"Hung Up on a Dream": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JctjMqtsFsU
What do you do after the band breaks up?
The records may be rich and famous, but you may be broke.
That was my second favorite part of this documentary. The band expires and Colin Blunstone has to get a straight job. He's working in an insurance office and everybody knows who he is, after all, he's been on television, but now he's a working stiff just like them, it's cognitive dissonance.
As for drummer Hugh Grundy... He eventually gets a job as an A&R guy at CBS Records, but then loses that job and becomes...a driver?
Paul Atkinson helped get him that gig. That was the word on the street back in the pre-internet days, that guy with the glasses, the record executive who seemed serious and self-confident, he was in the ZOMBIES! Not quite as hard to square as Colin Blunstone working in an insurance office, but at least he had a job.
As for Rod Argent and Chris White?
They wrote the songs that made the whole world go wow, so they were all right. The money is always in the publishing, never forget it.
If there's any bad vibes amongst the group they're absent from this documentary, which is a relatively straightforward tale of the Zombies' rise, fall and reascension. This film is a document for posterity, in case anybody wonders who the Zombies were. If you're a fan, if you were a muso, if you were ANYBODY back in the sixties you know much of this story, however this film was not made on the cheap, there's some great footage.
As for my favorite part of the flick...
Well, it's made up of two parts, the Murray the K Christmas show at the Brooklyn Fox and Dick Clark's Caravan of Stars.
As for Murray the K... You see him on stage, and it brings back all the memories, of a day when the deejay was cool. You had no idea how most of them looked. As for the shows...if only you could be there!
As for the Caravan of Stars... I actually saw that 1965 tour at Atlantic City's Steel Pier. Peter and Gordon were the headliners. Alas, the Zombies were not on that date.
But on that tour... They rode around in a bus. a traditional Greyhound-style bus, you know, with two by two seating. And one night they slept in a hotel and on the other...THEY SLEPT IN THE BUS! No, not a coffin bunk like today's touring machines, but sitting up!
Touring was hard back then.
And when it was over, the Zombies never had any cash. They ultimately learned they were being ripped-off, fired their manager and never had another hit until after they broke up. The manager counts. And they're a lot more honest today than they used to be.
The business has always been populated by hustlers, you're always getting ripped-off, to this day. However, back then the modern business was being formed, now it's institutionalized. A promoter stiffed them on a gig, to their face he told the Zombies he wasn't going to pay them, and he didn't. This does not happen with Live Nation!
As for that Dick Clark tour... The story is just as you've heard it, all the bands singing along on the ride. And when they ask the Zombies to participate, they sing an a cappella version of the Beatles' "If I Fell" and earn applause. And I'm sitting there thinking about this and then I realize I can sing every word to "If I Fell" right now, and it's sixty years later!
They gloss over the writing of "She's Not There" and "Tell Her No." Rod Argent just went home and wrote them. But really, how did this happen? Two iconic numbers, just when you're starting out? Rod talks a bit about the inspiration for the lyrics, but still...he's wet behind the ears, where does this come from?
And everybody has a band, kind of like everybody is a social media influencer today/
"I Love You" is not mentioned, which was a big hit for People! in the U.S., and to be honest I never knew it was a Zombies song until I heard it on XM in the early days of that service. After all, I hadn't bought the albums. And if you didn't buy the albums, you usually didn't know, there was nowhere else to hear this stuff
And there really isn't that much to say about the Zombies, they weren't around that long. The movie is halfway through and they've broken up. Now what?
But they do go into Argent, they follow up everybody's career thereafter and...
It's very hard to survive as a musician. Especially if you never wrote the songs. Everybody may know your name but that does not put food on the table. And Paul Atkinson left the band because he got married, imagine that happening today!
As for record labels, not only did they used to be glamorous, they used to shuffle the deck every few years and good luck surviving, especially if you were an A&R person. Which is what happened to Hugh Grundy. But today, the labels are mausoleums whose halls are filled with the same damn people, even worse, we don't care who they are. We know the guys who run the big three, but that's about it. all the action is in touring, or outside the system completely, individuals cooking up stuff in their bedrooms.
Yes, it used to be different. And if you want to know how it was, "Hung Up on a Dream" will tell you.
But so many of these stories do not have happy endings, there is no Al Kooper rescuing "Time of the Season" after the band's demise, there is no future money, only bad feelings and broken friendships. As for people remembering your name... Up until the Zombies renaissance in the twenty first century only the hard core knew who Colin Blunstone was, after all he never had another hit in America. If you were a dedicated student you knew he had albums in England, but that as might as well have been Venus.
But other than Paul, they're all still here, surviving.
However, since the making of this documentary Rod Argent had a stroke and has retired from the road, which may go on forever but you may not be on it.
The business is forever, you are not. If you're lucky, the records do. Really, the Zombies had two, "She's Not There" and "Time of the Season." At this late date the latter gets all the mentions, but if you were dedicated to the radio in the winter of 64-65 not only do you know "She's Not There," it's got an indelible place in your heart because of the sound...dark and meaningful, evidence of the British Invasion, which was not all upbeat and sunny. These records were not here today and gone tomorrow, they were forever, they touched our SOULS!
--
Visit the archive: http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/
--
Listen to the podcast:
-iHeart: https://ihr.fm/2Gi5PFj
-Apple: https://apple.co/2ndmpvp
--
http://www.twitter.com/lefsetz
--
If you would like to subscribe to the LefsetzLetter,
http://www.lefsetz.com/lists/?p=subscribe&id=1
If you do not want to receive any more LefsetzLetters, http://lefsetz.com/lists/?p=unsubscribe&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25
To change your email address http://lefsetz.com/lists/?p=preferences&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25
