"Even though we didn't actually record it as the Move I had already written a song called 'Dear Elaine,' which I subsequently put on the Boulders album. I thought at the time that was probably the best song I'd written"
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There is a particular kind of musician candor in Roy Wood admitting his “best song” didn’t arrive with trumpets, liner-note mythology, or even the band people associate with him. It’s lodged in the in-between: written under one banner (the Move), officially released under another (Boulders), and remembered as a private high-water mark more than a public career milestone. That tension is the point. Wood isn’t selling a legend; he’s exposing how contingent “the canon” really is.
The subtext is about authorship versus machinery. Bands become brands, and brands decide what counts as essential. Wood’s phrasing - “we didn’t actually record it as the Move” - carries a quiet shrug at the way timing, lineup, label priorities, or sheer chaos can reroute a song’s destiny. A track can be perfect and still miss the moment it “should” have belonged to. When he says he “subsequently” put it on Boulders, it sounds less like strategy than salvage: an artist making sure the work survives, even if it has to change passports.
Context matters here: Boulders is a largely solo statement, a one-man studio universe. Calling “Dear Elaine” his best song frames that album not as a side project but as a place where his songwriting could breathe without committee decisions. It’s also a reminder that pop history is full of near-misses and reassigned masterpieces - not because artists don’t know what they’ve made, but because the industry often doesn’t know what to do with it until later, if ever.
The subtext is about authorship versus machinery. Bands become brands, and brands decide what counts as essential. Wood’s phrasing - “we didn’t actually record it as the Move” - carries a quiet shrug at the way timing, lineup, label priorities, or sheer chaos can reroute a song’s destiny. A track can be perfect and still miss the moment it “should” have belonged to. When he says he “subsequently” put it on Boulders, it sounds less like strategy than salvage: an artist making sure the work survives, even if it has to change passports.
Context matters here: Boulders is a largely solo statement, a one-man studio universe. Calling “Dear Elaine” his best song frames that album not as a side project but as a place where his songwriting could breathe without committee decisions. It’s also a reminder that pop history is full of near-misses and reassigned masterpieces - not because artists don’t know what they’ve made, but because the industry often doesn’t know what to do with it until later, if ever.
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| Topic | Music |
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