Looking On
Encyclopedia
Looking On is the third album by The Move
, released in the UK in December 1970. The LP is their first to feature Jeff Lynne
, their first containing entirely original compositions, and the first on the Fly
label, its catalogue number being FLY 1. It includes both their 1970 singles, the Top 10 hit "Brontosaurus," released on Regal Zonophone in March, and the less successful "When Alice Comes Back To The Farm," released on Fly in October.
It's also the first LP to feature both Roy Wood and Jeff Lynne as a tandem, with Wood’s use of cello and woodwinds and Lynne's vocals anticipating the work they would later pursue in the Electric Light Orchestra
, whose debut album they were starting to record at around the same time. The jazzy fills on the title track also serve as a signpost of the style that Wood would later develop in Wizzard
and the Wizzo Band
.
The Move was effectively a dead band walking when Lynne joined in February 1970 after fronting (and producing) The Idle Race. Wood had wanted to launch a new group with Lynne that would feature rock and strings -- to pick up, in theory, where the Beatles' "I Am the Walrus
" had left off -- and retire the Move immediately. But despite mainstream media reports that the Move were finished -- with Wood's blessing -- contractual obligations and management pressure kept the brand name kicking, regardless of the drastic changes in sound and personnel.
Undaunted, Wood and Lynne took the opportunity to begin work on the embryonic ELO project in the studio and get the Move off the road, for the most part -- the occasional live set in 1970 usually featured most of the tracks on Looking On, a cover of the Beatles' "She's a Woman," and just one of Wood's classic singles, "I Can Hear The Grass Grow."
Both composers saw the forthcoming album as a chance to experiment with motifs that they could apply to future recordings. Indeed, in July, during the Looking On sessions, the band recorded "10538 Overture," a Lynne composition that was originally intended to be a Move B-side. It never got there. When Wood overdubbed a cello riff over the basic track 15 times over, he and Lynne decided they'd found the template for something even better than they'd originally planned -- a ground-breaking hit that could launch the ELO with a bang. Their instincts were eventually proven right, although the "10538 Overture" didn't wind up on the UK charts until the summer of 1972.
While Lynne was trying out longer and more complex songs and harmonies (foreshadowing the ELO 2 album by a few years), Wood was trying to play (and successfully) every instrument he could get his hands on. He's credited with handling no fewer than seven of them on Looking On -- including the oboe, sitar, cello, bass, saxophone, and the 'banjar,' a banjo rigged to sound like a Turkish saz
(featured on "Turkish Tram Conductor Blues"). In addition to guitar and piano, Lynne plays drums on the album's closer, "Feel Too Good," a track that also features P.P. Arnold and Doris Troy on backing vocals and ends with an (uncredited) doo-wop-style coda, "The Duke of Edinburgh's Lettuce."
Just as Shazam had gotten lost in the wake of Carl Wayne's departure and Wood's new, wild on-stage persona, Looking On was not a hit. Fly chose not to promote it extensively, in part because the Move had fled the company to join EMI's new Harvest label shortly after sessions for the album were completed.
Not surprisingly, the final product was regarded by some critics as uneven, noodling, and self-indulgent. Four of the record's seven tracks are longer than six minutes, and drummer Bev Bevan recently told journalist Mark Paytress that even he felt the LP was "ploddy."
Nevertheless, the high points of "Looking On" are widely rated among Wood's most beloved compositions. "Brontosaurus" was eventually covered by Move fans Cheap Trick
, and "Feel Too Good" was later featured on the soundtrack of the movie Boogie Nights
.
Looking On has been reissued on CD with various combinations of bonus tracks, including in 1998 by Repertoire, and most recently by Salvo in 2008.
The Move
The Move, from Birmingham, England, were one of the leading British rock bands of the 1960s. They scored nine Top 20 UK singles in five years, but were among the most popular British bands not to find any success in the United States....
, released in the UK in December 1970. The LP is their first to feature Jeff Lynne
Jeff Lynne
Jeffrey "Jeff" Lynne is an English songwriter, composer, arranger, singer, multi-instrumentalist, and record producer who gained fame as the leader and sole constant member of Electric Light Orchestra and was a co-founder and member of The Traveling Wilburys together with George Harrison, Bob...
, their first containing entirely original compositions, and the first on the Fly
Fly Records
Fly Records is a British independent record label, established in 1970 by the independent music publisher David Platz, and initially managed by Malcolm Jones from the offices of Essex Music in London.-History:...
label, its catalogue number being FLY 1. It includes both their 1970 singles, the Top 10 hit "Brontosaurus," released on Regal Zonophone in March, and the less successful "When Alice Comes Back To The Farm," released on Fly in October.
