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"When Alice Comes Back to the Farm" | ||||
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Single by The Move | ||||
from the album Looking On | ||||
B-side | "What?" | |||
Released | 9 October 1970 | |||
Recorded | 1970 | |||
Genre | Rock | |||
Length | 3:15 | |||
Label | Fly (UK) | |||
Songwriter(s) | Roy Wood | |||
Producer(s) | Roy Wood, Jeff Lynne | |||
The Move singles chronology | ||||
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"When Alice Comes Back to the Farm" is a rock-blues song recorded by The Move and written and sung by Roy Wood. Musically, it is a hard rock song and features Wood playing slide guitar, cello and baritone saxophone, reinforcing Rick Price's bassline.
A potential B-side, an untitled "10538 Overture", recorded on 12 July 1970, ended up being used by the members as the first Electric Light Orchestra single rather than the B-side. [1]
Two weeks prior, Wood had bought a "cheap Chinese cello" for 15 pounds and had messed around with the instrument, with the recordings later being used for both "10538 Overture" and "When Alice Comes Back to the Farm". [2] [3] [4]
The genre itself is a mix of proto-glam rock and early heavy metal, with influences from blues as well. [5] The song shows similar instrumentation to the band's previous single, "Brontosaurus". [6]
Taken from the 1970 album Looking On and released as a single on the Fly label, "Alice" and Looking On failed to chart, [7] with "Alice" not charting largely due to lack of airplay by BBC radio stations, despite an appearance on Top of the Pops. The song allegedly made mild references to cannabis—"Alice", "time for tearing out the weeds", and the last line "don't get around much anymore", which is a description of the singer's condition rather than a reference to the Duke Ellington song.[ according to whom? ]
It was released around the same time as T. Rex's hit single Ride a White Swan, with both singles released in the Fly label. [8] In English-speaking countries (Austria, Ireland, United Kingdom and New Zealand), the B-side was "What?", but in Austria and Germany, a Move track "Kilroy Was Here" was instead opted as a B-side.
The Move [9]
Additional personnel [10]
The Electric Light Orchestra (ELO) are an English rock band formed in Birmingham in 1970 by songwriters and multi-instrumentalists Jeff Lynne and Roy Wood with drummer Bev Bevan. Their music is characterised by a fusion of pop and classical arrangements with futuristic iconography. After Wood's departure in 1972, Lynne became the band's sole leader, arranging and producing every album while writing nearly all of their original material. From this point until their first break-up in 1986, Lynne and Bevan were the group's only consistent members.
Jeffrey Lynne is an English musician, singer-songwriter and record producer. He is the co-founder and currently the sole member of the rock band Electric Light Orchestra (ELO), which was formed in 1970, and as a songwriter has written all of the band's music past 1972, including the hits "Evil Woman", "Livin' Thing", "Telephone Line", "Mr. Blue Sky", "Don't Bring Me Down", and "Hold On Tight".
The Move were a British rock band formed in Birmingham in 1965. They scored nine top 20 UK singles in five years, but were among the most popular British bands not to find any real success in the United States. For most of their career the Move were led by guitarist, singer and songwriter Roy Wood. He wrote all the group's UK singles and, from 1968, also sang lead vocals on many songs. Initially, the band had four main vocalists who divided the lead-vocal duties among themselves.
On the Third Day is the third studio album by Electric Light Orchestra (ELO), and the first to be recorded without input from Roy Wood. It was released in the United States in November 1973 by United Artists Records, and in the United Kingdom on 14 December 1973 by Warner Bros. Records. From this album on, the word The was dropped from the band's name. The album was reissued on 12 September 2006.
Strange Magic: The Best of Electric Light Orchestra is a compilation album by Electric Light Orchestra (ELO), released in 1995 only in the US.
Message from the Country is the fourth and final studio album by the Move, as well as the group's only album for EMI's Harvest label. It was recorded simultaneously with the first Electric Light Orchestra album, The Electric Light Orchestra.
Looking On is the third studio album by the English rock band the Move, released in the UK in December 1970. The album 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.
"Can't Get It Out of My Head" is a song written by Jeff Lynne and originally recorded by Electric Light Orchestra.
"10538 Overture" is the debut single by the English band the Electric Light Orchestra. It was released on 23 June 1972 as the lead single from their self-titled debut studio album (1971). It is a hard rock song influenced by psychedelic music, with cello instrumentation and lyrics about an escaped prisoner. Originally written by co-founder Jeff Lynne for him and Roy Wood's previous band, the Move, it became the first recording by the Electric Light Orchestra after Wood added orchestral instruments to the song.
"Do Ya" is a song written by Jeff Lynne, that was originally recorded by The Move, which became a hit for the Electric Light Orchestra in 1977.
"Showdown" is a 1973 song written by Jeff Lynne and recorded by the Electric Light Orchestra (ELO). It was the band's last contemporary recording to be released on the Harvest label. The song was released as a single and reached No 12 in the UK Singles Chart, in the week beginning 28 October, and No 9 on the Norwegian chart VG-lista.
The Light Shines On is a compilation album by Electric Light Orchestra (ELO). This is the second Harvest compilation of their early years with the label, followed in 1979 by volume 2. It features 5 tracks from ELO's debut album, 3 tracks from their second album and the non album single Showdown, although both 10538 Overture and Roll Over Beethoven are the single edits. The full length versions are featured on volume 2.
"California Man" is a song by British rock and roll band The Move. It was written by the band's guitarist/vocalist Roy Wood, who has said he wrote it as a pastiche of Little Richard and Jerry Lee Lewis.
"Mr. Radio" is a song recorded by the Electric Light Orchestra.
The Electric Light Orchestra is the debut studio album by English rock band Electric Light Orchestra (ELO), released in December 1971 in the United Kingdom by Harvest Records. In the United States, the album was released in March 1972 as No Answer, after a misunderstood telephone message made by a United Artists Records executive asking about the album name; the caller, having failed to reach the ELO contact, wrote down "no answer" in his notes, and this was misconstrued to be the name of the album.
"Boy Blue" is a song written by Jeff Lynne and performed by the Electric Light Orchestra (ELO) which first appeared as track number 3 from their 1974 album Eldorado.
Bill Hunt is an English multi-instrumentalist notable for playing for the Electric Light Orchestra and Wizzard in the early 1970's.
Red Cars Are After Me is a song made and produced by Roy Wood from the year 1987. It was released in Starting Up and was the first song in the album. Wood plays every instrument in the song and album overall. It was also included in Look Thru' The Eyes of Roy Wood, a compilation album that consists of songs from 1974 to 1987.
"Turkish Tram Conductor Blues" is a song performed by English band The Move. The song was written by Roy Wood, though the group's drummer Bev Bevan was credited as songwriter, as a reward for his promotional efforts on behalf of the band. Bevan noted that the song was "the sort of the thing that the Wild Angels might like to play".