IN PRAISE OF ELO
Marks & Spencers are plugging their Autumn-Winter collection at the moment and the advert seems to appear at every commercial break. They used ELO's Mr Blue Sky as the backing track. After seeing the ad for the hundredth time I decided to order a 'Best of' CD from Amazon.
As with all bands from the 60s and 70s, ELO have more than one 'Best of' or 'Greatest Hits'. This one though ("All Over the World"), seems to have been expensively remastered because it sounds - whoa! bloody excellent!!! if truth be told. I'm not sure it was particularly "with it" to like ELO even back then; Alan Partridge once said on 'Knowing Me Knowing You' that ELO were his favourite band(!). While most tracks truly are "as middle of the road as a dead hedgehog" (Roland Alphonso) a few stand out. Especially 'The Diary of Horace Wimp'. It sounds almost like a naff novelty song if you don't listen to it properly. That's what I used to think when I was a kid and my parents played it. If, on the other hand, it's played with the volume cranked up through a good stereo or, in my case, through a discman with good headphones (Vivanco, darling) it doesn't sound like anything else at all. It's well-produced studio pop at it's finest - full of overdubbing, echo and abundant strings. It's tremendous. I love it. Jeff Lynne, in the sleeve notes, confesses: "Some of these songs are so over the top it's amazing. For a while there I went through a phase where I definitely thought that 'more is more' and overdubbed everything that wasn't nailed down... Most of these songs were recorded in Munich, home of the largest beers in the world. Richard Tandy would always say to me 'Is this stuff legal?' I knew what he meant".
I know what he meant too. ELO! not so much a band, either, but the songwriting and production of one man. Jeff Lynne: I salute you.
I'm sure M&S's campaign have boosted his royalties no end (deservedly so).
Marks & Spencers are plugging their Autumn-Winter collection at the moment and the advert seems to appear at every commercial break. They used ELO's Mr Blue Sky as the backing track. After seeing the ad for the hundredth time I decided to order a 'Best of' CD from Amazon.
As with all bands from the 60s and 70s, ELO have more than one 'Best of' or 'Greatest Hits'. This one though ("All Over the World"), seems to have been expensively remastered because it sounds - whoa! bloody excellent!!! if truth be told. I'm not sure it was particularly "with it" to like ELO even back then; Alan Partridge once said on 'Knowing Me Knowing You' that ELO were his favourite band(!). While most tracks truly are "as middle of the road as a dead hedgehog" (Roland Alphonso) a few stand out. Especially 'The Diary of Horace Wimp'. It sounds almost like a naff novelty song if you don't listen to it properly. That's what I used to think when I was a kid and my parents played it. If, on the other hand, it's played with the volume cranked up through a good stereo or, in my case, through a discman with good headphones (Vivanco, darling) it doesn't sound like anything else at all. It's well-produced studio pop at it's finest - full of overdubbing, echo and abundant strings. It's tremendous. I love it. Jeff Lynne, in the sleeve notes, confesses: "Some of these songs are so over the top it's amazing. For a while there I went through a phase where I definitely thought that 'more is more' and overdubbed everything that wasn't nailed down... Most of these songs were recorded in Munich, home of the largest beers in the world. Richard Tandy would always say to me 'Is this stuff legal?' I knew what he meant".
I know what he meant too. ELO! not so much a band, either, but the songwriting and production of one man. Jeff Lynne: I salute you.
I'm sure M&S's campaign have boosted his royalties no end (deservedly so).
