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    #26
    Jeff Lynne and ELO

    1. Wild West Hero
    2. Livin' Thing
    3. Turn To Stone
    4. Telephone Line
    5. 10538 Overture

    ELO. Yeah...

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      #27
      Jeff Lynne and ELO

      I like 'Out of the Blue' and 'Discovery' too. They're great.

      I like The Move more though. They're nowhere near as good as ELO, but they're one of the oddest bands ever, a complete car-crash of a band to be fair. They weren't just Roy Wood and some session men, they also had Ace Gifford, another mid-60's acid casualty who plays distorted, fuzz guitar licks and hyper-hysterical backing vocals. They also had Carl Wayne, a man who perpetually dressed like the man at the Wigan Casino circa 1968, and had a kind of operatic pub singer voice. He reminds me a bit of Tony Ogden from World of Twist to be honest.

      There's a great story about how the original Move split up, and turned into the next version (that became ELO). It was a contretemps in the dressing room between Roy Wood and Carl Wayne, after a gig at a working-mans club. They'd gone straight from playing big venuesin the US supporting the new rock aristocrats (which Roy Wood liked)to playing UK venues where they were the support act to the bingo (which Carl Wayne liked). The disagreement was over Carl Wayne accusing Roy Wood of betraying his working-class roots.

      Really, really odd band anyway. Their first album (the only one with the original line-up) is a blinder.

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        #28
        Jeff Lynne and ELO

        Damn, Mat beat me to it, not for the first time.

        The later Move stuff is sometimes hard to distinguish from ELO and generally I tend prefer it (no doubt because — as Rhino would say — I'm too old to get ELO.) Perhaps that's down to less knob-twiddling, but even earlier songs like Beautiful Daughter anticipate ELO's approach, and by the time Jeff Lynne joins a song such as When Alice Comes Back to the Farm has a very similar lushness.

        They were a very tight group musically, far better live than most sixties pop groups but, like them, also pretty much a singles band. This is the original band, featuring the much emulated Ace Kefford on bass.

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          #29
          Jeff Lynne and ELO

          Never seen that German TV clip before, cheers John. I'll have to wait until the office is emptier to watch it though.

          Can't believe I managed to get both Ace Kefford's name and instrument completely wrong. For some reason I always thought Roy Wood played the bass.

          'Cherry Blossom Clinic' is another cracker. It was going to be the follow up single to 'Flowers In The Rain'. It was loosely about Ace Kefford's experience in a hospital after he was sectioned due to the after effects of his massive LSD intake. And along with the standard english psychopop imagery of the sun being a tea tray, pretty colours, butterflies etc there's a harsh, sarcastic undertone, like a Brummie Arthur Lee. The chorus contains the line 'I'll probably only feel better when i'm dead'. They never released it as a single.

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            #30
            Jeff Lynne and ELO

            I don't know that much about Kefford but, like Keith Moon, he was the guy you remembered after you saw the group for the first time. In age when bands were pretty static on stage, and the default for bass players was immobile (Wyman, Entwhistle) there was this blond loon in shades leaping around and thrashing his guitar like Pete Townshend. I'm sure he's why the bass is mixed so high in many early Move songs — the power chords on I Can Hear the Grass Grow still make the hair on the back of my neck stand up.

            Their live recordings are very good. Fortunately quite a few are included on their Anthology set and the EP Live at the Marquee — now sadly unavailable — is one of my all time favorites from that period. If you ever find a copy buy it, if only for the finest version of Kentucky Woman ever recorded.

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              #31
              Jeff Lynne and ELO

              Ah, man. They were supposed to be blinding live weren't they? Didn't they used to smash tv sets up? I've heard that they did, but never how many they did in one go.

              Will look out for that EP too, cheers.

