[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 #365 June 23, 2002 In this issue: * Song Of The Week (week of 6/17): "Fields Of People" * Shazam airplay in the U.S. * Cat Mother / ELO influences * Cat Mother and the All Night News Boys (cont.) * LIGHT!Fest East Coast 2002 (ELO & Move fanfest) reminder ============================================================== 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: Re: Song Of The Week: "Fields Of People" Date: Tue, 18 Jun 2002 11:48:34 -0700 From: cathy uselton I don't have much to say, except that it's one of my all-time favorites. However, it's interesting that a couple of folks have mentioned that either they don't care for the sitar coda at the end, or think that it's overly long. Me - I love it! I love the extended instrumental ending. I think it fits quite nicely as an instrumental break at the end. The end part is one of my favorite bits in the thing. But then again, I like the extended keyboard bit in The Who's "Won't Get Fooled Again", and I like the extended instrumental in the "Cherry Blossom Clinic Revisited", I like the extended instrumental bit in the beginning of Elton John's "Funeral for a Friend"... etc. etc. etc. ad nauseum... thanks! cu tornado alley, ok ********** Subject: Re: Song Of The Week: "Fields Of People" Date: Tue, 18 Jun 2002 19:30:00 -0700 From: Bob Hughes I've never really considered the sitar thing to be the same song. More like one of those "hidden bonus tracks" you get nowadays on cd's. Either way I love it. It adds to the overall weirdness, just like the "great Portland Street" bit. Gives it a real "Who Sells Out" flavor. ********** Subject: Re: Song Of The Week: "Fields Of People" Date: Tue, 18 Jun 2002 13:53:14 -0700 From: "Bobby Sutliff" This has always been one of my favorite Move tunes. I still really love those pseudo Beach Boys harmonies. As for the Sitar coda - I think it's perfect. When Mitch Easter and I redid 10538 Overture for the Lynne Me Your Ears project we stuck in a sitar solo at the end as a homage to Fields of People in particular and The Move in general. ********** Subject: Re: Song Of The Week: "Fields Of People" Date: Tue, 18 Jun 2002 12:01:09 -0700 From: David Alff what a great tune. i wonder where the band first heard this: on LP? in an ars nova concert? the vocals (and the words' meaning!), guitars, crashing drums and cymbals, thumping bass, and that great instrumental ending -- it's such an energizing song. side two of that album was always such a treat to play, especially after a great side one. this, and much of the rest of "shazam," were the first things i heard by the move on wmmr-fm in philadelphia, one of the great early underground radio stations. a couple of DJs really loved the move, so the music on this album (and much of message from the country) got on the air regularly. ah, those were the days. david raleigh, nc ********** Subject: Re: Song Of The Week: "Fields Of People" Date: Tue, 18 Jun 2002 13:53:28 -0700 From: "Dale G. Leopold" I was always curious about the origins of "Fields" too, and thanks to this list, I learned about Ars Nova. One of the great things about life in 2002 is that, thanks to Audiogalaxy.com and a broadband connection, it takes only a few minutes to satisfy my curiosity and have the song in question on my hard disk (I might add that I use the spyware-free version of the audiogalaxy client provided by the fine folks at www.kazaalite.com). By this method, I was also able to download numerous Move-related oddities that first came to my attention via this lovely list, such as Amen Corner's "Hello Susie" and of course quite a few ultra-lo-fidelity live/TV Move cuts. Needless to say, if and when the latter tracks are ever legitimately released (and the creators stand to benefit monetarily from their sale), I will gladly plunk down cash for them! Back to AN's "Fields": the vocalist is indeed nowhere near in Carl's league as a singer, but he has a homely sincerity that's rather endearing (and I'd like to hear him try his hand at "if I was the king of the foreeeeeeeeest!"). The arrangement in not far off the Shazam version until about 1:25 in, when there is a flourish of baroque horns and a new verse: Strange