[This digest is the copyright of the Move "Useless Information" Mailing List. Re-publication or re-distribution of "Useless Information" content, in any form whatsoever, is expressly prohibited without prior written consent.] USELESS INFORMATION The Move Mailing List Digest Issue #364 June 18, 2002 In this issue: * Song Of The Week (week of 6/17): "Fields Of People" * Dave Donovan's Faulty Memory * Three vocalists? (cont.) * Time Capsule: THE MOVE (Part 3) * Cat Mother & the All Night News Boys ============================================================== To POST TO THE LIST: Send an e-mail to: move-list@eskimo.com Useful Web addresses: TheMoveOnline: http://www.themoveonline.com Official Roy Wood site: http://www.roywood.co.uk Face The Music Online: http://www.ftmusic.com Join the ELO List: http://www.eskimo.com/~noanswer/showdown.html Move List Info & Archives: http://www.eskimo.com/~noanswer/movelist.html TO UNSUBSCRIBE: Send an e-mail to move-digest-request@eskimo.com with the word "unsubscribe" (no quotes) in the subject line ============================================================== Subject: Song Of The Week: "Fields Of People" Date: Mon, 17 Jun 2002 12:08:52 -0700 From: Lynn Hoskins Song Of The Week: June 17, 2002 "Fields Of People" from the Move album "Shazam" Possible discussion topics: Vocals Lyrics Instrumentation Songwriting Arrangement Production Live performance Personal interpretation Strong/weak points *********************** "Fields Of People" (Day/Pierson) One...two...three...four Wildflowers grow everywhere Vibrations flow, things will have to change (Good evening, madam. It's a recording. Yes.) Strange new ideas fill the air Some people leave, others grieve Some were bare but things will change Old concepts go, new ones grow All at once the world begins to love again (... Hello, Uncle Bill) And the wildflowers grow out of fields Fields of people There's no such thing as a weed Seeds of hatred Plant them and soon they will breed (Going to the pub, are you? Evening, madam.) Wildflowers grow everywhere Vibrations flow, things will have to change Strange new ideas fill the air Some people leave, others grieve Some were bare but things will change Old concepts go, new ones grow All at once the world begins to love again And the wildflowers grow out of love Love of people There's no such thing as a weed Seeds of hatred Plant them and soon they will breed Fields of people There's no such thing as a weed Seeds of hatred Plant them and soon they will feed Wildflowers grow everywhere Vibrations flow, things will have to change (There's a bloke out here looking for the band.) Strange new ideas fill the air Some people leave, others grieve Some were bare but things will change Old concepts go, new ones grow All at once the world begins to love again (... Hello, Uncle Bill) And the wildflowers grow out of fields Fields of people There's no such thing as a weed Seeds of hatred Plant them and soon they will breed Fields of people There's no such thing as a weed Seeds of hatred Plant them and soon they will breed Fields of people There's no such thing as a weed Seeds of hatred Plant them and soon they will breed (Here we are now in Great Portland Street. Ah, good evening sir, I wonder would you like to come over here and say a few words in the microphone. Oh. "It catches one a bit off balance suddenly to be interrupted in the street." Taxi! I got one. Hello, I don't want a taxi. What I want is this. You're a taxi driver, and we want a taxi driver's opinion on pop music. "I think it's very good, mate. Just 'cause I'm gettin' a bit ancient don't mean to say I don't enjoy it." Good. Toot your organ and we'll be away.) (c)1970 Cube Records ********** Subject: Re: Song Of The Week: "Fields Of People" Date: Mon, 17 Jun 2002 14:44:39 -0700 From: Richard Messum Oh, "Fields of people," one of my top five favourite Move songs (my top five now constituting about 26!).... Who were the writers, though? (It's credited to "Day/Pierson," who they?) It's unwontedly idealistic for a Move number. The melody is irresistible and the -- what? double-tracked twelve-string guitar? -- figure is folksy and jaunty and bright. In fact, the word "bright" pretty well sums up the entire number, the guitar in the chorus doing its own little Bolero. I could quite happily live without the extended instrumental coda (electric sitar?) -- i don't dislike it by any means but i doesn't really seem necessary to me. And the message: old concepts go, new ones grow, all at once the world begins to love again. Especially relevant nowadays. I would take issue with one brief line in your transcript, though. I think that "toot your organ and we'll be away" is actually "toot your horn, then, and we'll be away." A small point. ********** Subject: Re: Song Of The Week: "Fields Of People" Date: Mon, 17 Jun 2002 16:27:24 -0700 From: Bob Hughes Probably the