Overview
Looking On is generally regarded as the hardest rocking, least popular and most eclectic album in the Move's catalogue, as it presents the band dabbling in heavy metal ("Brontosaurus,") blues, ("When Alice Comes Back to the Farm"), ("Turkish Tram Conductor Blues"), prog-style epics ("Open Up Said the World at the Door"), soul ("Feel Too Good"), or, in the case of the title track, all four styles mashed together.It's also the first LP to feature both Roy Wood and Jeff Lynne as a tandem, with Wood’s use of cello and woodwinds and Lynne's vocals anticipating the work they would later pursue in the Electric Light Orchestra
Electric Light Orchestra
Electric Light Orchestra were a British rock group from Birmingham who released eleven studio albums between 1971 and 1986 and another album in 2001. ELO were formed to accommodate Roy Wood and Jeff Lynne's desire to create modern rock and pop songs with classical overtones...
, whose debut album they were starting to record at around the same time. The jazzy fills on the title track also serve as a signpost of the style that Wood would later develop in Wizzard
Wizzard
Wizzard was a Birmingham-based band formed by Roy Wood, former member of The Move and co-founder of Electric Light Orchestra. The Guinness Book of 500 Number One Hits states, "Wizzard was Roy Wood just as much as Wings were Paul McCartney."-Biography:...
and the Wizzo Band
Wizzo Band
Wizzo Band was formed by Roy Wood after Wizzard split in 1975, fulfilling his ambitions to create an outfit that was more jazz-oriented than rock or pop...
.
The Move was effectively a dead band walking when Lynne joined in February 1970 after fronting (and producing) The Idle Race. Wood had wanted to launch a new group with Lynne that would feature rock and strings -- to pick up, in theory, where the Beatles' "I Am the Walrus
I Am the Walrus
"I Am the Walrus" is a 1967 song by The Beatles, written by John Lennon and credited to Lennon–McCartney. Lennon claimed he wrote the first two lines on separate acid trips. The song was in the Beatles' 1967 television film and album Magical Mystery Tour, and was the B-side to the #1 hit "Hello,...
" had left off -- and retire the Move immediately. But despite mainstream media reports that the Move were finished -- with Wood's blessing -- contractual obligations and management pressure kept the brand name kicking, regardless of the drastic changes in sound and personnel.
Undaunted, Wood and Lynne took the opportunity to begin work on the embryonic ELO project in the studio and get the Move off the road, for the most part -- the occasional live set in 1970 usually featured most of the tracks on Looking On, a cover of the Beatles' "She's a Woman," and just one of Wood's classic singles, "I Can Hear The Grass Grow."
Both composers saw the forthcoming album as a chance to experiment with motifs that they could apply to future recordings. Indeed, in July, during the Looking On sessions, the band recorded "10538 Overture," a Lynne composition that was originally intended to be a Move B-side. It never got there. When Wood overdubbed a cello riff over the basic track 15 times over, he and Lynne decided they'd found the template for something even better than they'd originally planned -- a ground-breaking hit that could launch the ELO with a bang. Their instincts were eventually proven right, although the "10538 Overture" didn't wind up on the UK charts until the summer of 1972.
While Lynne was trying out longer and more complex songs and harmonies (foreshadowing the ELO 2 album by a few years), Wood was trying to play (and successfully) every instrument he could get his hands on. He's credited with handling no fewer than seven of them on Looking On -- including the oboe, sitar, cello, bass, saxophone, and the 'banjar,' a banjo rigged to sound like a Turkish saz
Saz
Saz can be a nickname for the given name Sarah, or may refer to:* Saz , a family of Iranian and Turkish stringed musical instruments* Sameh Zakout, rap artist* saz, the ISO 639-3 code for the Saurashtra language...
(featured on "Turkish Tram Conductor Blues"). In addition to guitar and piano, Lynne plays drums on the album's closer, "Feel Too Good," a track that also features P.P. Arnold and Doris Troy on backing vocals and ends with an (uncredited) doo-wop-style coda, "The Duke of Edinburgh's Lettuce."
Just as Shazam had gotten lost in the wake of Carl Wayne's departure and Wood's new, wild on-stage persona, Looking On was not a hit. Fly chose not to promote it extensively, in part because the Move had fled the company to join EMI's new Harvest label shortly after sessions for the album were completed.
Not surprisingly, the final product was regarded by some critics as uneven, noodling, and self-indulgent. Four of the record's seven tracks are longer than six minutes, and drummer Bev Bevan recently told journalist Mark Paytress that even he felt the LP was "ploddy."
Nevertheless, the high points of "Looking On" are widely rated among Wood's most beloved compositions. "Brontosaurus" was eventually covered by Move fans Cheap Trick
Cheap Trick
Cheap Trick is an American rock band from Rockford, Illinois, formed in 1973. The band consists of members Robin Zander , Rick Nielsen , Tom Petersson , and Bun E...
