The Old Acclaimed Music Forum
Go to the NEW FORUM
My albums between 100 and 150 are heavily influenced by our albums poll anyway, I made it right after the results were published and I think almost half of them are in that list or high on someone else's personal list. 
Article published in French magazine Rock & Folk, by Nicolas Ungemuth
(hastily) translated by Nicolas Lejeune (oh Lord have mercy of the poor translater)
title : And then there is « Odessey And Oracle"
Everybody says it : the album, the record as we knew it, is fading away. Too inattentive, too impatient, too poor, too tired, too entertained, too brain-dead, too informed, people now prefer to download song by song. So we are about to find ourselves in the same situation as 40 years ago… Back then, artists issued singles and then, from time to time, to make a little more money, hastily put together albums bought by few people and which didn’t really count. The 33 RPM LP, available since 1948, after all, was still young. It was used as a sort of throwaway. You could place there already-issued singles and fill up the rest with instrumentals, covers or weaker tracks. All you had to do was reach thirty minutes of music and it was settled, ready to invade the record stores’ shelves.
40 years
And then in 1965, everything changed. With “Bringing It All Back Home”, “Highway 61 Revisited” and “Rubber Soul”, issued the same year. Young groups and songwriters craving for artistic freedom and innovation realize that they have about 40 minutes at hand to express their creativity. And things won’t be the same anymore. The rest of the world, thunderstrucked by both these Beatles and Dylan albums, quickly got over from the shock and rushed head-first… Like them or not, between 1966 and 1970, not even mentioning Motown and Stax, decisive albums came out (sometimes several records one after the other by the same artist) by : Stooges, Velvet Underground, Led Zeppelin, Kinks, Small Faces, Love, Dylan, Beatles, Rolling Stones, Nico, Donovan, Janis Joplin, Byrds, Doors, Free, Jefferson Airplane, The Band, Van Morrison, Tim Buckley, Traffic, Joni Mitchell, Neil Young, Elvis Presley, Margo Guryan, Crosby Stills Nash & Young, Flying Burrito Bros, John Mayall, Jimi Hendrix, Cream, Rod Stewart, Humble Pie, Mamas & Papas, Moody Blues, Move, Grateful Dead, Procol Harum, Nick Drake, Kevin Ayers, Buffalo Springfield, Freid Neil, Pink Floyd, Soft Machine, Fairport Convention, Mothers Of Invention, Tim Hardin, Townes Van Zandt, Harry Nilsson, Who, Jeff Beck, Syd Barrett, 13th Floor Elevators, Captain Beefheart, Pretty Things, MC5… And that’s not all folks, you might have guessed. All this and much more, in only four years.
Let’s compare, for better understanding. Between 2004 and 2008 ? Scissor Sisters, Amy Winehouse, Baby Shambles, Radiohead, White Stripes, CocoRosie (no, that’s a joke…
, Bloc Party, Killers, Franz Ferdinand, Arcade Fire, Rakes, Interpol, Mika, Arctic Monkeys… Of course that list isn’t exhaustive, but they don’t play in the same league anyway. Back then, those years between 1966 and 1970 look like the golden age. By the number of great albums issued (in addition to the singles !), only the 1977-84 era can more or less compete, but without matching. And still, among this festival of records, not so many of them are perfect.
By the way, what is a perfect album ? It’s an album without any single bad song (so no “Within You Without You”, no “European Son”, no “Rael 2”, no “How Many More Times”, no “Sing This All Together” . It’s a cohesive album, a block. More “Beggars Banquet” than “Let It Bleed”. It’s an album without cover or instrumental abuse.
That doesn’t mean that perfect albums are the best. There are partially messed up albums that can be revered for a lot of excellent reasons like “Between The Buttons”, “A Quick One”, “Nashville Skyline”, “Face To Face”, “The Notorious Byrd Brothers”, “Fifth Dimension”, “Neil Young”, or “White Light White Heat”. Perfection can be wearisome. And it’s inhuman.
And, last, it is too rare anyway. There are not so many perfect records in this sixties’ list after all. “Beggars Banquet”. “The Village Green Preservation Society”. “Pet Sounds”. “Revolver”. “Tim Hardin 2”. The third Small Faces. “Forever Changes”. “Axis : Bold As Love”. “Highway 61 Revisited”. “Blonde On Blonde”. “Would You Believe”. “Take A Picture”. That is far from being exhaustive but you won’t find 50 others.
And then there is “Odessey And Oracle”, precisely one of the most perfect. Which just celebrated its 40th birthday. And an unlikely case : when this masterpiece comes out, in 1968, and when its main single “Time Of The Season” is climbing the charts worldwide, and especially in the United States in 1968, the band responsible for all this beauty no longer exists. The Zombies weren’t like any other band. Their career started strangely. With a massive hit ! First recording, first single and bang ! That song is number 2 in the States ! We’re talking about the terribly effective “She’s Not There”. There is already Colin Blunstone’s graceful, warm and vibrant voice, all velvet. And an organ that would traumatize Ray Manzarek. Often a Wurlitzer, often in minor key, arranged by Rod Argent’s expert fingers, a composer of exception, challenged on a regular basis by Chris White’s compositions. White was very skilled too when it came to write good choruses and verses.
