B-side "Walk Upon the Water" Format 7" single Length 2:20 | Released January 1968 Genre Freakbeat | |
Recorded 20 February 1968, at Maximum Sound Studios, London | ||
"Fire Brigade" is a song written by Roy Wood and performed by The Move, with Wood on lead vocal. The song contains a guitar figure straight out of Duane Eddy. Glen Matlock of the Sex Pistols admitted some years later that this guitar had strongly influenced him when they were writing their single, "God Save the Queen".
"Fire Brigade" influenced "Firehouse" from the self-titled debut album by Kiss.
Released as the group's fourth single in Britain in February 1968, it reached No. 3 in the UK Singles Chart. A cover version was recorded by The Fortunes and released as a single in the US, but did not chart.
The book included with the 4-CD boxed set Anthology 1966–1972, released in October 2008, noted that sessions for the song began on 16 November 1967 at Olympic Studios in Barnes, London. Anthology includes both the finished version which was released as a single, as well as an early, previously unreleased version with Matthew Fisher of Procol Harum on piano. An earlier retrospective release, the 3-CD Movements: 30th Anniversary Anthology, from 1997, also has two slightly different recordings - the final version, and an undubbed one, before backing vocals, tambourine and opening 'fire engine' sound effects were added.