blooming flowers fill the land Their seeds will fall calling men to understand Some things must die, others end Every moment, watch the world begin again And the wildflowers grow out of love Fun stuff! Dale in Richmond ********** Subject: Re: Song Of The Week: "Fields Of People" Date: Tue, 18 Jun 2002 23:57:42 -0700 From: "Guillermo Ybarra" During the late '60s, a schoolmate of mine told me about two songs called "Fire Brigade" and "Flowers In the Rain" by a British group called the Move. About a week later, he brought a 45 of "Flowers In the Rain", I took it home and was really impressed by the recording. About a year later, he brought the album "Shazam" by the Move. I took it home and was "blown away" by the whole album. One of my favorite cuts on the album was "Fields of People". The sitar coda didn't bother me at all. In fact, within a couple of months, I bought my own copy of "Shazam" and then their first British LP. Within the past year, I bought a CD copy of "Shazam", and I'm still "blown away" by this recording. Unfortunately, they were the greatest British Invasion group never to have made it big in the United States. ********** Subject: Re: Song Of The Week: "Fields Of People" Date: Tue, 18 Jun 2002 23:58:02 -0700 From: "Bob Coulter" Ah, "Fields Of People". It may be blasphemous to say this, but "Shazam" is my least favourite Move album. I don't mean to say that I don't enjoy it, but I prefer either the poppier first album or the heavier "Looking On" (not to mention MFTC). "Shazam" is somewhat of a transitional album, signalling a change in direction musically and personnel-wise with Carl on the verge of departing when it was recorded. Also, the concept of the interludes dated pretty quickly. People being shocked by recorded music playing in the street, or surprised by someone wanting to interview them? Maybe these were unusual occurrences in 1969. Can you imagine the following scene? HAROLD: There's another boring old moon landing on the telly, Mavis. MAVIS (peeking out window): Ooh, 'arold, look at that then! Someone's playing recorded music in the street! HAROLD: You're pullin' me leg, you is, Mavis! What do you think this is, the 21st century? The sentiment of FOP is also very much of its era, sort of like "The Age Of Aquarius". It might be appropriate for today's fractured world, but I doubt anyone would express a desire for world harmony in such a flowery way now. And it does go on a bit, doesn't it? I'm not talking about the sitar bit at the end, but the actual song itself. The same verse again and again! It's in the same repetitive league as "Got My Mind Set On You". It's interesting to learn that there actually was a second verse in the original FOP. Why didn't the Move use this as well? Having said all that, the musicianship on the song and on the album as a whole is of a very high standard. Bev really blossoms, Carl sings amazingly well (especially on "Don't Make My Baby Blue"), and Roy shows what an exceptional guitarist he is (I often lament on Roy's more multi-instrumental albums that he ignores his guitar.). Back to the lyrics of FOP, they sound like something your stereotypical hippie would utter. Not on the surface something the anarchistic Move would sing about. But this song is really one of the most diabolically evil ever recorded. Think about it...fields of people. What happens to fields of corn? What happens to fields of wheat? They are eaten! The Move are promoting cannabalism! What happens to fields of tobacco? They are smoked! What happens to fields of ham? They are smoked, then they are eaten! This is horrible! I'm getting sick to my stomach just thinking about it. Bob Coulter, currently in Bobcaygeon PS: Did you see what happened to the hippie in the "poppler" episode of "Futurama"? He was eaten! PPS: Richard wrote: >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. Wouldn't the cab driver get arrested if he tooted his organ in public? PPPS: Was I the only one who squealed like a girl when Rob mentioned that bit about "Freedom City"? ********** Subject: Shazam airplay in the U.S. Date: Tue, 18 Jun 2002 11:21:34 -0700 From: "Tyler C.Sherman" Regarding radio airplay for the Move, WNEW FM in NY spun their stuff quite