It is bizarre and a little sad that the singer on one of the most critically loved albums of the 1960s found himself working at an insurance agency after the record’s release. Odessey and Oracle, the only intentional full-length album by the Zombies, was released in 1968 after the band had split up. The song “Time of the Season” became a hit, but the band did not reform until 1999. The Zombies will play the Hi-Tone on Sunday, April 27th.
“I went to an employment agency,” Colin Blunstone (above left) said of his short foray into workaday life. “I didn’t feel insurance was my vocation. I just went to an employment agency like anybody else would. That was the first job I was offered. It was a little bit strange. It was strange for me, and it was strange for people who were working in the office. They knew what I had been doing. But after a couple of days, people forget that and you just get on with it. I enjoyed it.”
Odessey and Oracle has become a cult classic. It is one of the acknowledged masterpieces of psychedelia and is a highpoint of the art-song compositions that gave that period its depth. If you don’t have it, get it.
“I was really sad when the band finished. It was a disappointing time that that adventure had come to an end. It was an office in the middle of London, it wasn’t some country town. It [the insurance agency] was right in the middle of London, and it was busy. I didn’t have time to think. For me, it really worked well. It was nearly a year, and then I started getting offers to record again. That’s what I did.” — Joe Boone
The Zombies will perform at the Hi-Tone on Sunday, April 27th, with opener Hollis Brown.