Electric Light Orchestra - guilty pleasure or genius?

I've been listening to ELO since 1976, they were my "other" favorite band to KISS at the time. I stopped listening to them once the teenage years came around and have mostly ignored them since...of all the melodic 70's prog/pop bands, they had quite a nasty critical reputation that seemed to become the dominate memory in most people's minds.

They were another artist that was basically killed because of a bad movie. Peter Frampton never recovered from being associated with the abomination known as Sgt Peppers...ELO never recovered from Xanadu.

But the wonderful thing about time is that your perceptions change, the old opinions carry less weight over time and it allows us the clarity to judge art on it's own merits. So it appears it's my time to reevaluate my thoughts on ELO.

I think they are primarily brilliant, at least Jeff Lynne is, since he is ELO.

The debut album with Roy Wood is really a different band, their approach was quite different and more baroque in sound than the avenues Lynne explored later. So I think the real ELO starts with the second album (ELO II). That was the record that spawned their amazing cover of "Roll Over Beethoven" and from that point; 1973-1977, they went on an amazing run of inspired albums and hit singles.

All of these albums came from that period:

ELO 2 (1973)
- featuring Roll Over Beethoven, Mama

On The Third Day (1973)
- featuring Showdown, Ma-Ma-Ma Belle, Daybreaker

Eldorado (1974)
- featuring Can't Get It Out Of My Head. Mister Kingdom, Illusions In G Major

Face The Music (1975)
- featuring Evil Woman, Nightrider, Strange Magic, Fire On High

A New World Record (1976)
- featuring Tightrope, Telephone Line, So Fine, Livin' Thing, Do Ya

Out Of The Blue (1977)
- featuring Turn To Stone, Sweet Talkin' Woman, Mr. Blue Sky, Wild West Hero

The hit singles continued for a little while after this period, but by the end of 1980 (after the release of Xanadu) they were off the musical radar. A casualty of the over-produced disco decline that was rampant throughout the music industry. Many bands vanished and/or went into steady declines during that time.

But going back and listening to that 5 year stretch is a real eye-opening experience. Lynne's continuation of the basic Beatles concept yielded an incredible batch of songs. These records are every bit as "progressive" as King Crimson...but in a pop direction instead of an improvisational one. Digging beneath the hit singles into the album tracks reveals an incredible batch of instrumentals and rockers that failed to make the radio, but were of the same quality.

I've ordered the remasters of all their albums from this period and I'm looking forward to devoting some serious study time.

P.S. - From 1972 to 1986, ELO accumulated 27 Top 40 hit singles in both the UK and the US. The group also scored 20 Top 20 U.K. hit singles, as well as 19 Top 20 hit singles in the U.S. Their LP's have sold over 70 million copies worldwide (not counting single sales).

Man, I'd love to get all the remastered expanded ELO, I like everything from the debut to '77 and Discovery had a coupla good songs on it but they lost me in the '80s and with 'Zoom'.

I'd say they were brilliant in terms of their orchestral/pop hybridizing yet had the sensibility to write a good hook.


I have always been a huge fan of ELO.

with introduction by Richard Pryor!

Looking back to when I was a kid, 3 ELO songs were played a lot 'Rock 'n' Roll Is King' and 'Hold On Tight' were played a lot by my two immediate older bros and when I was really young I'd ask my oldest bro to play 'Last Train To London' constantly. I hate the first two aforementioned songs and love 'LTTL' after all these years.

I was too young to really remember the "first time" I heard them. But I only owned two albums as a kid, Out Of The Blue and a collection called "Ole Elo".

The first song I distinctly remember hearing on the radio was "Turn To Stone".

At that time (1977), my favorite bands were Kiss and Queen. ELO became a fave for a few years, then I had basically moved on by the time 1981 came around, as I started to dig backwards into bands like Pink Floyd, Zeppelin, etc.

But, hearing this stuff right now in 2011, is really a wonderful experience, it reminds me that sometimes all you really need is a beautiful melody.

My favorite ELO song (by far) is "ONE SUMMER DREAM" from Face The Music.

Ole ELO was one we had as well. Picking a fave song is like picking a fave child but 'Last Train To London' is mine.

A bit of trivia for ya: Sharon Arden designed the cover for Eldorado (my least fave album). And the backmasked message in 'Fire On High' says, "The music is reversible, but time is not. Turn back. Turn back. Turn back. Turn back." —

Didn't know about the cover, I did know about the backwards message.

Eldorado is the closest to a Beatles record they ever got, probably why it's your least favorite. It would be pretty far down my list but there are some really good songs on there.

