"Mr. Blue Sky"

In the chorus of "Mr. Blue Sky," the "so long" in "Please tell us why / You had to hide away for so long" is sung with two glissandi: the "so" stretches from F to D, and the "long" from D to C."  The echoing "so long" in the backing vocals has a similar feature: the "so" has a glissando from C and A.  The breadth of pitches that these glissandi encompass gives a musical sense of just how long Mr. Blue Sky has hidden.

"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.

"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."

"Mr. Blue Sky"

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After I learned the bass part for "Confusion," I learned most of the bass part for "Mr. Blue Sky."  I did a bit of work on this to-day before I recorded it too.  I had one note wrong, and I figured out a phrase I was stuck on (I was right that the bass part arpeggiates two chords, but because there's a key change there, I wasn't expecting one of those chords to be Eb).

I played an extra F note at the end.  It's not there in the original, but it sort of resolves my recording.  I don't know the next section, and it would have sounded weird to stop abruptly.

Out of the Blue

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Initial notes on Out of the Blue:

"Turn to Stone"

I've mentioned this before, but the phrase "turn to stone" is also present in "Showdown" - "Now my heart has turned to stone again."

There's also an instance of blue:  "In my blue world."

"Night in the City"

The guitar part that begins this song is nearly identical to the one that begins "Poker" from Face the Music.  The one in "Night in the City" is just raised by a fourth.

Two of the verses start with "Standin' at...," which reappears in "Jungle" ("I was standin' in the jungle…") and "Standin' in the Rain."  There’s also "I see you standin' there" in "Big Wheels," but that seems different.

"Jungle"

Near the beginning, there's a Tarzan-like call to help in establishing the scene.

Toward the end, there's an alarm clock, which might have something to do with the Beatles' "A Day in the Life," which also features the sound of an alarm clock.

"Mr. Blue Sky"

After the line "Runnin' down the avenue," there's some panting, which also seems to be in debt to "A Day in the Life," in which there's panting after the line "I noticed I was late."  There are four pants in each.

In that same verse in "Mr. Blue Sky," there are the lines "See how the sun shines brightly / In the city / On the streets where once was pity," which is a reference to some similar lines in "Night in the City" earlier on the album: "Night in the city / Madness and pity."

And, of course, there's the obvious mention of blue.

"Birmingham Blues"

Years ago, I noticed that some of the violin parts quote a phrase from George Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue (which - along with the "blues" in the title and lyrics - is an-other inclusion of the color).  However, I don't think they're in the same key here.  I listened to a recording I have of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra performing Rhapsody in Blue, and while the phrases in "Birmingham Blues" start on B notes, those that I found in the Rhapsody (which aren't even on violin) start on D#s.

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The last few times I've listened to this album, I always felt that some of the songs use similar musical phrases, chord progressions, or other elements that help tie the songs together, but until I start learning the parts, I can't point to anything specific.