PHOTOS
Eric Scicchitano
In this the time of season to head outdoors for a summer concert, the tantalizing lineup of the “Rock Royalty Tour” — a trio of ’60s Brit rock groups, The Zombies, The Yardbirds and Spencer Davis Group — has enough allure to tempt music fans to venture into the air-conditioned F.M. Kirby Center.
After all, opening act The Yardbirds featured during the 1960s three of rock ’n’ roll’s iconic guitarists — Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page. But it’s the bill’s lead band, The Zombies, who’ve enjoyed an unlikely resurgence some 40 years after the original lineup called it quits.
The band — who charted two Top 5 singles, 1964’s “She’s Not There” and 1969’s “Time of the Season” — recorded their landmark album, Odessey and Oracle, in 1968 inside Abbey Road’s Studio 3 shortly after The Beatles left Abbey’s Studio 2 upon completion of the Sgt. Pepper album. Rolling Stone ranked Odessey and Oracle No. 80 among their Top 500 albums of all time.
But it wasn’t so well-received upon its debut. In fact, its first two singles bombed. Then the band lost its manager and its agent, and eventually they parted ways. “There just wasn’t any interest in us,” remembered Colin Blunstone, an original Zombie and the band’s lead singer.
The success of “Time of the Season” did little to push the album. With little explanation other than calling the unintentionally misspelled album a phenomenon, Odessey and Oracle eventually took on a life of its own, with or without the help of the men who actually recorded it.
“About 15 years after the album came out it started selling considerable numbers and that has just gone on and on since then. No one’s promoting the album, no one’s marketing it; it’s just happening through word of mouth.”
Blunstone and the band’s organist/vocalist Rod Argent, along with Chris White, Hugh Grundy and the now deceased Paul Atkinson, founded the band in 1961 in St. Albans, England. “She’s Not There,” their debut single, peaked at No. 12 in the U.K. and No. 2 in the U.S. just three year’s later. In Blunstone’s opinion, success came a little too early.
When they got to Abbey Road, Blunstone said The Zombies were coming into their own. Argent and White were writing “great songs” and the band was tight. But success was fleeting and it appeared The Zombies weren’t meant to be.
After varying success on their own, Argent and Blunstone reunited under their surnames earlier this decade and eventually toured as The Zombies again to great acclaim. Last month they were heralded for their masterwork when British music magazine Mojo named Odessey and Oracle “Best Classic Rock” album during its award show.
Blunstone had a laugh at recalling the morning they recorded the album’s top single, “Time of the Season.” On the day the album was due, the band had just finished writing the song and Blunstone was struggling with the melody, and he and Argent were struggling with each other. Eventually, Blunstone said he challenged Argent to sing it himself.
“He was saying, ‘Listen, you’re the lead singer, you sing until you get it right!’” Blunstone said with a laugh. “I’m really glad that I did now. I think that I would be very embarrassed if our last and possibly biggest (single), as the lead singer of The Zombies, if I didn’t sing it.”