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. 

Sparks - 'Mael Intuition: The Best of Sparks 1974-76" CD, Compilation, 1990 (Island)

I was living in Japan in 1989/1990, and I purchased a lot of CDs at the time.   I bought the Sparks compilation of their first three Island releases "Mael Intuition" because I didn't bring any Sparks' music from Los Angeles with me on this particular visit.   At the time, I didn't even know if I was going back to Los Angeles, due to visa issues and finances.  Nevertheless, due to my budget, this was one of the great buys in Japan.   Released in the UK and Europe, "Mael Intuition" focused on the albums, "Kimono My House," Propaganda," and "Indiscreet."  Interestingly enough, there are no b-side songs on this collection, which is a mystery to me, because all were excellent.  

For a lot of long-term fans of Sparks, or those of that generation,  this is probably the best introduction to their work, especially focused on when they were on Island Records.  First of all, there is no such thing as a bad Sparks' song or album.  So, with four decades of music, there is a lot to choose from, and most are in print, or not that difficult to find used or new.  Still, I would disagree with the subtitle saying this collection is the best of Sparks 1974-76, because there are essential Sparks' songs that were released as b-sides at the height of the Island years, and for all purposes, it should have been included in this compilation.  On the other hand, it's a great snapshot of what makes Sparks so fantastic.    Also, if I wasn't thousands of miles away from my Sparks' albums back in Los Angeles, I would never buy this CD.  It's the distance from home, and I wanted a memory, or at the very least, have some excellent music in my new world. 

Within two years or less, Sparks made huge jumps from "Kimono" to "Indiscreet."  A band that never gave the listener the same thing twice, yet their sound was always Sparks because that is within their DNA.  Ron Mael and Russell Mael (and their band) worked in an environment that had no outside influences, at least nothing obvious.   There are traces of music hall music, or bands like Move, that one can hear within their world, but Sparks manages to twist their songs into something that is not only unique but with incredible original melodies.  I'm sure one can find 'another song' in Ron's songwriting, but I personally can't find it.  It seems that their originality is always based somewhere inside their (Ron and Russell's) collective mind. 

Sparks to this day make perfect music, and yet, for history sake, one looks back to the Island years as of one of great importance.  It's interesting to note,  that there are no songs from "Big Beat" on this compilation because in the UK there were four Island albums, not three.  Whatever it's record business mishaps or a creative choice, the three original albums make sense in a stand-alone 'greatest hits' album.    The changes between the albums are not great, but it's the joy of its subtle differences between the three albums that make this collection a perfect joy.   For me, I run into people who don't know Sparks' music at all, which of course, is a sin.  On the other hand, I find "Mael Intuition" a very good welcome mat to the Sparks' world for these new listeners.  There are quite a few compilations of Sparks music out there in the world, but they may be too large for a new listener.  This, of course, is a subjective choice, but if one can't pass this collection, then I have no hope for them. 

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. 

Wizzard - "Wizzard Brew" Vinyl LP, 1973 (Harvest)

Roy Wood's Wizzard is the very definition of eccentricity.   There are albums that when I first hear it, I shake my head.  Not in hatred or disgust, but more a huge question mark appears in my brain.  Then, for whatever reason, I can't leave it but neither do I love it.  Do I just 'like' it?   There are two albums that affect me in that manner.  One is Van Dyke Parks' "Song Cycle" and Wizzard's "Wizzard Brew."  I have sold both albums back to the store and consistently purchase them back again.  As of now, I have the vinyl copy of this album as well as the CD version, which comes with the Wizzard hits of that time.  Tonight I focused on the vinyl.

The eccentric aspect of Wood's music - especially with Wizzard is that he has an obsession with rock n' roll, but his rock n' roll is very different from someone else's rock.  It is obvious he has a love for the medium, and I'm guessing that he worships Phil Spector's recordings  - just due to the fact that he has so many instruments on each song, that the combination makes me feel dizzy.  There are at least two different tubas, various saxophones, and horns, and then, of course, there's the cello, bassoon, string bass as well as electric bass trombone, recorder (a Wood favorite), harpsichord, French horn trumpet, bugle, clarinet, two drummers, plus congas.   And that is for one song! 

"Wear A Fast Gun" is a beautiful Wood ballad, yet, the song goes into directions that you wouldn't think it would go to.  There are strong jazz riffs as well as retro fifties aesthetics mixed with Jimi Hendrix like grooves.  Like the title, it is truly a Wizzard brew.   It's loud, muffled, and brilliant.  Wizzard is eccentricity at work. 

The Move - "Shazam"/"Move" (Fly Records) Double Vinyl reissue, 1970

I have always heard of The Move, but it was years later till I actually heard their music. I have to imagine that the first Move song that I was aware of is "Hello Susie."   How can any teenager refuse that song?  The odd thing is, I think I first heard "Hello Susie" on KMET, which was the Los Angeles underground rock station.  I suspect that the DJ (B. Mitchell Reed?) had the import because I don't think the album "Shazam" came out in the United States.   So it was years later that I actually heard the album - probably in Topanga Canyon.  

For one, I loved the variety of pop that's on the album.   Only six songs, yet, extreme pop done in a hard rock style.  Crunching guitars, with baroque overtures.  One can say it's sort of in the Beatles groove, but the truth is, I think the leader of the band and chief songwriter Roy Wood was in his own world.  My first impression was 'eccentric fellow." At the time I never read an interview with him, and rarely did they get press in the U.S.  Maybe a mention in Rolling Stone, or perhaps they were lucky enough to get this album reviewed, but the memory of it was not me experiencing the album through the printed media, more radio.  

"Beautiful Daughter" is still a song that stays in my head when I walk around Silver Lake.   The string arrangements sound very elementary, and it is almost a punk like the DIY version of something classical.  When you hear strings on a Beatles record, you know it's done by professional musicians - but "Beautiful Daughter" has an enticing spirit from an amateur.  For me, it's a unique song that is beautiful, but something off about it all. In fact, that explains the logic and beauty of The Move.  There is something not quite right.  "Cherry Blossom Clinic Revisited" is clearly the masterpiece of this album.   The song builds and builds on a powerful bass riff, and then goes into "The Sorcerer's Apprentice."  Side two mostly covers, but again, totally reimagined as originals by The Move. 

The vinyl version I purchased comes with their first full-length album, "Move," which is even odder than "Shazam."   Mostly Roy Wood songs, with the help of a young Tony Visconti on arrangements of strings.  It's sort of a greatest hits album but from an alternative universe. Clearly not from this planet, and super sure not from the U.S.  Even though there is a cover of a Moby Grape song, the pop on this record is very hyper-baroque pop.   It includes an early version of a much shorter "Cherry Blossom Clinic.   The Move was a unique band in an unusual period of experimentation in the field of pop.