, and "Feel Too Good" was later featured on the soundtrack of the movie Boogie Nights
Boogie Nights
Boogie Nights is a 1997 drama film written and directed by Paul Thomas Anderson. Set in Los Angeles's San Fernando Valley, the script focuses on a young nightclub dishwasher who becomes a popular star of pornographic films, and chronicles his rise and fall from the Golden Age of Porn of the 1970s...
.
Looking On has been reissued on CD with various combinations of bonus tracks, including in 1998 by Repertoire, and most recently by Salvo in 2008.
Track listing
- "Looking On" (Wood) – 7:48
- "Turkish Tram Conductor Blues" (Bevan) – 4:38
- "What?" (Lynne) – 6:42
- "When Alice Comes Back to the FarmWhen Alice Comes Back to the FarmWhen Alice Comes Back to the Farm is a rock-blues song recorded by The Move. It features slide guitars and a cello, with a baritone saxophone reinforcing the bass line....
" (Wood) – 3:40 - "Open Up Said the World at the Door" (Lynne) – 7:10
- "Brontosaurus" (Wood) – 4:25
- "Feel Too Good" (Wood) – 9:30
Bonus tracks (1998 reissue)
- 8. "Wild Tiger WomanWild Tiger WomanWild Tiger Woman is a song recorded by The Move, and as with all the other A-sides of their singles, written by Roy Wood. It was much heavier than their usual style, bearing the unmistakable influence of Jimi Hendrix, whom the group greatly admired and had often played on the same bill with...
" (Wood) - 9. "Omnibus" (Wood)
- 10. "Blackberry WayBlackberry Way"Blackberry Way" is a single by The Move.Written by Roy Wood and produced by Jimmy Miller, "Blackberry Way" was a bleak counterpoint to the sunny psychedelia of earlier recordings. It nevertheless became the band's most successful single reaching #1 on the UK singles chart. Richard Tandy who would...
" (Wood) - 11. "Something" (Dave MorganDave Morgan (musician)David 'Dave' Morgan is an English songwriter and musician.-Career:He was a member of well-regarded Birmingham 60's group The Uglys with Steve Gibbons between 1967 and 1969, where Morgan was the bassist and vocalist...
) - 12. "Curly" (Wood)
- 13. "This Time Tomorrow" (Morgan)
- 14. "Lightning Never Strikes Twice" (PriceRick Price (bassist)Rick Price is an English bassist, who has played with various Birmingham based rock bands, most notably Sight and Sound, The Move , Electric Light Orchestra and Wizzard...
/Tyler) - 15. "Something" [Italian] (Morgan)
- 16. "Wild Tiger Woman Blues" (Wood)
- 17. "Curly Where's Your Girlie" (Wood)
Bonus tracks (2008 reissue)
- 8. "Lightnin' Never Strikes Twice" (Price/Tyler)
- 9. "Looking On Part 1" (take 3; rough mix) (Wood)
- 10. "Looking On Part 2" (take 12; rough mix) (Wood)
- 11. "Turkish Tram Conductor Blues" (take 5; rough mix) (Bevan)
- 12. "Open Up Said the World at the Door" (take 4; rough mix) (Lynne)
- 13. "Feel Too Good" (take 11 extract; rough mix) (Wood)
- 14. "The Duke of Edinburgh's Lettuce" (take 2; rough mix) (Wood/Lynne)
Personnel
- Roy WoodRoy WoodRoy Adrian Wood is an English singer-songwriter and musician. He was particularly successful in the 1960s and 1970s as member and co-founder of the bands The Move, Electric Light Orchestra, and Wizzard. As a songwriter, he contributed a number of hits to the repertoire of these bands.-Career:Wood...
- vocals, oboe, sitar, slide guitar, cello, guitar, bass & saxes - Jeff LynneJeff LynneJeffrey "Jeff" Lynne is an English songwriter, composer, arranger, singer, multi-instrumentalist, and record producer who gained fame as the leader and sole constant member of Electric Light Orchestra and was a co-founder and member of The Traveling Wilburys together with George Harrison, Bob...
- vocals, piano, guitar, percussion, drums ('Feel Too Good') - Bev BevanBev BevanBev Bevan is an English rock musician, who was the drummer and one of the original members of The Move and Electric Light Orchestra...
- drums and percussion - Rick PriceRick Price (bassist)Rick Price is an English bassist, who has played with various Birmingham based rock bands, most notably Sight and Sound, The Move , Electric Light Orchestra and Wizzard...
- bass - P.P. Arnold and Doris TroyDoris TroyDoris Troy was an American R&B singer, known to her many fans as "Mama Soul".She was born as Doris Higginson in The Bronx, the daughter of a Barbadian Pentecostal minister. Her parents disapproved of "subversive" forms of music like rhythm & blues, so she cut her teeth singing in her father's choir...
— backing vocals on 'Feel Too Good'http://www.themoveonline.com/archive_01.html