Song of the Day 1/12: The Move, “Fire Brigade”

Those wily Mexicans have launched a new front in their invasion of El Norte: They’ve sent firefighters to help battle the Los Angeles blazes. I don’t know how much it will help in containing the devastation, but it certainly sticks a thumb in the eye of the xenophobic asshole politicians catering to the xenophobic asshole public.

There are lots of songs about fires real and metaphorical, but not many about the fire brigade. Roy Wood wrote one for the Move, the Birmingham band that eventually morphed into Electric Light Orchestra, in 1968, and it became a No. 3 hit in the UK.

The Move formed when its members all split from their bands, hence its name. They had a clutch of Top 10 singles in the UK but never broke through in the States. Multi-instrumentalist Wood wrote most of their original material but this was his first lead vocal.