The Trouble with TBLs

June 30 2009

THE TROUBLE WITH TBLs: How quickly we forget.

In 2006, armed with seemingly endless bubble capital and a leprous business plan, Wal-Mart was in the midst of crawling its soul- (and community-) crushing plague of umpity-hundred-thousand-square-foot ÜberCenters up the I-5 corridor. The retailer’s business plan called for dropping one of…

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The Zombies

Back from the dead

It’s probably a lie to say I was raised on the Zombies. After all, the group had come, made their musical mark and was already long gone by the time I was ever a glimmer in anyone’s eye. But in a house where no activity could be undertaken until a stack of old 45s had been queued up on my folks’ overworked record player, it’s safe to say that, along with Motown, the Beatles, and the Beach Boys, the Zombies were the musical backdrop to many a Saturday morning spent doing chores under the watchful eye of my mother.

Part of the much-ballyhooed British Invasion of the 1960s, the Zombies first hit big with the single “She’s Not There” in 1964. The song perfectly embodied all that which made the band’s music so compellingly unique: beautiful, thoughtfully wrought melodies, the seemingly effortless ability to switch from major to minor keys that gave their songs such interesting depth, the breathy white-soul vocals of Colin Blunstone, and Rod Argent’s highly technical, jazz- and classical-influenced organ and piano anchoring it all.

It should’ve been a recipe for surefire success, and when “She’s Not There” charted at number two in the United States, it probably seemed like the band had it made. And when the Zombies hit again just a year later with “Tell Her No,” it likely only reinforced that notion.

However, making ambitious music—and the Zombies’ music, although still remaining accessible, was certainly ambitious—is not an endeavor that is always rewarded, even if a band does have a couple of hit songs under its belt. The next few years would see the group releasing a slew of excellent singles, all intricately arranged in their trademark fashion, only to see them flop, while other bands, such as the Beatles and the Beach Boys, who shared their gift for gorgeous melody and intelligent songcraft, would chart hit after hit after hit.

In fact, the Zombies would not see their next bit of musical good fortune until 1969 and the release of “Time of the Season” from their album Odessey and Oracle. Although the album itself is a gem of pop psychedelia, as well as their only truly cohesive studio effort, its release—and the success of “Time of the Season,” which remains the group’s biggest hit—came more than a year after the Zombies had already called it quits.

Under such circumstances, most groups would reunite and ride the wave of reinvigorated fame as far as it would take them. However, the Zombies didn’t take this route, instead choosing to focus on individual solo projects and generally getting on with their lives.

Fast-forward to 2004, when Blunstone and Argent, who had actually been playing together for a few years, decided to dust off the Zombies name and the songs and get the band back together. With a retooled lineup, the band has spent the past five years touring, reintroducing the world to their inimitable pop sensibility and generally garnering excellent reviews. They’ll bring their by-now finely honed live show Thurs., July 2 to the Mount Baker Theatre, along with another ’60s staple who have reformed with the aid of new personnel, the Yardbirds. While Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, and Jimmy Page will not be making their way to Bellingham with the Yardbirds, the band’s hits, such as “For Your Love” and “Heart Full of Soul,” will most definitely be in evidence.