Posted on 05/03/2020 6:39:36 PM PDT by Old Yeller
I went to an ELO concert in the 70's and their opening act was Journey.
They had a lot of good songs. Here's another good from the early 80's.
Hold On Tight to Your Dreams
Saw them in Austin about the same time.
Was a great show. Never forget.
Anyone remember the embryonic stage of ELO? Multi-instrumental, vocalist, songwriter and Birmingham chap Jeff Lynne had been recruited to a band called The Move with multi-instrumentalist, vocalist, songwriter and Birmingham chap Roy Wood, who had been fiddling with an idea for a rock band with traditional classical orchestration, so "kids who played instruments in school had a band they could aspire to rock with."
At one point in 1971, the two bands were basically a single unit with the same members. Having a plethora of material from two gifted songwriters, they recorded two albums (plus singles) in a single set of sessions simultaneously, deciding after the fact which songs would go toward The Move's last (as it turned out) album "Message From The Country", and which would comprise the first album for the Electric Light Orchestra, replete with their 10538 Overture.
As you can expect there was quite a bit of cross-pollination. Lynne's song "Do Ya" from the sessions was released as a Move song - the B-side of Wood's "California Man" single. Of course it was famously redone in 1976 when ELO was singularly Lynne's project.
As Lynne's songwriting flourished, and he became more pre-eminent in what had been Wood's ELO project, Wood left to form the band Wizzard which was initially more popular than ELO, especially in the UK. But ELO gained a foothold in America, charting singles with their re-imagining of Chuck Berry's Roll Over Beethoven in 1973 and followed with Can't Get It Out Of My Head in 1974. They were to prove vastly more popular in the US going forward, and eventually in England.
An example of a Move song that probably could have been - and should have been - an ELO song: Words Of Aaron by Lynne. If you're an ELO fan and are familiar with some of the other links provided above, but never heard of the Move material, you're in for a treat :D
You’re right, it does sound like Eleanor Rigby.
Thanks, and Roll Tide. ;-)
Blackberry Way is the best Move song
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ELRHD4UCo74
Jeff wasn’t with them at the time, but Bev was.
I like the Electric Light Orchestra. I never saw them perform.
But I was on an airplane with them, in July 1978, departing Lexington, Kentucky, where they had performed at Rupp Arena.
I was seated next to one of the guys in the group, who had a big boom box radio/tape player. I never talked to him; he had his headphones on the entire flight listening to music.
Am I a bad person for at least counting as equal Fire Brigade?
Still can’t believe Bev joined Black Sabbath (with Ian Gillan)
Yep. Fire on High. The Best!
That was the theme for CBS Sports Spectacular.
Dangit, EKO! LOE, good song yeller.
Flip side of Fire Brigade was a track that really let Bevan mash the kit, Walk Upon The Water which has a real Who vibe (and conversely shows that the Who was at heart a pop band who just liked to be LOUD).
From the same film I Can Hear The Grass Grow. Can't believe I forgot that one. When The Move was on, they were on. Their 5-6 big singles to me are interchangeably great.
Yep.
They definitely meant to prolong the Beatles sound, Telephone Line is probably my favorite.
I guess the Cheap Trick guys were big Move fans, because they did California Man. and on their last album, they covered Blackberry Way.
Thank you, great tune, wonderful period of life.
One more skinsplitter from the era I had forgotten, Cozy Powell; also was in Sabbath for a spell, as well as the Ace Kefford Stand. Bill Ward used to give Sabbath a heavy sound, until he was giving them a heavy sound ;)
Jeff Lynne- another soldier of the English Invasion that never stopped.
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