Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

I have always loved "You Make me feel so Good" and "I Love You" among many other great songs by The Zombies, very cool sounding band.

...Dire Straits - "Dire Straits", "Making movies", "Love over gold" etc...

This is way too much white boy for my liking...

Quincy Jones's production from the late 70's/early 80's just exudes "sound"...

The best musicians of the genre/time, working with the best period songwriters. Strings, horns, and vocal arrangements all wrapped into a fantastic production tapestry by the master.

Jackson's "Off The Wall" defines crossover music. Benson's "Give Me The Night" blends jazz and pop brilliantly and Quincy's "The Dude" is the icing on the cake.

Along those lines... "Fresh" by Sly and The Family Stone... thin, airy, plenty of room for everyone to stretch out a little, not to mention the heavily-medicated vocal stylings of Sly himself...

Yes! Thank Yew both, Andrew and Bob...

If you want to hear state of the art recording techniques then listen to any Madonna album.

Whatever year her albums are released are time capsules/snapshots in state of the art.

Zombies Trivia Note - Although their guitarist usually used a Rose-Morris Rick (1997?) for live performances, he always recorded with an acoustic guitar fitted with a pick-up. He thought it sounded best in the studio.

And, while I'm on it....

ABBA....

They had the definitive recording studio in the 70's. Polar was THE state of the art that had everyone Q'ing up to record there. Their late 70's production is also a craft unto itself...

I'll have to get that Zombies compilation you mentioned Paul. I remembered "You Make Me Feel So Good in the dim recesses of my mind from when I was a kid, hadn't heard it for probably 40 years and still have no idea where I heard it, it sounds like the quintessential early 60's British pop 45.

Well I just ordered Zombie Heaven from Amazon.com, has 119 tracks on 4 CD's, supposedly everything they ever recorded including 30 live tracks, is that the one you have Paul? Recorded very nicely.

Yes, the Zombies set is the complete deal. I've got it; the book is a good read.

The Zombie Heaven box is a wonderful collection, including BBC radio performances and many studio outtakes. Another good set is the Decca Stereo Anthology. It contains all the stereo remasters. I didn't start getting into the Zombies until about ten years ago. Although the guitar playing is understated, their arrangements and production (not to mention keyboards and vocals) are certainly terrific.

There are some really great recordings mentioned in this thread, but the real surprise is this Zombies thing. I can't wait to get a CD & find out what it's all about.

I was amazed too Tony... and I just discovered them a couple of weeks ago.

I put on a 20 minute playlist of Zombies last night before editing, mixing and mastering a couple of home tracks... I don't know if hearing something that sounded so good had anything to do with it, but they might be my best-sounding tracks to date!

Nice thread idea! My favourites for the most part have been mentioned already, and I like them mainly for the clarity of sound and/or sharp detail. They would be:

Yes - Fragile, Close To The Edge & Drama
Genesis - Selling England, Trick Of The Tail
Zeppelin - IV (although PG is my favourite album)
Jeff Buckley - Grace

And Tony, since I'm here (it's not worth starting a new thread), I realize that the player & their technique is the most important thing, but if one wanted to emulate (as best as one could) the Bruford snare sound, what would the defining characteristics be in your opinion? I mean, I know that most, including myself would say that ringing "poing!" attack, but I'm more after certain EQ characteristics, etc. Just looking for something else to add to the experiment list.