regularly. I can recall hearing tracks from both "Shazam" and "Looking On", usually late at night. There used to be a hip coffee house in nearby Pt. Pleasant Bch. where folks would gather to chat, snack and jam and usually WNEW was on the house sound system. I remember one evening when the DJ put on "Feel Too Good" and it felt so good to see folks there grooving to the Move. I was going around saying to people, "Ya gotta go buy this album..." The program director for many years at NEW was Scott Muni, a long time fixture of NY radio. He used to hang out at a deli here in Bay Head where I live on Sat. mornings so I got to know him a bit. He has a house in the Bay Head Shores section of Pt. Pleasant. I once asked him what he liked to listen to while hanging around the house. Among his favorites was "Shazam". How cool is that! He is probably the only DJ in the USA who gave "Super Active Wizzo" any airplay. He played "Sneakin" on his "Things From England" program numerous times. He was obviously a fan. I know all this has little to do with "Fields Of People", a great track from "Shazam". I concur with those who say the instrumental coda is unnecessarily long but I have grown to appreciate it more over the years. I have read of Roy's inventing an instrument he called a "Banjar" and have often wondered if that is what he used on this track. This must have smoked live. Does anyone know if "Fields..." was included in the set list of the Filmore show? And if it was, will it be on the on the forthcoming CD of that show? Rob? Wizzards, Tyler ********** Subject: Re: Shazam airplay in the U.S. Date: Tue, 18 Jun 2002 11:21:05 -0700 From: Mike Gough Shazam got some airplay in the Philadelphia Pa. area, mostly due to one Michael Tearson, a dj on WMMR FM. He had a knack for mixing the obscure and the underground hits, and turned a lot of listeners on to stuff we may never have gotten to hear otherwise. Fields of People, Hello Suzie, & Cherry Blossom Clinic Revisited all got airtime on his show, and got myself and other locals into the music of Roy Wood & company. Shazam remains my personal favorite Roy album. Maybe because it was the first, but the overall quality sure holds up over time. Peace Mike Gough ********** Subject: Re: Shazam airplay in the U.S. Date: Tue, 18 Jun 2002 13:53:36 -0700 From: marmil (Marc) Tyler - The 1st time(s) I heard the Move was on WNEW-FM, and it would have been on Scotso's show. That's where I first heard Do Ya (Move version) and Cherry...revisited. While I really liked Cherry..., it was Do Ya that made me run to the store and buy Split Ends, and then the rest of the catalog. And now there's not a radio station in the country that plays either of those two songs...(Oh, and I played something from Super Active Wizzo on the radio when I worked @ WBCN, Boston). ********** Subject: Re: Shazam airplay in the U.S. Date: Tue, 18 Jun 2002 23:59:26 -0700 From: Bruce Markow Tyler & Marc, Scot Muni/WNEW defintely started something for New York greater metropolitan area teenagers in the 60's. My first taste of the Move was also on his Sunday afternoon top ten (or was it twenty?, plus new releases) English Hour...as "Night of Fear" was poised to begin climbing the charts. I then found some British mail order source and sent off for the first LP, the EP and, later, Looking On. Muni turned me on to the Small Faces, early Who, Spencer Davis Group (with, and then without, Stevie Winwood), Traffic, Arthur Brown, Jimi Hendrix (when "Hey Joe" first was released) and so many of the other great Brit bands, obscure and popular, of the mid and late 60's. Thank you, Scot, wherever you are. p.s. My other source at the time was an English countdown on WCFL-Chicago (the Barney Pipp show) which I could patiently micro-tune-in from New Jersey on my little transistor radio on nights when the radio airwaves were clear. ********** Subject: Re: Shazam airplay in the U.S. Date: Wed, 19 Jun 2002 10:17:12 -0700 From: "Tyler C.Sherman" As far as I know, Scot Muni is pretty much retired and living in the Bay Head Shores section of Pt. Pleasant. There are "Scot" sightings at local clubs, most notably "The Idle Hour", where a lot of local talent plays. He still does a pre-recorded one hour show