LIVE AT THE FILLMORE 1969

A combination of bad luck and bad timing kept The Move from becoming a household name in America in the late 1960s. Having lit up the British charts for much of 1967 with their incredible run of singles ("Night of Fear", "I Can Hear the Grass Grow", and "Flowers in the Rain", just to name three), The Move's long-awaited debut album (entitled Move) suffered some unfortunate delays and was not released until well into 1968, which unfortunately places them in the "followers" bin of history. This, combined with a volatile band lineup, greatly hurt the momentum The Move had achieved in 1967. Their follow-up album, Shazam, would not be released until 1970, and it seemed for a while as if their opportunity to take the world by storm had passed, as the pop music landscape had changed immeasurably since 1967, with psychedelic pop tossed aside in favor of the heavy sounds of Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath.

The Move were never a band to stand still, though. One listen to even their debut album shows a band with an unusually high level of eclecticism. And by 1969, as they were planning their second album, they had evolved further into something approaching heavy prog-rock. And so our heroes set sail for America for the first (and last) time, to play a few select concerts, one of these at the legendary Fillmore West Auditorium in San Francisco. The event was recorded for posterity, and was finally cleaned up and seen fit for release in 2012.

Now on with the show: the material consists primarily of the songs which would soon appear on Shazam, plus a few well chosen covers. As is the case on Shazam, the material is performed loudly and loosely, stretching songs out beyond the six minute mark. Carl Wayne's performance on lead vocals was the biggest surprise. The Move has always been remembered as Roy Wood and (later) Jeff Lynne's pre-ELO band, but few remember Wayne, who really shines here and makes a strong case to be considered along with the strongest rock front-men of the era. As for Roy Wood, he delivers some serious thunder on the guitar, and frequently performs harmony vocals accompanying Wayne. Drummer Bev Bevan gives a hard-pounding performance on the drums, coming somewhere between Keith Moon and John Bonham. New member Rick Price, on bass, plays complex bass lines that essentially make up for the lack of a second guitarist (which they had had on their debut album).

"Open My Eyes", the now-classic Nazz song, opens the show with a total bang. This then dives into the slow heavy blues of Frankie Laine's "Don't Make My Baby Blue" and a re-thought version of their debut album track "Cherry Blossom Clinic (Revisited)", played slower and heavier and incorporating a very prog-like rock band adaptation of classical melodies in the coda. "The Last Thing on My Mind" (another cover!) continues the set with a mellow ballad played with an Eastern-drone sensibility. Then there's their second UK hit single "I Can Hear the Grass Grow", played with gusto and extended to 10 minutes incorporating a drum solo.

The set continues with "Fields of People", an obscure contemporary flower-power song by Ars Nova, again re-imagined as a powerful psychedelic rocker which is probably my favorite Move song. This version stretches out even more than the Shazam version, with Wood elongating the long instrumental section at the end that features a strange guitar fashioned out of a banjo and a Turkish saz. "Goin' Back" is yet another cover, a laid back soul rocker, and "Hello Suzie" is a Wood original that is probably the heaviest the Move ever got, with Wood taking the lead vocal and practically screaming the whole song. "Under the Ice" (I believe ANOTHER Nazz cover) finishes the set with 14 more minutes of rockin' soul. The second disc closes out with alternate live versions of three of the songs, plus a ten minute interview with Bev Bevan, recalling the 1969 US tour.

Bottom line: this is one of the few surviving documents of The Move in a concert setting, and although it's not a pristine recording, it's very listenable, with clear vocals throughout and reasonably clear stage sound. The difference between their debut album and this live performance is comparable to, say, hearing "The Who Sell Out" and then jumping to "Live at Leeds" - quite an eye opener. And for fans like me who love the Shazam album, this functions well as an alternate document of the band during that period - as good as Shazam is, it does feel a little stifled by the LP format, whereas this show feels no boundaries as the band just lets it fly for over 90 minutes. Excellent archival find.