Notes and Quotes: "She's Not There"

Gus Dudgeon: They came in to cut "She's Not There," having won the Herts Beat contest, but I recall the band were actually pretty relaxed. This other engineer, Terry Johnson started the session. He was my boss, and I was just the tape operator, the tape jockey. But Terry had a bit of a problem with booze and at lunch he'd got paralytically drunk. He came back and he was so drunk that they threw him in a taxi and sent him home, and Ken Jones looked at me and said, 'well, I guess it's down to you.' So I moved to the engineer's chair for the first time, and had a ball doing it. (Palao 1997:17)

Rod Argent: I think it was expected we would record at Decca. The studio in West Hampstead was fairly anonymous. You went downstairs to record, and we always recorded in the same studio (no. 2). It was very much the day of the three-hour session. I'd regard recording four songs as a four week job now! But that first session was great, and we were on cloud nine. We thought it was brilliant. It was really a toss-up as to which was the A-side, and Ken couldn't decide. We went round to Paul Arnold's house, and the mums and the dads were there too, and we tried to decide which one. (Palao 1997:17)

Rod Argent: "It went from D to D minor but with unusual root bass notes. I liked the sound of that little change so I started messing with it on the piano" (Black 1997:41).

"She's Not There" is a remarkable debut single and composition. The contrasts of minor and major key areas between sections, the contorted and inventive bass line, and jerky drum accompaniment signaled a new level of sophistication for British pop. Argent based the song on a line from a John Lee Hooker song, "No One Told Me" and Brian Hyland's, "Sealed with a Kiss."

George Harrison's reaction on the television show Juke Box Jury (where performers and teens rated new releases) was uncharacteristically up-bet for him: "Well, it's really very good. Very well done Zombies. Thumbs Up!" (Black 1997:42).

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22 February, 2012