"Livin' Thing"

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Collection Audit:

I'm halfway through a compilation album of Electric Light Orchestra (All over the World: The Best of Electric Light Orchestra).  After a post I wrote here two years ago (after listening to this same album), I started a project where I look into ELO's music in some depth (I haven't gotten that far yet), so I've been transcribing these too. 

I noticed the line "Takin' a dive 'cause you can help but slide, floating downstream" in "Livin' Thing," and I think it's a small lyrical reference to the Beatles.  The "floating downstream" part is very similar to the first line of "Tomorrow Never Knows" - "Turn off your mind, relax, and float downstream."  In my project, I've found more than a few references to the Beatles, so I'm more confident that this is a reference rather than just a coincidental resemblance.

 Via my Collection Audit project, I discovered an-other Beatle reference.

"Evil Woman"

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For my Collection Audit project, I listened to All over the World: The Best of Electric Light Orchestra yester-day (I have a short post about a Beatle reference in "Livin' Thing" in the queue).  As I was listening, I was trying to find parts that sounded like they would be easy to figure out.  One of them was the guitar part in the chorus of "Evil Woman."  My guitar tone doesn't match very well, but I'm pretty sure of the notes.

"Latitude 88 North"

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Last night I figured out some parts to "Latitude 88 North," a bonus track on the Out of the Blue CD re-issue.  This is just the solo, but I also figured out the chords for the chorus (it's just a I vi IV V progression).

Last week, I learned the solo for the Beatles' "Can't Buy Me Love," and - in the first phrase at least - there's something of a resemblance.  They're in different keys and rhythms, but the first five notes or so are the same intervals.  If you took the first phrase in the "Can't Buy Me Love" solo and pitched it down half a step, you'd be pretty close to the first phrase in the "Latitude 88 North" solo.

All over the World: The Very Best of Electric Light Orchestra

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I'd forgotten that the only album on which I have versions of "All over the World," "Xanadu," and "Alright" is All over the World: The Very Best of Electric Light Orchestra (incidentally, it was also the first ELO album I owned), so I listened to that to-day in order to start transcriptions of those three and work on my transcriptions of the other songs.  Also, I noticed some things:

"Don't Bring Me Down"

There's alliteration in the line "You wanna stay out with your fancy friends," which I think is there as an almost pretentious use of a poetic effect.  Like, the effect is there just to look fancy, just like the friends it describes.

An-other verse begins with

You're always talkin' 'bout your crazy nights
One of these days you're gonna get it right

Because one line has "nights" and the other has "days," I think the sentiment here is a bit sarcastic.

"The Diary of Horace Wimp"

The line break between

And if he was late once more
He'd be out

seems rather important.  There's almost a whole measure of rest in the vocal part, which, in a way, emphasizes the delay that's mentioned in the line itself.

"Confusion"

The "lean" in each stand-alone "To lean on" after "You feel there's no one there for you to lean on" has a melisma; it's more than the usual one syllable it would be were it just spoken, so there's an unstable feeling, like leaning itself.

"Alright"

At the end of the lines "And as you speak, everything that you say / Goes out on the big transmitter," some effect is applied to the vocal.  It's something like an echo.  In any case, it provides a sense of the projection from the "transmitter."

"Strange Magic"

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This is the last of the four parts that I learned a few days ago.  It's the opening guitar part for "Strange Magic."

"Little Town Flirt"

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A few days ago, I learned the chords for the verses of "Little Town Flirt" (a Del Shannon cover included as a bonus track on Discovery).  Before I recorded it this afternoon, I discovered that I'd been missing a chord, and then I figured out the bridge, so I have the whole thing now.  It's probably not that interesting to listen to, but I'm pretty sure it's accurate.

The chords in this are really interesting.  They start out as the normal 1950s chords, but then there are some weird modulations.  I thought a particular one was interesting:  The song is in C major, but halfway through the verses, there's an E major (with a G# accidental).  The lyric for that part is "Yeah, I know she's gonna treat you wrong," which that accidental note seems to help convey.

"Secret Lives"

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I learned the chords for (I think) all of "Secret Lives," but they're not played like this in the final version on Balance of Power.  During the verses, it's more like they're just implied.  So what I've recorded is actually closer to the alternate take that's included as a bonus track.