Obstacle course
But the Zombies are having trouble. First of all they’ve got the stupidest band name of the era with the Beach Boys. It’s a subject of recurrent mockery. A shame. Manfred Mann himself supposedly said to Rod Argent : “I love what you do, but hell, you have to change your name.” And they have this “first of the class” look Well educated, uncool, square. In this Rolling Stones, Who and Pretty Things era, this apparent sweetness is a serious handicap. Credible and true songwriters are subversive. And noisy. Even the Kinks : if they can do “Dandy” and “Well-respected Man”, it’s because a few years before, they bought their credibility with “You Really Got Me”, “All Day And All Of The Nights” et al. Same for The Who. If they can whine on “Pictures Of Lily”, that’s because they destroyed everything with “My Generation” and “Anyway Anyhow Anywhere”…
But the Zombies never did anything like that. From the beginning, they hang on to their strange style. Compositions alternating minor and major modes, complex vocal harmonies ala Hollies, hardly any guitars, lots of keyboards, discreet drums, almost jazzy, in triple time. “She’s Not There” sums it up. It’s a clean sound, flirting dangerously with the most embarrassing foolishness (“Tell Her No”, “The Way I Feel Inside” .
Yet the Zombies were unable to give a repeat performance. Between 1964 and 1966, none of their singles, although often fascinating (see “She’s Coming Home” or “Whenever You’re Ready” for instance), hit the charts. So much so that the band only recorded one album, on the sly in 1964 and dramatically mediocre, which wasn’t much help for their reputation. The Zombies weren’t taken seriously. A nice little clean band, a little like the Hollies. The Zombies were not part of the revolution. Excluded, as a matter of fact. While Lennon, McCartney, Jagger, Richards, Townshend, Dylan, Davies or Lou Reed were inventing a new world, the Zombies confined themselves to their likeable affectedness, like some English Beach Boys, but without a Brian Wilson.
Their career is catastrophic, an aspiring musician’s nightmare : a smash hit at first, then nothing… In 1967, their contract with Decca expires, CBS agrees to sign them for a single album. And doesn’t want to spend a fortune with a record very likely to pass unnoticed (which will be the case). The budget is 2000 £. In other words, not much. All the better for our story : The Zombies, with big ideas in their mind, have to cope with a mellotron to save money, instead of the true instruments they had planned to use.
Legend has it that back then the Zombies already knew that it would be their last album. Hard to believe : why be so perfectionist when you know that the game is over ? We poor mortals, neither artists nor musicians, listen to their records and the verdict falls, lazily… this one is good, that one is bad. Next. But are we ever aware of the obstacle course, of all that can cause failure in the process, we the rustic, the country boys ? Unlike the writer who only has, between his brains and his pen, his sole arm, the musician has to make choices. The more they are, the more the chances to fail. Hugh Cornwell, ex-Stranglers, sums it up very well in his autobiography, “A Multitude Of Sins” : A songwriter composes a song with his guitar. Everything is OK until then. But the song still has to be recorded. Does it have to be recorded acoustically, with a single guitar and a voice, or with other instruments ? Which instruments ? Who has to play them ? Where will the song be recorded ? Who will be the producer ? Who will be the sound ingeneer ? Does the song need to be rearranged ? Would it be better if it was played in another key ? How many times the musicians will have to play it before it is recorded ? Which one is the best cut ? Once recorded, who will mix the instruments ? Which one is the best mix ? And last, who will hear this album ? How will people be informed of its existence and how are we gonna make them want to listen to it ?
Making a record is a sort of miracle… Then making a big record is unexpected… The Zombies, in 1967, while their career is at a standstill, are about to struggle like desperate men and make all the right choices.
Deliciously “art nouveau”
Strange as it seems, they have access to Abbey Road, a studio usually dedicated to major bands. The Beatles have just recorded “Sgt Pepper’s” there, and The Zombies take advantage of the both sound ingeneers Peter Vince and Geoff Emerick’s freshly acquired experience. Still willing to save money, White and Argent take care of the producing. The band is focused. The songs are cut after a few takes and all the compositions are used.
Rather than recording the album in one go, the Zombies have access to Abbey Road when the studio is available, that is when the EMI artists, who have priority over all the others, are not there.
The Mellotron, there to make for the lack of budget, is used with a rare understanding. White’s Precision bass sounds wonderful. The drums as well. In brief series of sessions, a few days here, a few days there (and some tracks recorded in the legendary Olympic studios, Hendrix’ private playground), the band delivers a complete album. Stuffed with incredible things. Like this “Beechwood Park” with his Bach-inspired guitar, filtered through a Leslie cabin, on top of an almost religious Hammond organ. Or like “Care Of Cell 44”. Or the heavenly “This Will Be Our Year”. Or like “A Rose For Emily”… Or like … the whole record !
