Song of the Day: The Zombies “Beechwood Park”

The Zombies’ “Beechwood Park” is taken from their 1968 album Odessey and Oracle. Now largely considered a masterpiece of the psychedelic era (arguably one of the very best, holding rank with The Beatles, Pink Floyd, Small Faces, et al.). The album was largely ignored upon initial UK release, and only managed a US release after strong support from Al Kooper, a producer at CBS Records, who pushed the blue-eyed soul of “Time of the Season” into the public consciousness in 1969.

While “Time of the Season” successfully pulled Odessey and Oracle from chart obscurity, its distinct bass-driven groove wasn’t wholly indicative of the imaginative and richly-detailed pop-psych of the rest of the album. Recorded quite literally during the Summer of Love in 1967, The Zombies intended Odessey and Oracle as their swan song, one last effort to make music together after three grueling years of non-stop recording and touring. The band had an auspicious debut with “She’s Not There” in 1964, but by 1967 their singles were no longer chart contenders and the quality of their live shows was bottoming out, culminating in a disastrous 10-day stint in the Philippines. Freed from the demands of chart success (but still recording with Beatles engineer Geoff Emerick at Abbey Road), keyboardist/vocalist Rod Argent, lead vocalist Colin Blunstone, guitarist/vocalist Paul Atkinson, bassist/vocalist Chris White, and drummer Hugh Grundy were able to create their sole feature-length statement. Following the lead of their UK contemporaries, the band reached for musical and lyrical sophistication throughout the twelve album tracks.

Penned by White, album track (and b-side to the “Friends of Mine” single) “Beechwood Park” concerns rose-colored reminiscences of summer romance set against de rigueur studio experimentation: lead guitar played through a Leslie cabinet, John Lennon’s own mellotron, and lush vocal harmonies. The sound is wistful yet grounded, sentimental about childhood like the best British psychedelia of their peers. And like the Penny Lane of Paul McCartney’s youth, Beechwood Park was a real place: a private girls’ school in Hertfordshire, the southern England county where White grew up.

Do you remember summer days
Just after summer rain
When all the air was damp and warm
In the green of country lanes?
And the breeze would touch your hair
Kiss your face and make you care
About your world
Your summer world
And we would count the evening stars
As the day grew dark
In Beechwood Park
Do you remember golden days and golden summer sun
The sound of laughter in our ears
In the breeze as we would run?
And the breeze would touch your hair
Kiss your face and make you care
About your world
Your summer world
And we would count the evening stars
As the day grew dark
In Beechwood Park
Oh roads in my mind
Take me back in my mind
And I can’t forget you
Won’t forget you
Won’t forget those days
And Beechwood Park
And the breeze would touch your hair
Kiss your face and make you care
About your world
Your summer world
And we would count the evening stars
As the day grew dark
In Beechwood Park
Oh roads in my mind
Take me back in my mind
And I can’t forget you
Won’t forget you
Won’t forget those days
And Beechwood Park