{"id":3387,"date":"2012-12-10T05:16:16","date_gmt":"2012-12-10T10:16:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=3387"},"modified":"2012-12-10T05:16:16","modified_gmt":"2012-12-10T10:16:16","slug":"album-review-the-moving-sidewalks-the-complete-collection","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2012\/12\/10\/album-review-the-moving-sidewalks-the-complete-collection\/","title":{"rendered":"Album Review: The Moving Sidewalks – The Complete Collection"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"When The Moving Sidewalks<\/strong> are mentioned at all, it’s general in the context of them being a forerunner of ZZ Top<\/strong> (guitarist Billy Gibbons<\/strong> fronted The Moving Sidewalks). But the Texas quartet deserves more than a footnote in some ZZ Top essay; the group’s music is of a piece with other sixties Texas bands of note (Bubble Puppy<\/strong>, 13<\/strong>th<\/strong><\/sup> Floor Elevators<\/strong> and \u2013 I would even argue \u2013 Green Fuz<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Moving Sidewalks folded in many of the familiar trippy\/hippie influences of the day: swirling sitars, a bit of studio effects here and there. But at their core they were a hard-charging rock’n’roll band. Though they only released one record (1967’s Flash<\/em>), and though by the time that LP hit the streets, the group had already folded (or begun its metamorphosis into the very different ZZ Top), their music remains noteworthy.<\/p>\n

The group’s bluesy, riffy garage-punk style was showcased on Flash<\/em> as well as on a clutch of non-LP singles and unreleased alternate takes. The latter \u2013 along with five previously-unreleased tracks by The Coachmen<\/strong> (an embryonic version of The Moving Sidewalks) form a second disc in a new package from Rock Beat titled The Complete Collection<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The biggest difference between The Moving Sidewalks and ZZ Top is the former’s reliance on keyboards. There are plenty of gospel-flavored Hammond textures in the group’s slim catalog. \u201cYou Don’t Know the Life\u201d is a downtempo number not miles removed from Boz Scaggs<\/strong>‘ cover of Fenton Robinson<\/strong>‘s \u201cLoan Me a Dime.\u201d But that number is contrasted with \u201cPluto \u2013 Sept 31st<\/sup>,\u201d a tracks that mines a vibe very similar to Jimi Hendrix Experience<\/strong>‘s \u201cFire,\u201d a clear influence. \u201cNo Good to Cry\u201d sounds a good bit like early Procol Harum; Gibbons’ guitar tone and finger style is reminiscent of Robin Trower’s approach. This may be pure coincidence; Procol Harum recorded their debut LP in June ’67, so it’s unlikely \u2013 though not inconceivable — that Gibbons and his bandmates heard the British band’s music.<\/p>\n

The Hendrix influence pops up again on \u201cEclipse,\u201d a snaky number that bears traces of Axis: Bold as Love<\/em>‘s \u201cEXP.\u201d The tune gets weirder and further out the more it unfolds; it’s exceedingly unlikely this cut was ever part of the band’s live repertoire. \u201cReclipse\u201d is even stranger, and in places suggests Frank Zappa<\/strong>‘s Lumpy Gravy<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The Moving Sidewalks seem to have been a relatively democratic outfit: though Gibbons had a hand in the composition of six of Flash<\/em>‘s ten tracks, keyboardist Tom Moore<\/strong> wrote two of the songs, and an extended blues is credited to all four members. (Producer Steve Ames<\/strong> gets partial credit on nearly half of the cuts as well).<\/p>\n

As it turns out, Hendrix himself does crop up in the Moving Sidewalks’ relatively brief story; the Texans opened for the Experience on some gigs, and \u2013 according to the delightfully detailed liner note essay by Bill Bentley<\/strong> \u2013 the two groups got on quite well.<\/p>\n

The tracks on the bonus disc often sound like the work of a wholly different band, even when they’re not. Whiny combo organ is the highlight of the non-LP single \u201c99th<\/sup> Floor,\u201d a legendary garage nugget\/classic. Some tasty guitar dialogue enlivens this treasure, which sounds much more like Roky Erickson<\/strong>‘s 13th<\/sup> Floor Elevators than anything on Flash<\/em>. (Two demo versions of the song from 1966 by The Coachmen are included as well; they’re interesting, but pale in comparison to the released version.) The other non-LP tracks sport a harder, punkier edge as well; those tracks would sound right at home on a Pebbles<\/em> compilation. Three takes of The Beatles<\/strong>‘ \u201cI Want to Hold Your Hand\u201d pretty much reinvent the tune as a heavy rocker; think of what Vanilla Fudge<\/strong> might’ve done with the song, remove all the pretentious trappings they’d apply, and what you’re left with is something like The Moving Sidewalks’ version.<\/p>\n

In addition to putting together a sonically brilliant package \u2013 no small feat for relatively obscure music from more than 45 years ago \u2013 Rock Beat has applied great attention to detail to the box set. A pair of LP sleeve replicas hold the discs, and a fifty-plus page, CD-sized booklet is chock-full of photos, memorabilia and the essential essay. (Be sure to check out the photos of Sidewalks bassist Don Summers for proof that he invented Robert Smith<\/strong>‘s hairdo.) The whole thing comes in a sturdy pink box. With the release of Moving Sidewalks: The Complete Collection<\/em> and the various-artists Surf Age Nuggets: Trash & Twang Instrumentals 1959-1966<\/em> (reviewed separately), Rock Beat is staking a claim as the rightful successor to Rhino when it comes to thoughtful box sets.<\/p>\n

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When The Moving Sidewalks are mentioned at all, it’s general in the context of them being a forerunner of ZZ Top (guitarist Billy Gibbons fronted The Moving Sidewalks). But the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,33,57,59,62,64,65],"tags":[1534,1864,2434],"class_list":["post-3387","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-compilation","category-garage","category-psych","category-punk","category-rawk","category-reissue","category-review","tag-moving-sidewalks","tag-rock-beat","tag-zz-top","cat-19-id","cat-33-id","cat-57-id","cat-59-id","cat-62-id","cat-64-id","cat-65-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3387","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3387"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3387\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3387"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3387"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3387"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}