I don't think I know enough of the song to be sure, but it seems like the verses are in A major but the choruses are in D major.

"Destination Unknown"

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I'd been waiting to start really learning parts until after I'd gone through and written notes about all of the albums, and after doing that for Balance of Power last night, I learned parts of four different songs.

Just by listening to "Destination Unknown" (it was a B-side of a single [although the liner notes don't say what the A-side was] and is included as a bonus track on the Balance of Power re-issue), I could tell that - in the verses at least - it's a three-chord song that uses major 6ths.  In that regard, it actually resembles 1950s rock and roll.  I think a few Buddy Holly and Chuck Berry songs are like that ("Johnny B. Goode" certainly is).

Because it's in C major, the chords are pretty high up the neck, and I'm not that good at playing that sort of major/major 6th thing up there.  Even excepting that, it's not the most interesting thing to listen to.  It's just the chords for the verses.  It's a start though.

Balance of Power

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Initial notes on Balance of Power:

"Getting to the Point"

I'm not sure if this is intentional or not, but the line "Spinnin' softly through the blue now" bears some resemblance to "You're sailing softly through the sun" in "Strange Magic."  Also, there's a "blue" again.

The "long" in "Forever / Is a long way" is sung as a whole note.  There are four beats of "long," so the length of time in the music emphasizes the length of time in the lyric.

"Is It Alright"

I'm not sure if it's the Beatles' influence specifically, but like "P.S. I Love You" and part of "When I'm Sixty-Four," "Is It Alright" is an epistolary song.  "Dear Joe / Just thought I'd write and let you know" clearly indicates that this is a letter.  There are other epistolary songs, but I think the Beatles' "P.S. I Love You" is one of the most famous, and considering the Beatles' influence on other ELO songs, it's likely that - were this inspired by an-other epistolary song - it was that one.

"Sorrow about to Fall"

The second syllable of "ground" in "Moved to higher ground" is a higher pitch than the first (I think there's actually a glissando there), so the musical change in pitch reflects the moving itself.

The "fall" in the last "Yeah, there's a sorrow about to fall" (and possibly some others) has two syllables instead of the usual one, and - like the "ground" in "Moved to higher ground" but in reverse - the second syllable is a lower pitch than the first, so the word is falling, pitch-wise.

"Calling America"

There's some resemblance between this and "Telephone Line" from A New World Record.  Both are about a telephone call and a specifically American one at that.  "Calling America" has "America" in the title and lyrics, and the ringing telephone at the beginning of "Telephone Line" is American rather than British.  In the liner notes for the re-issue of A New World Record, Jeff Lynne explains how they called a number in the United States so that Richard Tandy could copy the ringing on the Moog.

There's also some similarity between this and Chuck Berry's "Memphis."  Like "Calling America" ("Information, I'm still here"), "Memphis" is directed to the information service ("Help me, information…").  There's also a similarity of opposites in a way.  In "Memphis," the number isn't known ("She could not leave her number"), but in "Calling America," it is ("She left a number for me").  Berry's an acknowledged influence on ELO (they covered his "Roll over Beethoven" and named him in "Rockaria!"), so I don't think it's too far-fetched to think that "Memphis" might have had some influence on "Calling America."

Also, there's an-other "blue" in "Pretty soon she really got the notion / Of flying out across the big, blue ocean."

"Endless Lies"

I mentioned this when I wrote my initial notes on Secret Messages (since the re-issue includes an earlier version of "Endless Lies" as a bonus track), but the "Bye bye, pretty woman" at the beginning is almost certainly a reference to Roy Orbison's "Oh, Pretty Woman."

"Send It"

The "everyday" in the line "I'm waitin' for it everyday" has a Buddy Holly-esque hiccuping.  The same sort of thing is on "On the Run" on Discovery, but I'm slightly more convinced on Holly's influence here because "Everyday" is also the title of one of his songs.

Both "Send It" and "Sorrow about to Fall" mention wires as a method of communication.  "Send It" has "Send it on the wires," and "Sorrow about to Fall" has "There's a new sound in the wires."

