The Move - "Something Else From The Move" Vinyl, LP, Compilation, France, 1979 (Cube Records)

Has there ever been a band such as The Move, who moved from psych-pop to heavy, and then at times, something operatic and more significant than big?   Never on my top ten list of loves, because I keep forgetting that they exist, and that is apparently a shortsighted position on my part.  Roy Wood is not only an incredible songwriter, but the eccentricity of his stance in the pop music world is one to admire. He's an artist who accepts the abscess of too much, and often I think how is this even possible?  

The Move has two lead singers Carl Wayne and Wood.  Wood writes the material, and Carl Wayne, in a Roger Daltrey manner, takes the material like a grand actor.  If one has to compare the band with another, I have to imagine it will be The Who.  Both groups are melodic as well as thrashing, and there is a sophistication in the mix that makes it a couple of notches better than the standard pop of its era.  It's not surprising that The Move influenced Sparks because they both share the density of the overall sound, as well as songs that are double-edged in imagery and presence. 

"Something Else From The Move" is a compilation album from France.  Side one is their early singles, but including "Brontosaurus" a song when The Move was a trio featuring Jeff Lynne.  Still, this collection is Roy Wood orientated, and side two is a live set from the Marquee Club in 1968.  The reason I purchased this album is that of the live side. One can find this material in various formats, including an EP, but it's pricey to locate.  Here The Move covers Eddie Cochran ("Something Else"), as well as Spooky Tooth, The Byrds, and surprisingly Love.  Besides Cochran, which is music from the past, the other artists they covered were contemporary and very much in force still in 1968. 

The secret of The Move is that they were very baroque orientated in their arrangements, but played the material in a heavy manner.  So there are layers of sound and textures within the three-minute pop single, but also they were able to stretch out in more extended material as well.  As a compilation, it didn't take that much imagination in putting this collection together; still, it is such an enjoyable listening experience. 

The Move - "Live at the Fillmore 1969" Vinyl double album (Not Bad Records)

The fab four - Roy Wood, Carl Wayne, Bev, and Rick Price.   In other words The Move.  I was so in tuned to the music of that time when I was a teenager, yet, getting into The Move were not that simple to get ahold of, due to the fact that they were kind of obscure in the United States.   The Jeff Lynne Move years were easy to obtain, but the early albums, one had to find an import copy - and that was usually by luck than anything else.   Nevertheless, The Move was an incredible band.  

It was their odd mixture of hard rock, pure pop, and incredible songwriting from Roy Wood.  But also they had a singer, Carl Wayne, that didn't come off as a hard rocker, but more of a middle-of-the-road singer being backed by a nutty rock band.   Why they never made it big in America, I think is because of their eccentricity.    The Move Live at Fillmore East is an album that should have come out in 1969.  If so, I think they may have been at the very least, have a Humble Pie type of success in the states.  Alas, that didn't happen.

This is a fantastic live album, showing off The Move's love for American rock/pop, yet filtered through the Move aesthetic and style.  So it's heavy but smart.    Carl, Roy, and gang were not shy in doing covers, and their choices are brilliant.  Not obvious stuff, but the off Carole King cut - more like the b-side of a single type of thing than anything else.  I'm presuming Roy Wood was an obsessive record collector.   His guitar playing, by the way, is great throughout the set/recording, and for me, Rick Price's heavy bass playing is something else.  He and Bev as the rhythm section are like a tractor going over rocks.  If we lived in a better world, this album would have been a super hit - and by now have a deluxe mix, but the tapes were being held by Wayne for safe-keeping.    It sounded like they went through major sound operation to save or improve the aural aspect of this album.  It's great.  Get it.