Looking On
Turkish Tram Conductor Blues
What
When Alice Comes Back to the Farm
Open Up Said the World at the Door
Brontosaurus
Feel Too Good
The Duke Of Edinburgh's Lettuce
Jeff Lynne and Roy Wood often talked about a classical rock project, and the partnership finally came to fruition when the former left the Idle Race and hooked up with the latter in The Move in late 1970.
“Me and Roy used to talk about it when I was in The Idle Race and he was in The Move," Lynne told Classic Rock. "We’d meet up down the pub or in a club in Birmingham, or he’d come over to my house or I’d go over to his house and we’d listen to the records we’d just done.
"We discussed having this group for a couple of years, and finally we did it when I joined The Move. He asked me before but I still wanted to give The Idle Race more time because I really liked the guys and I enjoyed being with them. But I thought, four years is pretty long and I’m going to be too late if I don’t do something now; try and get a hit, you know. It wasn’t really long at all now that I think about it, but it seemed urgent at the time; ‘Get a hit, quick!’”
Lynne became The Move’s second songwriter on December 1970’s Looking On album, which yielded a hit with Brontosaurus. Its Lynne compositions were What? and epic prog-presaging Open Up Said The World At The Door, which he still holds in special regard.
“It has that real close jazzy harmony, lots of thirteenths in the chords. That was just venturing into that kind of world. It wasn’t really what I intended to do forever. That was just one of the styles that I did. I do many different styles on those albums, really.”
Every week, Album of the Week Club listens to and discusses the album in question, votes on how good it is, and publishes our findings, with the aim of giving people reliable reviews and the wider rock community the chance to contribute.
Other albums released in December 1970
- The End of an Ear - Robert Wyatt
- Wishbone Ash - Wishbone Ash
- Ginger Baker's Air Force 2 - Ginger Baker's Air Force
- John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band - John Lennon
- Yoko Ono/Plastic Ono Band - Yoko Ono and Plastic Ono Band
- Lizard - King Crimson
- T. Rex - T. Rex
- The Black-Man's Burdon - Eric Burdon and War
- Daughter of Time - Colosseum
- Desertshore - Nico
- The End of the Game - Peter Green
- False Start - Love
- H to He, Who Am the Only One - Van der Graaf Generator
- Highway - Free
- Kingdom Come - Sir Lord Baltimore
- Lick My Decals Off, Baby - Captain Beefheart & the Magic Band
- Pendulum - Creedence Clearwater Revival
- Ry Cooder - Ry Cooder
- 'Til the Band Comes In - Scott Walker
- Watt - Ten Years After
- What About Me - Quicksilver Messenger Service
- Just Another Diamond Day - Vashti Bunyan
What they said...
"Probably their weakest album, finding the group trying to blend progressive elements with lumpy hard rock boogie on obscure, extended tracks. The songs do look forward to the Electric Light Orchestra, for good or ill, in the helium-like high harmonies and the wide palette of instruments." (AllMusic)
"Anyone who doesn't believe heavy metal is a Yurrupean plot will kindly inform me which B the countermelodies on this one were stolen from. Not Berry or the Beatles, believe me." (Robert Christgau)
"Fans of weird, wild music that maintains some sense of focus without dipping into pointless avant-gardeisms or dissonances should really enjoy this album. Especially if they like early Led Zeppelin and Blue Cheer. An obvious must-buy, along with everything else by The Move." (Culture Fusion Reviews)
What you said...
Mark Herrington: A very different Move was signalled by the release of their 1970’s Looking On. Dense, heavy and quite experimental, with a smattering of lighter Jeff Lynne compositions in the mix. New arrival Lynne’s What and Open Up Said The World At The Door (with echoes of Horace Wimp to come) are both characteristic early ELO-sounding tracks.
The rest of the album is probably the heaviest that the band ever sounded. The nearly eight-minute title track opens up with a heady mixture of styles, followed by the wonderfully titled Turkish Tram Conductor Blues, a hard bluesy wall of sound. Two singles were released from the album, Brontosaurus – which charted at number 7 – and When Alice Comes Back To The Farm. The album's elaborate nine-minute-plus closer Feel Too Good is another heavy offering, with great guitar.
Certainly a portent of the Electric Light Orchestra and Wizzard yet to come, and also the Move’s hardest, proggiest album. It's perhaps a little overindulgent in parts, but it hits the mark. 8/10.
