Like their unlikely namesake, the Zombies have had several lives since being formed by keyboardist Rod Argent and vocalist Colin Blunstone in St. Albans in Hertfordshire U.K. in the early 1960s. The first British Invasion act after the Beatles to score a chart-topping U.S. hit with “She’s Not There,” the guys disbanded shortly before their 1968 soon-to-be-cult album, çOdessey and Oracle,” was released. That collection produced another stateside smash in “Time of the Season,” which Al Kooper belatedly convinced Columbia’s Clive Davis to put it out.
Since Argent and Blunstone reunited as the Zombies in 2004, the group has released four albums, the latest, the Covid-delayed “Different Game,” on indie Cooking Vinyl, which serves as the follow-up to 2015’s aptly titled “Still Got That Hunger.”
The duo is fresh back from an acclaimed trip to Austin for South by Southwest, where they were honored with the Grulke Prize for Career Act (their $10,000 prize donated to Oxfam America), and saw the premiere of their career-long documentary, “Hung Up on a Dream” (named after the song on “Odessey and Oracle”), directed by musician Robert Schwartzman, nephew of Francis Ford Coppola and son of the legendary filmmaker’s sister Talia Shire.
Blunstone, now 77 — bandmate Argent is 10 days older — reflects: “Of course it was fabulous people were saying positive things about us, but strangely, we didn’t hear it ourselves. We were running around doing so many things, we were the last to know about that. There’s more energy on-stage with this incarnation of the band than there was when we were teenagers. It’s an unexpected pleasure.”
The band’s 2019 induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame by Susanna Hoffs — in a class which included Stevie Nicks, Roxy Music, Radiohead, Janet Jackson, Def Leppard and the Cure — was a long time coming, but it capped two decades of resumed touring and visibility, as well as attracting a slew of new musician admirers like Dave Grohl and Robert Smith. Featuring drummer Steve Rodford (since 2001), guitarist Tom Toomey (since 2010) and newest member, bassist Soren Koch (who joined in 2018), the Zombies’ shows now include newer songs interspersed with the classic hits.
The Zombies
ALEX LAKE
Argent claims being on the road these days is much different than it was in the ’60s. “Touring back then was a real trial,” he explains. “You had to carry your own PA systems. I remember my Hammond organ coming up on the airport carousel, it was the most extraordinary thing. And of course, it was beaten up so much, it didn’t work that night.”
The Zombies performed in America early on. Like their British peers, they took a cue from stateside soul music, covering chestnuts like the Isley Brothers’ “This Old Heart of Mine” and George Gershwin’s “Summertime,” before writing original songs like “She’s Not There,” which they performed on the very first episode of the TV show, “Hullabaloo!” in 1965. The band had previously appeared at famed DJ Murray the K’s Christmas Show at the Brooklyn Fox on December 1, 1964, on a lineup that included many of their idols, including Chuck Jackson, Ben E. King, the Drifters, the Shirelles, the Shangri-Las, Patti La Belle & the Bluebells and Dionne Warwick. The next year, they joined Dick Clark’s Caravan of Stars tour in Nashville in April with Del Shannon, the Shangri-Las, Tommy Roe and Mel Carter.
“We were very keen on U.S. soul music,” Blunstone says. “At one time, in our semi-pro days, we were known as the Zombies R&B. Most of the music we played then were covers. We had no idea Rod and [bassist] Chris White would write songs until the spring of ’64 after we won this band competition in the U.K. When they came up with ‘She’s Not There’ and ‘Tell Her No,’ no one was more surprised than I was. That started our career.”
The “Odessey and Oracle” album has become an acknowledged psychedelic classic of its time, released less than a year after Brian Wilson’s ambitious “Pet Sounds,” an acknowledged influence.
“The very first thing I wrote on ‘She’s Not There’ was the bass melody, which went against the root of the chord, as well as the vocal harmonies, which was something Brian always did, particularly on ‘Pet Sounds’” says Argent. “Hearing that made me want to develop my own enthusiasms. He just expanded the canvas of what was possible. It had very classical forms and feelings, and wonderful chord sequences not typical of pop music at that time.”
Structured like a traditional vinyl album — with 10 songs, five on each “side” — “Different Game” opens with Argent’s Hammond B3 organ riff on the title track, reminiscent of “A Whiter Shade of Pale” and its own Bach-inspired riff, this one from a movement in “Mass in B Minor,” telling the story from the point of view of someone looking back, pondering how much darker and ominous the present is compared to the innocence of youth.
Recorded live in the studio, Colin says, “We all wanted to be in the same room at the same time. There’s a different energy in the studio when you’re all playing together.”
“It was such a pleasure doing this album” adds Argent, who produced the project with longtime engineer Dale Hanson. “Leading up to our Hall of Fame induction, we played more than 60 live gigs, and we couldn’t wait to capture that energy. We wanted to go back to the ‘Odessey and Oracle’ way of doing things. Back then, Chris White and I wanted to get our own ideas about how the songs would sound before we recorded them. And the only way to do that is to take control over the whole process yourself. We had a blast.”
“Different Game” spotlights the Zombies’ traditional strengths, from the gurgling organ sound and R&B soul of “Dropped Reeling & Stupid,” the celestial Beach Boys harmonies of “Rediscover” (influenced by touring partner Brian Wilson’s “In My Room”), and the confessional ballads “Run Away” and “You Could Be My Love” (a slam-dunk hit if Adele ever decided to cover it), to the rock ‘n’ rollicking “Merry-Go-Round” (complete with honky-tonk piano), and the orchestral chamber pop of “I Want to Fly” (a re-recording from Blunstone’s first solo album) along with his “The Sun Will Rise Again,” a father’s message to his daughter.
“What we feel good about is we’re doing it for real, like we’ve always done,” says Argent. “It’s not just to rake over the coals and make a bit of money. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. At the same time, that’s not our primary purpose. You only get one life, and you want to look back on it, and despite any mistakes along the way, you’ve given it all you can. We try to write and perform with the same excitement we’ve had from the start. It’s a charmed thing, really, to do what you love. The rejuvenation we get on-stage is worth it, especially from the young people in the audience.”
As the documentary illustrates, the Zombies were plagued in the early days by bad management and poor decisions, but these days, they find themselves in a much better place, even if their tour van broke down in the Arizona desert, as depicted on the cover of the new album.
“We absolutely don’t have to work now,” reveals Blunstone. “For the first time in our lives, we’re being managed very well. We understand more about how the business works now than we did back then. In the end, though, it’s the music side which is real. Every night, we give everything we have. We never go through the motions. There is a direct line leading from those early tracks to this album. The new songs work with the ones we wrote back then.”
Blunstone’s angelic, soulful voice remains remarkably intact, which is perfect for Argent, who laughs, “I refuse to write songs in any lower keys than I’ve done in the past.”
The past few years have been a virtual fountain of youth for the pair. Says Blunstone: “We both know the time will come that we’re physically unable to do this, and I know we’ll be honest with one another. But right now, we feel as good as we’ve ever felt.”
“It’s like we’re 18 years-old during those couple of hours on-stage,” adds Argent. “The only difference now is, at the end of the show, we head back to the hotel to sleep. In the old days, that’s when the party was just getting started.”