10538 Overture : Best Song Ever

I mean best RECORD ever.

Surely this song is nothing but a steal of Paul Wellers' Changing Man?

yes Yes YES! So convinced am I of the truth of this that the Shannon mask falls!

And doubly great when you consider there are only four musicians on the track - Wood did all the French horn and string parts himself - "mucking about with Hendrix riffs on a cheap Chinese cello painted yellow" - and then it's just Jeff Lynne, Rick Price and Bev Bevan (i.e. the Move really). Apparently the last two Move albums, first ELO album and Wood's "Boulders" album were all recorded at the same time. And they are ALL mentalist and anyone who doesn't have them should go out to their local Trinity Hospice boutique and grab 'em!

Oh yeah, and the Wizzard albums, esp. "Wizzard Brew."

ROY WOOD LONG OVERDUE FOR REVIVAL!

I have no problems with this latest Dr. C campaign. I used to have a rilly good cassette with one side Move hits, the other side "10538", all the Wizzard classics, and closing with "Forever". Then my cassette deck chewed it up. Grrrr. Can we make this a Roy Wood S/D thread?

It would seem as though Wood was in a full-on creative period in the late 60s and early 70s and then he just lost it all and hasn't released a record in years although he's still touring.

Why? Did he simply pass into the background like all artists do eventually, did he burn himself out or did he feel he simply couldn't compete with the mega-worldwide success that ELO became after he left.

Definitely an under valued artist though. Too idiosyncratic for most folk.

I like it too.

ELO causes Terry to morph back to Marcello. Cor! I didn't know that it wasn't a full-blown early ELO line-up which did this - thanks for the info. I'd assumed that the fantastically named Kelly Groucutt and Melvyn Gale were involved, amongst others. Who produced it? Was it Wood? The cellos take your scalp off.

Anybody remember the BBC2 'Rock Family Trees' edition on Brum-rock? It covered The Move, Moody Blues, ELO, etc etc. They'd even unearthed 'Ace' Kefford from a pub somewhere to interview. Carl Wayne was quite intersting - sort of unneccessary in the Move, and possibly a brake on some of Roy's more bonkers ideas. Was CW any good in is own right? I've always thought the Moody Blues were tools, but I've just got an album (Decca/Deram comp 'The Psychedelic Scene') with an ace and mad Moodies track on it, so may be forced to reconsider. If I could be bothered to go downstairs and look at the box I'd know the track name.

'Love and Beauty' is the Moodies track.

Yeah yeah yeah, 10538 is a 100% stone classic. I'd say all Roy's records up to "Super Active Wizzo" are essential. (Reading that title back, it amazes me that Stereolab haven't appropriated that for a title of their own.)

No-one has mentioned "Mustard" yet, so I will. More pop than Boulders, but so all over the place that it couldn't have been made by anyone except Roy. Or Todd. Or Queen. His/their B-sides were always extraordinary bits of work too. Wizzard Brew used to genuinely scare me as a kid tho'. Particularly all that free-form sax stuff in "Get On Down To Memphis". But worth it for the aching majesty of "Wear A Fast Gun".

See My Baby Jive is one of the few records that never fails to lift my heart. Even better than 10538. I'm a giggling wreck just thinking about it.

And of course anyone who writes a tune called "Music to Commit Suicide To" has to be knighted.

Re: 10538 - well, Lynne wrote the song but Wood did all the arranging and producing. The serial number on the control desk was 1053, and RW just added an "8" to flesh the title out (as of course the song was about a man with a number for a name).

Kelly Groucott (or however it's spelt) and Melvyn Gale (not to mention Mik "Violinski Clog Dance" Kaminski) didn't come in 'til much later (round about the time of "Showdown" when Lynne decided to concentrate on straight pop rather than artrock).

A pity Wood couldn't keep ELO and Wizzard going in parallel, so to speak, but as he said, he and Lynne were a bit like a pantomime horse with two heads, each going in the opposite direction, so it couldn't last.

Re. Moody Blues - mentalist stuff pretty much down to Denny Laine, I'd guess. His late '60s String Band pretty well did "pop" ELO 7-8 years ahead of them (and Lynne and Wood were certainly both aware of them). Original version of "Say You Don't Mind" is a classic and should have been a number one (though Blunstone didn't do too bad a job) and for bonkers psych you must hear Laine yodelling and screaming through "Catherine Wheel."

After that, ten years as Macca's teaboy in Wings, and 20 years of pub rock thereafter. What a waste.

Best post-Laine record involving the Moody Blues (and one of the great '60s pop singles) has to be Billie Davis' "I Want You To Be My Baby" which had the Moodies as her backing band and Madeline Bell, Doris Troy and Kiki Dee on backing vocals. One of the best manifestations of pent-up sexual tension ever in pop, I think - starts off as a "Clapping Song"-type call-and-response thing and then Billie suddenly launches into her 100 mph verses, desperate to let it all explode, simultaneously vulnerable and dominatrix ("hold me tight - DO WHAT I TELL YOU!!"). Fantastic record and a favourite in Chingford, I do understand.

'Music To Commit Suicide To' a play on words on Alfred' Hitchcock's 'Music To Be Murdered To'?

Is there any truth in the rumour that Lynne is going to produce some new Roy Wood material. Whatever, it's probably 25 years too late. Shame as anyone who can release a song called rock'n'roll winter in May has to be cherished.

Early ELO very strange, they were on Harvest after all I suppose. First LP has a track called the battle of Marston moor which Bev bevan refused to play on as he thought it was so bad. Both LP's sound quite harsh, especially in comparison with the late lush sounding New world record/out of the blue period. I suspect it's the eleanor rigby/walrus strings which were unromantic which accounts for the harshness.

Suspect you're being a bit harsh on Carl Wayne Dr C, IMHO he's one of the underrated britsoul r&b vocalists, just think of the middle eight of fire brigade for instance.

It's a great track, albeit a bit pompous and slightly overblown.

Wood seemed to have shot his load by about 74 and turned into a pantomime dame by the late 70's but his work since then has been much better than that attrocity "The diary of Horace Wimp"

Billy I wasn't dissing Carl Wayne - just speculating how he *fitted in* to The Move. He is, as you say, a fine singer.

Thanks to Arthur,who just sent me a mix CD of fop-psych stuff, I now have the Denny Laine track "Catherine Wheel". Haven't listened to it yet - hope it's as good as you say, Marcello.

I love it. The strange organic woodiness of the production makes it one of the last great records from the "anything is possible" 68-72 moment, a time when people genuinely don't seem to have envisaged slickness / professionalism / careerism defining the future. Made more poignant, really, by the fact that "pop" ELO were so much a part of that future, good though many of their singles were.

I suppose I think of it as "I Am The Walrus" on Offa's Dyke (the mentalism of the last minute or so of "10538" actually stands comparison to its source, which has been my favourite Beatles song for as long as I've had one). "Livin' Thing", on the other hand, is "When My Little Girl Is Smiling" in Guildford (OK, I know Craig Douglas and Jimmy Justice had already done that ...) There's a story in there, for those who know or care.

Ye Gods. A place that praises the first ELO album. It is true. Anything is possible. That's one of my favorite songs out of the ELO canon, though i haven't heard it since i had a working turntable.