-Bonus Tracks-
"Caught in a Trap"

One of the lines is "Sometimes you gotta know when to run for cover," which I think might be a reference to ELO's version of "Roll over Beethoven."  Lynne got the words wrong (as he mentions himself in the liner notes for the ELO II re-issue) and sang "go for cover" instead of "try for further."

Secret Messages

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Secret Messages came up in my cycle of albums to listen to, so I finally got around to starting my transcriptions and putting together some initial notes on the album.  Mostly, they're just possible Beatle references.

"Secret Messages"

Jeff Lynne uses "blue" again in the line "And now they call, they sing, they play, they dance for you from out of the blue."  There's even an additional reference here because the phrase "out of the blue" is also the title of an earlier ELO album.

I'm not sure if it's really a reference, but some of the lines are reminiscent of those in the Beatles' "Across the Universe."  They're long and flowing, like "Where words cascade like rainbows tumbling from the sky."  (Compare "Words are flowing out like endless rain into a paper cup" from "Across the Universe.")

"Letter from Spain"

The first verse has some similarities to the Beatles' "A Day in the Life."  The first two lines are "I read the papers this morning / I saw your photograph."  "A Day in the Life" starts with "I read the news today, oh boy," and later there's the line "I saw the photograph."  The situations are different, but there's a lyrical similarity.

"Train of Gold"

This one also starts with what seem to be Beatles references: "I saw her there from across the street / She was dressed in black."  Specifically, there's "I Saw Her Standing There" (with the distance mentioned in "When I crossed that room" in the bridge) and "Baby's in Black."

"Looked through her window, saw a velvet sky" is actually the second "velvet sky" on the album.  "Time after Time" has the lines "The beauty of the earth from way up high / Shines like a jewel upon the velvet sky."

"Rock 'n' Roll Is King"

It's pretty obvious, but the line "She rolled over Beethoven, and she gave Tchaikovsky back" is a nod to "Roll over Beethoven, tell Tchaikovsky the news" from Chuck Berry's "Roll over Beethoven," which ELO covered on ELO II.

-Bonus Tracks-
"No Way Out"

In the lyrics, there's the phrase "Run, don't walk," which is an inversion of the title "Walk, Don't Run," a fairly well-known song by the Ventures.  I'm not sure if it's intended to reference it, but it seems too coincidental otherwise.

"Endless Lies"

It's in the version on Balance of Power too, but the "Bye bye, pretty woman" that starts the song is almost certainly a reference to Roy Orbison's "Oh, Pretty Woman."  In the re-issue liner notes, Lynne says he was "having a go at a Roy Orbison type tune."  Musically, that's pretty clear, but that lyrical reference figures into the pastiche too.

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I also noticed the phrase "standin' there" in two different songs.  Initially, I was sort of skeptical of this, but it does seem to make an appearance in quite a few ELO songs.  On Secret Messages, it's in "Stranger" ("And I saw you standin' there / Standin' there") and "Danger Ahead" ("Look through a window, and you'll see her standin' there").

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I also have a non-musical note about this album.  One of the figures on the front cover is Titian's Venus of Urbino:

On the album cover, she's been flipped horizontally.

"The Way Life's Meant to Be"

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When I listened to Time on Wednesday, I thought the bass part from "The Way Life's Meant to Be" sounded like it would be pretty easy to figure out, so I spent some time yester-day doing that.  And then I figured out the guitar chords too.  It's actually pretty easy to play; it's almost a three-chord song, and the bass part is usually just the root note of whatever chord is on top of it.  Some phrases in the vocals are basically just descending diatonic phrases too.

I think the original is with twelve-string acoustic guitars, but I don't have a twelve-string acoustic guitar, so I just used my six-string.  It's not the best recording because I'm still not very good at equalization.  Also, I'm a bit unsure of the chords at the end of the first and third lines in the bridge.  This isn't the whole song because - since I know so little of it - that would be boring (although it's not very interesting as it is).

In learning how to play this I discovered that there's a slight difference between the chords for the verses and the chords for the solo.  During the verses, there are two bars of Eb major, but during the solo, there's only one.

Time

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I started working on this post at the end of August, but I was having trouble with transcribing the lyrics (typing so fast made my hands hurt), and then I started a listening schedule of the albums in my cover projects in which get around to ELO only every six weeks.  I am going to try to write initial posts on Secret Messages and Balance of Power before the year is over though.

