Saturday, February 24, 2018

"Mr. Blue Sky"

A couple days ago, I watched a video of Jeff Lynne's ELO performing "Mr. Blue Sky."


It's not in this performance, but in the original recording, there's some panting after the line "Runnin' down the avenue."  Like I mentioned when I first started this project, this seems to be a nod to the panting in the Beatles' "A Day in the Life" (after the line "And looking up, I noticed I was late").

When I watched this live performance, I realized that the structure of "Mr. Blue Sky" might take something from "A Day in the Life" too.  The end of each song doesn't bear much relation to what came before.  "A Day in the Life" has an aleatoric ascent (admittedly the second one in the song) and then simultaneous crashing piano chords followed by a loop of gibberish; "Mr. Blue Sky" has a choral section and then a part with just strings and piano.

Both break free from the traditional structure of verses, choruses, and a bridge or two.  At the end, both songs have singular structural elements.