[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 #356 May 21, 2002 In this issue: * Song Of The Week (week of 5/20): "Ben Crawley Steel Company" * Thirty Years On * Carl on Radio WM (incl. tracks played) * Goldmine interview with Roy Wood (Part 8) * Tell us the news about yourself... (cont.) ============================================================== 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: "Ben Crawley Steel Company" Date: Mon, 20 May 2002 11:00:32 -0700 From: Lynn Hoskins Song Of The Week - May 20, 2002 "Ben Crawley Steel Company" from the album "Message From The Country" Ideas for discussion: Songwriting/lyrics Vocals Arrangement & instrumentation Overall production What were your thoughts the first time you heard it? Strengths/weaknesses *********************** "Ben Crawley Steel Company" (R. Wood) The next train arrives on here at 5:09 I'm standing where my daddy used to be To follow his footsteps takes me three stops down the line Down to the Ben Crawley Steel Company Well I tried my hand at ranching but this didn't come off Seems nothing in that for me It always tried my patience which I haven't enough I'm destined to work in a steel company Just you wait at home for me, little woman By now I should know how lovely you will be Waiting by the door for me, little woman Now I won't moan when I get home from the Ben Crawley Steel Company When Crawley makes the jokes and four guys laugh a lot Damn, force a grin if you can I got so many words on the tip of my tongue to shoot him down But he'd soon replace a mere steel driving man Just you wait at home for me, little woman Although I know you won't be as tired as me Waiting by the door for me, my true lovin' woman Well I won't slack when I get back from the Ben Crawley Steel Company Well I've had my fill and it's giving me hell, now it's time for hate Thanks mister for telling me So I'll shoot if I can and I don't give a damn about playing it straight My friends and the Lord knows what he's done to me He's being staying at home with my little woman Playing in the fields where I should always be It's hard to forgive my own little woman And to find a job 'cos I just blew up that steel company Heh! ********** Subject: Re: Song Of The Week: "Ben Crawley Steel Company" Date: Mon, 20 May 2002 18:56:13 -0700 From: "Tyler C.Sherman" This one's a real tongue-in-cheek jab at all those "my woman done me wrong" country tunes, ain't it? It's hilarious. Made me think of Johnny Cash when I first heard it back in '71. Is Roy playing the slide guitar on this or Jeff? As a point of interest, on the original UK album Bev is identified as "Bullfrog" Bevan, for obvious reasons. I recall a few of us back in them days who were heavily into The Move made up T-shirts connected to Move songs and wore them to puzzled looks from passers-by. I had one that said "Ben Crawley Steel Co." and another that said "Cherry Blossom Clinic - Staff". Er, what can I say? It was the 70's... Wizzards, Tyler ********** Subject: Re: Song Of The Week: "Ben Crawley Steel Company" Date: Mon, 20 May 2002 17:46:38 -0700 From: Bob Hughes >What were your thoughts the first time you heard it? Rolling on the floor laughing. Probably my wife's (girl-friend at the time) favorite Move song. >Strengths/weaknesses Bev's voice, the steel guitar, that great "huhh!" at the end. Jeff's oooh-aah in the back ground. (My wife told me many years later that she fell in love with me when I started rhapsodizing about the backing vocals on this song. Yeah, I know, one of us is seriously demented.) Weaknesses? Absolutely none. ********** Subject: Re: Song Of The Week: "Ben Crawley Steel Company" Date: Mon, 20 May 2002 23:14:07 -0700 From: kakman1@juno.com I really, really like this very funny Roy Wood number from "Message From The Country". Bev Bevan's deadpan Johnny Cash vocal delivery, not spot on of course, which makes it even funnier, Jeff's far off background vocals sounding like they were lifted from some old Billy Sherrill production, the pedal steel bits and the amusing lyrics. Lots of affection shown for the genre. I always wonder if Johnny Cash himself has ever had this number demoed for him. He's considered such an important cultural icon, the critics would probably sneer and gasp if Mr Cash let his hair down recorded this number and played it straight on any release now. Probably not a favourite of any list member, I'm guessing, but please