The Move appreciation thread

[cabinessence]

Any fans of this "Brumbeat" superduper group which launched Roy Wood and spawned ejectopod band-concept ELO?

Speaking personally, they're my absolute favorite sixties hit-machine Brit-band that's not the Stones, the Beatles, the Who, the Kinks.  I can rave all day about individual tracks, but I find it much harder to give a simple characterization of their "sound" and spirit. That's partly because they were so good at shapeshifting and cherrypicking the styles of others for their own super catchy -but very peculiar- mash up,  switching, for example, from Eddie Cochran thunder to Paperback Writer Beatles harmonies to Hollies-derived ones with a little Beachboys and Hi-los tossed in within a single composition while arranger/producer Tony Visconti and Roy W interpolate medievally woodwinds and proto-ELO classical boogie: oboes, cellos and saxophones  sawing away,squonking and grinding, getting it on...

And there are so many Move reenvisionings: the original hydra headed beast with five lead singers who took the Who routine one step beyond, smashing TV sets and automobiles while dressed in Gangster pinstripes...between sunshine lysergo-pop songs about flowers in the rain and hearing the grass grow, the twee-ness always laced with deadly bad-trip nightshade (listen to their very first single Night of Fear  or the B-side which ends with extended horror movie sound effects, or the schizo classic Cherryblossom Clinic, an ecstatic ode to being insane and suicidal!

This unit losing a member or two along the way consolidates into one of the tightest singles bands of all time crafting a signature style that is Glam before it was invented (Wild Tiger Woman is a blueprint for the Killer Queen sound of Freddie and Brian, as well as a forecast of shapes of things and bands produced by Mike Chapman and Nicky Chinn to come (like the entire catalogue of the Sweet). Tunes like Blackberry Way (Penny Lane by way of Strawberry Fields) and Fire Brigade (canonical power pop) are as nonbiodegradable deathless radio-music as anything of the decade, just a lot less well known

Then, losing a whole lot of members and gaining a new one, they tried their lot briefly as a Cabaret-Vegas type act favoring singer Carl Wayne's Tom Jonesian-Engelbertian bent, but then suddenly changed course yet again and emerged on Shazam as the heaviest UK prog band of the moment, Wayne still the frontman (the only LP where he has the stage pretty much to himself in this regard) but now the compleat rockstar. His performances here are amazing, comparable to the best of Terry Reid, Daltrey, Steve Marriott, Tim Buckley,  and that "All Right Now" and "Bad Company" guy Paul whatshisname (actually rather better than him): the other exemplars of  crooning troubador  and R&B mod-shouting styles morphing over time into Acid Blooz Rock.

The album's best seen perhaps as a belated sequel to their EP from a couple years before, Something Else, a stunning set of cover versions of old rocker faves and the hippest current West Coast sounds played live in concert, great renditions of songs by bands like the Byrds and Love, even a cover of the Berns-Ragavoy Piece of My Heart (first done be Erma Franklin) before Big Brother and Janis did theirs...to virtually identical effect.

Shazam! too is cover-heavy, strange great choices like Tom Paxton's Last Thing on My Mind, Ars Nova's Fields of People, the Mann-Weill Don't Make My Baby Blue (popularized in the UK by Cliff Richard). Wayne works the room like a rock-god/uber lounge singer while Wood, bassist Rick Price and drummer Bevan supply power trio backing of the first order, Roy orchestrating and timing the whole deal flawlessly.

For this one record, the Move proved they could be Super Heroes, and then, once again, they promptly moved on, chucking Carl Wayne (and an arena rock future) and subbing this alter ego of Wood's with a guy much more like a musical twin, Jeff Lynne. The super-eccentric first result of the partnership was Looking On. Whereas Shazam was super smooth and cockrock cool, this was squonky, and honking, bordering on barking mad at times; it's occasionally mistakable in its slide guitar dust storms and strangulated weirdo vocals for Beefheart, but it also has that high Romantic piano arpeggiating thing going on beloved of both Wood and Lynne, one part of the core sound among many on display here of their dreamchild Electric Light Orchestra...which they promptly embarked on as soon as this was done...while continuing to record contract-obligation-wise as Move as well. They may have been tossing the Move stuff out as fast as they could to be done with it, but the material gathered on their last LP Message from the Country is far from negligible, and the singles released separately include some of the all time best of Move in any incarnation, like the blistering bubble pop of Tonight! and the wonderful Jerry Lee Lewis fantasia California Man with Roy and Jeff as duelling Jerries. Cheap Trick revived this one, and if you like them as a band, just check out this whole Move era: the thoroughgoing resemblances are there for all to see.