A curious record by the way. It is neither “Pet Sounds” nor “Revolver”. Because the Zombies didn’t write huge songs, like “I’m Only Sleeping” or “God Only Knows”. There is no killer track, with a chorus that will obsess you for the rest of your life, a bridge which is a smash hit in itself. “Odessey And Oracle”, in full, almost looks like a big song, with different moments. Moods. We are drawn from a reverie to the other, but, in the end, we are in the same one, from start to end. It is made with an awesome coherence, a amazing logic. In that sense, it is perhaps the climax of ‘60s pop, nicely psychedelic, baroque as we say today (everything which isn’t blues is baroque). But it’s an astounding marvel, which doesn’t empty itself in one shot : after a thousand listens, we still discover sublime details hidden in the corners. Rod Argent signed five tracks, Chris White seven. Both men have reached a staggering mimesis : there is no way to know, without reading the credits, who did what.
Before the album is even finished, 3 singles are released : “Friends Of Mine”/”Beechwood Park”, “This Will Be Our Year”/”A Butcher’s Tale (Western Front 1914)” and “Care Of Cell 44”/”Maybe After He’s Gone”. They all collapse into the abyss of the charts. It is a complete failure, and the whole crew is in low spirits. Time to finish the sessions, to cut the last track “Time Of The Season”, and to entrust the art cover to one of their friends, Terry Quirk, who, in addition to the legendary and unintentional mispelling on Odessey, will produce this so deliciously art nouveau visual with this English psychedelic touch, and The Zombies hear at the last minute that they have to do a stereo mix of the album in a hurry. And it is in stereo that “Odessey And Oracle” will come out (the mono version is available since 1998 through the 30th anniversary edition and is far from being uninteresting). Since they have already spent all their budget allowed for the recording, Rod Argent and Chris White are forced to cut in their own royalties to finance the new stereo mix. And when the stereo master is deliverd at last to CBS on January , 1968 –the album is finished since novembered 1967- the Zombies do not exist anymore.
Solar album
Disgusted by this lack of luck and gratitude, the five musicians have decided to put an end to the adventure. Rod Argent and Chris White start a publishing firm named Nexus, before Rod embarks on his own adventure, Argent. Guitarist Hugh Grundy and drummer Paul Atkinson join CBS UK’s artistic department and Colin Blunstone gives up music before starting an often excellent solo carreer, first of all under the pseudonym of Neil McArthur, then under his own name.
The album is out in April 1968, along with the hit-to be single “Time of The Season”, but nobody wants either of them... but this legendary album’s story isn’t over. At the end of the year, Al Kooper, who played with Dylan and Blood, Sweat & Tears, and works now for CBS USA, turns up in London and buys some 60 albums, including “Odessey”... He knows the band since “She’s Not There”, but what he hears then makes him cry. Back in America, he rushes to see legendary CBS boss Clive Davis and advises him to issue the album and the single (At the beginning, CBS had decided not to issue anything). Davis, hardly convinced, agrees to issue it on his Date label. After all, the Zombies are part of his catalogue.
He issues the album and “A Butcher’s Tale” as a single. The former meets a very limited success, the latter disappears at once. In november 1968, so about a year after “Odessey” was finished, “Time Of The season” comes out in the USA, with nobody at CBS really believing in it. And the song makes number 1 in the US charts (see note). Everybody tries to convince the group members to restart the Zombies now that they are groovy at last. But it’s too late and Argent, White, Blunstone and company stay true to their conviction : no way to do it again.
So the Zombies real story ends there, in late 1968. Glory at the beginning, glory after the end... And nothing in between. Too bad for the Zombies, but not for us. We have this solar album, like an English version of “Pet Sounds”, but even more disturbing, even more bewitching. A unique record which, 40 years after, makes you want to wisper on your own these magical lines :
Do you remember summer days, just after summer rain
When all the air was damp and warm, in the green of country lanes ?
And the breeze would touch your hair, kiss your face and make you care, about your world, your summer world
And we would count the evening stars, as the day grew dark
In Beechwood Park
Note by nicolas : the author is wrong about dates and charting positions. He wrote november 1969 instead of november 1968 (I corrected).
And the single never made #1 in the USA but #3 (not bad anyway), and # 1... in Canada.
"Odessey And Oracle" is in my album Top 10 and has been there for a looooooong time. 
I'm really glad you guys love it too.
I've always put off watching that show, not sure why, but I'm almost finished with Six Feet Under so I'll put it next on my list. 
Well, I had downloaded the deluxe edition, the one with the 12 tracks in both mono and stereo outfit. That counts double, right? You're at 50+ easy, when you're infected with the O&O virus, like I am 
Last weekend, I finally got 2 CDs and some books from amazon. Yesterday, I posted a separate thread on one of the CD's I got from the La's, and the other CD is a 2001 remastered version of O&O. Besides the 12 original tracks, there are 16 additional tracks. These are all fine, but can not compete with the 12 divine ones, so I still prefer the downloaded version. Well, have to listen to those 16 a bit more to make that statement a definite one.
It's funny, I had heard of The Zombies and Time of the Season, but had no clue what brilliant album they had made. And now that album is on its way to become one of my all-time favorites ... life is full of surprises!