first Move Song I was ever aware of. Shazam was a major hit, at least on the New Haven, CT radio station I listened to. I'm not sure which was played more, Fields of People or Cherry Blossom Clinic, but I'm pretty sure that years later when I finally got around to purchasing a copy I already knew all the songs by heart. Since this is not a Roy Wood composition, I assume it's a cover. Who did the original? Did it sound anywhere near as demented as this? Your really can't get more classic Move than this, Bev is bashing away in the background. He's so loud, it's foreground. Rick is thumping so heavy on the bass he's shattering transistor radios across the country side. And Carl and the choir are singing about the inherent goodness of mankind! I read all this stuff about Carl wanting to play cabaret and become a lounge singer and then I listen to this and say, naaaahhhh. The whole album, with the man in the street interviews and between song segues is just a work of sheer genius. The most perfect thing Roy ever made. (Although Wizard's Brew comes close in a totally different manner.) ********** Subject: Re: Song Of The Week: "Fields Of People" Date: Mon, 17 Jun 2002 16:27:42 -0700 From: Peter Tomlinson Richard Messum wrote: > Oh, "Fields of people," one of my top five favourite Move songs (my > top five now constituting about 26!).... > > Who were the writers, though? (It's credited to "Day/Pierson," who > they?) It's unwontedly idealistic for a Move number. They were the leaders of Ars Nova, who had one album on Elektra (containing "Fields of People") c. '68 and one on Atlantic not long after. They were featured in a semi-famous issue of Life magazine devoted to "the new rock" as an up-and-coming group of classical music students who had forsaken their studies in favor of the low-rent world of rock music. And they must have fooled me -- I bought their (pretty terrible) album the next day, or next allowance day. Plus "Elektra=hip" in those days. And that's more than anyone could possibly want to know about Ars Nova, save the fact that they gave the world one of the best songs on one of the best albums ever! ********** Subject: Re: Song Of The Week: "Fields Of People" Date: Mon, 17 Jun 2002 20:08:22 -0700 From: "stephen mulcahy" Bob Hughes wrote: >Since this is not a Roy Wood composition, I assume it's a cover. Who >did the original? Did it sound anywhere near as demented as this? the original was done by a new york band called ars nova, that put out 2 albums at the end of the 60's. this ensemble primarily played a now extinct form of rock called BAROQUE ROCK. this genre mixed 60's psychedelic and other kinds of rock with classical and medieval/renaissance era music. it was really a sort of proto classical rock, a precursor and the like other baroque rockers included the new york rock ensemble and some of the moody blues and left banke's stuff, procul harum's whiter shade of pale and the left banke's walk away renee are definitely the best known examples of this genre. as for the original version, its not as good as the excellent move cover, but i like it, although a friend of mine thinks that the lead singer kind of sounds like the cowardly lion when he sings in the wizard of oz. it's very medieval sounding, but ends with some 60's dissonance and pretty cool guitar at the end of the tune. it's much shorter than the original, only about 3 minutes long. it was released as a single in 1968. their 1st album has some pretty cool stuff in addition to this track (i haven't heard all of it though). i have their 2nd lp, and it is pretty boring for the most part, although it does have some more variety with jazz rock, balladry and bossa nova, for example. i would recommend investigation of this group for people who like all kinds of 60s sounds, but don't expect a move type group at all! ********** Subject: Re: Song Of The Week: "Fields Of People" Date: Mon, 17 Jun 2002 23:13:41 -0700 From: "David Fatta" Wow! Fields of People is certainly on my short list of all time great Move tracks. This song has all of the visual impact of a rock video, without any visuals. It always evoked images to me of the Get Back scene in the film Let It Be, with the British man on the street reaction to a rock band in their midst. Although I knew it was a cover, I never thought of it as one. All of the familiar components of the Move sound are there, and they make this song their own. Carl Wayne really gets a chance to show off what he brings to the party. Fields of People and Beautiful Daughter demonstrate what a remarkable singer and front man he was. It is hard for me to believe he could be this good at a time when he apparently was breaking away from the band. I also thought the sitar coda was unnecessarily long, but it is still good enough that it does not hurt the rest of the song. Also, I was surprised to hear that Shazam got any US airplay. This