The Last Call 3/4/09

If good looks was a minute/ You know that you could've been an hour- Smokey Robinson, 'The Way You Do The Things You Do'

Dont Make My Baby Blue by The Move

Whenever you think you’ve unearthed everything from the Golden Age of rock, there is always one more buried treasure lying blow. So much great music, such few outlets at the time. Many of these buried treasures had hits in England, yet never made a dent here in the States. A stellar example of these overlooked artists formed in 1966 with five veterans from various Birmingham rock bands. They were guitarist and principal songwriter Roy Wood, drummer Bev Bevan, bassist Chris “Ace” Kefford, singer Carl Wayne, and guitarist Trevor Burton. Calling themselves the Move, they signed with flamboyant manager Tony Secunda. Tony booked them as the replacement for the Who at the Marquee Club. The Move quickly made a name for themselves through an over-the-top live set with flash pots and Wayne smashing televisions. Dressed up in gangster suits, they should have been more flash than substance. Fortunately, Roy Wood loved American pop music and his songwriting fused this with the in vogue prog rock of the time.

The Move’s first four singles soared to the top of the pop charts. Secunda promoted the third single, ‘Flowers In The Rain’, with a cartoon postcard of British prime minister Harold Wilson in bed with his secretary. Wilson sued the band for libel and won. To this day, Wood earns no money from the song. The suit pushed the Move to fire Secunda, and marked the first in a series of unfortunate incidents which would eventually lead to the band’s dissolution.

The Move released their first album, hired Don Arden to replace Secunda. Kefford left the band, and Burton moved over to bass. After the release of ‘Blackberry Way’, their biggest hit, Burton left the band. Arden sold their contract to cabaret agent Peter Walsh and the band began to tour the cabarets of Europe. Bassist Richard Price signed on for the tour. I could only imagine the confused look of middle-aged couples wanting to hear Gershwin and Weil, but getting the psychedelia of ‘Blackberry Way’ and heavy metal of ‘Wild Tiger Woman’ instead. After the tour ended, they began to record their follow-up album, Shazam.

You need to have your ears opened to Shazam. With this album, Roy Wood plotted out an entirely new direction for prog rock. Where Pink Floyd, King Crimson, and the Nice steered pop music toward an alien, dark world stripped of many rock traits, Roy Wood and the Move glorified rock music. Shazam is a loving thank you to the first fifteen years of rock. The album skips through one rock genre after another, heralding the future work of genre-straddlers like Elton John. Want straight ’70s hard rock? ‘Hello Susie’. Romantic ballad? ‘Beautiful Daughter’. Orchestral power-pop? ‘Cherry Blossom Clinic’. ‘Cherry Blossom Clinic’ gives you a small taste of the treats that await you on the monster second side of the album. The second side of the album is comprised of covers where Wood and the band fuse the dexterity of the Nice with the sludge of fellow Brummies Black Sabbath and the pop sensibilities of the Kinks.

We find this week’s track on this second side. ‘Don’t Make My Baby Blue’ was a Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil song which beat group The Shadows charted with in ‘65. The Move version only shares a name with that track. Simply put, even Sabbath never rocked harder than this. If the opening riff and thuderbomb drums don’t have your devil horns out, well, I just don’t want to party with you. Carl Wayne “Whoah!”s in at twenty seconds. Wayne’s vocals here match Paul Rodgers at his soulful, chest-bared best. Whereas Sabbath’s grooves were much more suffocating, here the rhythm section backs off just a bit to give Wayne and Wood some room. And it’s utterly beautiful. I don’t care what Mike Damone says in Fast Times, side two of Led Zeppelin IV has no make-out track like this. Roy Wood’s guitar on this is plain off-the-hook. You’re with him on his guitar solo until about the 3.20 section when he just exits the atmosphere. Only to have Bev Bevan’s jackhammer bass drum yank him back down to terra firma. This song hits about every grace note I have. And then you pile on the three-part harmony at the end. Guh. Almost not fair.

The Move would release their next album, Looking On, with new member Jeff Lynne. He replaced Carl Wayne. The Lynne-Wood Move released one more album, Message From The Country, before Wood dissolved the band and formed glam-rock embarrassment Wizzard. Lynne formed the Electric Light Orchestra from the ashes of the Move, and ELO would have a hit in ‘77 with the Move song ‘Do Ya’. Roy Wood hides out in England and is one of the more elusive pop masters.

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