Move with the Wizzard: Roy Wood 80

Roy Wood's Wizzo Band - Life Is Wonderful

It's Sunday night, and time for one of the music of our epoch's most weird and wonderful characters to get some flowers in the rain.

This guy -- who's made it to 80 today -- is such an underrated force in everything we know as modern popular music.

There's no overstating the quantum impact the work of his group The Move had on early psychedelia; you can't make kids today understand what was not permissible until the birthday boy came along.

Perhaps the first pop figure to begin to overtly marry Rock to other kinds of music, he's surely one of the formative figures of what came to be termed Progressive Rock. And of course he sang on Jimi Hendrix's second album and -- while The Move was still on the radio and making vital music -- formed another of history's most beloved groups.

He only lasted in The Electric Light Orchestra (ELO for short) for a couple of years before -- in a story that kind of says it all about the "music industry" -- the record company decided that having he and Jeff Lynne in one group was a waste of potential revenue.

They wanted him making his own records and them lots of cash, and two top drawer songsmiths in one group wasn't caressing their bottom line quite to their liking, so rumors got circulated and tensions escalated, and before 1972 was over our hero was out and ELO was to enter a phase of commercial and artistic dominance under the guidance of Jeff Lynne.

And of course Jeff Lynne is also awesome, and needs his own day on here, someday soon when I can locate an ELO bootleg that doesn't sound like it was recorded in a bathroom stall in a bar across the street from the arena.

It was after ELO that the music of today's honoree really gets into Joshy's Preferred Kind Of Weirdness territory, where his group Wizzard began to add brass instruments and Jazz leanings to the stringed, cello-tized mayhem he had started with ELO.

This culminated a few years hence with his next group, which made one LP and played precisely one gig before splitting up.

A little like what you might get if you crossed The Move with Keith Tippett's 50-piece Jazz-Rock orchestra Centipede, the Wizzo Band was a foray into fusion that I always loved since I heard it in college about 40 years ago.

Speaking of the only Wizzo concert performance, I've wanted to post this tape since I began this page 13 years ago, but it was missing a song and you know I hate that. But I finally found the missing track, included in a partial BBC rebroadcast from 2017, so today is at last the day I get to celebrate the monumental musical force of nature that was, is, and shall ever be the great Roy Wood.

Roy Wood's Wizzo Band

Paris Theatre

London, UK

2.4.1977

01 BBC introduction by Alan Black

02 Life Is Wonderful

03 Waitin' At this Door

04 French Perfume

05 California Man

06 I Should Have Known

07 Another Wrong Night

08 band introductions

09 Are You Ready to Rock?

10 Sneakin'/BBC outro

Total time: 59:09

Roy Wood - guitar, bagpipes & vocals

Rick Price - guitar & pedal steel guitar

Graham Gallery - bass

David Donovan - drums

Nick Pentelow - tenor saxophone

Mike Burney - tenor saxophone

Billy Paul - alto saxophone

Brian Crotham - baritone saxophone

Bob Wilson - trombone

Ian Royal - trumpet

Andy Peate - trumpet

Kevin Perry - trumpet

Rod Lee - trumpet

off-air analog FM capture of indeterminate origin from the JEMS archives

Track 05, which was officially released in edited form as a single in 1982 and 

thus omitted from the 2016 zootype reseed seed of this, was subbed in from a 2017 BBC FM partial rebroadcast

edited, retracked & remastered for unity by EN, November 2026
378 MB FLAC/direct link

I've got a huge project for my next birthday missive, which -- if you can believe this -- actually concerns an artist under 40 whose music is current. As in, right now and everything! Ripped from yesterday's, today's and tomorrow's headlines, in fact.

But that now is then, and this then -- where we celebrate 60+ years of Roy Wood -- is now. So happy 8-0 to the man on The Move, born this day in 1946 and always ready to Rock!--J.

Vocal Gentry: Art Garfunkel 85

Art Garfunkel - I Only Have Eyes for You

Welcome back, my friends, to the OH NO! that never ends. Let's kick off November with a milestone berfday for an iconic vocalist and actor.

He's 85 today, but he must have been about 32 that day in 1973.

Of course, I'd have never heard a word of this tale, had the Simon & Garfunkel song Homeward Bound not come on my dad's favorite Sirius XM channel that time back in 2014 in the car on the way to the Fairway supermarket.

My dad told it this way, as I sat there in stunned, celebritized silence.

It happened in the old E.J. Korvette's department store -- if you're not familiar, think a slightly less trashy K-Mart -- in Douglaston, Queens.... not coincidentally the hometown of our hero.

See, my parents used to take us kids there (and other boring, no-fun-for-kids places like Orbach's and Fortunoff's in the Roosevelt Field mall) for dreadful, days-long shopping excursions.

Korvette's was one of the cooler spots, as it had this glass-walled, separate vinyl record room with millions of LPs just waiting for 7-year-old Joshy to scour. Yes, I was a Music Freak even then.

This particular event took place, according to my pops, in the summer of 1973. I was out of school and my little brother was home with my mom, as he remembered it.

