Real Heroes of Birmingham Progressive Rock
BY DANIEL HARJU
Right before they unexpectedly morphed into the Electric Light Orchestra, Jeff Lynne, Roy Wood and Bev Bevan reached their musical apex together as the Move with the 1971 album Message From the Country. This video is some TV singback performance. The song is called “Words of Aron” and is off of this, their album as the Move. Notice the mildly eccentric Roy, the bearded multi-instumentalist in the yellow suit. Wood would go on to become Wizard, the brain behind the outlandish everything-but-the-kitchen-sink glam band. This song by Jeff Lynne (that genial Birminghamite who gave the world loads of Beatles-inspired classic cheese such as Rockaria, Calling America, Telephone Line) is phenomenal but also sounds light-years from what the group would do only a few years later as ELO. Quasimodo playing the bass flute is actually Bill Hunt, who would later become an ELO member.
Here’s a live track from German TV of “When Alice Comes Back to the Farm,” a song from the Move’s 1970 album “Looking On.”
Here’s my favorite festive song. At this point the eccentric Wizard has gone completeley off the edge with his stage outfits. But it’s true: I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday.
January 20th, 2009 at 5:37 pm
Ah Roy, inspiring men to grow beards and paint their faces in rainbows worldwide!