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                #32
                Jeff Lynne and ELO

                If I remember rightly the TV smashing thing was a bit of a one off, one of manager Tony Secunda's PR things, like the infamous "Harold Wilson postcard" stunt. But yes, by all accounts they were first rate instrumentalists and not many groups had four vocalists at the time. My understanding is they were a sort of early Brum supergroup. Kefford and Burton recruited members from several bands, including Jeff Lynne who held back because as he was involved with Idle Race.

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                  #33
                  Jeff Lynne and ELO

                  I went to Youtube to check out The Move for myself. (Meh.)

                  But here's something I stumbled onto that I think AdeC might like: 50 Psychedelic '60s bands to hear before you die.

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                    #34
                    Jeff Lynne and ELO

                    I absolutely love ELO and was lucky enough to see them at Randwick Racecourse back in 77/78 (?). I knocked together a 'Greatest Songs' (maybe not hits) compilation a while back and there would be 25 top quality songs there at least.

                    'Our' (me and Mrs. 1F) song is an ELO song, but not really one of the classics; 'Last Train To London'.

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                      #35
                      Jeff Lynne and ELO

                      They were due to play at Ballymena United's Showgrounds (!!) in the early 90's in the heart of Paisley country before the fun-loving DUP controlled council put the block on it claiming that Evil Lucifer's Orchestra were 'satanic'.
                      Mind you, the same council closed children's play areas and swimming pools on sundays as it led to a defilement of the sabbath.
                      True story, fact fans.

                      'We can swim on sundays' was a popular chant with the away fans at Ballymena United matches.

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                        #36
                        Jeff Lynne and ELO

                        Worn Old Motorbike wrote:
                        I went to Youtube to check out The Move for myself. (Meh.)

                        But here's something I stumbled onto that I think AdeC might like: 50 Psychedelic '60s bands to hear before you die.
                        Whaddya mean "meh?" I dunno kids these days, just too young to get it I guess.

                        50 songs in fifteen minutes. Cool. Did you know The Bow Street Runners won the first, and I think only, Ready, Steady, Go! Battle of the bands contest?

                        Knowing that is seriously sad isn't it? And taking the time to tell people even sadder.

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                          #37
                          Jeff Lynne and ELO

                          Calvert W. McCutcheon wrote:

                          They were due to play at Ballymena United's Showgrounds (!!) in the early 90's in the heart of Paisley country before the fun-loving DUP controlled council put the block on it claiming that Evil Lucifer's Orchestra were 'satanic'.
                          Mind you, the same council closed children's play areas and swimming pools on sundays as it led to a defilement of the sabbath.
                          True story, fact fans.

                          'We can swim on sundays' was a popular chant with the away fans at Ballymena United matches.
                          I suppose it made a change from assorted farmer and sheep shagging jokes.

                          I'd forgotten about that ELO concert that never happened. They were one of those bands who got caught up in the 'backmasking' panic of the '70s and '80s when practically every rock band was accused of inserting hidden messages into their music, usually advocating satanism, drug use or both.

                          ELO's 1983 album 'Secret Messages' was a bit of a piss-take on the whole affair. The DUP didn't get the joke.



                          Somebody has analysed the album so we don't have to.

                          http://www.eeggs.com/items/30175.html

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                            #38
                            Jeff Lynne and ELO

                            Amor de Cosmos wrote:
                            Whaddya mean "meh?" I dunno kids these days, just too young to get it I guess.
                            I gave 'Flowers In The Rain' (pretty good) and 'Blackberry Way' (yuck) a listen. I don't think it helped to see them.

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                              #39
                              Jeff Lynne and ELO

                              Nah, 'Night of Fear', 'I Can Hear The Grass Grow' and 'Disturbance' are the three killer tunes, if I had to narrow it down to three.

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                                #40
                                Jeff Lynne and ELO

                                I'd probably go for ICHTGG and Disturbance too — the latter, interestingly, another mental health related song. On a purely earworm basis I'd choose for Curly as the third. It's maybe the best of Roy Wood's pastiches — he usually stalked MacCartney but this is more Graham Gouldman. It also marked the end of original Move as a pure pop singles band I think.