Anyway, things about Time.

"Twilight"

There's some really great parallelism combined with alliteration in the first line of the second verse: "Am I awake or do I dream."

"Yours Truly, 2095"

There's some more parallelism here, in the first verse:

I sent a message to another time
But as the days unwind
This I just can't believe
I sent a note across another plane
Maybe it's all a game
But this I just can't conceive

Later, there's the line "But she has a heart of stone."  There are earlier hearts of stone in "Showdown" and "Turn to Stone."

"Ticket to the Moon"

I've noted this before, but it seems like there are a lot of characters in ELO songs who just stand there.  "Ticket to the Moon" has an-other one.  I don't have all of the words (I think I'm missing "would," but I'm not sure), but it's:

Wondering sadly if the ways that led me here
[Would?] turn around and I would see you there
Standing there

"The Way Life's Meant to Be"

I might be making too much of this, but there's more standing:  "And here I stand in the strangest land' and "Although it's only a day since I was taken away / And left standing here looking in wonder."

"Rain Is Falling"

Jeff Lynne uses blue again in the first line: "the sky was very blue."

Also, more standing: "Standing on an island."

I'm not sure what to call it exactly, but there's an interesting poetic feature in the line "But with all their great inventions, and all their good intentions, here I stay."  There's a close resemblance between "all their great inventions" and "all their good intentions."

Sort of hidden in the background, there's the line "The old man is snoring" (and possibly others) from "It's Raining, It's Pouring."

"Here Is the News"

In the last verse, the news is that "Somebody has broken out of Satellite Two."  Satellite Two is also mentioned in "Ticket to the Moon" - "Flight leaves here today from Satellite Two."  I'm not sure if the songs are meant to be connected though - that the singer/speaker of "Ticket to the Moon" is the one whose break out is mentioned in "Here Is the News."

"21st Century Man"

All but one of the verses here start with parallel lines.  There's "A penny in your pocket / Suitcase in your hand," "Fly across the city / Rise above the land," "One day you're a hero / Next day you're a clown," and "You should be so happy / You should be so glad."  But then it changes for the last verse: "Things ain't how you thought they were / Nothing have you planned."  The beginnings of the verses all have a clear structure until it gets to that last one, which explains how things didn't work out.

Also, there's a great rhyme ("wheels of tomorrow" / "fields of sorrow") in "Though you ride on the wheels of tomorrow / You still wander the fields of your sorrow."

—Bonus Tracks—
"When Time Stood Still"

At the end of one of the verses, there's the line "Such a lonely world," which is almost identical to the line "It's such a lonely world" from the end of each verse in "Latitude 88 North" - a bonus track on Out of the Blue.  However, in the liner notes to Out of the Blue, Lynne says that he added the "It's like" to "Latitude 88 North" "20 years later," which would make it about 1997, so the "such a lonely world" in "When Time Stood Still" might actually be older.  I'm not sure if he changed the other "Latitude 88 North" lyrics when he added the "It's like."

Near the end, there's the line "No submarines, no plastic flowers," which I think is a reference to the Beatles, specifically "Yellow Submarine" and the line "Cellophane flowers of yellow and green" from "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds."

There seems to be a connection between this and "The Way Life's Meant to Be," since both mention "plastic flowers" and either "ivory halls" (in "When Time Stood Still") or "ivory towers" (in "The Way Life's Meant To Be").

"Julie Don't Live Here"

The first two verses start very similarly: "I wandered through the town" and "I walked along the street."  If the lines were any closer, I'd say it's parallel structure.

One of the verses seems particularly indebted to the Beatles:

I walked up to your door
Last night I saw your face in the window
But it was different now
The lonely light where we used to meet was gone

Walking up to the door, seeing someone through the window, and a light are all elements in the first verse of the Beatles' "No Reply" from Beatles for Sale:

This happened once before
When I came to your door
No reply
They said it wasn't you
But I saw you peep through
Your window
I saw the light
I saw the light
I know that you saw me
'Cause I looked up to see
Your face

There's quite a bit of time between these songs and the Beatles' songs, but - like I've mentioned before - because of the "pick up where 'I Am the Walrus' left off" quote, I'm more disposed to consider those connections.