WKYC Channel 3

"Imagine the Swan" (Track by Track at Gibson)

[Obviously, the videos in this Track by Track series were all filmed the same day, but for easier indexing, I'm putting them under the dates they were posted.]

Rod:  This is, uh, Rod Argent here from the Zombies.

Colin:  It's Colin Blunstone from the Zombies, and this is Track by Track at Gibson, and we're on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles.

"Imagine the Swan"

Rod:  'Imagine the Swan' came about because by that time, the band had broken up, uh, and 'Time of the Season', after a long period, had just been picked up and over a six months' period become a hit in America.  Uh, one DJ only in the whole of the States was playing it, in Idaho, and it gradually started, like ripples in a pond when someone throws a stone, and it's spreading out and becoming an enormous hit, and it became a number one.  By that time, I'd already formed Argent, with Chris White as a silent partner of Argent.  He didn't wanna play anymore, but, uh, he wanted to co-produce and, and be involved, and we'd already convinced Colin that we should do a solo album for him [One Year], which resulted in some big hits in, in Europe and the U.K., and so we had all these things on course, but our hearts weren't in, you know, to carrying on with the band [the Zombies] in its present form, but Al Gallico, our publisher, said, 'Look, you've got more than a million selling record in the States, you've- you can't just let this go; you've gotta do something', and in the end, we said, 'OK, we'll put a few tracks together', and very quickly, we did.  Now, I quite like this track, 'Imagine the Swan', but it- in a way, it was done as a response to pressure, and it doesn't mean that, that we weren't enthusiastic about doing it when we're doing it, and we gave it our best, but I sang it, um.

Colin:  I had nothing to do with this, this particular track.

Rod:  I think- weren't the members of Argent playing on that?

Colin:  I think it's actually-

Rod:  Or was it Hugh as well?  I can't remember.

Colin:  Well, I always remember it as actually being Argent with Rod singing, so Chris wrote it, [and] Rod sang it.

Rod:  Yeah.

Colin:  But the, the guys playing on it, I think, are Argent.*

Rod:  Very possibly.  It was a long time ago, so I can't quite remember.

Colin:  Yeah.

Rod:  But, um-

Colin:  But you know, there was never any talk amongst the band, uh, when 'Time of the Season' was a hit, probably nearly two years after the band finished, there was never any conversation about re-forming the band, but I s'ppose in a way this is as near as we got.

Rod:  I guess so, but, you know, it wasn't, uh, a permanent thought, but- and strangely enough, we left a huge void, so there was some fake Zombies going around, and the band that became ZZ Top, last year or the year before admitted in print that they went out as the fake Zombies, and that was, um, Dusty Hill and Frank Beard, the, the two guys from ZZ Top, and, uh, we only just found out about that, didn't we?

Colin:  Yeah, yeah.  Good luck to them, you know?

Rod:  Yeah.

Colin:  Good luck to them.

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*The Zombie Heaven liner notes confirm that "Imagine the Swan" was played by Argent:  "With pressure upon Rod and Chris to capitalise on the unprecedented success of 'Time Of The Season', this new composition of Chris' was released as by the Zombies while in fact it featured the personnel of the soon-to-be named Argent:  Russ Ballard on guitar, Jim Rodford on bass and Bob Henrit on drums" (p. 53).  Along with providing the lead vocal, Rod played harpsichord and organ.

"If It Don't Work Out" (Track by Track at Gibson)

[Obviously, the videos in this Track by Track series were all filmed the same day, but for easier indexing, I'm putting them under the dates they were posted.]

Rod:  This is, uh, Rod Argent here from the Zombies.

Colin:  It's Colin Blunstone from the Zombies, and this is Track by Track at Gibson, and we're on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles.

"If It Don't Work Out"

Rod:  'If It Don't Work Out' was a song that I wrote when we were on tour with Dusty Springfield, and Dusty really liked us on, on tour, and she came up to me one evening towards the end of one week and said, 'Will you write me a song?' and I said, 'Oh, G--, I'd be honoured to', you know, 'cause we loved her voice.  I went away that weekend, and I came up with a, a Motown-ish sort of feeling song.  At the beginning of the following week, I played it through to her, and she loved it, and she said, 'I'm gonna record this', and she wanted it to be a single.  She wanted me to play on it, but I was going away that week.  The tour was just finishing.  I couldn't play piano on it, and she had to get someone else to do it.  Um, but Madeline Bell sing[s] on it.  Madeline Bell loved it.  So it didn't in the end turn out to be a single, but it was the opening track on [the B-side of] Ev'rything's Coming Up Dusty, that album, and, um, I loved her singing on it.  It was just brilliant.  We recorded a version, didn't we?

Colin:  Yeah, absolutely.

Rod:  Yeah.

Colin:  We recorded a version, too, and I, um, I mean, I'm not comparing our version with her version.  Her version is great, you know, but I thought we did a pretty good job

Rod:  Mm.

Colin:  as well.

Rod:  Mm.

Colin:  I think that could have been a single.  I don't know why it wasn't, but I think it's a really strong track, but it never was [a single].