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                                  #41
                                  Jeff Lynne and ELO

                                  Never my cup of tea, always saw them as a "gateway drug" for Heavy Metal!

                                  Don't do it kids, you might get into Rush...

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                                    #42
                                    Jeff Lynne and ELO

                                    I never did come back to this, did I? I dunno, I think I got a lot of my ELO-love out of my system on that earlier thread that ursus arctos linked to on page 1. But I do really, really love ELO. Except for "The Diary Of Horace Wimp", which I cannot abide, and that dreadful final album.

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                                      #43
                                      Jeff Lynne and ELO

                                      I always recall the final chorus to TDOHW as going "Horace Wimp, is this your wife? Go out and find yourself a life", which I thought was a satisfyingly glum way to end the song. Checking a couple of lyrics sites though, it doesn't seem this was the case.

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                                        #44
                                        Jeff Lynne and ELO

                                        Squarewheelbike wrote:

                                        Never my cup of tea, always saw them as a "gateway drug" for Heavy Metal!

                                        Don't do it kids, you might get into Rush...
                                        Eh? I remember a metalhead telling me that it was Status Quo who first introduced him to the sound of 'loud' guitars, but I'd be interested to hear from heavy metal fans who got into the genre through ELO.

                                        I would've thought, if anything, that ELO were a gateway to orchestral music.

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                                          #45
                                          Jeff Lynne and ELO

                                          historyman wrote:
                                          Squarewheelbike wrote:

                                          Never my cup of tea, always saw them as a "gateway drug" for Heavy Metal!

                                          Don't do it kids, you might get into Rush...
                                          Eh? I remember a metalhead telling me that it was Status Quo who first introduced him to the sound of 'loud' guitars, but I'd be interested to hear from heavy metal fans who got into the genre through ELO.

                                          I would've thought, if anything, that ELO were a gateway to orchestral music.
                                          I dunno, I can kind of see it. "10538 Overture" is almost a Sabbath record, that suicidal Brummie vibe. And "Don't Bring Me Down" is a bit of hard-rocking boogie that wouldn't have been out of place on ZZ Top's Eliminator.

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                                            #46
                                            Jeff Lynne and ELO

                                            Mumpo wrote:
                                            I always recall the final chorus to TDOHW as going "Horace Wimp, is this your wife? Go out and find yourself a life", which I thought was a satisfyingly glum way to end the song. Checking a couple of lyrics sites though, it doesn't seem this was the case.
                                            I remember that too, but it's not on the YouTube video. Curious.

                                            Comment


                                              #47
                                              Jeff Lynne and ELO

                                              historyman wrote:
                                              Squarewheelbike wrote:

                                              Never my cup of tea, always saw them as a "gateway drug" for Heavy Metal!

                                              Don't do it kids, you might get into Rush...
                                              Eh? I remember a metalhead telling me that it was Status Quo who first introduced him to the sound of 'loud' guitars, but I'd be interested to hear from heavy metal fans who got into the genre through ELO.

                                              I would've thought, if anything, that ELO were a gateway to orchestral music.
                                              I'd assumed the comment was referring to The Move rather than ELO (though it's equally implausible.)

                                              Comment


                                                #48
                                                They're playing Madison Square Garden in August 2018 and I really want to go, but tickets are ridiculously expensive. Is this a common thing nowadays, that it costs hundreds of dollars just to go to a gig? I paid $300 for a ticket to see them this year at Radio City Music Hall, but that was because it was sold out and I was buying my ticket at the last minute.

                                                I'm going to wait until it gets closer to the time and see if I still feel like selling a kidney just to see them again live.

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                                                  #49
                                                  Is this a common thing nowadays, that it costs hundreds of dollars just to go to a gig?

                                                  Yup. These days recordings (cheap or stolen) promote gigs (expensive for anyone with a rep). Back in the day it was the other way around.

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                                                    #50
                                                    I'm old enough to remember those days.

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