"Is It Alright"

In "Is It Alright," "long" in the line "Can you believe that it's been so long" is sung with a melisma (C A C D), musically giving a sense of length or duration.

"Is It Alright"

Yester-day, I was thinking about "Is It Alright" and realized something about the title line, specifically those in this section:

Is it alright
Now that you got what you want
And is it alright
Now that you're back where you belong

The "al-" part of the "alright"s is sung with a glissando from G to C, and the encompassing nature of this musical span helps to portray the "all."

"When the Night Comes"

After I figured out the chords for "When the Night Comes" a few days ago, I had the feeling that "Is It Alright" from Balance of Power had a similar chord progression, so I figured out the chords for that too.

The chords progressions aren't exactly the same, but there are sections that are identical.  The entirety of the verses in both alternate between D minor and A minor.  "Is It Alright" has four measures of D minor, two measures of A minor, four measures of D minor, and then two measures of A minor; "When the Night Comes" has four measures of each: four measures of D minor, four measures of A minor, four measures of D minor, and then four measures of A minor.

(According to how the lyrics are formatted in the liner notes in Alone in the Universe, the "But what can I say when the night comes to stay" and "But where will I be when the night comes to me" sections of "When the Night Comes" are distinct from the verses and choruses.)

The beginning of the choruses in both also have the same chord progression and even the same values, but "When the Night Comes" holds each chords for twice as long as "Is It Alright."  In "Is It Alright," the chorus starts with one measure of E minor, followed by one measure that's half F major and half G major (each lasting for two beats).  Then that's repeated.  In "When the Night Comes," the E minor lasts for two measures, then there's a full measure of F major and a full measure of G major.  Then that's repeated.  From there, the chord progressions of the choruses diverge.

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."