Universal Removals

“Movers and Shakers” by Michael & Danny Sembello, featuring Richard Elliot

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My band “The Movers” in 1995 won what is now called the International Blues Challenge. We opened the Handy Awards In Memphis, TN on May 2, 1996. It was a great priviledge to play that and the “after-party” at B.B. King’s on Beale Street with everybody (Ronnie Earl, Toni Lynn Washington, Bob Margolin, Luther Allison). Watch a (fairly rough) video tape dub of our performance and an interview with LCH Roberson and Curtis Lee of Buffalo, NY

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October 24, 2008

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A question I get a lot is why did the Prime Movers never record and get famous? The short answer is: it was not in the cards. The longer version is actually pretty funny. Here it is in brief:

There were two attempts to hitch our wagon to the stars. For a short time early on, we had the now-legendary ‘Jeep’ Holland, manager of the rock group “The Rationals” as our manager. For sure, he wanted to get us into the mainstream of popular music and to this end he tried to get us to conform, to wear little suits, and whatever he thought would help us. And we did try, but our natural temperament as a band found us wandering off that trail pretty quickly. Included here is an old video of a staged chase of the Prime Movers by a lot of our women fans. We did have some great fans. This video is appropriately stupid, as you will see.

Our second near brush with fame came when a subsidiary of Motown courted us to join them as a White band playing Black music. They drove us around in their limousines, set up cool events like my brother Daniel and I having lunch with the Everly Brothers. Now THAT was very cool, because we loved their music. You get the idea.

The shit hit the fan, so to speak, when we realized that the Black music they wanted us to play was not the Chicago blues music we loved and were learning, but some really bad arrangements they came up with for us to play. In other words, we would have to play what they gave us to play. Well that was not about to happen and we walked. We were out of there, instantly - short karma for the fame trip.

So here is all the actual video of the Prime Movers that I am aware of.

- Michael Erlewine

The Prime Movers Blues Band was founded in the summer of 1965 in Ann Arbor, Michigan. The band included James Osterberg (Iggy Pop) and Robert Sheff (Blue Gene Tyranny), both now famous musicians. The main band members included:

Michael Erlewine
lead Singer, harmonica

Daniel Erlewine
lead guitar

Robert Sheff (keyboards)
AKA Blue ‘Gene’ Tyranny

Jack Dawson (bass)

James Osterberg (drums)
AKA “Iggy Pop”
Or
J.C. “Jesse” Crawford (drums)

Thanks to my brother Stephen Erlewine for taking two of the videos included here, way back then.

This video produced and edited at Heart Center Studios in Big Rapids, Michigan by Michael Erlewine.

Those interested in being notified when the Prime Movers album is released can send an email to

Michael@Erlewine.net.

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Heart Center Studios 2008

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The Prime Mover Blues Band formed in the summer of 1965, lasted about five years and, like all things in life, gradually dissolved. Iggy, of course, went on to create ‘The Stooges’, Jack Dawson to play bass with the Siegel-Schwall Blues Band, Robert Sheff to become the avant-garde composer Blue Gene Tyranny, Daniel Erlewine to play lead guitar for the Sam Lay Blues Band (and to build guitars for the likes of Jerry Garcia and Albert King), and Michael Erlewine became an archivist, interviewed most of the blues greats, and created the All-Music Guide (allmusic.com) and other large Internet sites. By March of 1971, Michael was the only one left, playing piano and singing in bars under the name “Ann Arbor Heart Song.” It was then that he met the love of his life, Margaret, married her, and found what he had been searching for and singing about. He gradually stopped playing.

Over the years there were more than 37 members in the Prime Movers. A few of these are listed below:

Lead Singer, harmonica
Michael Erlewine

Guitars:
Daniel Erlewine
Craig Johnson
Ron Asheton
Jay Edwards

Keyboards:
Robert Sheff
Garby Leon

Bass Guitar:
Jack Dawson
Ilene Silverman
R.T. Vinopal

Drums:
James Osterberg (Iggy Pop)
J.C. Crawford
Phillip Erlewine

We are happy to say the Michael and Daniel Erlewine, Robert Sheff, and Jack Dawson are all still alive and well. Iggy Pop is alive, but is not in touch with the rest of the band.

This video was created, edited, and compiled by Michael Erlewine. A full album of the original Prime Movers Blues Band will be available soon. If you wish to be notified, feel free to email:

Michael@Erlewine.net

Photo of Panther White by Stanley Livingston

Photo of Prime Movers at table by Andy Sax

Produced at Heart Center Studios in Big Rapids, Michigan

Copyright 2008
by Michael Erlewine

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The Prime Movers Blues Band formed in the summer of 1965 in Ann Arbor, Michigan. This audio track is from fairly early on, a gig at the Schwaben Inn, and Jim Osterberg (AKA Iggy Pop) is definitely the drummer at this point in time. We are running out of photos and tunes, so this one is mostly on lead singer Michael Erlewine. Other band members coming soon.

