"Showdown"

I was thinking about "Showdown" yester-day and had a small realization about the line "Ev'ry dream in her heart was gone."  The phrase "ev'ry dream" is sung to notes of all different pitches (C Eb F), giving a sense of breadth or entirety.

"Showdown"

This morning, I saw a clip of ELO miming to "Showdown" on The Midnight Special in 1974 (after a clip of the Kinks).  It occurred to me that the phrase "same train" in the line "Looks like we're ridin' on the same train" exhibits assonance and that this mirrors the meaning to some degree (since the two words have the same sound).

"Showdown"

At the end of the choruses in "Showdown," "night" in the phrase "the longest night" is sung with various melismas, musically giving a sense of that length.

"Showdown"

I've been playing clavinet recently (the clavinet voice on my keyboard, at least).  I wanted to figure out a clavinet part in an ELO song, and the first one I thought of was "Showdown."  I didn't actually make any progress on that, but I did figure out almost all of the chords (I'm missing only the end of the chorus).  Since I'd figured out the cello part for the first two verses last August, I had enough to warrant a recording.  This is just the first two verses, without the introduction.

I had to use two different keyboard settings to get the cello part: one for the bowed parts and an-other for the pizzicati notes.  Compared to the original recording, I think I may have some notes in the wrong octave, and I think there might be a second cello part playing different notes.  In any case, what I have is a start.  This is also the first recording I've made of a song from On the Third Day.

Out of the Blue

Backdated, archival post

[link to original on tumblr]

---&---

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.

—

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.

On the Third Day

Backdated, archival post

[link to original on tumblr]

---&---

I'm going through the albums much more slowly than I'd anticipated, but anyway, On the Third Day (which, incidentally, I first heard a year ago to-day).

"New World Rising/Ocean Breakup Reprise"

Like I mentioned earlier, because of the "continue where 'I Am the Walrus' left off" quote, I'm more likely to see Beatle connections in things than otherwise.  In "New World Rising/Ocean Breakup Reprise" (I think during the "New World Rising" part), after "Hey good morning," there's a spoken "Morning!" sort of in the background.  It's the same type of thing that's present during the last verse of the Beatles' "Yellow Submarine."  The lines "Every one of us has all we need / Sky of blue and sea of green / In our yellow submarine" are interspersed with the same words but spoken instead of sung.

"Showdown"

Some of the lyrical phrases in this re-appear in other ELO songs.  The "all over the world" in "And it's a-rainin' all over the world" is the titular line of "All over the World."  And "Now my heart has turned to stone again" seems to have some connection with "Turn to Stone" from Out of the Blue.

During the second "Rainin' all over the world" section, there are pizzicati in the string parts to portray the rain musically.  It's a fairly common technique, but I actually didn't notice it until recently.

"Dreaming of 4000"

One of the verses starts with "Here, there, everywhere," and even though this is a common phrase, I can't help but think that there's some connection between this and the Beatles' "Here, There, and Everywhere" (incidentally both "Here, There, and Everywhere" and "Yellow Submarine" were on the Beatles' Revolver album).

"In the Hall of the Mountain King"

This is ELO's version of a piece by Edvard Grieg.  It's the fourth movement of his first Peer Gynt Suite, Op. 46.  Additionally, though, at the beginning ELO includes a bit of the first movement - "Morning Mood."