"Mr. Blue Sky"

I saw a post on the Jeff Lynne's ELO Instagram account to-day about the Wembley or Bust album.  As a soundtrack, there's a live version of "Mr. Blue Sky" (apparently the one from the album):

Get a sneak peek at the ‘Wembley or Bust’ vinyl! Out tomorrow. Pre-order at www.jefflynneselo.com

A post shared by Jeff Lynne's ELO (@jefflynneselo) on Nov 16, 2017 at 9:41am PST

One of the lines caught my attention.  In this version, I think it's "Ev'rybody's in a play," but in the original version on Out of the Blue, it sounds more like "Ev'rybody's in their play."  In any case, I realized that this line has some similarity to a verse in the Beatles' "Penny Lane":

Behind the shelter in the middle of a roundabout
A pretty nurse is selling poppies from a tray
And though she feels as if she's in a play
She is anyway

Being in a play (or feeling like it) is common to both.  The weather described in "Mr. Blue Sky" ("The sun is shinin' in the sky / There ain't a cloud in sight") and the title itself resemble the "blue suburban skies" in "Penny Lane" too.

I don't know if these similarities were intentional, but there are some obvious and unmistakable references to the Beatles in other ELO songs, so it's possible that "Penny Lane" had some influence on "Mr. Blue Sky."

"Fire on High"

I listened to Face the Music yester-day, and the piano and bass parts in "Fire on High" sounded easy to figure out.  Both are just one measure repeated over and over.  Rather than repeat these measures for the entirety of the track, I just played eight measures: four of piano alone and then four of piano and bass:

Perhaps I should note that my primary referent for figuring out the parts was the "early alternative mix" included as a bonus track on the CD re-issue.  The piano and bass are easier to hear in that mix.

"Alright"

I listened to All over the World: The Very Best of Electric Light Orchestra a couple days ago, and one of the guitar phrases in "Alright" sounded easy to figure out.  I figured it out to-day (along with a few bits from "Xanadu") and realized something interesting about the song's structure.

The guitar phrase I figured out occurs after every other line in the first two verses, but it's not in the third verse at all.  Significantly, the first two lines in the third verse are "It's not use thinkin' 'bout what you ain't got / Just makes you bitter."  The absence of the guitar phrase here sort of represents "what you ain't got."