"Endless Lies"

In the line "Shine on, silver stars over the sea" in "Endless Lies," the "silver stars" really are "over the sea" as far as musical pitch.  "Silver stars" is sung to the notes C D Eb, and "the sea" is sung to the notes Bb A.

Balance of Power

Backdated, archival post

[link to original on tumblr]

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Initial notes on Balance of Power:

"Getting to the Point"

I'm not sure if this is intentional or not, but the line "Spinnin' softly through the blue now" bears some resemblance to "You're sailing softly through the sun" in "Strange Magic."  Also, there's a "blue" again.

The "long" in "Forever / Is a long way" is sung as a whole note.  There are four beats of "long," so the length of time in the music emphasizes the length of time in the lyric.

"Is It Alright"

I'm not sure if it's the Beatles' influence specifically, but like "P.S. I Love You" and part of "When I'm Sixty-Four," "Is It Alright" is an epistolary song.  "Dear Joe / Just thought I'd write and let you know" clearly indicates that this is a letter.  There are other epistolary songs, but I think the Beatles' "P.S. I Love You" is one of the most famous, and considering the Beatles' influence on other ELO songs, it's likely that - were this inspired by an-other epistolary song - it was that one.

"Sorrow about to Fall"

The second syllable of "ground" in "Moved to higher ground" is a higher pitch than the first (I think there's actually a glissando there), so the musical change in pitch reflects the moving itself.

The "fall" in the last "Yeah, there's a sorrow about to fall" (and possibly some others) has two syllables instead of the usual one, and - like the "ground" in "Moved to higher ground" but in reverse - the second syllable is a lower pitch than the first, so the word is falling, pitch-wise.

"Calling America"

There's some resemblance between this and "Telephone Line" from A New World Record.  Both are about a telephone call and a specifically American one at that.  "Calling America" has "America" in the title and lyrics, and the ringing telephone at the beginning of "Telephone Line" is American rather than British.  In the liner notes for the re-issue of A New World Record, Jeff Lynne explains how they called a number in the United States so that Richard Tandy could copy the ringing on the Moog.

There's also some similarity between this and Chuck Berry's "Memphis."  Like "Calling America" ("Information, I'm still here"), "Memphis" is directed to the information service ("Help me, information…").  There's also a similarity of opposites in a way.  In "Memphis," the number isn't known ("She could not leave her number"), but in "Calling America," it is ("She left a number for me").  Berry's an acknowledged influence on ELO (they covered his "Roll over Beethoven" and named him in "Rockaria!"), so I don't think it's too far-fetched to think that "Memphis" might have had some influence on "Calling America."

Also, there's an-other "blue" in "Pretty soon she really got the notion / Of flying out across the big, blue ocean."

"Endless Lies"

I mentioned this when I wrote my initial notes on Secret Messages (since the re-issue includes an earlier version of "Endless Lies" as a bonus track), but the "Bye bye, pretty woman" at the beginning is almost certainly a reference to Roy Orbison's "Oh, Pretty Woman."

"Send It"

The "everyday" in the line "I'm waitin' for it everyday" has a Buddy Holly-esque hiccuping.  The same sort of thing is on "On the Run" on Discovery, but I'm slightly more convinced on Holly's influence here because "Everyday" is also the title of one of his songs.

Both "Send It" and "Sorrow about to Fall" mention wires as a method of communication.  "Send It" has "Send it on the wires," and "Sorrow about to Fall" has "There's a new sound in the wires."

-Bonus Tracks-
"Caught in a Trap"

One of the lines is "Sometimes you gotta know when to run for cover," which I think might be a reference to ELO's version of "Roll over Beethoven."  Lynne got the words wrong (as he mentions himself in the liner notes for the ELO II re-issue) and sang "go for cover" instead of "try for further."

Secret Messages

Backdated, archival post

[link to original on tumblr]

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Secret Messages came up in my cycle of albums to listen to, so I finally got around to starting my transcriptions and putting together some initial notes on the album.  Mostly, they're just possible Beatle references.

"Secret Messages"

Jeff Lynne uses "blue" again in the line "And now they call, they sing, they play, they dance for you from out of the blue."  There's even an additional reference here because the phrase "out of the blue" is also the title of an earlier ELO album.

I'm not sure if it's really a reference, but some of the lines are reminiscent of those in the Beatles' "Across the Universe."  They're long and flowing, like "Where words cascade like rainbows tumbling from the sky."  (Compare "Words are flowing out like endless rain into a paper cup" from "Across the Universe.")

"Letter from Spain"

The first verse has some similarities to the Beatles' "A Day in the Life."  The first two lines are "I read the papers this morning / I saw your photograph."  "A Day in the Life" starts with "I read the news today, oh boy," and later there's the line "I saw the photograph."  The situations are different, but there's a lyrical similarity.

"Train of Gold"

This one also starts with what seem to be Beatles references: "I saw her there from across the street / She was dressed in black."  Specifically, there's "I Saw Her Standing There" (with the distance mentioned in "When I crossed that room" in the bridge) and "Baby's in Black."

"Looked through her window, saw a velvet sky" is actually the second "velvet sky" on the album.  "Time after Time" has the lines "The beauty of the earth from way up high / Shines like a jewel upon the velvet sky."

"Rock 'n' Roll Is King"

It's pretty obvious, but the line "She rolled over Beethoven, and she gave Tchaikovsky back" is a nod to "Roll over Beethoven, tell Tchaikovsky the news" from Chuck Berry's "Roll over Beethoven," which ELO covered on ELO II.

-Bonus Tracks-
"No Way Out"

In the lyrics, there's the phrase "Run, don't walk," which is an inversion of the title "Walk, Don't Run," a fairly well-known song by the Ventures.  I'm not sure if it's intended to reference it, but it seems too coincidental otherwise.

"Endless Lies"

It's in the version on Balance of Power too, but the "Bye bye, pretty woman" that starts the song is almost certainly a reference to Roy Orbison's "Oh, Pretty Woman."  In the re-issue liner notes, Lynne says he was "having a go at a Roy Orbison type tune."  Musically, that's pretty clear, but that lyrical reference figures into the pastiche too.

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I also noticed the phrase "standin' there" in two different songs.  Initially, I was sort of skeptical of this, but it does seem to make an appearance in quite a few ELO songs.  On Secret Messages, it's in "Stranger" ("And I saw you standin' there / Standin' there") and "Danger Ahead" ("Look through a window, and you'll see her standin' there").

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I also have a non-musical note about this album.  One of the figures on the front cover is Titian's Venus of Urbino:

On the album cover, she's been flipped horizontally.