Let's talk about The Move/ELO/Wizzard (The Roy Wood-Jeff Lynne thread)

[ajsmith2]

It was as rare as hen's teeth though and there was a reason for that. It wasn't a classic and hardly anybody bought it.

Wasn't it not even released beyond test pressings back in the day?

Afair they mainly trade in near MOR harmony pop than anything too psychey. Twenty Tem is still great though.

[purlieu]

One fucking great band that barely gets any recognition these days outside of hardcore fans of psychedelic/progressive era pop.

It's particularly absurd given how big they were in their day. Their first five singles all charted in the top five, Flowers in the Rain has its 'first song played on Radio 1' title, and all five of those first singles are straight up pop classics. How they ended up being a third-tier band in the public eye I'll never understand.
I have this nice Move anthology, which compiles their first three albums with pretty much all the available singles, b-sides, live tracks and obscurities from the era. The self-titled I like a lot, although the two r&bish covers on there aren't my thing. But that first disc is a bloody solid set. Shazam I've never taken to very much, possibly as it's their least poppy, although the disc is worth it for 'Blackberry Way' alone. Looking On is my favourite of the three, probably because of the appearance of Jeff Lynne.
I've only heard Messages from the Country once, but I enjoyed it. Should really pick it up at some point.

ELO I've only ever had a compilation of, which collected stuff from their first couple of albums, but given that this eleven album set goes for a pretty reasonable price, I'm going to take a punt on it at some point, as I like all the singles I've heard from over the years.

The Idle Race's debut album, The Birthday Party, is one of my all-time favourites, and deserves a huge amount of love from more people. Pretty much every song on it is perfectly crafted. A superb pop album that's so dense with ideas and melodies and sound effects. Does more in 29 minutes than a lot of albums manage in 50. I absolutely love the mix of jaunty whimsy and utter bleakness - songs about a woman who killed herself after nobody turned up to her birthday party, a man in his 30s who spends his life at home playing with his childhood toys, a guy who finally gets a job because he's so skinny only to get sacked because he can finally afford food, a woman who signs her sons up to the army only to fear them getting killed - and every track is a proper earworm.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pLlBCLYO0FU
The second album is fine but never grabbed me in quite the same way. The third, post-Lynne, is fairly poor I thought. Their entire catalogue is available on a superb 2CD set.

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

Roy's solo single Forever is a sublime Beach Boys/Spector tribute. It was a top ten hit in 1974, and yet you never hear it on "oldies" radio. It doesn't turn up on hits of the '70s compilations. No one ever talks about it. Why? It's a classic.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZSBTMBoLhI

[pupshaw]

Roy is one of my musical gods. Jeff not so much.
Whereas Roy has had not enough success, Jeff has had too much success, mainly because of his A-list shmoozing.
How any of them could stand his plodding production I do not know. He ruined Brian Wilson's 1988 album
If only Roy Wood had produced that... oh well.
And what about that Travelling Wilburys crap.

Boulders and Mustard both show how he can write great songs and make them sound like Spector or the Beach Boys or Everly Brothers.

He seemed to lose heart in the late 70s which makes me very sad. Also, he liked to be a bit of a jester, and artists who don't take themselves too seriously lose out to the inscrutable bullshitters.

I mean I love this...

When Grandma Plays the Banjo  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wVtu8bNKBb0

But I remember reading some negative reviews written by those who think this shouldn't be allowed. The dreaded "novelty" record.

Anyway, Roy's tops with me. Everything he did up to 1976. After that I don't know what happened.

One thing that puts him at the very top is the little melodic bridges he writes. In the xmas song "he put a great big smile on
somebody's face" and in See My Baby Jive "she hangs on to me and she really goes". Nobody ever wrote better lines.

Chinatown was an amazing single, as was California Man. And everything leading up to them too, but I might go on too long.