Phew! I didn't mean to write so much, and I haven't even touched on the E.L.O. debut with the same trio who were also The Move. What can you add?

Earlyish Move:



Last Move-ment:

[jdavolt]

Oh yes...I think I own more Roy Wood/Jeff Lynne related records than any other artist. As far as I'm concerned, the Move had as perfect a track record as possible...perhaps the most consistent band of the late-60's and early-70's. I've been meaning to start an album-by-album thread covering The Move, The Idle Race, Roy Wood, Wizzard, ELO, etc. for a while...

Would you be in on that, Cabin?

[cabinessence]

Sure. I just reacquired the near-totality of the stuff released under the Move moniker (The Message from the Country CD has got all their Harvest  recordings; a triple CD set has all of the earlier ones), so that's at my fingertips.

A lot of the rest before and after and alongside The Move has slipped out of reach for the moment; even more I've never heard in the first place (biggest lacuna being The Idle Race, Lynne's band)

BTW there's an excellent article/joint-interview in the latest issue of the zine Ugly Things devoted to Mike Sheridan and Rick Price, both closely affiliated with The Move (Mike was leader of Roy Wood's first band; Rick Price was in the Move and Wizzard) as well as being songwriting partners for a spell. Their collaborative story is interesting in itself, but it's the  hugely detailed account of the Birmingham music scene in the early days that makes this essential

[jdavolt]

Yeah, that Ugly Things interview was around the time the Sheridan-Price and Rick Price solo albums were re-issued in Japan. That's one set I still need to pick up. BTW, the sound quality and packaging on the 3CD ('Movements') is not very good. That's what I got, too. Luckily, a buddy hooked me up with better sounding copies. I'd encourage anyone reading this to pick up the three individual CD's on Repertoire (The Move, Shazam!, Looking On) over the 'Movements' set. The content's pretty much the same (a few extra mixes and edits on the Rep. CD's), but the sound and packaging is much better. That said, there are supposed to be new remasters and a boxed set within the next couple years, so I wouldn't look to hard for those Rep. CD's if you have 'Movements'.

Edit: I tried to PM you, cabinessence, but it wouldn't let me. So...why not? Here's what it said:

anything I can hook you up with?

I got that Idle Race set...there's spossed to be an Idle Race box this fall, amongst a lot of other things Rob Caiger is promising us over on the Move mailing list.

I got pretty much all the rest of it, too...good needledrops of the RW albums that haven't yet made it to CD. Anything in particular?

[cabinessence]

Thanks! I've emailed you (and will try and figure out what's blocking the instant message function)

EDIT: other Birmingham crosscurrents that flow through this band periodically: Ozzy and Black Sabbath; Roy Wood often does a Jeckyll-Hyde flip back and forth transformation  between genteel vicar with a taste for sherry and Noel Coward and old 78s...and an utterly lost (and somewhat menacing) poor beggar suffering from deepest heavy metal PARANOIA, harsh discordant pinched strife of industrial-man daily life as root of rock and roll, Brumbeat style. Secondly,  Denny Laine-era Moody Blues: the subsequent Wingsman, along with Birmingham style generally,  is much more fundamental in the genesis of that band's continuing sound than generally understood. The Move faithfully reflected his original impact as first local hero made good worldwide, and supply a direct tribute that explains quite a bit about what they were up to themselves with their cover of his fine neo-Buddy Holly number 'Too Much in Love' .

[CosmicDancer]

I have been wanting to hear some of their stuff for ages now but have yet to have the opportunity!  Is this stuff readily available in the U.S. at the moment?  I am a pretty big fan of Roy Wood and Jeff Lynne and especially love most all of the ELO records.  What Move record would you all suggest starting with for someone who hasnt heard anything by them?