reconsider, just for the humour of the song. Kevin Kunreuther Dallas TX ********** Subject: Re: Song Of The Week: "Ben Crawley Steel Company" Date: Tue, 21 May 2002 10:14:18 -0700 From: John DeSilva I love that Lynn chose "Ben Crawley" as song of the week. I had heard 'Split Ends' before 'Message From The Country', so I only knew BCSC from the Split Ends liner notes where Richard Cromelin explained that "with tears of regret" they "ruthlessly excised" "Crawley", "Don't Mess Me Up" and "My Marge" from the 'Split Ends' lineup. Once I got my copy of MFTC I was expecting that those three songs would be pretty bad; surprise surprise, I loved both "Crawley" and "Don't Mess Me Up" (didn't really care all that much for "My Marge" though). "Crawley" really showcases the Move's unique brand of Midlands, Brummie humour (spelt it right didn't I?), and I love Bev's "storytelling" vocal. Beyond that, who can't relate at some level to poor Dan's hatred of the bastard Crawley - never mind the "getting my wife in the back of the barn" bit (the last straw) - just having to put up with this blowhard swine, listening to his idiot minions laughing at his stupid jokes, having to work your ass off for somebody you don't respect, etc (but I don't have any unresolved issues myself ... heh ... ;-) ). Musically it's great down home country, and the Man In Black should have done this one - hell, he's done Bono songs, why not a Woody original?!? JD San Jose, CA ********** Subject: Re: Song Of The Week: "Ben Crawley Steel Company" Date: Tue, 21 May 2002 15:02:25 -0700 From: FifthFlRec@aol.com (Ray) A wonderful lark. Bev gets his revenge. Quirky and loose. Love it. ********** Subject: Thirty Years On Date: Mon, 20 May 2002 23:13:52 -0700 From: "R. Stevie Moore" Let us not forget to celebrate 30 year anniversaries for these fine platters!! 1972 Roy Wood: When Grandma Plays The Banjo/Wake Up (HAR 5048) Feb -- The Move: California Man/Do Ya/Ella James (HAR 5050) May #7 Electric Light Orchestra: 10538 Overture/First Movement (Jumpin' Biz) (HAR 5053) June #9 Wizzard: Ball Park Incident/The Carlsberg Special (HAR 5062) Nov #6 ========= wow, what a historic year! rock off, RSM http://www.rsteviemoore.com ********** Subject: Re: Carl Wayne to guest DJ on BBC WM this Tuesday Date: Mon, 20 May 2002 09:27:31 -0700 From: "Tyler C.Sherman" Perhaps some nice folks in the Birmingham area from this list can tape the program and make it available to us less fortunate fans. Wizzards, Tyler ********** Subject: Carl on Radio WM Date: Tue, 21 May 2002 06:32:48 -0700 From: JCINWMENG@aol.com (John Collins) Hi everyone, As reported by Lynn yesterday, Carl was guest DJ on Radio WM this morning. As Lynn intimated, it was not all music talk, as the first hour of the show was a stormy debate on the UK and Europe!! There was some very rare music played (before my time honest!) and lots of talk about some of the old Birmingham bands and The Vikings were mentioned once or twice. I will give you a full list of Music played in my next post. It did include tracks from the Move, ELO, Steve Gibbons, Elvis and The Travelling Wilburys! ********** Subject: Re: Carl Wayne to guest DJ on BBC WM this Tuesday Date: Tue, 21 May 2002 11:55:32 -0700 From: Rob Caiger Tyler wrote: >Perhaps some nice folks in the Birmingham area from this list can tape >the program and make it available to us less fortunate fans. We taped the whole 3-hour show onto minidisc. Because the whole thing exceeded the BBC's expectations (more on that later) we have permission to broadcast what we want so for those into streaming and online radio, get in touch with ideas as to how we can make this available to the rest of the list. Obviously we'd condense and edit the non-Birmingham talk debate at the start of the show, but overall, it was a great show and had a record number of callers. We weren't told of any of the BBC talk and chat features we were expected to host on the show before we got to Radio WM. Nice. As we'd prepared 2 hours of music and our own guests, both myself and Carl had to drastically re-edit all the music the evening before to fit the show. We scratched the surface of what we could have played, but it was a great success, both for us as a production team, Carl as a DJ, the segments we produced ourselves, the music programming and (importantly) for the BBC. More later. Rob ********** Subject: Carl on WM Radio Date: Tue, 21 May 2002 12:09:09 -0700 From: