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The Zombies' Colin Blunstone talks 'Rock Royalty'
The Zombies , known for their baroque pop classic "Odessey & Oracle," and The Yardbirds, the English blues-rock outfit fronted--at various times--by Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page, are touring together in a Rock Royalty package of three British Invasion acts. The Spencer Davis Group, which gave the world a teenage Steve Winwood, rounds out the bill.
Stylistically, there's a significant leap from the manicured sound Rod Argent and Colin Blunstone make in The Zombies to the blues-based tunes overseen by The Yardbirds' original rhythm section of Jim McCarty and Chris Dreja, not to mention the high-spirited tunes from Davis. Bound by geography and a place in time--the late 1960s--one has to wonder, is there any other sort of bond?
"It's more evident in some cases than others but we all come from the same R&B background," notes Blunstone, who retired from live performance in the 1970s only to return with Argent in 1999.
"We were initially the Zombies Rhythm and Blues Band. All [three bands] were interested in black American R&B music. Often, when we played in America [in the '60s], we'd be asked, 'Where did you find that sound?' We'd tell them, 'It's your music given a different twist.'"
In addition to Blunstone and Argent, the current Zombies lineup features Jim Rodford (formerly of Argent and The Kinks) on bass, Keith Airey on guitar and Steve Rodford on drums. The Zombies are celebrating the release of the "Odessey & Oracle 40th Anniversary Concert" recording, currently available on iTunes. A DVD release is planned for later this year. Blunstone also has a new solo CD, "Ghost Of You & Me," that has not yet been released in the States.
For the tour, the focus will be on Zombies hits, though, since their reunion in 1999, they have focused on new material, "Odessey & Oracle" along with post-Zombies work such as Argent's "Hold Your Head Up" and Blunstone's version of Tim Hardin's "Misty Roses."
"We can always find an area of our music that's known," Blunstone notes. " Certainly on the West Coast and East Coast, 'Odessey' is well known. But there's something very mysterious about that record and no one quite knows why it was suddenly so accepted--nothing happened with it in its first 15 years.
"Word of mouth and more artists citing 'Odessey & Oracle' as important gave it a new life. Paul Weller was the first artist to talk about."
The Zombies broke up after the album's release in 1969, so when the single "Time of the Season" subsequently became a hit, there was no band left to tour in support of the record. Argent had created a new band and Blunstone was working in the insurance business.
Earlier this month, Mojo magazine honored the Zombies and "Odessey" at a dinner. The Fleet Foxes also attended the dinner and "talked to us for hours" about the album, Blunstone said.
Blunstone takes a certain amount of pride in noting that whenever "Odessey & Oracle" makes it into any top albums list, it is often the one that was the least successful at the time of its release. "It just makes the Zombies' story a little stranger than the rest," he said.
