Out of the Blue

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Collection Audit:

This morning I listened to Electric Light Orchestra's Out of the Blue.  Last March I started a project where I look into ELO's music specifically (which I started because of this project, actually), and I've already written a fair amount about Out of the Blue there, but I noticed some more things this morning. 

"Starlight" 

I've had this album for years (it was actually the first original ELO album I got), but it wasn't until this morning that I deciphered the line "You've gotta stop" in "Starlight."  Had I noticed that sooner, I probably would have understood long ago that there's a musical/lyrical connection there.  After "You've gotta stop," the music stops before the lyric continues with "Foolin' around." 

"Big Wheels" 

There's a musical connection between "Big Wheels" and "Steppin' Out."  After some measures of tied whole notes, the bass part in "Steppin' Out" has this figure: 

 

(click here for a larger image) 

I use the MIDI component of my digital audio workstation to make these examples of notation, and where I would have tied a half note and a dotted quarter note, it put two dots on a half note.  I guess it ends up with the same value, but I haven't seen double-dotted notes anywhere else. 

When the bass part finally starts in "Big Wheels," every other measure has the same rhythm as that in the bass part in "Steppin' Out."  The phrase also alternates between fourths, although here it's a semi-tone higher: 

 

(click here for a larger image) 

"Birmingham Blues" 

Near the beginning, there's the line "Yeah, I've been rollin' like a stone," which recalls "Like a rollin' stone" in "Steppin' Out." 

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Both of those last two things make the album more coherent.

I noticed a couple more things about Out of the Blue when I listened to it for my Collection Audit project recently.

"From the End of the World"

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I was going through my music collection last night, learning some parts, and I happened upon "From the End of the World."  I learned the first minute or so of the bass part, but the more I listen to this, the more I think that it's actually the bass register of a synth part, not actual bass guitar.  There's one point where it alternates between measures of G and F notes, and in between the last two, there's a part (which I haven't figured out) that seems too fast to be played physically, which makes me think it's a programmed synth.  Since I don't know anything about those (yet), I guess it's just as well that I recorded it with bass guitar.

"Mission (A World Record)"

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On Friday I listened to A New World Record for my Collection Audit project.  In the liner notes for the CD re-issue, Jeff Lynne says, "The '76 Olympics were on TV and so we heard the phrase 'a new world record' over and over.  It was Richard who suggested it for the title of the album."  Coincidentally, the day I listened to it was the first day of the 2016 Olympics.

Anyway, I thought the little guitar phrases in "Mission (A World Record)" would be easy to figure out.  They're interesting in that they have both F# and Bb notes.  The phrases I copied for my recording are at the very end, where the same phrase is played in two octaves.  There are some more guitar parts that follow that, but I haven't figured them out yet.

A New World Record

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Collection Audit:

Yester-day I listened to Electric Light Orchestra's A New World Record, and I noticed something about the string parts in a couple songs.  Aside from the key, the same string part is in "So Fine" and "Livin' Thing."  I guessed on the keys based on the notes in the parts themselves, but here they are in notation (with the disclaimer that I might be wrong; notation still isn't my strong point). 

"So Fine" 

 

"Livin' Thing" 

 

Having what is virtually the same part in two songs (which are back-to-back in the track listing) helps give the album a greater consistency.

Here's a thing I noticed about a couple songs on A New World Record when I listened to it recently for my Collection Audit project.