...and their smash hit "Wild Tiger Woman."
And by smash hit we mean, of course, solely in the UK -- these guys couldn't get arrested on American Top 40 radio, the Flying Spaghetti Monster only knows why.
I hadn't thought of the song in ages, actually, but it popped into my head unbidden, for obvious reasons, while compiling our most recent Weekend Listomania. I should also add that this bunch had scads of records just as good if not better; IMHO, The Move deserves to be ranked in the the same strata with the other obviously greatest Brit rock groups of the era, i.e. Beatles/Stones/Who/Kinks. And that's even before Jeff Lynne joined up.
In any case, tune in tomorrow and we'll bat this idea around some more.
Thank you.
UPDATE: Turns out this was actually recorded by the first four-piece version of the band, after the departure of apparently unhinged bassist Ace "The Singing Skull" Kefford (he's the blonde guy in the photo with the vid). I regret the error.
10 comments:
Made me laugh. Fun song.
Give it up for Denny Cordell. A terrific producer with an ear for talent.
Oh, and astonishingly, Wild Tiger Woman wasn't even a hit in the UK. A great song nonetheless. Roy and Trevor swap some lines with Carl. Omnibus was the flip. Not a shabby disc.
Vickie Rock - Waitin' to be fed
P.S. Feed me till I'm dead:-)
It wasn't a hit in the UK?
Words fail me...
Ace sure looks every bit the Face on the pic you provided. Most striking guy in the band visually. Not a bad vocalist either. Too bad about his mental health.
Wild Tiger Woman was not issued as a single in the US. We got Yellow Rainbow bw Something instead, the A-side of which featured the already departed Kefford on lead vox.
They played the Whisky as a four-piece fall of 1969. By that time Trevor Burton was gone and Rick Price was on bass. That same night, I went with a dear girlfriend of mine from Hawthorne to see Dan Hicks and Karen Dalton in Westwood.
My friend's name was Sharon and we met at a Cream concert at the Shrine Expo in early 1968. We were kids, but she was a couple of years older. I remember she had to call her dad from a pay phone to pick her up after the Cream show. As she waited for her ride, Clapton appeared and asked her backstage. She told him she couldn't because she had to wait for her dad to pick her up. That seemed to scare him off in a big way.
Later, she was one of the driving forces in the establishment of AOR radio in the Inland Empire. I lost track of her for years but bumped into her a few months ago. She still looks grrreat. And she's still involved in music. She handles the talent for an Indian casino in the area [and had a very interesting Engelbert Humperdinck story].
Anyway, after Hicks and Dalton, we hitch-hiked to the strip. We were very surprised to see that the Move were at the Whisky and used our "credentials" to get inside. They were balls-to-the-wall melodic motherfuckers. Much better than I expected.
Vickie Rock - Turn those lemons into cider
It's often been said that the mid-to-late 60s Kinks were too "UK" for the US–I think the Move had 'em beat on that score, more's the pity.
But everyone who needs to love the Move does. I was a latecomer ("Do Ya") but soon grabbed everything I could find. I can't imagine a world without "Blackberry Way", "I Can Hear The Grass Grow", et al. (I could pass on the Bev Bevan contributions though, probably.)
God Save The Move.
I think Bev's stuff was a scream.
Vickie Rock
Well, I love the Move's 'Shazam' album which is the album I go to most when needing a Move fix.
I disagree with the assertion that the Move are more "British" than the Kinks. Look at the cover tunes the Move did. They're mostly American artists.
I also love Shazam, speaking of covers of American songs [who would have expected an Ars Nova cover?].
I love all of this band's work, but c'mon, the first album with all the bonus tracks of early singles --- That's the seminal shit!!
Vickie Rock - She's too good for you
Umm, yeah...I really wasn't saying that the Move didn't have a healthy appreciation for US music, Vickie. If you've seen their session on Colour Me Pop, you'll have heard their version of "The Christian Life", which (while they probably ganked it off the Parsons-era Byrds, was a Louvin Brothers song, fer fuckssake!
I meant their overall "sound"...really nasal (but lurvely) vocals, woodwinds/other early ELOisms, and songs about insane asylums and other equally bizarre lyrical conceits. Hell, even the Zombies couldn't pull a hit out of "Care of Cell 44" (yeah, I know, it was a prison in that instance, but US dopes wouldn't have known what to make of it) even though it's one of their best songs ever. The Beatles/Stones/Who/Kinks never got quite so risky. Well, maybe the Kinks.
Fuck it. I love 'em; you love em...that's all that counts.
Cool, Anna. Yep, I'd go with the Kinks. You know, Village Green, Cricket, Second-Hand Car Spivs, Christine Keeler, Wilesden Green, Berkeley Mews, Dedicated Follower of Fashion, the Kray Twins, Mary Quant etc.
Cheers,
Vickie Rock
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