Sometime
way back in 1968, the classic Zombies Lp Odessey & Oracle took
center stage among rock and pop fans in the know. Really the first
Zombies album to bring the group into the cutting edge, musical counter
culture of
the late '60s, the Odessey
& Oracle album
was championed by pop genius Al Kooper during his A&R days
at Columbia Records. Upon returning from a trip to England, Kooper
discovered the Zombies on import and the rest is history. As it turned
out Odessey & Oracle was to be the last Zombies album featuring
the original band. But lo and behold, in 2008 a reformed Zombies with
Rod Argent, Chris White, singer Colin Blunstone,
original drummer Hugh Grundy and friends reunited for Odessey
& Oracle Revisited - The 40th Anniversary Concert.
In the interview track of this live concert DVD on MVD visual,
Argent and Blunstone go through a bunch of looking back on it what
ifs, but the fact remains that while Odessey & Oracle might
have ended the ‘60s for the Zombies, there’s no denying
the greatness that magically occurred when Rod Argent and Russ Ballard
formed Argent with Chris White and Jim Rodford, another player
featured on this two hour DVD. Sure, when the Zombies ended and Argent
began there was a noticeable loss of innocence everywhere signalling
a sound change away from the ‘60s towards a sturdier rock fusion
sound that Argent and Ballard and company so excelled in starting
in 1970. Still as Rod and Colin postulate here with misty eyed reflections...
if only Columbia had released “Time Of The Season” as the
first single from Odessey & Oracle right after it came
out in '68 it might have been a different ball game and the
‘60s might never have ended! Even so, Odessey & Oracle
Revisited - The 40th Anniversary Concert offers a spectacular,
reinvigorated, spot on performance of one of the greatest classic
pop albums of the entire '60s decade. How cool is it to see none other
than Al Kooper introducing The Zombies here in a truly ironic prologue
to this truly mesmerizing show. Another amazing thing here is watching
Brian Wilson / Wondermints keyboardist Darian Sahanaja joining
the Zombies lineup and adding in those classic mellotron orchestration
parts that really elevated the original Odessey & Oracle
album. In
addition to the DVD, there's also an excellent double CD companion
set available, so audio buffs can truly hear how great the show was
recorded. Not
enough can be said about the original Zombies lineup and while the
late, great guitarist Paul Atkinson (for whom this DVD is dedicated)
sadly passed away in 2004, his guitar parts are neatly revived here
by very gifted guitarist Keith Airey. This is one truly amazing
live DVD, and is well worth the ticket down memory lane. www.SeeOfSound.com