great album was mostly unknown in these parts (Upstate New York) and only sold at all because of word of mouth (mostly my mouth). ********** Subject: Dave Donovan's Faulty Memory Date: Mon, 17 Jun 2002 10:19:46 -0700 From: Joe Ramsey I wrote about Cheap Trick: >California Man pissed me off because: >1. They basically stole Wizzard's live arrangement of the song - >putting the "Brontosaurus" riff in the middle. Then Richard wrote: >I can't remember now the Dec 74 set when I saw Wizzard, but I thought >that it wasn't until the Sight and Sound in concert that the >Brontosaurus riff appeared in the middle of California Man. I remember >commenting about this to Dave Donovan back in the summer of 77 and he >said that it had been his idea at the time. Nope. I can tell you without hesitation, clear of thought and memory, that the Brontosaurus riff was DEFINITELY in the California Man arrangement when Wizzard played in Los Angeles in '74. When I heard the Cheap Trick version, I knew exactly where they had copped it from. This makes me wonder a bit about Dave Donovan... but anybody who has had extensive dealings with drummers KNOWS that this kind of thing goes on all of the time. PS. Proof of this is on one of the Tendolar bootlegs, Mysteries Of Merlin (a horrible, horrible sounding disc). It contains the live radio show Wizzard did in Los Angeles in 1974. California Man w/Bronto riff is on it. ********** Subject: Re: Dave Donovan's Faulty Memory Date: Mon, 17 Jun 2002 12:49:00 -0700 From: "Joseph Davolt" Yeah...Wizzard used "Brontosaurus" in "California Man". I've got a tape of Toronto 1974 with that on it. Speaking of that tape, there are these guys talking throughout it. I assume they're the ones who taped it. Sometimes they sound like real morons, sometimes like they're stoned, but they're actually quite funny, and obviously big fans, as they call out for "Fire Brigade", "Meet Me At The Jailhouse", and "Come Back Karen". I was wondering if this was anyone on this list. Were any of you at that show? ********** Subject: Re: Dave Donovan's Faulty Memory Date: Mon, 17 Jun 2002 21:44:14 -0700 From: Greg Weatherby Joseph Davolt wrote: > Sometimes they sound like real morons, sometimes like they're > stoned, but they're actually quite funny, and obviously big fans, as > they call out for "Fire Brigade", "Meet Me At The Jailhouse", and > "Come Back Karen". I was wondering if this was anyone on this list. errrm, Joe........if anyone on this list was at the show, who would want to admit to "sounding like a real moron"? :}}}} And, no, it ain't me, babe! ********** Subject: Re: Three vocalists? Date: Mon, 17 Jun 2002 12:49:28 -0700 From: Lynn Hoskins Steve Graham wrote: >I thought there were three lead vocalists on Rock and Roll Tonight... >Roy, Rick Price and Bob Brady?? Quite difficult to tell them apart >though! Well, you're absolutely right. Great stuff! Roy has always surrounded himself with top-flight talent. Wizzard was no exception, obviously. Let's see if I've got this right... (Rick Price) Well a lazy job doesn't move too well But we'll do it do it now with a rebel yell 'Bout a rock & roll record and makin' it sell Gonna make it to the top today (Bob Brady) Well I got ahold of some big demand It ain't no good callin' me a one man band I guess I'll get mixed up in a real cool band And, boy, ya gotta hear them play Roy's voice I can pick out of any lineup. Have I got my singers on straight? Lynn P.S. Love the voice crack on the "rebel yell" line. ********** Subject: Time Capsule: THE MOVE (Part 3) Date: Sun, 16 Jun 2002 23:50:39 -0700 From: Lynn Hoskins From the "Split Ends" liner notes (red paper sleeve) -- Time Capsule: THE MOVE (Part 3 of 3) Written by Ben Edmonds Creeme Magazine December, 1972 Edited by Martin R. Cerf It surprised nobody when Carl Wayne finally lived up to his press notices and left to pursue a solo career. To replace him, the band once again went back to Birmingham. They came up with Jeff Lynne, like Roy Wood a multi-instrumentalist and a former member of the Idle Race (the band Mike Sheridan & the Nightriders became). From the moment Lynne entered, he and Wood made it perfectly clear that they were working on a musical concept which would eventually phase out the Move. Their first effort showed no signs of this planned obsolesence. The single "Brontosaurus" - as ultra-heavy as its title might indicate - was a solid Top 5 hit in Britain and received considerable FM airplay here. At this juncture, with the help of their new manager Don Arden, they moved on to Capitol Records, their third American label affiliation. Their first album for Capitol, Looking On, was, by comparison to Shazam, almost crude. The sound was thick and muddy, the songs not quite as distinct, and the band's performance considerable diffuse, than on previous recordings. Still, being that it was the first product of the reconstructed Move