Wizzard - Angel Fingers

 The first record to be played on Radio 1, by Tony Blackburn in 1967, was famously Flowers in the Rain by The Move. A small, unprepossessing man, some might be rude enough to say, Roy Wood surely knew about, loved and was determined enough to succeed at pop music to do so. Three or four times, firstly, after Idle Race, with a highly respectable series of hits with The Move, then, saying he was going to proceed further than where John Lennon had got with I am the Walrus, set up the Electric Light Orchestra and made a brave attempt at doing so with 10538 Overture, full of cellos and orchestration, before quickly moving on to create Wizzard.

His devotion to pop music was never better expressed than in his solo single, Forever, with its verses successively paying tribute to the Beach Boys, Eddie Cochran and Neil Sedaka. But, brilliant and apparently self-made as he was, he was, like George Harrison, Led Zeppelin, Ed Sheeran, Rod Stewart and legions of others, accused of lifting his tune from a previous record. Angel Fingers does sound a bit like By a Babbling Brook by Donald Peers. 

Have a look for yourself,

It is the same, isn't it. What Roy has done is give it pop-obssesed, teen idolatry words and given it pop-obsessed Phil Spector 'wall of sound' production. That's because, like we all were, he was pop-obsessed and was paying tribute which anybody who finds it necessary to make their own art finds it necessary to do.

Roy Wood, not as obviously such a matinee idol as Bryan Ferry or as extrovert as Rod Stewart, was a shy man hiding behind all that hair make-up who made his own inspirational art out of previous art, which is what Shakespeare did.

Angel Fingers is a profound love song. Not to another person but to pop music itself.