
Now, author Robin Platts and the retro-culture vultures at HoZac Books have produced a book worthy of their artistic legacy and up-and-down-and-up career: Times and Seasons: The Rise and Fall and Rise of the Zombies. Based mainly on the author’s interviews with the five original members, the book relates their whole story in fascinating detail: from their overnight success with “She’s Not There” to the many “misses” that followed through to their initial break-up, their solo careers, and unexpected revival in the 21st Century, primarily built around touring their orch pop opus. It is also profusely illustrated with many timeless portraits, concert and record adverts, 45 and album sleeves, and intimate snapshots from the Zombies’ private collections.
The central driver of the Zombies has always been their keyboardist and principal songwriter, Rod Argent. The son of a self-taught jazz pianist, Argent’s songwriting was influenced by his early interest in Tchaikovsky and Bach and the modal jazz of Miles Davis before his world was rocked with the arrival of Elvis Presley. Argent formed the band that would become the Zombies and solidified their sound when he moved from guitar to Hohner electric piano and with the addition of its final member, the heavenly vocalist Colin Blunstone. The band’s professional career would take off quickly in May 1964 when they topped 250 bands to win The Herts Beat Competition, a local battle of the bands that earned them 500 British pounds and a recording contract with Decca Records.
Platts relates their rapid rise during the British Invasion in impressive detail. With two members wearing nerdy, horn-rimmed glasses, the Zombies weren’t exactly sex bombs. Instead, they were marketed as educated smarty pants – wholesome young men who drank milk and scored high grades on their O + A levels, Britain’s standardized tests. He relates how they were one of the few British Invasion-era bands that got what they deserved by having their careers guided largely by Marquis Enterprises. The company ensured that they owned their publishing and received their just royalties (a rarity in those days) and that their masters were leased to rather than owned by their record label.
The folks at Marquis, who are still involved with the Zombies, insisted they try writing original material, which resulted in their first single, the worldwide chart-topper “She’s Not There”, released in July 1964. Called “terrific” by Beatle George Harrison on the television show Juke Box Jury, the song was their gateway to many appearances in the US, including the famous Murray the K Christmas show in New York City and tours with Dick Clark’s Caravan of Stars. They were back in the Top 10 in the US in December 1964, with the release of another Argent original, “Tell Her No”.
The streak then ran cold, with nine singles earning no chart action in their home country and the US. Soon, cash would become a concern for the non-writing three band members. They would appear in Otto Preminger’s 1965 film Bunny Lake Is Missing, earning a paltry £450. With their massive popularity in the Philippines and five songs in the country’s Top Ten, they would play two shows a night at a 40,000-seat stadium for ten nights. Their pay? £13 each per night.
When their record label, Decca, wasn’t interested in funding a second album, the Zombies jumped ship to CBS Records and received a modest £1,000 budget to record an album they decided would be their last. Argent and his co-writing bassist, Chris White, chose to handle the production themselves. They went into Abbey Road Studios right after the Beatles’ completed their sessions of Sgt. Pepper’s to work on Odessey and Oracle (1968). Some of the album’s amazing symphonic and classical textures can be credited to John Lennon leaving behind his Mellotron, which Argent put to good use.
Platts provides a blow-by-blow of the sessions at both Abbey Road and Olympic Studios, which will delight any orchestral pop devotee. He also addresses how artist Terry Quirk’s misspelling of the word “odyssey” on the cover wasn’t realized by singer Blunstone until 28 years later. Also referenced is Al Kooper’s role in securing its US release and how the album’s biggest calling card, the timeless single “Time of the Season” almost didn’t make the final album lineup.
Platts’ book gave me a new appreciation of what came after the Zombies’ breakup in December 1967. Rod Argent and his writing partner Chris White would succeed in their production partnership, most notably with Rod’s group Argent and its hits “Hold Your Head Up” and “God Gave Rock-n-Roll to You”. The author also tells how Terry Reid, who famously passed on being the singer in Led Zeppelin, also passed on the opportunity to be the vocalist in Argent.
As Argent and White succeeded with Argent, singer Colin Blunstone briefly left the music business to work as an insurance agent. He was lured back into the studio by producer Mike Hurst with a new stage name, Neil MacArthur (his original thought, James MacArthur, was rejected as it was the actor’s name in the American detective show Hawaii Five-O). It’s worth checking out some of his work with Hurst under the MacArthur banner, his recording of the Procol Harum-esque “Don’t Try to Explain”.
Argent and White would come to the rescue when they produced Colin’s exquisite first proper solo album, One Year, including four excellent compositions written by Blunstone, including “Caroline Goodbye”, for his ex-, the actress Caroline Munro. Another intriguing bit of trivia: Colin was asked to sing lead in Norman Jewison’s 1973 rock musical Jesus Christ Superstar, a role he couldn’t take due to his recording contract, something that made the career of Deep Purple’s Ian Gillan.
As the Zombies were riding high on the charts with the success of “Time of the Season”, no less than four “imposter bands” pretended to be the defunct group in the UK and the US, including ZZ Top’s Frank Beard. That was until they were outed by Los Angeles Times and Rolling Stone articles. It’s a stranger-than-life tale that Platts relates in hilarious detail.
Times and Seasons also tells the remarkable post-Zombie career of its guitarist, the late Paul Atkinson. After first trying his hand at computer programming, he would experience massive success as an A&R executive at CBS and other labels. It was Atkinson who insisted CBS sign a pop group from Sweden called ABBA (called “Atkinson’s Folly” before they hit big).
Later, he signed stars, including Bruce Hornsby, Loverboy, and Mr. Mister, and also played a role in strategizing the Zombies’ many successful reissues. He would help his Zombies’ bandmate, drummer Hugh Grundy, get a foot in the door as a promo man at CBS, where he helped to make tunes like Redbone’s “Witch Queen of New Orleans” and the Byrds’ “Chestnut Mare” hits.
Platts’ book brings us up to the present. He provides extensive details on the band’s re-emergence as a successful touring and recording act, including the emotional Odessey and Oracle 40th Anniversary concert, the superb 1994 tribute album, The World of The Zombies, The Loser’s Lounge Tribute show in New York City, and much more. Sadly, he leaves off with the news of some recent health challenges for Argent, which have led to his retirement from touring.
Here’s to hoping Rod Argent and the remaining members of the Zombies can live up to their name and rise from the grave to stride on stage again.