and Jeff Lynne hadn't been fully assimilated, Looking On must be seen as a transitional album, valuable more for the promises it made than what it actually delivered. Message From The Country, released only a few months later, fulfilled every promise. Though Rick Price, not really needed since the band had stopped performing, was absent, the sound was as full as the previous album, but with more of the clarity of Shazam. The material was once again first-rate, with Wood and Lynne exploring more of their diversified talents (brass, woodwinds and keyboards) to better implement those songs. Accomplished as the record was, it still couldn't muster sales figures to match its musical excellence. The band had acquired a hardcore following, but in the eye of the public at large, the Move was still largely a blurred name from a 1967 press release about axes and psychedelic destruction. Though the Move had released two albums in less than a year, their "other side" was gaining strength with each passing day. That "other side" was the Electric Light Orchestra, a concept which not only demolished the boundaries of the Move but also issued a stiff challenge to the boundaries of their individual talent. The band(s) moved to United Artists for distribution (after a false start with MGM), and though they continued to release Move singles, their first major release was an ELO album. Listening to ELO, it's easy to see why the Move didn't just change their stylistic horses in mid-stream. ELO was, or course, founded on the talents of the three Move members, but through an expanded personnel and an almost completely revamped direction, they were a different band. ELO had been called a classically-oriented project, but such labels stem more from the instrumentation (cello, French horn, violin, etc.) than the actual product. More than anything else, ELO is an attempt to find new means of expression for rock and roll. The ELO album immediately pried loose more enthusiasm from the British press than the Move ever received, and - surprise! - it even did a respectable job of breaking through the sales barrier here. This taste of success seemed to spark the band's creative ardor, for they then took on a couple of other-directional projects. One of them was Freedom City, a science fiction film structured around the music of ELO, with a couple of Move tunes thrown in for spice. Jeff Lynne took it upon himself to produce an album for a low-riding rocker called Big Al, who was the original lead guitarist of the Nightriders. Roy Wood set down a solo album titled Boulders, from which one single has been released, "When Grandma Plays The Banjo." Then, once again seemingly at a peak, they decided to entertain some major changes. Roy Wood announced his departure from ELO, saying that his presence was taking deserved attention away from Jeff Lynne. Taking a cellist and a horn player, he enlisted Rick Price and two drummers to form Wizzard, a band he promised would feel more readily disposed to rock and rolling. Subsequent American tours for both bands have grown stronger with each passing moment. Wood, Lynne, and Bevan as the ubiquitous Mr. Arden will tell you, have retired. And yet, you might well ask, where does all this leave the Move? As evidenced by the modest success of "Do Ya" and the existence of this album, they're still making records. But they're quick to point out that they exist on record only and, it seems, only when they feel like taking time off from their other projects. Don't let this fact tamper with your enjoyment of this record, however, because it's Move music and that alone makes it something special. The Move will remain alive as long as we demand that they be, and, if they continue to produce music as good as this, we may never let them get away. ********** Subject: Re: Time Capsule: THE MOVE (Part 3) Date: Mon, 17 Jun 2002 10:18:36 -0700 From: "Tyler C.Sherman" Many thanks, Lynn, for posting these liner notes, been a while since I'd read them. Does anyone on the list know whatever became of the science fiction film "Freedom City", based on ELO's music, that is mentioned? Now THAT would made a cool bonus video on the upcoming 2 CD ELO 2 reissue. Wizzards, Tyler ********** Subject: Re: Time Capsule: THE MOVE (Part 3) Date: Mon, 17 Jun 2002 13:23:02 -0700 From: Rob Caiger >Does anyone on the list know whatever became of the science fiction >film "Freedom City", based on ELO's music, that is mentioned? Now >THAT would made a cool bonus video on the upcoming 2 CD ELO 2 reissue. Hmmm, I think I know where a copy is - I've certainly got some photographs of the very first line up of ELO (Steve Woolam included) "performing" on location. The script is a very scary read though. What were they thinking... When we get time, they'll be something special done around this "interesting" piece of 70's low-budget "art-house" film. ********** Subject: Cat Mother & the All Night News Boys Date: Mon, 17 Jun 2002 00:35:18 -0700 From: Zabadak900 (Rick) Hi there, i'm a new member to the list, tho a multi-decade fan of the Move. Cat Mother was the short name of "Cat Mother & the All Night News Boys"...Their one LP was called "The Street Giveth & The Street Taketh Away". They were "discovered" and produced by Jimi Hendrix. They had a career that lasted minutes. Were it not for J.H. we'd never have known of them. ********** Subject: Re: Cat Mother & the All Night News Boys Date: Mon, 17 Jun 2002 10:18:53 -0700 From: Mike Gough They did have a fairly huge hit single with "Good Old Rock & Roll", which was on the lp produced by Jimi Hendrix. ********** Subject: Re: Cat Mother & the All Night News Boys Date: Mon, 17 Jun 2002 10:20:53 -0700 From: Joe Ramsey It's true that Cat Mother & The All Night Newsboys were produced by, and supposedly "discovered by" (whatever that means) Jimi Hendrix, but that's where all similarities and influences end. I think that the Hendrix credit was more of novel curiosity than anything else (Jimi wasn't really known as a producer in those days, anyway). CM had a huge hit in the US called "Good Ol' Rock & Roll." It had a basic recurring "original theme," but would use snippets of 50's songs within it like "Chantilly Lace" by The Big Bopper, etc. In fact, it was a lot like the rock and roll medley that Roy did with Phil Lynott much later (but, I hate to say, CM's was better). "Good Ol' Rock & Roll" was one of those amazing 1 hit wonders (which I have always had a fondness for) and the album that it was on, "The Street Giveth And The Street Taketh Away," was really good, too. And sounded NOTHING like Hendrix, by the way. Cat Mother made a second album, not produced by Hendrix, that I remember not liking at all. And then they faded to black. The only other thing that I can remember about CM & TANNB was that one of their members, Charlie Chinn, played the banjo part at the end of Buffalo Springfield's "Bluebird." If that's all he ever did in his whole career, that would have been enough. OK, my brain's bursting. ********** Subject: Re: Cat Mother & the All Night News Boys Date: Mon, 17 Jun 2002 11:56:01 -0700 From: stephen mulcahy In case anyone wants some more information on cat mother: one of the members, larry packer, was also in an embryonic version of a band that featured movie composer and clapton/floyd/who etc. pal michael kamen - and also the guy who did the music for the x-files, mark snow. this band was called the new york rock ensemble, a quite good, if forgotten, band that did a lot of classical/rock crossover music. they are also known for doing the original version of "fields of joy", later covered by lenny kravitz. if anyone else knows of, or likes this band, let me know. dave clark 5 also had a big hit with a cover of just good old rock and roll in england c. 1970 ********** Subject: Re: Cat Mother & the All Night News Boys Date: Mon, 17 Jun 2002 23:13:29 -0700 From: Bruce Markow I knew the New York Rock (originally the name included "and Roll") Ensemble well, though the name Larry Packer doesn't ring a bell - maybe he didn't make it past the embryo stage. My closest friend in high school was a friend of the Kamen family, so we used to go to their shows. I thought they were great. Amazingly talented and creative and a somewhat different take on merging rock and classical from Roy and ELO. They performed some classical pieces during their set (Kamen - the keyboard player and one of several good singers, and another member..the drummer?... both played oboes; the bass player, Dorian Rudnitsky played cello). And then they classicalized some of their other songs, with some similarities to the ELO approach, set for a smaller group. They sometimes did cutesy stuff like perform with a string quartet - first a classical set, with the NYRRE joining in rather convincingly, and then a rock and roll set with the two groups merging for some post-"I Am The Walrus" mayhem. Some really fine story-songs; exquisite arranging - Kamen "grew up" to become one of the foremost and most keenly prolific film composers around. They did Hendrix convincingly ("Think I Better Wait Till Tomorrow"), but mostly originals and the classical pieces, which would sometimes segue seamlessly into their originals. This all would have been in the late 60's. They had at least 3 or 4 not very popular LPs, one or two of them burdened with filler. I have great, stirring memories of their first two recordings. It is a nice surprise to think of them again after all these years. Thanks, Stephen. End of Useless Information #364 ******************************* [This digest is the copyright of the Move "Useless Information" Mailing List. Re-publication or re-distribution of "Useless Information" content, in any form whatsoever, is expressly prohibited without prior written consent.]