at noon on 104.3 FM. I hear he is writing a book about his long career in radio. I'm sure he has a lot of stories to tell. Hopefully there will be some mention of The Move. As a pre-teen in the early 60's I used to listen to him on WABC-AM when his night shift was called "Scotland Yard" . I believe he was fired for excessive tampering with play lists and playing stuff he thought was cool by upcoming artists, such as The Move. He the went on to single-handedly spearhead the progressive rock radio format, first on WOR-FM in 1966, then a year later started the long running WNEW-FM. Many of us on this list owe him a big thank you for turning us on to The Move and so many other great artists back in those days. Oh, that those days would come back again! Radio is horrible these days. Wizzards, Tyler ********** Subject: Re: Shazam airplay in the U.S. Date: Thu, 20 Jun 2002 01:50:47 -0700 From: "David Fatta" Bruce, Yes, I can relate to this. Late nights on WNEW was one of the only places that "underground music" could be heard in the late sixties. My only chance to hear it was a faint intermittent broadcast I could only get occasionally on my parent's gigantic tube-type table radio in the kitchen. Unfortunately, I never heard The Move, but I was the only kid in my school who knew about The Small Faces and Traffic. Its good to hear I was not the only teenager with this obsession for out-of-town underground radio. ********** Subject: Wizzard's Brew Date: Tue, 18 Jun 2002 19:28:59 -0700 From: "Mickey Martin" Was Wizzard's Brew ever released on CD? I have the vinyl on Harvest, but the pressing/production is very dull. I burned it onto my own CD for convenience, but alas, dullness abounds. Are there plans in the works to make it available once again? ********** Subject: Re: Wizzard's Brew Date: Tue, 18 Jun 2002 23:59:53 -0700 From: Kevin Kunreuther I have an EMI/Harvest Digital Remaster P.1999 on CD. It's not bad but I think there will be a new remaster in the works next year or in 2004, with all the extras, blah, blah, blah. Kevin Kunreuther Dallas TX ********** Subject: Re: Wizzard's Brew Date: Wed, 19 Jun 2002 02:00:35 -0700 From: Jon Hinchliffe Yes there is/was a version released a couple of years back. I hated it and personally still prefer to listen to my CD-R of my LP recording. The person doing the mastering completely missed what it is I like about Wizzard Brew. The Bottom end was really reduced and while they brought out the top end of the disk I thought the end result was dreadful. It is a shame. Still hopefully it is to be done properly soon with Rob's FTM input. ********** Subject: Cat Mother / ELO influences Date: Fri, 21 Jun 2002 12:14:35 -0700 From: "stephen mulcahy" cool memories, bruce... in case you wanted more useless information -they had 5 lps: the eponymous debut, faithful friends, reflections, roll over, and freedomburger. i have only heard a couple of songs of reflections, a collaboration with a greek composer that merges rock with traditional greek music. freedomburger is, with the exception of a few tracks, quite dreadful in my opinion. the 1st two lp's were really good, as you say. the 4th one is cited as the best by many, others think it is just ordinary rock music..it is largely hard r&b influenced rock and soft ballads, one of these ballads, BESIDE YOU was apparently used in some movie in the early 70's. this song was the closest they ever came to having a hit: it bubbled under the top 100. the band was pretty well known back then, and played the leading venues and some of the rock festivals. despite this, none of their albums made the charts. i wonder if this band, and other proto classical rock bands of the day were a conscious influence on the formation of ELO. the guys in the move were obviously aware of ars nova. while the beatles were, of course, the big influence, i wonder if they were the only one, and the idea for ELO was not exactly a totally novel one, as we have seen from these precursors that have been discussed lately. these bands existed only a few years before ELO, in fact , some of them were still around-the ensemble's last album appeared in 1972. does anyone know? ********** Subject: Re: Cat Mother / ELO influences Date: Sat, 22 Jun 2002 11:45:33 +0100 From: Richard Messum The Beatles' "Yesterday" -- which included a complete string quartet -- predates "Good vibrations" by a year, although it can be by no stretch of the imagination be considered rock 'n' roll. But what about Phil Spector? I don't know much about him, but wasn't he throwing classical instruments into his kitchen sink productions (a style he invented, i believe) as far back as '63? ********** Subject: Re: Cat Mother / ELO influences Date: Sat, 22 Jun 2002 08:53:17 -0400 From: "Tyler C.Sherman" The idea of using "classical" instruments in rock music goes back as far 1966 when Brian Wilson was doing his marathon sessions for The Beach Boys' "Good Vibrations". He tried just about everything but the kitchen sink on that record. To my knowledge it was the first time anyone had ever used a cello on a rock & roll record. It influenced the Beatles who in turn influenced everyone else, including Roy and, subsequently ELO. Brian was truly an innovator! Rich, yeah, there's some truth in what you say about Spector's use of strings, etc, on his records but it was more like what was being done with "pop" hits of the day, such as Neil Sedaka and others of that genre. And Brian Wilson was obviously influeced by those records. But he really took things a giant step forward. McCartney has cited Wilson's innovative use of "classical" instruments on "Pet Sounds" and "Good Vibrations" as an inspiration for The Beatles "Sgt. Pepper". Yes, "Yesterday" did use a string quartet but it's use was pretty straightforward, not really within the framework of a "rock" song. Just listen to that chugging cello on "Good Vibrations", not unlike what Roy would do a few years later. Wizzards, Tyler ********** Subject: Re: Cat Mother and the All Night News Boys Date: Tue, 18 Jun 2002 23:58:50 -0700 From: PrimoChuck For those who are interested, you can hear a few Cat Mother tracks including Good Ol' Rock "N Roll, The Street Giveth & The Street Taketh Away, and others on the net..... http://www.musicsojourn.com/Playlists/FM_Odyssey/v1-20/v6/FMO_vg6.htm Program FMO-6-2 (Hour # 2) Cat Mother set starts around 35 minutes into the show ********** Subject: LIGHT!Fest East Coast 2002 (ELO & Move fanfest) is less than a mere 2 months away!... Date: Sun, 23 Jun 2002 02:30:20 -0700 From: Steve Rifkin Hey everybody! There are bunches of Move/Roy Wood fans all over the place, but when's the last time you all got to hang out together and "talk shop"? OK, yes, probably at Woody's concert in NY or maybe at one of the ZOOM concerts... But here's another chance... at LIGHT!Fest! This is a reminder that LIGHT!Fest East Coast 2002 (the ELO/Move/Orchestra/Jeff Lynne/etc... fan get-together) is less than 2 months away! And, it's being held Saturday and Sunday, August 17th and 18th, 2002 in Baltimore, Maryland. If you're planning on attending and are coming from out-of-state and need to make travel arrangements, please let me know as soon as possible. If you have not yet RSVP'd for LIGHT!Fest, please do so soon, as we're trying to get attendance lists together. We had an absolutely terrific time last year, and we'll have another great LIGHT!Fest this year! We have lots and lots of Move material to see and hear... concert videos, all kinds of audio, and when's the last time you saw the reel-to-reel tape (tape, box and all) of Split Ends, complete with the record reviews of the time? You'll get a chance to sit down and read some great articles and books that talk about The Move too. Yes, lots of cool Move-related stuff. And best yet, Move and ELO fans! It's a great place to chat with other Move fans about one of our favorite music subjects! As always, LIGHT!Fest is free and is open to all fans of ELO/Jeff Lynne/The Move/The Orchestra/The Idle Race... well, you get the picture. For more information about LIGHT!Fest and how to R.S.V.P., go to: http://www.erols.com/steve410/elo/light/lightfest.html for more details. Thanks, and hope to see you there! Steve Rifkin, Coordinator of LIGHT!, the North Amercian ELO Fan Club http://www.erols.com/steve410/elo/light End of Useless Information #365 ******************************* [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.]