Book Review: Times and Seasons: The Rise and Fall and Rise of The Zombies

It’s impossible to provide even a rough estimate of how many rock bios have been published. Let’s agree: a lot. Some artists – you know the ones – have been the subject of multiple books. Others have yet to have a writer take the time to craft a career-spanning look at their work. And if we’re honest, some deserve that coverage more than others.

Against that backdrop, The Zombies stand out. One, to my knowledge there hasn’t (until now) been a comprehensive bio of the group. Two, few acts are more deserving of the kind of attention only a book-length work can provide. So even before one opens Times and Seasons: The Rise and Fall and Rise of The Zombies, it’s clear that Robin Platts has taken on an important task.

The back cover tells us that the book – which covers The Zombies’ career from before the band began, right up through present-day – is “based largely on the author’s interviews with the five original band members.” That’s important, because while The Zombies are comparatively well-known, their story is not. So getting the story directly from those who were there is a critical part of the assignment.

Those with a casual knowledge of The Zombies’ story will know that they had a few hits, albeit very important ones, and then recorded a last-gasp second album, breaking up before its release. Of course that album was Odessey and Oracle, belatedly recognized as one of the great ‘60s classic releases, right up there with Revolver, Wheels of Fire, The Piper at the Gates of Dawn, Pet Sounds, Forever Changes, We’re Only in it for the Money, The Who Sell Out, Moby Grape and others of similar permanence.

Those same music aficionados will also know that while The Zombies would eventually reactivate – decades after their breakup – they took a noble path, not merely coasting on the laurels of their classic work, but releasing a string of very good albums. They probably don’t know much more than that; The Zombies’ extended absence from the scene meant that while countless listeners would continue to find joy in “She’s Not There,” “Time of the Season,” “Tell Her No” and other tunes, few were really talking about the group.

Robin Platts fills in the blanks. Yes, he goes into a bit of detail about Al Kooper’s role in bringing Odessey to market, but he digs deep in other areas as well. The group’s early days and meteoric (yet well-deserved) rise to fame, the reasons why the group folded… all are dealt with in detail, drawing from the principals.

Some band sagas drag when things get to the post-hit era, the out-of-the-business mid-phase. Not here: the 1970s and beyond held much of interest for each of The Zombies. This is especially true where Rod Argent and Colin Blunstone are concerned, of course. But the post-Zombies endeavors of guitarist Paul Atkinson and of Chris White are fascinating as well; in their own ways, both did important work behind the scenes. Platts’ chronicling of this era is engaging reading.

To be honest, there are bits of distracting repetition here and there in the book. One can understand the multiple-viewpoint approach when there’s a Rashomon effect, but when all five band members remember an incident in nearly the same detail, there’s no reason to quote each of them in turn. And Platts does this more than a few times over the course of the book’s 350-plus pages. Yet that’s a minor quibble, and in fact it’s my only criticism — and a mild one at that — of Times and Seasons.

The Zombies story has, more or less, a happy ending. The group earned the recognition it so richly deserved, everybody got along, and they were even the subject of a documentary film (which, after myriad delays, you might be able to see sometime soon). Rod Argent suffered a stroke recently, so his touring days are over, but reports indicate that he’s doing well, and that The Zombies may continue as a recording entity.

Anyone interested in The Zombies story has few options by which to learn more. Lucky for them, Robin Platts has done a superb job of telling the band’s story. Times and Seasons is enthusiastically recommended.