"Nellie Takes Her Bow"

Because to-day's Jeff Lynne's birthday, I listened to No Answer this morning.  I noticed a small feature in "Nellie Takes Her Bow."  In the title line (but only in its first occurrence, at ~1:08), "bow" is sung with a melisma (A G).  Because of that descent, there's a musical sense of the word's meaning.

"Nellie Takes Her Bow"

Jeff Lynne's ELO posted in various places that to-day's the 46th anniversary of the release of the first ELO album:

#FlashbackFriday: On this day, 46 years ago, the first ELO album was released. Recorded at the old Philips Studios in Marble Arch, London, the album features the very first ELO single, "10538 Overture."

A post shared by Jeff Lynne's ELO (@jefflynneselo) on Dec 1, 2017 at 2:15am PST

I listened to the album and noticed a small thing about "Nellie Takes Her Bow" (I also figured out the French horn part at the end because it's only a handful of notes).  The "world" in the lines "Just a lonely girl / That could not face a broken world" isn't sung with a single syllable like it is when spoken.  I think it's actually sung to three notes: there's an initial note and then a glissando from one note to an-other.  Whatever the specifics, the note is sung with a melisma, so the "broken" quality mentioned in the lyric is also demonstrated in the music.

No Answer

Backdated, archival post

[link to original on tumblr]

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I listened to No Answer yester-day to review some things before writing a post about it.  I have things to say about only three of the songs though.

"10538 Overture"

As far as I can tell, the French horn part in this (at least I think it's a French horn) has the same motif as that in Richard Strauss' Also Sprach Zarathustra - C, G, and then an-other C an octave higher than the first one.

It might just be a coincidence, but some of the cello parts near the end contain a phrase from "Frère Jacques" - the part that corresponds to "Frère Jacques" in the lyrics - C D E C.

Lyrically, there's some resemblance between "10538 Overture" and the Beatles' "A Day in the Life."  Roughly, both are about a man's death related through the news.  "A Day in the Life" starts out with "I read the news today, oh boy" where "10538 Overture" has "Did you hear the news that came across the air today?," and where "A Day in the Life" has "He blew his mind out in a car," "10538 Overture" mentions that "Someone has been found on the rocks down in the bay."

"Nellie Takes Her Bow"

In the middle section, there's a quotation and then variations on "God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen."

"Whisper in the Night"

This is the first of at least three ELO songs that contain the phrase "midnight sun."  Here, it's in the line "Face the midnight sun."  It's also in "So Fine" ("We'll find the land of the midnight sun") and "Do Ya" ("I've seen babies dancin' in the midnight sun") - both from A New World Record.