Chris Elliott: Roy Wood wrote some great singles for The Move and later Wizzard, but never broke in the US, even with that Xmas song. Never made a decent album. This, at least, isn't his jazz-rock side.
Mike Canoe: The Move is another band I'd heard of but not actually heard.
Looking On sounds like a demo for better things down the road. The opening title track, What?, and Feels Too Good appeal the most, with their instrumental intricacies and pleasing sonic heft. Oddly, it's the shorter songs that lumber ungainfully. For all the vaunted madcap genius of Messrs. Roy Wood and Jeff Lynne, (future ELO) drummer Bev Bevan sounds like the star of the show.
Looking On is an interesting "before they were stars" asterisk to Lynne's and Wood's (and Bevan's) careers.
Steve Pereira: I gave it a go. And I listened to other Move albums at the same time. I think this is a very poor album. Muddy, plodding, boring. A pop-rock band trying to get serious but failing badly.
This is the worst album by the Move, which is saying something, as the Move were a fairly minor late-sixties pop-rock band who produced little of worth. The album after this one, Message From The Country, continues in the same vein - a band looking for a new musical direction as the seventies opened up.
Soon the band would split into the orchestrated pop-rock of ELO, immersed in McCartney-influenced pap, and the rock-revival glam pop Wizzard. And there are elements of both those bands in this album and in Message From The Country. But I found Message From The Country more energetic, more varied, and more fun. There are some really funny tongue-in-cheek moments on that album. But Looking On is too dour, and – other than the daft, plodding, but somehow engaging Brontosaurus, (which I have a memory of Pan's People dancing to on TOTP back in 1970) – is not an album I'd want to listen to again.
Dale Munday: This is the Move's best and most cohesive album, whereas their other albums seem to be an inconsistent mix of styles redolent of contemporary bands of the time.
This finds them sticking quite rigidly to a burgeoning heavy rock template. Most of which I really liked. Brontosaurus, released as a single, became an unlikely number 7 hit in the UK.
John Davidson: An interesting curio, but no more than that. There are some heavy psychedelic blues guitars and Bev Bevan's drums are outstanding, but it rambles in that very 60s way that veers towards twee when it's trying to be clever. ELO and Wizzard were more fun.
Adam Ranger: I believe this was perhaps only "contractually" The Move, with some personnel leaving the band and Wood and Lynne already recording the first ELO album whilst producing this album.
It shows. This is perhaps the first ELO album, and certainly a good indication of what was to come. Certainly not much like The Move that people knew. A proto-metal, almost Sabbath-like opener that morphs into softer proggy jazz instrumentals. Followed by heavy swampy blues. Tunes and melodies that are reminiscent of the Beatles and very recognisable as ELO?
I like this album.. perhaps more than the actual first ELO release. It's not a stone-cold classic, but it's very listenable. The cusp of what Roy Wood wanted to do with Wizard and Geoff Lynne wanted to do with ELO.
Greg Schwepe: The Move’s Looking On was a case of “really liked that one, really didn’t care for that one” for me.
And right at the start, the title track was a good example of that. Long sections that sometimes wandered a bit too much for me (but I am a prog fan!), then some nice gritty guitar to pull me back in. Next is Turkish Tram Conductor Blues and that one totally pulled me back in. Heavy riff grinding away all through the song. Oh yeah. What? follows and has me asking the same question. But When Alice Comes Back To The Farm comes next and the raucous piano and vocals have me back in the “Hmm, this is OK” camp.
Open Up Said The World At The Door” is yet another long foray with a few sections where I can hear Jeff Lynne’s influence. Brontosaurus is my favourite song on this album. And if I’m correct, I can hear the same riff that I hear in the Roy Wood-written California Man that Cheap Trick cover on Heaven Tonight. Very familiar.
Overall, kind of a “Yeah, I guess this is OK” feel for this one. But if I check out some more of their catalogue I would bet I would come back to this and like it a little more. 7 out of 10 for me on this one.
Henry Martinez: Here's an analogy - the Move are to ELO what Free are to Bad Company. The latter iterations were more commercially successful, but the previous ones have their staunchest defenders as being true to the art. Whereas The Move starts melting into ELO with this unique offering, Bad Company mixed a concoction of Free and Mott with a dash of Peter Grant to keep the boys focused. Looking On is more of a curiosity than anything else but worth a listen. 6/10.
Final score: 6.69 (29 votes cast, total score 194)
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