JCINWMENG@aol.com (John Collins) Hi all, Because of the first hour of the show, being taken up in a very lively debate over Europe, and the chat with guests Carl only managed to play 9 full tracks. These were; TULANE - STEVE GIBBONS BAND BLUE SUEDE SHOES - ELVIS PRESLEY NOT ALONE ANY MORE - TRAVELING WILBURYS MOMENT IN PARADISE - ELO DREAMER - OZZY OSBOURNE FIRE BRIGADE - MOVE YOU'RE A STAR - CARL WAYNE STEPPIN' OUT - CARL WAYNE HAZEL EYES - CARL WAYNE/ROY WOOD Carl took a lot of calls about the "old days" of Birmingham Rock from the early 1960's, with his guest Laurie Hornsby, who reported that his new book about Birmingham's music scene 1962 - 1969 will be out in the autumn. Some of them Carl knew, and he seemed to be very pleased to hear off them, and talking about the past. Once again (as for Bev and Roy) he was very laid back, you thought he had been doing it for years. Must be a Move thing!! ********** Subject: Goldmine interview with Roy Wood (Part 8) Date: Mon, 20 May 2002 23:48:26 -0700 From: Lynn Hoskins Roy Wood: The Wizzard of Rock Goldmine September 30, 1994 by Ken Sharp PART 8 Goldmine: Wasn't the Eddy And The Falcons album supposed to be more lavish in terms of different musical styles explored on each side? Roy Wood: We wanted to do a rock 'n' roll album and a jazz album and put them in a double cover. We recorded about four of the jass ones and it worked out really well. But then when the record company heard part of the album that we were doing with the rock 'n' roll stuff, they said this is the one we want. Jazz in those days was like, play jazz and starve. So that's why it came out as eddy And The Falcons, it came out as a rocker. Goldmine: You only toured once in America with Wizzard. Why do you feel you never cracked the U.S. market with the Move and Wizzard? Roy Wood: It was both the record company and management. The record company was never behind us. Because Wizzard was very successful in England at the time, the management also managed ELO and they thought, 'We'll put ELO over in the States and work on them over there and keep Wizzard over here to hit the charts over here.' I think that's why Wizzard suffered in a way. Goldmine: You played sax on the Beach Boys' 15 Big Ones album. How did that come about? Roy Wood: It was brilliant. It all started off, I released a record called "Forever." It was a solo record. On part of it I tried to sound like the Beach Boys and I gave Brian Wilson a credit on the label to say I was influenced by him. He was doing a record review page in a journal in Santa Monica. He actually reviewed the record and he gave it a great review. He thought it was great. One day I was actually over there and the telephone rang at the hotel and it was him! (laughs) "Hi, Roy, it's Brian." I nearly fainted 'cause he's one of my all-time heroes. He invited me up to this house. We arrived and I went with the bass player from the band, Rick Price. We were supposed to meet one of the ladies from Warner Brothers. When we arrived at the front gate, the two Wilson girls came to the gate and they were singing "Forever" in harmony. It was totally brilliant and they sort of escorted me up to the house singing this song. We waited for almost an hour and we were talking to the lady from the record company and Brian Wilson wasn't around. It was an unsuccessful meeting. But then a couple of weeks later, I didn't realize it but he'd been working again with the Beach Boys. He hadn't worked with them for awhile. The 15 Big Ones album was a bit of a secret job that they were doing. He rant and invited me down to the studio. In fact we had a load of interviews that day and we were a bit late going. I went down and a couple of other guys in the band went and when we arrived at the Brother Studios they were coming out. They were going home. Brian says, "Oh, play him this thing!" And they opened the car door and put this tape on of the backing track to "It's O.K." It was really great. He said, "Do you like it?" And I said, "Yeah." He said, "C'mon." They all unlocked the studio again and started it all up again. So it was great. I did this one bit where I was actually standing at the microphone next to Carl Wilson and Brian Wilson, singing with them. I just couldn't believe it. The people that I'd admired all these years. It was brilliant. Goldmine: Tell me about the Wizzo band. Roy Wood: After Wizzard I had quite a bad time with management