[itsfredtitmus]

i rate wood and lynne equally

[pupshaw]

I don't mean to trash Lynne. I've enjoyed quite a bit of ELO, but I don't like his production.
It's just not enough people recognise what a genius Roy Wood is.

[MortSahlFan]

I love The Move, and ELO... Just wish Roy could have stayed for another album, just to see... ELO is touring this year, and tickets are expensive.

[Better Midlands]

It's like a less juvenile CaB, really.

And you won't get Erasure threads.

Then much like Andy Bell, I'm out.

[itsfredtitmus]

It's like a less juvenile CaB, really.

sounds boring

[Phoenix Lazarus]

Roy's solo single Forever is a sublime Beach Boys/Spector tribute. It was a top ten hit in 1974, and yet you never hear it on "oldies" radio. It doesn't turn up on hits of the '70s compilations. No one ever talks about it. Why? It's a classic.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZSBTMBoLhI

That is up there with Jukebox Jive, by the Rubettes, another of the coolest bits of musical retro ever.

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

Absolutely. Sugar Baby Love gets all the sugar baby love - it's an amazing record, no doubt about that - but Jukebox Jive boasts that same killer mix of glam euphoria and bittersweet '50s nostalgia.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z2zViRqDTks

[bgmnts]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1O-IdK78MnY


Such a fucking tune, this.

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

Yep, a total banger.

[itsfredtitmus]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1O-IdK78MnY


Such a fucking tune, this.

BUT WHERE COULD SHE RUN
THAT'S JUST NO ANSWER TO GIVE

[itsfredtitmus]

Absolutely. Sugar Baby Love gets all the sugar baby love - it's an amazing record, no doubt about that - but Jukebox Jive boasts that same killer mix of glam euphoria and bittersweet '50s nostalgia.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z2zViRqDTks

This ones better https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-t66drtfWs

[Nowhere Man]

Love this picture of Jimi Hendrix with The Move, Pink Floyd, Amen Corner and The Nice!



You can see Roy and Carl Wayne right next to Syd Barrett, Roger Waters and a completely stoned looking Richard Wright there in the bottom right. Jimi looking cool as ever.

[timebug]

I don't know if he got it through me, but Marc's total
dislike of Jeff Lynn is a given with me! Roy was the true
genius in the Move (and the founding era ELO).
Nice bloke too, as it goes. He owns a pub near Ashbourne
in Derbyshire now, which is just up the road from where I
hang out in the armpit of the UK, Derby-Happening-City.
(NOT!)
He is often in and around Derby and Nottingham pottering
about doing the shopping thing, and always has time to
speak to anyone who recognises him. Which for a musician
and writer of his calibre,is nice.

[Nowhere Man]

The funny thing is I didn't have a problem with Jeff Lynne before I listened to The Move, but it's only after reading about it you realise that the main reason that ELO even got off the ground was due to Roy (and Bev Bevan)Even 10538 Overture is largely as great as it is because of the cello's that Roy added. It does seem a bit like Jeff never gives as much credit as he should to the others in the band. Especially today with all those re-recordings of his old hits he does.

It makes me kind of sad that Roy is kind of a forgotten figure even in the UK these days, when at the very least he's one of the greatest singles artists ever. Check out how many hit songs he wrote between '66 and '75!

Night Of Fear (UK No. 2)
I Can Hear The Grass Grow (UK No. 5)
Flowers In The Rain (UK No. 2)
Fire Brigade (UK No. 3)
Blackberry Way (UK No. 1)
Curly (UK No. 2)
Brontosaurus (UK No. 7)
Hello Susie (UK No. 4 for Amen Corner)
Tonight (UK No. 11)
Chinatown (UK No. 23)
California Man (UK No. 7)
Ball Park Incident (UK No. 6)
See My Baby Jive (UK No. 1)
Dear Elaine (UK No. 18)
Forever (UK No. 8)
Angel Fingers (UK No. 1)
I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday (UK No. 4)
Rock 'N' Roll Winter (Loony's Tune) (UK No. 6)
Are You Ready to Rock (UK No. 8)
Goin' Down the Road (UK No. 13)
Oh What A Shame (UK No. 13)

