Electric Light Orchestra
alieNDN
2,181 Posts
yay or nay?
alieNDN
2,181 Posts
Comments
people derided Jeff Lynne for the longest time for being a Beatles copyist; the hair, the shades, the uncool persona all added to that derision. It didn't help that the band were hit-prolific during the punk/diy era.
And now, via 'Guilty Pleasures' type moves, ELO are arch-ironically hip again.
For me they never went away. Just great pop songs.
Mr Blue Sky was the soundtrack to my skateboarding youth - and now sounds like a mini-opera. Up there with Heroes and Villains, Bo Rap etc etc IMO.
And an ELO 'Best Of' is surely one of the most necessary purchases to make.
Don Arden had a great take on Lynne; he hated going abroad, liked nothing better than going out for a local curry with his wife, swore like a trooper. But put a pen and a guitar at his disposal and you got magic.
But Travelling Wilburys?
Living Thing, Don't Bring Me Down, Last Train to London, etc etc - brilliant.
Its also easy to draw Jeff Lynne, which is a bonus.
How Jeff would look after botox, natural greying...and a sex change
Anyway he did the gig and said they were the funniest gang he's hooked up with for a long time. They are all minted anyway, and just doing it for fun, which should be the way.
I can always remember drawing T.I.E. fighters in my Star Wars??? notebook in 1977 with them on the radio in the background. Mike O'Garra was so clowned for articulating his view that "T.I.E" stood for "The Imperial Empire"...
However, "Don't Bring Me Down" was one of their very worst songs IMHO.
Lynne had begun to parody himself by this time, and was adding nonsense to records just because the public expected it. From the sublime to the ridiculous via the ludicrous.
"Grooooosssss"????
Are you fkkking sure, Jeff?
Mr Blue Sky = surely one of the greatest feel-good songs of all time
This guys have talent and they put on a good visual stage show.