REVISITED: The Undead Tour: How The Fake Zombies Fooled America

Josh Dean (0:00)

Hey there, Chameleon listeners, it's your host, Josh Dean, here to say that we don't have a new episode for you this week. We're taking a week off. It's the end of summer and back to school, and we need a little time to get some things in order and to get ready for a big fall of episodes, new episodes that will be coming your way.

Many of them, by the way, coming from tips. So those of you who have sent us ideas, thank you, keep those coming. In place of a new episode this week, we're going back to one of our earliest episodes, one of my favorite episodes, in an episode that I think maybe didn't get as much due as it should have. So those of you who are relatively new to the show, I hope you'll be hearing this for the first time. If you have been with us since the beginning, you might remember it. It's the incredible true story of the fake zombies, which by the way has a little extra significance because one of the characters featured in this episode, one of the original members of ZZ Top, Frank Beard, passed away recently. So if for no other reason, listen to this and think fondly of Frank Beard, a good sport.

And I hope you enjoy it. We'll see you back next week with a new episode.

Daniel Ralston (1:12)

Hello? What is the, what do you want me to say? Oh, it's just, um...

Chameleon Weekly.

Josh Dean (1:28)

Back in the mid-1960s, a wave of floppy-haired British music acts crashed onto our shores, soaking America with a whole new kind of pop and rock and roll. It became known as the British Invasion, and the leaders of this invading force were unquestionably the Beatles.

SPEAKER_3 (1:43)

You've never witnessed the excitement stirred by these youngsters from Liverpool who call themselves the Beatles. Now tonight, you're gonna twice be entertained by them, right now and again on the second half of our show. Ladies and gentlemen, the Beatles!

Josh Dean (2:00)

But this was just a tidal wave of talent. The Rolling Stones, the Who, the Kinks, plus plenty of moderately to much less famous acts, including a five piece from the outskirts of London that called themselves The Zombies.

Daniel Ralston (2:14)

They hit two huge hits in 64 and 65

Josh Dean (2:18)

This is Daniel Ralston, a writer and bartender who lives in Los Angeles and who has become a sort of zombiesologist the past half dozen years.

Daniel Ralston (2:27)

She's not there.

Songs you still hear on Oldies stations, Oldies playlists. They were big in England, but they were much bigger in America, even then. Like the British Invasion thing hit hard here.

Josh Dean (2:54)

Important point.

Daniel Ralston (2:55)

So by 64, when The Zombies came over here for the first time, they were headlining shows with Gladys Knight, all these incredible groups. And then as psychedelic music starts to come in.

Josh Dean (3:08)

This being an evolution of the British Invasion, with music that's heavily influenced by the arrival of psychedelic drugs on the scene.

Daniel Ralston (3:16)

The zombies change their sound in 67 and make an album called Odyssey and Oracle that completely bombs in the UK. And then as a last ditch effort, their US label decides to release the song Time of the Season as a single in 1967

Josh Dean (3:33)

You definitely know this one. Time of the Season would become a massive single, released basically as a last hurrah, almost a coda to a band that had basically had it with Rock and Roll.

Daniel Ralston (3:49)

The band was in such bad shape that they had actually broken up. Like they had no money. The only one who had any money was the guy who wrote the songs. The rest of them were riding bicycles to the studio to go record Odyssey and Oracle.

So they released this last ditch third single in America, Time of the Season. It becomes a monster hit in America. And suddenly there's demand for the zombies in America, but there's no zombies.

Josh Dean (4:16)

This is literally true.

The band's keyboardist and songwriter had gone on to start a new band. The lead singer, Collin Blundstone, took a job in an insurance office.

Daniel Ralston (4:26)

They didn't even know who their US label was at that point, basically.

Josh Dean (4:30)

And this, to a certain type of person, presents Opportunity.

Daniel Ralston (4:36)

The record's selling a ton, it's playing all over the radio, and this guy in Michigan, who runs Delta Promotions, gets an idea to send the zombies out on the road without the real zombies existing.