I know it's probably not one of his best but I love the mad bagpipes that come in at the end of Are You Ready To Rock, in fact I think alot of the Wizzard stuff has really grown on me recently. Ball Park Incident, Angel Fingers and See My Baby Jive are just fucking wall to wall brilliance. Still not too overly fond of those albums, but its all about those singles isn't it really? (The Phil Spector effect at work)

For anyone who's heard the wonderful 'Boulders' album, 'Mustard' from 1975 is also a nice little gem.

[Steven]

Roy producing and on backing vox for The Acid Gallery - Dance Round The Maypole, I knew it had to be released AFTER The Beatles' Your Mother Should Know, as it contains the line "Lift up your hearts.."

And with The Idle Race doing Here We Go Round The Lemon Tree

[Famous Mortimer]

Re: the thing about Wood owning a pub, pretty much the only thing I know about the man is he bought a pub near his "estate" solely so he could close it down. He laughed about this example of sticking one to the poors on Never Mind The Buzzcocks, and I've hated him ever since (perhaps irrationally).

[Steven]

Re: the thing about Wood owning a pub, pretty much the only thing I know about the man is he bought a pub near his "estate" solely so he could close it down. He laughed about this example of sticking one to the poors on Never Mind The Buzzcocks, and I've hated him ever since.

Not true according to Roy, it had already closed down so he bought and renovated it. Maybe he was just making a joke about it?

[Famous Mortimer]

It didn't sound like a joke to me, but I'm not going to spend tons of my time searching for the clip either. Series 5, episode 6, apparently.

[purlieu]

ELO I've only ever had a compilation of, which collected stuff from their first couple of albums, but given that this eleven album set goes for a pretty reasonable price, I'm going to take a punt on it at some point, as I like all the singles I've heard from over the years.

Bought this a couple of weeks back, only listened to the first so far. I'm not entirely sure about it yet - 10538 Overture, Look at Me Now, Queen of the Hours and Whisper in the Night are all incredible songs, and First Movement would be great if it weren't an almost note-for-note rip-off of Classical Gas. The rest I'm less taken by however. Will be moving on to the second album very soon.

[Head Gardener]

I have much love for ELO, this is my much treasured, fully loaded Out of The Blue


both stickers and inners


double blue


poster and unused ELO space station + extra unused sticker!

[purlieu]

How does it sound? Coloured vinyl can be a bit dodgy.

On the subject of pictures, here's that boxset. Bargain for £17.

[Head Gardener]

How does it sound? Coloured vinyl can be a bit dodgy.

no difference really, I have a nice deck so most of my records sound good - seems daft to not do the spaceship model after all these years too and I probably never will...

[Nowhere Man]

31 minutes of classic Move with Roy, Carl Wayne, Trevor Burton and Bev Bevan! (In full colour, to boot)

Colour Me Pop, 4th January 1969
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i22VGpEAtJE

They really were at their best at this time imo

[the science eel]

Yes, and it's wonderful how thick and groovy the sound was - from essentially a three-piece band. A lot of that was down to Trevor Burton.

[Nowhere Man]

It just blows my mind how well recorded this appearance was, in 1969! What a gem. Bev's drums sound fantastic as well. Many of these performances are just as good as the studio recordings, but in a different, rawer way. They were always great, but they feel like such a proper band here, in a way they really weren't in the pre-ELO phase. Roy is the genius with a brilliant voice to match but Carl Wayne was phenomenal as the groups frontman/lead vocalist.

[Twed]

31 minutes of classic Move with Roy, Carl Wayne, Trevor Burton and Bev Bevan! (In full colour, to boot)

Colour Me Pop, 4th January 1969
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i22VGpEAtJE

They really were at their best at this time imo

Blackberry Way at 28:00, for philistines like me.