We got to the store about 1pm and he let me off, as he always did, on my own at the Record Room. Then he went off to do his stuff and returned to collect me, as he recalled the time lapse, roughly half an hour later.

When he had left me there, there were just two people in the room: the guy behind the counter and me. When he came back, there was one more.

The new guy approached my father as I hungrily bashed through the bins and said to him, as they shook hands, "You must be a great parent. Your son sure seems to love music." And then the dude walked out.

My dad, obviously a huge fan and stunned out of his shoes, grabbed me and off we went. When, decades hence, I incredulously pounded the dashboard and implored him as to why he had never told me about the time Art Garfunkel -- born this day in 1941 -- and I were record shopping together, he simply said, "I dunno, it just never came up!"

Art Garfunkel

Artpark

Lewiston, NY

8.29.1994

01 Kathy's Song

02 A Heart In New York

03 (What A) Wonderful World

04 Homeward Bound

05 American Tune

06 I Only Have Eyes for You

07 Skywriter

08 Scarborough Fair

09 A Poem On the Underground Wall

10 The Water Is Wide

11 Cecilia

12 El Condor Pasa (If I Could)

13 All I Know

14 Mrs. Robinson

15 Bridge Over Troubled Water

16 The 59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin' Groovy)

17 April Come She Will

18 The Sound of Silence

Total time: 1:13:46

Art Garfunkel - vocals

Eric Weisberg - guitar

Richie "Gajate" Garcia - drums & percussion

David Biglin - synthesizers, percussion & vocals

Craig Doerge - keyboards

Bob Glaub - bass

Kim Cermak - vocals & percussion

mono soundboard cassette capture of indeterminate origin

edited, repaired & remastered by EN, November 2026
324 MB FLAC/direct link

OK, was that a fun storytime? If that damn song hadn't come on the box, I'd have never known it had happened. Thanks Dad... you were a great parent, at least with a turntable and a stack o'wax to occupy the mind!

I told this story at his funeral, rest his soul and my poor baby bro's too. And, oh yes... before I forget. A most Happy 85th birthday to the Maestro Arthur Ira Garfunkel from Douglaston! Long may he scrape the corners of Queens for the finest LPs.--J.

Hella Ween

Ween - Japanese Cowboy

Let's spook the horses while we finish off October with these nutbags from New Hope, PA... from a time 30 years ago when they really started to make a dusty ruckus.

For it was way back in October of 1996 when Dean and Gene Ween (Mickey & Aaron to friends & family) took the (incredible, surreal, hummably melodic, deeply disturbed) country record they'd made in Nashville the previous November, out on a short US tour.

At the time no one could believe it, but here they were with bona fide Nashville pedal steel, performing the tunes from their album 12 Golden Country Greats. Which only had 10 songs on it. All of which were killer.

If you don't know who Ween are, well you should. Ween are like infinite bands, all unified by the power of the Boognish into one, supremely powerful amalgam that can sound like any kind of music, in any style, in any given song, at any time.

They don't really make records anymore, but they occasionally tour. I've seen them 5 times over the last 3 decades and they never fail to deliver a good time, kind of like your mom but with way better guitar solos.

They kind of coat what they do in a sheen of comedy, and the humor often confuses people who think they are some sort of joke. They aren't, although they can be really, really falldown funny.

So when they did a left turn into Country in 1996, it was a tossup: were they serious? Were they semi-unserious? Is writing about music dumb and one-dimensional enough?

All I can say is if they weren't, they sure did a seriously good job faking it. I dunno what sort of talent you'd have to have to fake something as sincerely fucked up as 12 Golden Country Greats.

The tour, which took place over 3 weeks 30 years ago this month, and in which they also performed a number of Ween classics in the style of the record, is the stuff of legend.

Thankfully, Ween's longtime audio engineer Kirk Miller recorded every gig on cassette from the mixer, and we have something in the way of Crazy Documentation that this cultural collision in Country actually took place.

Ween 

with The Shit Creek Boys

"12 Golden Country Greats" tour sampler

October 1996

01 Don't Shit Where You Eat

02 Pretty Girl

03 Mr. Richard Smoker

04 Japanese Cowboy

05 Piss Up a Rope

06 What Deaner Was Talkin' About

07 Pumpin' 4 the Man

08 I Don't Wanna Leave You On the Farm

09 Help Me Scrape the Mucus Off My Brain

10 Waving My Dick In the Wind

11 I Saw Gener Cryin' In His Sleep

12 Spinal Meningitis

13 Powder Blue

14 You Were the Fool

15 The HIV Song

16 I Can't Put My Finger On It

17 Booze Me Up and Get Me High

18 Mister, Would You Please Help My Pony?

19 Jonny On the Spot

20 I'm Holding You

21 Push th' Little Daisies

22 Big Jilm

23 Poopship Destroyer

24 Freedom of '76

25 Dean Ween guitar introduction

26 Dr. Rock

27 She Fucks Me

28 Birthday Boy

29 Baby Bitch

30 Buenos Tardes Amigo

31 The Stallion Pt.3

32 The Blarney Stone

33 Fluffy

34 Sorry Charlie

35 Little Birdy

36 A Tear for Eddie

37 "Stu Gets Slammed"

