As you may know, The Zombies just completed an American tour where -- to rapturous applause -- they performed their masterpiece Odessey and Oracle in its entirety.
You may be able to guess from the Odessey song above how the rest of the week here is gonna go. No coveted PowerPop No-Prizes if you do, however.
I should add that, to my delight, another Odessey track is now the unlikeliest radio hit of the current century..
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7 comments:
I've had a copy of "Odessey and Oracle" for well over a decade, and with exception of "Brief Candles", I just can't get into it.
I know I'm wrong, just like I am for not liking "Pet Sounds" either.
A little to "twee" for me.
I much prefer The Pretty Things "SF Sorrow", and "Parachute".
However, I'm glad that "A Rose For Emily" has found a new audience. I hope they get paid.
When I first heard this album (decades after it's release), "Care of Cell 44" knocked me out and it's still my favorite track from the album. I do think it's a pretty solid album, though, and possibly more deserving of praise than Pet Sounds all these years later.
Friends of Mine, my initial ear reference...
Either a Hollies mashup lacking Graham Nash or a song that even Peter Noone took a pass on.
rob. ;-)
ps - I'm young enough to remember them on the Parrot label
Shriner,
O and O deserves more praise than Pet Sounds...?
I think Pet Sounds is one of the most over praised albums in history, never got it.
That said I will admit that while not on par with a Beatles, Stones, Kinks release it has a few truly great songs.
Rod Argent was no Brian Wilson.
Competent yes (a rare talent for any songwriter), a great songwriter, no.
rob
Overall I like O & O. IMO it has one weak song, "Friends Of Mine."
Totally weird that this subject came up. We went out with my son and his girlfriend yesterday to go diving and fishing off the coast of San Clemente Island. What the fuck else would we do on Mother's day, right?:-) He recently bought a beat-up used boat really cheap from some guy in the Bay Area. My son was playing tunes from his music library onboard. I was surprised to hear several songs from O & O and also the Lemon Twigs!! Cool! Even though his girlfriend kept overriding the "Random" feature to play song after song from the new Harry Styles LP, it was more bearable than I thought it would be.
I acquired O&O quite by accident. I got it at a mom & pop record shop in Redondo Beach. Sandy and I were in the area because we were the dates of a couple of guys from a local Catholic High School. It was called St. Bernard's and we thought that was kinda funny.
One of 'em's parents were close friends with mine and they used to drop by and visit us in Berdoo and we would do the same at their Playa Del Rey home. It was some sort of Back-To-School dance. I didn't really want to go with him because I thought of him as more of a cousin or brother. We grew up as playmates and friends. Besides, I already had a very serious boyfriend and we were doin' it all the time.
Parental politics were involved in pressuring my decision to accept, but only if he hooked Sandy up with his best friend, who was a fox. Our idea was that we would use our wiles to pull a date-switch once we got to the dance. The guys were Juniors in High School and we were just entering the Eighth Grade. They both had cars. It was the perfect set-up and it worked.
Me and Sandy spent the night and the rest of the weekend at my parents' friends' house. The guys took us surfin' at El Porto but it just wasn't happening, so we headed for the Redondo Pier. Once there, we temporarily ditched the guys to compare notes and cook up new schemes. We laughed about how pliable they were.
Eventually we stumbled upon a record store. It had all the hippie accoutrements of the times. But when we walked in they were playing show tunes. The fat bald-headed fucker behind the checkout told us we couldn't come in. When I asked why, he said it was because we didn't have any shoes on. He was bitchy and effeminate. We laughed and continued inside as Sandy told him "This is California, man, what's wrong with you." He persisted. I told him to quit being such a ragatha about it. That he shouldn't turn away good customers and if he didn't like it, he could call the fuckin' cops. He never did, as reason prevailed.
I picked up Steppenwolf The Second and the new Stones single, Street Fighting Man/No Expectations. Sandy got Crown of Creation. The bitchy clerk was sorting through albums and putting them in boxes as "returns" for different distributors. I pulled my money out of my bikini top and he rang me up. When he did so, he put our records on top of a few of his returns on the counter. The guy was still pissed at us and flustered. When he bagged the albums, he put some his "returns" in our bag. Now ordinarily I would have hipped him to that, but he just treated us pretty shabbily and he was an all-around asshole. So my scruples walked out the door with three extra LP's. These turned out to be the "Revolution" soundtrack, the first New York Rock 'N' Roll Ensemble album and Odessey and Oracle. I could have done a whole lot worse!
VR
Thanks for reminding me that I have the New York Rock and Roll Ensemble disc in my collection.
I'll dust it off and give it a spin today.
rob
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