[cabinessence]

I'd go with Message from the Country, their last record (available on a CD from Harvest which tosses in the singles from the same era, all of them essential and arguably better than the album tracks. ) It's representative enough that you'll know after listening whether you want to pursue them further back, plus it has Jeff Lynne being recognizably his best musical self (if you are an ELO fan; if you're not, you may be surprised how bright and original a talent this individual once was)

Then again, if you're strictly a British-psychedelic- pop-40 fan, you'd likely prefer the band-titled debut. If you're into early prog-rock and San Francisco Fillmore with heavy metal undertones, Shazam may be your thing. Third LP Looking On is probably not the  best place to start, but it's certainly a nice place to end up.

In short, Message is a great recap of the band's achievements and forecast of things to come. Pick it first, then listen to their ongoing story from the beginning in chronological sequence. It makes sense best that way, I think

[jazzfascist]

They were a jolly little popband. I guess they are a kind of an example of the sound of british pop, post Beatles, slightly psychedelic, but more down to earth, kind as if they made the music out of a pub with lots of fish and chips and lager. “Blackberry Way” sounds like a real pub singalong. I think quite a lot of british bands around that time got that sound, with a very simple, fat, underlined bass and guitar and drum sound, I guess Move were kind of pioneers of that sound. Bands like T Rex and Slade also sounded a little like that, as did the rest of the glam rock movement and even people like Bowie. If you listen to “Killer Queen” and “Bohemian Rhapsody” by Queen, the vocal and guitar also sounds a lot like Move. Got some of their regular cd’s but I listen mostly to their singles compilation.

Søren

[jdavolt]

I had a listen to the Idle Race's debut album, 'The Birthday Party', plus their early singles, this morning and I must say, that album really is great! Darkly twee as psychedelic as all get out. I honestly don't think I've heard anything like it.

[pavlos brenos]

Great thread idea and great post, Cabinessence. The Move is one of the best '60s Brit groups, no question. Can somebody please post (as a yousendit) the live version of "Eight Miles High"? Their live versions of "Stephanie Knows Who" and "So You Want To Be A Rock 'N' Roll Star" cook................

[cabinessence]

I'd like to hear Eight Miles High too.

Jazz Fascist's comments filled in a piece I didn't manage to capture: the laddishness and pub-football stadium-sing along anthemness of the singles.

Wood sure knew how to pander to the crowd! Wizzard worked Wizard for him too in the same way: this incarnation consistently ran neck and neck with Slade in the same yobbo-yet-Beatlesque top of the charts race for a very long spell

'J.F' has also got it right as to the simple driving bass-drums combination, which I'd add originated as a cartoonish and boozy-sloppy reduction-amplification of the already rather outlandish  Entwhistle-Moon combination. (Bev Bevan is an interestingly stylized minimalist drummer throughout his career: his specialty is 'signifying' rock drumming in broad strokes, playing the rock movie fantasy of a drummer: he was one of the first to hit the cowbell really hard!)

BUT, for all the easy locally orientated appeal on the early singles, there's also Roy Wood the ambitious provincial modern artist, a rough hewn genius of sorts. He's got to be addressed above and beyond his knack for keeping his units solvent and viable. Has anyone had such a midas touch in combination with such a perverse disregard of what the public will think? Any thoughts?

[jdavolt]

Can somebody please post (as a yousendit) the live version of "Eight Miles High"? Their live versions of "Stephanie Knows Who" and "So You Want To Be A Rock 'N' Roll Star" cook................

I've not heard of the Move doing "Eight Miles High" live. I know they did "Why?" and "The Christian Life". I think those are on BBC Sessions...

[pavlos brenos]

I think "Eight Miles High" was done at the same live at The Marquee session that "Stephanie Knows Who" and "So You Want To Be A Rock 'n' Roll Star" were taped. I think they were first issued as an EP back in the day.  I remember reading about it years ago....................
"Looking On" was a superb extension of the feel they got on "Stephanie Knows Who" with the waltz-time drumming and the sitaresque guitarwork..............

[jdavolt]

Ten songs were taped at The Marquee show for the 'Something Else From the Move' EP. Five were included on the EP:
"So You Want To Be A Rock'n'Roll Star?"
"Stephanie Knows Who"
"Something Else"
"It'll Be Me"
and an edited version of "Sunshine Help Me"
The 'Movements' set, the Repertoire 'Shazam!' remaster, and the 'Something Else Plus' CD have those plus:
"Too Much In Love"
"(Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher And Higher"
"Piece of My Heart"
and the complete, unedited "Sunshine Help Me".
The other two songs recorded that remain unreleased were both originals, and appearantly there were problems with the tapes on those two. That plus the fact that the group wanted the release to consist solely of covers is why they weren't used. I can't remember which two originals it was off the top of my head, but I'm thinking "Fire Brigade" and "Flowers In The Rain".

