Fabulous Friday: "Sweet Talkin' Woman" and "California Man"

I was at Cha Cha Matcha on Monday getting a matcha latte for my boss and they were playing this song in the shop. I was briefly out of my mind with joy. Such an amazing song! So much to love:

1. The mixture of acoustic strings and electronics.

2. The classic pop use of backing vocals. I may have been singing along at Cha Cha Matcha. "I was searchin' [SEARCHIN'] on a one-way street, I was hopin' [HOPIN'] for a chance to meet." Et cetera. Come to think of it, there's no way I wasn't singing along at Cha Cha Matcha.

3. The blue note on "Don't know what I'm gonna do." Love that!

I shared this with my brother Howard since I'm sure he must have had this song on LP back in day. He told me that co-founder and resident genius of ELO, Jeff Lynne, had been in a band before that called The Move. He sent me this astonishing live performance by them:

I sent Howard a few observations:

1. I CAN'T TAKE IT!

2. It's so loose and sloppy compared to the tightly controlled sonic world of ELO.

3. The drummer is my next boyfriend, though he's probably pushing 80 by now. No justice.

Howard told me that the drummer was Beverly Bevan, who naturally goes by Bev. He was another co-founder of ELO and eventually played with Ozzy Osbourne. His Wikipedia entry shows that he also played with Black Sabbath and my guess was right on target - - the dude is 80.