38 Piano Man

Total time: 2:32:18

disc break goes after Track 20

Aaron Freeman (Gene Ween) - guitar & vocals

Mickey Melchiondo (Dean Ween) - guitar & vocals

Claude Coleman, Jr. - drums & vocals

with The Shit Creek Boys:

Bobby Ogdin - piano

Danny Parks - guitar

Stu Basore - pedal steel guitar

Hank Singer - fiddle

Matthew Kohut - bass

1st gen cassettes recorded live from the soundboard, at various venues around the US & Canada, by Kirk Miller

edited, repaired, denoised & remastered by EN, October 2026
.98 GB FLAC/direct link

I made a few repairs to these tapes, which had a few flaws and dropouts, but don't expect the 48 track experience. If you ask me, the mid-fi aspect of it kind of adds to the rough, barroom brawl mystique of the music.

These guys have a few new live records out -- from 1996, coincidentally, but not the October Country left turn -- and you should buy them, or I will send the Boognish to toilet paper your tipi tonight. Don't say you weren't warned. Like the song goes, you were the fool! Happy Hella Ween!--J.

Let It P: Bootsy Collins 75

Bootsy Collins & The Funk U-nity Band - Don't Take My Funk

I know I said I'd be away until Halloween, but I lied. It wouldn't be the 1st time, but I'm allowed because yesterday was my birthday.

But when I woke up today, I was reminded -- by the ten zillion deserved tributes on Facebook -- that, in my injured state, I'd forgotten a milestone birthday I had wanted to get to this month.

I guess it's kind of returning the favor, as a few birthdays back my husband got me one of those Cameo messages from today's honoree -- who's 15 years, less one day, older than I -- where the man sang me a song, straight off the top of his head.

So how could I not? I soon realized that long ago I had prepared a concert for a previous birthday post about him, so all I had to do was finish dealing with it --  it needed the beginning restored, and a bunch of noises and a dropout or two fixed -- and here we is!

Anyway everybody is familiar with this charter member of The Council On Funk Relations, I trust? From Cincinnati, picked up with his and his brother's band after James Brown fired his existing group in 1970. Graduated to George Clinton's Parliafunkadelicment thang in 1972. Launched a solo career in 1976. A participant in countless projects at the top of music, with a zillion superheavyweights of the firmament. And ever funkin' on...

This set comes from an AVI file made from the original webstream of the whole concert (minus the first few seconds, which was subbed in from an edited broadcast), yet the audio goes to 20 kHz lossless, so it has the taste of one of those pre-broadcast menu items we always prefer for an entrée.

Plus, you get "Kash" Waddy on drums, Bernie Worrell (The Wizard of Woo) on keys and guitar deity Blackbyrd McKnight, for that authentic P-Funk mothership experience we all crave!

Bootsy Collins & The Funk U-nity Band

Jazz à Vienne 2011

Théâtre Antique

Vienne, France

7.9.2011

01 Zha Zha/Ahh... The Name is Bootsy, Baby!

02 Psychoticbumpschool

03 Pinocchio Theory

04 Hollywood Squares

05 Swing Down, Sweet Chariot

06 Cosmic Slop

07 Purple Haze

08 Red Hot Mama

09 Flash Light

10 Bootzilla (Wind Me Up)/Roto-Rooter

11 I'd Rather Be with You

12 Don't Take My Funk

13 One Nation Under a Groove

14 Casper the Friendly Ghost

15 Stretchin' Out (In a Rubber Band)/Touch Somebody

16 "We Want the Funk" chant

17 P-Funk medley incl. Mothership Connection/Dr. Funkenstein/Swing Down, Sweet Chariot

Total time: 1:56:39

disc break goes after Track 11

William "Bootsy" Collins - space bass & vocals

Ouiwey Collins - vocals & percussion

Hazel Denise White - vocals

Candice Aileen Cheatham - vocals

Kyle Jason Smith - vocals

Frankie "Kash" Waddy - drums

Bernie Worrell - keyboards & vocals

Joel "Razor Sharp" Johnson - keyboards

DeWayne "Blackbyrd" McKnight - guitar

Keith Cheatham - guitar

T.M. Stevens - bass & vocals

Charles Brian Hardgroove - bass & vocals

Garry George Winters - trumpet

Sarah Amial Marrow - trombone

John Randy Villars - alto & tenor saxophones

192/48k audio extracted from an AVI file of the event, as broadcast live over the web

spectral analysis is lossless to 20 kHz, making this equivalebnt to a preFM source

converted to 16/44 CD Audio, tracked, denoised, repaired, edited & remastered by EN, October 2026
824 MB FLAC/direct link

Bootsy was born in 1951, so he is 75 today. But, really, his age can't be calculated in human numbers, but only in Epochs Of Primal Funk.

OK? Ain't no party like a P-Funk party cuz a P-Funk party don't stop! Happy Birthday to Bootsy Collins, the Maestro of the Space Bass, and long may he tend his Thumpasaurus.--J.