[pavlos brenos]

Thanks for the clarification, jd. The Move would have done a credible job on "Eight Miles High" at any rate. I must have read somewhere that they had done it at some stage in their live career.

[cabinessence]

I can't remember which two originals it was off the top of my head, but I'm thinking "Fire Brigade" and "Flowers In The Rain".

Yes, those were the two originals according to the Movements booklet.

I likewise recall reading that Eight Miles High was a song the band covered in concert (just not that particular evening)

Trivia: Both Move and Idle Race covered Moby Grape's Hey Grandma. Wood's band released a studio recorded version. Don't know if a Lynne band recording exists.

Further note on Wood and Lynne after doing a little homework (the Wikipedia entry on Idle Race is the best first source to check and covers nearly all reported below). Lynne replaced Wood in Mike Sheridan's band as lead guitarist. Idle Race's first single was planned to be Wood/Move's Here We Go 'Round the Lemon Tree (till the Move's  version on a current B-side overfamiliarized the public with the tune); Wood supported the group and gave them recording space; Lynne was Wood's first choice to replace departing Move member Trevor Burton in 1969; but he demurred, preferring to try and give his critically praised but unpopular band one more try, throwing in his lot only after a second Idle Race LP crashed and burned.

It's clear that Lynne's intro into the limelight was 'in the shadow of Roy Wood' every step of the way. Interesting that it was Lynne who wrestled away the Move 2.0 band ELO from its cocreator (not quite sure how he gained the rights to the name, a two members vs. third vote?), claiming their LP collaboration under that  rubric was commercially wrecked by Wood's willfully ugly-weird sounds; there's a quote  from Jeff I can't place right now to the effect that Roy made it all sound like dustbins tossed down the stairs! Which is not a bad description of the truculent-heavy side of Wood musicmaking at all, and it does mark the differences in long term big picture sensibility between the two players. As long as Lynne was in the Wood orbit, he crunched and clattered in similar ways, but after serving his aprenticeship, he set forth for a kind of unproblematic mass appeal Wood had already rejected. The tension worked both ways. Hear Wood's explanation of his cover art for Message from the Country, an illustration of a Lynne song...

all about trees dying and all that crap...[my art]...shows a huge bird flying out of the sun with bomb doors where its stomach walls should be, about to deposit a load on the country

(this priceless quote culled from the booklet accompanying the CD of that same name)



 

[psychedelia]

I totally agree, The Move is one of the greatest 60's groups ot there, and i find Roy Wood to be a pure genious!
Not only will we see a 5cd IDle Race boxset in courtesey of Rob Craiger, but as far as i know he's working on re-releasing Roy Woods - Boulders, not to mention several Wizzard albums. On a side note, Amazon.co.uk lists a few upcoming releases of Roy Wood, so i think we've got alot great stuff coming!

I recently discovered a group called Angel Pavement (on the Wooden Hill label) that really reminds me of The Move. Especially the song Jennifer and Green Mello Hill. Yo uguys should really check them out if you haven't already. Any other contestants in the likes of this?

Another singer/songwriter i really love these days is Emitt Rhodes which to me sounds like Paul McCartney 2. The first three albums (Emitt Rhodes/American Dream/Mirror) are truly amazing - though really hard to find, not to mention  expensive. I'm still on the search for his fourth album Farewell to Paradise, and i have yet to find it at a descent price!

Well, that was just my couple of cents

Stian Psychedelia

[jdavolt]

Both Move and Idle Race covered Moby Grape's Hey Grandma. Wood's band released a studio recorded version. Don't know if a Lynne band recording exists.

An Idle Race BBC Session recording of 'Hey Grandma' exists and should be on the upcoming 5CD Idle Race complete recordings boxed set.

courtesey of Rob Craiger

Caiger* 

[jdavolt]

To clarify the last couple paragraphs of Cabinessence's last post...