"Illusions In G Major" is one of their most convincing "rockers" and "Mister Kingdom" is a damn good deep cut.

"Can't Get It Out Of My Head" (perfectly titled) is one of the more beautiful pop songs from the era and one that I think few would argue is a "classic song", whether they actually like it or not.

'Can't Get It...' Is a love or hate song for me but mostly hate hehe. 'Mister Kingdom' is one I really want to like but just can't (yet). Right now 'First Movement (Jumping Biz), 'In Old England Town (Boogie #2) and 'Dreaming Of 4000' are kicking my ass on a daily basis.

this is the only ELO album from the period I've never heard:



Never seen a single copy of it (on LP or CD) anywhere either.

Damn! I just listened to that before Tom Petty! I was just too lazy to type it out! It's a live album but I'm sure you knew that.

yeah, I just need to find that bastard at some point.

I'm one of the few people that actually prefers live recordings when I can get them.

Bro, I got my copy used from Amazon for like 9-10 bucks. It was in great condition. The cover you posted was the reissue version as well. I like it well enough, I'm usually not a live album kinda guy. '...Beethoven' was never a song I liked and ELO's version(s) is no exception except for the non Chuck Berry parts.

You know though, that arrangement on Roll Over is just brilliant. They manage to touch on the Berry and the Beethoven, pay tribute to both and not sound like they were just "joking" when they recorded it. Go just a tiny step too far in either direction and the arrangement falls apart...but walk that line just right? That's why I've been listening to it since 1978 or so.

Plus, how many tunes can you play badass "air-violin" solos to? That's half the fun!

Living In Twilight ('71-'79)

1. Fire On High
2. Last Train To London
3. In Old England Town (Boogie #2)
4. Turn To Stone
5. Laredo Tornado
6. Telephone Line
7. Showdown
8. Look At Me Now
9. Do Ya
10. Daybreaker
11. Evil Woman
12. Shine A Little Love
13. So Fine
14. Mama
15. Ocean Breakup, King Of The Universe
16. Livin' Thing
17. Sweet Talkin' Woman
18. Strange Magic
19. It's Over
20. First Movement (Jumping Biz)
21. Dreaming Of 4000
22. Shangri-La
23. 10538 Overture
24. Poor Boy (The Greenwood)
25. The Diary Of Horace Wimp
26. Nightrider

That's a real nice playlist, I'll have to program that into iTunes and check it out. Thanks for sharing!

Thanks man, it was hard to narrow it down to 25, I usually don't throw in so many popular/radio staples from a band on my 'best of' playlists but these were too damn good to leave off!

My playlists generally tend to be more or less chronological in order, I'm a "development" kind of guy, I like to hear where the journey took the group.

But that's just when I make playlists, I love to hear other people's "viewpoint" of their favorite groups, so I'll definitely be copying that playlist of yours into iTunes.

Nice man. I rarely make a playlist in chronological order, I like to hear the songs in different sequences. I try to makes the songs flow well from one to another.

Yeah, I've done that kind as well, but all these years of studying jazz kind of locked me in the chronological mindset (all the box sets and stuff).

I've never actually listened to a whole ELO album.

DeathCult wrote:

I've never actually listened to a whole ELO album.

You've probably heard all but 1 or 2 tracks from A New World Record on the radio, that whole album was a hit.

S.D. wrote:

DeathCult wrote:

I've never actually listened to a whole ELO album.

You've probably heard all but 1 or 2 tracks from A New World Record on the radio, that whole album was a hit.

I've realized after seeing alot of the seperate songs by them posted in other threads, that I've heard quite a bit of ELO actually. They're pretty good.

I'm kinda split about ELO. They had plenty of brilliant tunes (Mr. Blue Sky is one of my all-time favorite songs) but for every great one, it seems like they had two forgettable or just plain annoying songs. Lots of respect for the band though, being able to mix classical elements with pop so easily. Takes a lot of talent to do that.

I liked everyting up to Disco? Very!( But even that album was spotty) in varying degrees but the 80s material never grabbed me.

As I've mentioned before, I don't care much for ELO's post '70 material but have listened to 'Xanadu' ,(which I like), a few times in the last year or so, (and I think the rest but I don't remember). I just snagged the 'Xanadu' and 'Time' [Expanded] albums. I wanna see if there's anything from '81 on that I like. I still remember "Hold On Tight" and "Rock 'n' Roll Is King" from when I was a kid and even in memory recall I hate them songs.