oh, geez, i've been into the zombies since 1977. what got me into them was "time of the zombies" a 2-record set on epic. i was a high school volunteer at our local university and these grad students played a comp with "time of the season" on it. i only got into it because of that.

the second disc on the set was "O&O" in its entirety, but i didn't know that (being a teen at the time). i was totally into them from that first listen. to me, it's zeppelin, the beatles, the bb's, and the zombies. you know what people looking at you crazy looks like? my friends were into rush, kiss, and ac/dc. foisting "a rose for emily" on fellow 14 year olds was not kewl.

i finally saw rod and colin in 2004 in sacramento. they were pretty damn good. but, colin's voice is lower/rougher than the zombie days. he's an r&b guy now. not that he ever wasn't.

hey mikeyj, right...that's what i meant. it has the brian groovefunky vibe. brian has all of these unmistakable vibes. like a great master aesthetician. when you listen to "don't worry, baby" or the pet sounds title track or "let us go on this way", it's the same vibe. i originally wanted my post to tack onto the mid-90's discussion, but between registering and posting, it went awry.

i think the bb's died with the paranoid delay of "smile." if they didn't have product by christmas '66, they were becoming a non-factor in decision makers eyes. they were NEVER the same after this. everything afterwards is diminishing returns. however, some of it is great (especially magic transistor radio background, matchpoint of our love lead vocal, san miguel, sound of free, this whole world vox, et al). i REALLY think they died after LA.

that said, i'll never forget brian coming out at the warfield in sf to the strains of lgiok. that was the bb's and i saw all the other major shows mentioned on this thread. nothing can top that. well, maybe the psuedo zep show next month in the mother country. honorable mention to the floyd live8 thingy.

-surfbass in calif.