Mike Sheridan & The Night Riders, circa 1965 consisted of Sheridan, Wood, Roger Spencer, Greg Masters, and Dave Prichard. Carl Wayne & The Vikings had Wayne, Ace Kefford, Bevan, and a guitarist named Johnny Mann, possibly others. So, after the Move formed, The Night Riders needed a guitarist and Mann was without a band, so he replaced Wood in that group. Then the Night Riders split from Mike Sheridan, and soon thereafter Johnny Mann left, to be replaced by Jeff Lynne, who as a young teenager used to hang around the Night Riders' practices. The Night Riders sans Sheridan released one single before changing their name to The Idle Race. The debut IR single (cover of "Lemon Tree") was cancelled in the UK, but was released in the US.

As for how Lynne ended up with ELO, Wood basically gave it to him. Wood had gone through personell disputes with the pre-Lynne Move and really didn't want to go through that kind of thing again, and I guess he sensed that if he and Lynne continued together, it'd eventually come to that. He's said in the past that he just kind of left in order to preserve their friendship, and that he was ready to move on in another direction anyway, which he of course did with Wizzard. Of course, Lynne and Bevan were taken by surprise. Wood left the remainder of ELO with them, and the rest is history.

[cabinessence]

Thanks for clearing up the phrasing ambiguities (and just plain ignorances!) in my account of Lynne's early days.

As to the end of the Wood and Lynne story, it remains a bit ambiguous however one spins it. Maybe it's best that way, Wood bowing out graciously-surprisingly, leaving a friendship and good collaboration intact and unsoured.  Two bands with two Move players a piece was the interesting result

Interesting that Trevor Burton had quit The Move earlier because he didn't approve of the pop-sellout he sensed the band was becoming post-Blackberry Way, and new recruit Rick Price left (only to rejoin in Wizzard clothes) because Lynne and Wood had become too waywardly selfindulgent and goofy-experimental for his tastes. There's an underlying never resolved tension between the two extremes that marks the history of the band it seems to me. It also marks Wood's subsequent work and the divide is often pretty clearly defined by what he released on 45 and what he reserved for LP. The Wizzard who did hit singles like Ball Park Incident and Angel Fingers isn't quite the same unit that made albums like Wizzard's Brew, schizophrenic in itself: plastic pop motifs -an Elvis impersonation, a musichall number- turned into molten plastic fifteen minute dirges and oratorios, like a bad trip taken while lost in the horn section of some Rock and Roll-R&B band of fifties yore! (As I recall. Not saying this record is bad, far from it: just even stranger 'heavy pop' than he'd been making with the last couple incarnations of Move. I sense this was the grandiose direction he wanted ELO to go, but Lynne wouldn't let him...)

[jdavolt]

new recruit Rick Price left (only to rejoin in Wizzard clothes) because Lynne and Wood had become too waywardly selfindulgent and goofy-experimental for his tastes.

Actually, no. His reason in leaving was more practical. He left after the Move stopped playing live, 'cos gigging was where the money was coming from. Once the Move became strictly a studio thing, he had to leave to pursue other opportunities with a working band in order to pay the bills. Wood and Lynne were making money on songwriting royalties, and Bevan was able to stay on because he had recently opened a record shop. There's some debate, also, as to whether Bev had anything to do with writing the two songs he's credited for ("Turkish Tram Conductor Blues" and "Don't Mess Me Up") or if Roy really wrote 'em and credit was given to Bevan so that he would get some royalties.

Great description of the 'Wizzard Brew' LP, BTW. I love that album. One of my faves. It'd be interesting to make a mix of that album and the contemporary 'ELO II'...

[cabinessence]

Ah, sorry about the Rick Price misattribution! I may have been thinking of Bev Bevan's negative response to the direction Move was taking by the time of Message... which he's grouched interspersed good material with 'just plain silly!', "...probably my least favorite Move album (Shazam is definitely my favorite)..." (Message from the Country booklet, artist statement).

The Lynne quote about ELO as managed by Wood not being to his tastes I can trace. It's at the excellent www.brumbeat.net, and the quote goes:

[sounded like] a load of old dustbins falling down the stairs

[jdavolt]

Yeah, Bev even refused to play on "The Battle of Marston Moor". Did you get my email from a few days ago, cabinessence?

[cabinessence]

Did you get my email from a few days ago, cabinessence?

Woops. There it is among the trashed Viagra ads on my basket. Sorry I missed it, on the case now.