ELO

[ceagle]

An ole friend (Telbert) sent me an ELO link, and I proceeded forth to listen to many of the old songs, enjoying along the way...
And then I came across this fave ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1jUvhJ_Tgzw ...

I can hardly hold back the tears on that one (mixed, but mostly tears of joy)... it sends me back to so many times and places I cherished, and the song had been there with me....

Comments

[sabotlours.livejournal.com]

I liked ELO in my childhood but they were considered "faggy" back then. Cool kids listened to Aerosmith or Led Zeppelin. One of the most famous guitar riffs of the day was from "Fire on High" which I had no idea that it was ELO until just a few years ago. Ah! The days of radio stations playing songs and not saying the artist or title. Thank you, XM! And unless you were a fan who researched the group, you would have no idea if an artist had earned they're musical chops. Once again, I though ELO was kind of a fluff band, but Jeff Lynne knew his stuff. In that same category would be someone like Alan Parsons. Oh yeah. Another faggy band. Oh! He produced "Dark Side of the Moon?!?" And of course I'm still amazed that bands hit it big in England and are complete unknowns on this side of the pond.

[makovette.livejournal.com]

Huh, my krew back in the day never saw APP or ELO as fluffy bands at all, things were different in Arizona I guess?

Always liked APP, was very lucky to catch them live when they did a brief US tour. Never got to catch ELO, my loss for sure.

Cheers!
Mako

[c-eagle.livejournal.com]

Luckily Lynne is still touring... I've considered going to one of the shows, but still undecided if the 'live' experience will be special enough beyond the recordings...

[makovette.livejournal.com]

Consider that many of the musicians that played on the Midnight Special show are either retired or have passed on, maybe you should put a few nickles in the jukebox and go see Jeff while you still can...

CYa!
Mako

[sabotlours.livejournal.com]

As if this site was being monitored by super secret social media spies...guess who one of the biographies on CBS Sunday Morning was about yesterday...Jeff Lynne! It was a good segment. He's still packing them in. I think they came here to a local casino not too long ago, and stupid me, didn't get tickets.

[c-eagle.livejournal.com]

mwahahaaha! If it is, let's hope they use their powers for good! :D

I think I saw Seattle on the tour venues, and toyed with a visit up there... wasn't in the cards this time around...

Here's hopin' there's another chance for us both!

[c-eagle.livejournal.com]

haha... well, it's good that the years are bringing you wisdom ;D (with Alan Parsons too!)
Seriously yeah the girls at our school would all have mini-ogasms jus' listening to Telephone Line and Livin' Thing, so it was definitely a hetero turn-on in our region.
And our school all listened to Zep and 'Smith as well... I recall Supertramp n 'Floyd also being big hits in the high school crowd too...

[hastka.livejournal.com]

It is interesting how tastes and cultures change... for sure I would not call ELO exactly "masculine"... I would say kind of "nerdy" as opposed to "faggy" but the line is kind of blurry.

Strangely, a lot of adult-contemporary artists were sort of in that same mold at the time. Like I'm pretty sure I've come across a number of Christopher Cross clones at furry cons... talk about just some ordinary dude. I guess Toto in the "99" era was maybe slightly further along the "normal/manly" spectrum, or Chicago in the "If You Leave Me Now" era. But for sure a lot of those artists were wayyyy set apart from say Fleetwood Mac. And of course the rock people were way off in another zone.

Anyway I don't really know what happened to that genre. I'm a bit surprised nobody's tried to reboot it, but I guess it's kind of like trying to reboot westerns or musical theater... the time and culture are just in a different place.

It's too bad though, as any of those songs I listed above, or a handful of Elton John songs (like Goodbye Yellow Brick Road")... I dunno, they just hit me in a much more "core" way, as opposed to just the "ha ha yay fun" way of dance music or synthpop, which by the way I also love.

[hastka.livejournal.com]

Coincidentally, I would never have called Alan Parsons music, or the group, "faggy" whatsoever. But don't get me started on that, as that's another multi-paragraph response. ;)

Oh.. I almost forgot about Supertramp too, hehe. Ah, the '70s. :P

[mondhasen.livejournal.com]

An ole friend (Telbert) sent me an ELO link ...
Such good friends you have :D And thanks for sharing this memory.

I really like ELO, though may only have one of their albums on vinyl - Out Of The Blue (listening to Amazon’s digital version now, as I type). I bought this at a local department store at 2:00 a.m. after sitting in a bar all night (the store was open 24/7 from November through Xmas that year).

The second Guardians of the Universe movie did a nice job with the Mr. Blue Sky sequence at the opening
https://youtu.be/4UUIC4wC4WU

[makovette.livejournal.com]

Oh you're so right, the Mr. Blue Sky opener was epicly well done!

[c-eagle.livejournal.com]

Thanks for peekin' back even more than once, ole buddeh!

[c-eagle.livejournal.com]

*nods* So many great ones!... Be careful though... side 4 also has several cuts that kin gitcha all choked up in the right mood.... ^v^

[mondhasen.livejournal.com]

*sniffles* yep, the emotional magic is still there...

And am I wrong to compare ELO with the pre-disco BeeGees (or vice versa)? At least in singing style and feeling but with a fuller, synthesized sound? I had either the 8-track or cassette of Gibbs’ Two Years On and hearing these songs now, as well as their other 60’s and early 70’s pieces is quite a head trip head trip.

[c-eagle.livejournal.com]

hmmm... *rubs beaky chin* ..I'd say that's a fairly good comparison in some ways.... the pre-disco BeeGees did have a very different sound than they did later, yep.
Perhaps a minor difference in the comparison is that ELO had sophisticated arrangements all along the way. Also whereas the BeeGees had "two" sounds perhaps, I'd venture that ELO had at least "three", ...their pre-NewWorldRecord sound, then their middle era starting with that one, and then a more "synth" sound later starting with BalanceOfPower.

[allaboutweather.livejournal.com]

You mean Guardians of the Galaxy? :p

[c-eagle.livejournal.com]

give 'em just a little more time, and they're likely to be Guardians or the Universe soon as well!

[allaboutweather.livejournal.com]

After they overthrow He-Man and the Masters of the Universe! :p

[c-eagle.livejournal.com]

...unless the Power Rangers get to 'em first!

[scruff-e-coyote.livejournal.com]

My interest was piqued in ELO when I first heard one of their songs on the radio from the 1980 movie "Xanadu" (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0081777/?ref_=nv_sr_1?ref_=nv_sr_1). From that song I felt compelled to purchase the CD soundtrack to the movie and loved ALL of their songs which then drove me to watch Xanadu. ELO's contribution along with the Big Band era instrumental music made for an interesting juxtaposition for this fantasy musical. The one rather risqué furry scene AND the Don Bluth animated sequence were the icing on the cake.

[c-eagle.livejournal.com]

Glad ya dig Lynne and the band's work too!... and ah yes, that animation!! Watched it hundreds of times ^v^ ... I find it more magically romantic than risque though :D

[scruff-e-coyote.livejournal.com]

Actually the risqué furry scene is live action and is totally different from the magically romantic Don Bluth animated sequence.

[hastka.livejournal.com]

Speaking of ELO, Mr. Blue Sky is one of my all-time favorite Beat Saber songs.



It was beatmapped by some random fan, and it just brings me a ton of happiness to play. Especially the couple little fills which are mapped along with the drums.

This was the best mixed-reality version I could find... apologies that I don't have the technology to greenscreen it myself, just yet. ;P

[c-eagle.livejournal.com]

haha. WOW.. that's extraordinary!! Really works well.. certainly looks like a happiness-bringing immersion!