"Turn to Stone"

I listened to Out of the Blue this morning and found a number of things to write about (some more significant than others).  First, here's a small point about "Turn to Stone."  I'm still a bit skeptical of my own transcriptions, but I think the second line in the first verse is "And so the suns are way down low."  This line descends (F# F# E E D# D# C# A), so - if I have my transcription correct - there's a musical representation of that "way down low."

"Ain't It a Drag"

After listening to Alone in the Universe periodically over the last couple years, I noticed some things about the songs, but I haven't been very good at writing posts about them here.  From now on if I have any comments, I'm going to try to write a post corresponding to whatever song I'm trying to learn in a particular month (one of my 2018 musical projects is to learn at least one part for every song on Alone in the Universe, and since I have the edition with two bonus tracks, there's one song for each month).  Here are a couple things I noticed about "Ain't It a Drag."

In the line "Just when you think it's cool, the s--- hits the fan," there's some sort of effect applied to the vocal for "the fan," giving a sense of that proximity, not unlike the slightly robotic-sounding effect one gets when speaking into a moving fan.

In the first "Ain't it a drag, babe" in the choruses, the "drag" is sung with a glissando.  It starts on a C and descends, but I'm not sure what the terminal note is.  For what it's worth, the following "babe" is sung to an F.  In any case, "drag" moves smoothly through a multitude of pitches, so there's something of a musical portrayal of the word's meaning.

Face the Music

Last night, I remembered that (back in November) I'd noticed some similarity between the opening orchestral sections of "Waterfall" and "Strange Magic."  I finally got around to looking into that, and I discovered that I was right.  While the orchestrations are different, there's one phrase that's the same, just adjusted for key.

Here it is at the beginning of "Waterfall":

And here it is at the beginning of "Strange Magic":

I'm pretty sure these are played on cello, but the phrase in "Waterfall" sounds like it's also doubled on upright bass.  In any case, while the specific pitches are different and the last note in the phrase in "Strange Magic" lasts longer, the intervals are the same.  Using this phrase in two songs gives the Face the Music album a bit of cohesion.

"It's Over"

Last night, I figured out some of the chords and some of the bass part for "It's Over," and I realized something that should have been obvious a long time ago: the "down"s of the "Gettin' down" parts (at ~1:35 and ~2:46) are sung to descending melodies to illustrate that "down" musically.  The first "Gettin' down, down" is sung to the phrase A C D C, and the second "Gettin' down, down, down" to the phrase A C D C A.

"Sweet Talkin' Woman"

I figured out the chords for "Sweet Talkin' Woman" this evening, and I noticed a couple things.

In the first verse, there are the lines "I was waitin' for the operator / On the line" (there's a breath there, so I put in a line break).  Although there's not that much of a resemblance, this recalls the situation in "Telephone Line."

The other thing I noticed is about the chords themselves.  Every verse ends with the line "I gotta get back to you," and the chord progression moves to a C major under the "you."  The song is in C major, so that's the tonic chord.  Musically, there's a feeling of resolution and coming home, which is the same type of emotional response that "get[ting] back to you" would have.

"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.

"Look at Me Now"

A couple days ago, I was looking at what parts I've learned for No Answer (as of yester-day, I know at least a little bit of each song), and I discovered that I know two parts for "Look at Me Now."  Last August, I learned some of the oboe phrases, and last month, I learned the first two verses of cello (the left-panned cello specifically).  In order to make a recording worth it, my requirements are two simultaneous parts that last more than just a few seconds, so this qualified.  I don't (yet!) play (or even own) cello or oboe, so I used electric bass in place of cello and an oboe voice on my keyboard.

"Mr. Radio"

I listened to No Answer to-day (because I'm close to knowing at least a little bit of each song and wanted to suss out some easy parts to figure out), and I realized something about "Mr. Radio."  One of the lines is "The weatherman has lied," and I think this might take something from Buddy Holly's "Raining in My Heart," specifically the second verse:

The weatherman says clear today
He doesn't know you've gone away
And it's raining
Raining in my heart

This verse of "Raining in My Heart" also mentions a weatherman, and the situation as a whole is the same as what's in "Mr. Radio."  As the second section of "Mr. Radio" explains: "My wife, she ran away / She left her home."  In both songs, a man's lover has left him, which has affected his mood so much that he's a bit indignant at the weatherman's forecast of clear weather.

"Getting to the Point"

I listened to Balance of Power a couple weeks ago (3 April) and noticed something about "Getting to the Point" that I neglected to write about here.  In my initial notes on Balance of Power, I noted that "long" in the line "Forever / Is a long way" is sung as a whole note, which musically emphasizes that length of time.  When I listened to Balance of Power recently, I noticed that there's an effect applied to the vocal there (I'm not sure if it's technically echo or delay) so that the "for-" of "forever" and "Is a long way" continue even after they're sung in the lead vocals.  Like "long" being sung to a whole note, this too provides a musical sense of that length of time.

"When the Night Comes"

After I figured out the chords for "When the Night Comes" a few days ago, I had the feeling that "Is It Alright" from Balance of Power had a similar chord progression, so I figured out the chords for that too.

The chords progressions aren't exactly the same, but there are sections that are identical.  The entirety of the verses in both alternate between D minor and A minor.  "Is It Alright" has four measures of D minor, two measures of A minor, four measures of D minor, and then two measures of A minor; "When the Night Comes" has four measures of each: four measures of D minor, four measures of A minor, four measures of D minor, and then four measures of A minor.

(According to how the lyrics are formatted in the liner notes in Alone in the Universe, the "But what can I say when the night comes to stay" and "But where will I be when the night comes to me" sections of "When the Night Comes" are distinct from the verses and choruses.)

The beginning of the choruses in both also have the same chord progression and even the same values, but "When the Night Comes" holds each chords for twice as long as "Is It Alright."  In "Is It Alright," the chorus starts with one measure of E minor, followed by one measure that's half F major and half G major (each lasting for two beats).  Then that's repeated.  In "When the Night Comes," the E minor lasts for two measures, then there's a full measure of F major and a full measure of G major.  Then that's repeated.  From there, the chord progressions of the choruses diverge.

Alone in the Universe

In order to write about "When the Night Comes" yester-day, I referenced the lyrics in the liner notes of Alone in the Universe.  In doing so, I discovered something about the gatefold picture.  In the lower right corner of the left half (just above the Les Paul guitar), there's the golden record carried on the Voyager space probes:

Here's a picture of the golden record from NASA's website:

After I saw this and confirmed what it was, I remembered the EPK video for Alone in the Universe in which Jeff Lynne explains that Voyager 1 inspired the title track:

I feel it's also worth mentioning that one of the pieces of music on the golden record is Chuck Berry's "Johnny B. Goode."

While writing about the gatefold, I might as well note that the cover of Jeff Lynne's Long Wave album is one of the pictures taped on the wall:

The radio on the floor in the Alone in the Universe gatefold also resembles the radio in the inside picture of Long Wave:

"When the Night Comes"

Yester-day I figured out the chords for "When the Night Comes" from Alone in the Universe.  I'm sure I noticed this before, but I don't think I've written about it:  in the first verse, there's the line "When the night comes I get midnight blue."  There's a similar expression in "Midnight Blue" from Discovery:  "I'm feelin' midnight blue."