and all that stuff and not being able to record and all this. I spent a lot of time hanging around studios engineering and doing that side of it. I think the Super Active Wizzo album came out. I'd been doing some tracks in secret that nobody knew about and I'd been getting some stuff on the shelf. I wanted to form a band that was a jazz-rock band. Instead of jazz players coming into the rock era, going the other way, rock musicians playing jazz. the only time that we ever appeared together is we did a TV show that I've never ever got a copy of, called Sight And Sound. It was BBC-TV and it was also put out on Radio One in stereo at the same time. For that I actually got a big band together with a 14-piece horn section on it. That worked really well. The record company was saying, "Come back when you've written another 'See My Baby Jive.'" They weren't bothered about it at all. Goldmine: On the Road Again is a good album. I can't think of a better person to play drums on "Keep Your Hands On The Wheel" than John Bonham. Roy Wood: John was a very good friend of mine. We used to live in the same area. In fact, I was working down at Rockfield Studios in Wales and John and Robert (Plant) came in. They were rehearsing down at Clearwell Castle with Zeppelin, which was only just down the road from the studio. They were looking to record a new album and they came in to see what the studio was like because they'd never recorded there before. I think I was working on that track at the time and I think I played drums myself on the album. I got my kit set up and John was messing around on the kit and I said, "Do you fancy having a go on this one?" And he said all right and we just went for it, it was great. Goldmine: You once said he was the most talented musician you've ever worked with. Roy Wood: Yeah, my two favorite musicians at that time were John Bonham and Frank Zappa. Goldmine: At that point nothing was heard from you, apart from 1979's On the Road Again album, for a long time. What happened? Roy Wood: (laughs) I got disillusioned with it all and I sort of gave up, really. I used to do odd sessions with people and did some engineering and all that just for something to do. I more or less retired for a while, I suppose. I was still writing songs. I managed to build myself a recording studio as well during that time. I wired it up and did all the things myself. That took a bit of time. Goldmine: You did do some work with the Helicopters and released the solo songs "Green Glass Windows" and "Rock City." Roy Wood: That's right. I did a bit of work with Renaissance at the time. I produced an album for Annie Haslam called Annie In Wonderland. Around about that time I was talking to John Camp, who was the bass player in Renaissance and he said, "Why don't we get a part-time band together and do a few colleges and that?" That's what I did, really. The reason nothing really happened with Helicopters is because we didn't take it seriously. All the rest of the guys played in other bands anyway and we had to wait for people to be free to play and all that. It was just a way of getting on stage and doing something. Goldmine: You returned in 1985 with the Starting Up album. It seemed you were pretty obsessed with cars at the time. Roy Wood: (laughs) It just happened that I had a few songs on the shelf that were all sort of connected to cars and I put them all together. Some of the songs on the album were okay but I was a bit disappointed with the finished product. When I recorded it I recorded it in UB40's studio in Birmingham, I didn't use Dolbys because I felt that it sounded warmer with Dolbys to have a big of analog tape hiss on it. It sort of suited it, I suppose. But then when the record company came to cut the album they put Dolbys on it and to me it made it sound all digitized and electronic and horrible. To me, it took the warmth out of it and I can't actually listen to it anymore. But some of the songs are okay. "Raining In The City" I quite like. "Red Cars" is all right and "Starting Up" was okay as well, I suppose. (To be continued...) ----- Coming up in Part 9: Writing with Jeff Lynne, all about the Roy Wood Big Band, unreleased material, Roy's Red Stratocaster, Frank Zappa, and (final question) Roy talks about the other members of The Move. ********** Subject: Re: Tell us the news about yourself... wasn't that in a song!! Date: Tue, 21 May 2002 10:13:54 -0700 From: Terry Edwards Hi everyone, Lynn has prompted me to introduce myself. Thanks for that, Lynn, I do tend to become a "Lurker" if I am not careful. About me... If I was you I would press delete NOW ... Still here, bad "move"?..... no such thing!!! Your name: Terry Edwards age: WHAT !!!... hang on a minute!!!! ... Oh alright then 52 ... for the next few weeks anyway ... LOL location: In my office ... eh what? ... Oh ... in London occupation: NOSEY!!! ... Accountant ... aren't you glad you asked? How long have you been a Move and Roy Wood fan?: Good grief... I bought "Night of fear" when it was first released... so... (where's an Accountant when you need one!). Was that '67? if so, 25 years. What was your first Move related experience?: A "moving" experience? I assume that you mean concert? I went to the Royal Albert Hall in 1967 to see a "package" tour. There were about seven acts on including "Eire Apparent (Phil Lynott protégés) from (not too good a) memory (old age, you know!!), The Nice (Keith Emerson and co ... famous Chartered Accountants ... LOL), Amen Corner, Pink Floyd (with Syd Barrett ... "See Emily Play" had just been released"), The Move (the sole reason that I bought the tickets) and a group that I had not heard a lot from called ... oh yeah... The Jimi Hendrix Experience. "Hey Joe" had been and gone and "Purple Haze" was just issued and I was totally blown away. I went out the very next day to the local Sunday market and nagged the market stall holder to open his shop to sell me "Are You Experienced" and "Axis Bold As Love" (they normally just sold 45's (singles), which he eventually did. Oh and the Move were absolutely brilliant too. Roy, Carl, Bev, Ace and Trevor. What a great concert. Aaaahhhh nostalgia ... a wonderful thing!! Tell us about your top 5 favorite Move related tracks: Tough one ... well here goes ... 1) Looking On 2) Fire Brigade 3) Blackberry Way 4) Message From The Country 5) Kilroy Was Here or maybe Yellow Rainbow or perhaps Useless Information ... what do you mean FIVE !!!! LOL !!! What's your favorite Move related album, and why?: "Looking On." Their sound got "HEAVY" and I loved every track. Probably the first album where I could not find a track that I did not TOTALLY like. What topics would you like to see discussed on this list?: I'll go with flow (back to "Lurking" mode!!) LOL If you've seen the Move or any member of the Move in concert, tell us about that show: Too long ago to remember. I still have the programme at home (This is my office site), so maybe my memory will be prodded. If so, ...later!! Tell us about an amusing or interesting situation that has happened as a result of you being a Move/Roy Wood fan: Really? ... I should have joined this list much early ... is there a highlights page? Sorry can't think of anything... but do point me to anyone else's. LOL!! Who are some of your other favorite artists/bands?: Are there any restrictions on the size of e-mails? This would be a VERY VERY long list. So just some off the top of my head (well there's not much hair there nowadays)... First love ... Buddy Holly. Others include Fifties Elvis, Crosby Stills and Nash, Beach Boys, Jethro Tull, Kinks, Wishbone Ash, Byrds, Neil Young, Z Z Top, Searchers, Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Cream ... I will stop there before you "nod off" ... unless you already have!! Which Move related song do you wish one of your favorite bands would cover?: How can you best a "Move" song. I really don't like cover versions of great songs. They never really stand up. IMHO. What is the one burning question that you have never had answered in relation to Move/Roy Wood history or music?: I don't know that there is one. I would just say that if I had a magic wand (besides winning the lottery) I would zap back Roy, Jeff and Bev to the seventies, never let them age and never let them split. (reminds me, I bought "Split Ends" on import many years ago... really great album!!) Are you having trouble finding any Move related music on CD?: No, I believe that I have all of their albums on CD now with bonus tracks for good measure. I wonder how many unreleased tracks lie in various record companies vaults? Well that's it ... zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz... WAKE UP!!!! Regards to all, Terry Edwards End of Useless Information #356 ******************************* [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.]