- Michael Erlewine
Founder
All-Music Guide

The main band members included:

Michael Erlewine
lead Singer, harmonica

Daniel Erlewine
lead guitar

Robert Sheff (keyboards)
AKA Blue ‘Gene’ Tyranny

Jack Dawson (bass)

James Osterberg (drums)
AKA “Iggy Pop”
Or
J.C. “Jesse” Crawford (drums)

Photos by (if known at all) include Al Blixt and Andy Sachs.. All rights reserved. You can reach Al Blixt: AlBlixt@AOL.com and Andy Sacks at SaxPix.com.

This video produced and edited at Heart Center Studios in Big Rapids, Michigan by Michael Erlewine.

Those interested in being notified when the Prime Movers album is released can send an email to:

Michael@Erlewine.net.

© Copyright
Heart Center Studios 2008

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The rarely seen promo clip from the Michael Mann movie, “Manhunter”, directed by long-time Mann DoP Dante Spinotti.
http://website.lineone.net/~manhunter
http://www.primemoversmusic.com/
http://www.gregorymarkel.com

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The Prime Movers Blues Band formed in the summer of 1965 in Ann Arbor, Michigan. This audio track is from fairly early on, a gig at the Schwaben Inn and Jim Osterberg (AKA Iggy Pop) is definitely the drummer on this track. This video is a tribute to Dan Erlewine, lead guitar player for the Prime Movers Blues Band. Subsequent to the Prime Movers Dan played lead guitar for the Sam Lay Blues Band and was considering playing guitar with the Butterfield band, when he decided he really wanted to build some guitars.

The main band members included:

Michael Erlewine
lead Singer, harmonica

Daniel Erlewine
lead guitar

Robert Sheff (keyboards)
AKA Blue ‘Gene’ Tyranny

Jack Dawson (bass)

James Osterberg (drums)
AKA “Iggy Pop”
Or
J.C. “Jesse” Crawford (drums)

Photos by (if known at all) include Al Blixt and Andy Sacks.. All rights reserved. You can reach Al Blixt: AlBlixt@AOL.com and Andy Sacks at SaxPix.com.

This video produced and edited at Heart Center Studios in Big Rapids, Michigan by Michael Erlewine.

Those interested in being notified when the Prime Movers album is released can send an email to:

Michael@Erlewine.net.

© Copyright
Heart Center Studios 2008

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Digging out these old recordings has been fun, but it also has made me realize what a great place Ann Arbor was in the middle Sixties. The Prime Movers Blues Band formed in the summer of 1965, the same time as the Grateful Dead were doing the identical thing out in San Francisco. Neither knew about the other. Later, of course there was interaction among these new music groups that were appearing all over the country. There was something in the air. It was the Sixties!

The Prime Movers had gone to Chicago. We had seen Little Walter, Big Walter, Junior Wells, Buddy Guy, Muddy Waters, and all the blues greats playing live.

I can remember one night listening to Howlin’ Wolf play in a small club in Chicago. The room was empty and dark; there was no one there but a couple of us. Wolf was up front sitting on a chair next to the great blues guitarist Hubert Sumlin. Wolf’s music went into our ears and then deep into my brain.

Time just slowed down and then seemed to stop. The walls around me (and my body) became sort of transparent and it was as if I was somewhere out in deep space, just my mind alone, outside of time and place. My body just kind of disappeared. All that I could hear was Wolf’s sound in my ear and brain. I lost all sense of a personal who and where I am.

When folks ask me why I listen to and study the blues, it is more than just ‘good music’. Blues (for me at least) has been a way to touch home, to go between the clock-ticking seconds of my life, somehow stepping outside of time, and get a sense of my life at a deeper level. Blues has always been for me a journey to see the nature of my own mind — a refresher course in who I am and why I am here. Music has always been that for me.

The main band members included:

Michael Erlewine
lead Singer, harmonica

Daniel Erlewine
lead guitar

Robert Sheff (keyboards)
AKA Blue ‘Gene’ Tyranny

Jack Dawson (bass)

James Osterberg (drums)
AKA “Iggy Pop”
Or
J.C. “Jesse” Crawford (drums)

This video produced and edited at Heart Center Studios in Big Rapids, Michigan by Michael Erlewine.

Those interested in being notified when the Prime Movers album is release can send an email to

Michael@Erlewine.net.

Poster images used with the kind permission of Gary Grimshaw, who can be reached at:

www.GaryGrimshaw.com

© Copyright
Heart Center Studios 2008

Analog to Digital Transfer by
www.FilmTransfer.com

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