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Post by trekkielo on Dec 5, 2015 20:34:10 GMT -5
A nod to a couple of 60s Patrick McGoohan British thrillers from David Fricke, ‘Secret Agent’ and ‘The Prisoner’, where the old bread and milk delivery trucks Jeff Lynne was writing about as in “…Don’t want to work on the milk and the bread…” on “When I Was a Boy” can be seen. As far as Jeff Lynne’s fascination with space influencing some ELO titles, other TV show that he liked was The Sky at Night although he did not mention the show by name in the town hall. And no, Brian the astronomer he was friends with was not Brian May (his astrophysics studies was put on hold when he started playing with Queen; and an honorary degree was bestowed upon him decades later, although he did write a PhD thesis on A Survey of Radial Velocities in the Zodiacal Dust Cloud in 2007.) But I believe Jeff Lynne mentioned his friendship with fellow Birminghamian astronomer Brian Manning (but I am not 100% sure and relying on memory from when I listened to Sirius XM last week).
Thanks for that!
Well, interestingly enough, Brian May of Queen still does have a 1960's connection to Jeff Lynne, check this out...
"In 1967, the only telephones you could use outdoors came in tall, smelly red boxes: big black apparatuses – Button A, Button B, all calls tuppence. It was upon such a beast that 19 year old Jeff, avoiding paying the tuppence, tapped out a number in reply to an ad in the Birmingham Mail: “Keen lead guitarist wanted for The Nightriders.” It was a call that would change his life.
Invited to an audition by drummer Roger Spencer, Jeff gave them his best solos and sang Wilson Pickett’s ‘In the Midnight Hour’. Next day, he was back at work in a motor accessories store. After an agonising week-long wait, he was informed he’d won a place in his favourite band. The following morning, Jeff walked, on air, out of his dead-end.
“From £6 a week, I was suddenly on 15 quid, and I didn’t have to get up,” he recalls of that euphoric time. “On the Monday my mum comes bounding up the stairs as usual, ‘Come on, get out of bed, you lazy sod!’ And I said, No, listen mum, I haven’t got to get up today – or ever again – I’m a professional musician now.”
Local stars Roy Wood and Johnny Mann had both been through The Nightriders. Jeff was replacing Mann, while Wood had joined new sensations The Move, a proto-Mod act designed by manager Tony Seconda to thrive on outrage. Late ‘60s Birmingham harboured many promising progressives, among them Marc Bolan, Black Sabbath and half of Led Zeppelin. Keen not to be left behind, The Nightriders – after one flop single called, intriguingly, ‘It’s Only the Dog’ – jumped on the post-Pepper merry-go-round and restyled themselves as The Idle Race.
Boy-meets-girl ditties and R&B covers were out of the window in favour of that era’s broadsides from the freaky nursery and the mind-blown music hall, its multicoloured clutter of circus melodies, pixie folk, bicycles, bandstands, boaters and grannies, Three Men in a Marshmallow Sky and Knees-Up-Mother-Brown-Acid. They started to attract a cool crowd. Marc Bolan became a friend and fan; a young man named Brian May was spotted studying Jeff’s amazing guitar technique – something he’d learnt from Big Al Johnson – which made it sound like a violin."
Rest of the article...
Jim Irvin – “The Bullring Variations: ELO” (2001)
July 4, 2009 at 11:49 am
August 2001 Mojo article by Jim Irvin detailing the history of Jeff Lynne, from his early days in The Idle Race and The Move to his hitmaking days in ELO, its demise and his brief resurrection of the band in the early part of the new century…
beatpatrol.wordpress.com/2009/07/04/
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Post by rayshae3 on Dec 5, 2015 21:30:30 GMT -5
I am not really big on ins and outs of the band. But listening to SiriusXM last week, I had no idea Lynne was such a huge fan of the fellow-Travelling Wilbury Roy Orbison. He absolutely loved Orbison. My other observation is that I always thought the current Paul McCartney band lineup are ace duplicating the sound of the old records in their current concerts/live shows. Now, listening to some of the new ELO concerts, I am amazed if I didn’t know I couldn’t have realised they are playing live…sometimes exactly re-producing the sound of their old records, I suspect maybe even better than their concerts back in their heydays of 70s & 80s.
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Post by trekkielo on Dec 10, 2015 21:57:02 GMT -5
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Post by trekkielo on Dec 12, 2015 23:11:00 GMT -5
I'm TrekkiELO, so it works out perfectly, V'ger AKA Voyager 1 or VI from 1979's Star Trek: The Motion Picture & Jeff Lynne!
PS-Jeff Lynne wrote the title track to Alone in the Universe by Jeff Lynne's ELO for when Voyager 1 left our solar system back in 2013.
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Post by trekkielo on Dec 15, 2015 20:14:04 GMT -5
Jeff Lynne's ELO outdoor mini-concert at Jimmy Kimmel Live!
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Post by trekkielo on Dec 24, 2015 21:26:36 GMT -5
Awesome, finally an uncut official version from SME of the original Mr. Blue Sky promo music video three weeks ago on December 4th, 2015!
Thanks ELOVEVO.
Now where are the ones for Turn to Stone, Sweet Talkin' Woman, Wild West Hero, Telephone Line, Do Ya, Tightrope, Evil Woman, Can't Get It Out of My Head, Showdown, Roll Over Beethoven and 10538 Overture?!
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Post by trekkielo on Dec 31, 2015 1:51:18 GMT -5
25. ELO, "When I Was a Boy" Out of the blue, indeed. Comeback king Jeff Lynne was writing "hello from the other side" phone songs before Adele's mama was born, and this ballad summons all his strange magic. Even if he wants to start calling himself "Jeff Lynne's ELO," he'll always be the Electric Light Orchestra who soundtracks our bluest days and blackest nights. Let it ring forever more.
Read more: www.rollingstone.com/music/news/rob-sheffields-top-25-songs-of-2015-20151221#ixzz3vsVm3sUK Follow us: @rollingstone on Twitter | RollingStone on Facebook
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Post by 1finemrg on Dec 31, 2015 7:52:34 GMT -5
You certainly used post #500 well! Congrats!
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Post by trekkielo on Dec 31, 2015 17:36:55 GMT -5
You certainly used post #500 well! Congrats! Thanks.
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Post by 1finemrg on Jan 21, 2016 14:17:06 GMT -5
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Post by trekkielo on Apr 20, 2016 20:56:14 GMT -5
Thank you again!
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Post by trekkielo on Apr 20, 2016 20:58:06 GMT -5
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Post by trekkielo on Apr 20, 2016 21:14:49 GMT -5
Readers' Poll: 10 Acts We'd Like to See Enter Rock Hall of Fame in 2017 www.rollingstone.com/music/lists/readers-poll-10-acts-wed-like-to-see-enter-rock-hall-of-fame-in-2017-20160420/electric-light-orchestra-201604193|Electric Light Orchestra Poor Jeff Lynne. He's the only Traveling Wilbury without his own Hall of Fame statue. It's certainly not because he didn't land a ton of hits on the charts. He has so many that he plays nearly two hours of popular songs on his ongoing ELO comeback tour. What happened is that Lynne became more famous as a record producer than performer, and ELO became a sad zombie band with Lynne-free offshoots like ELO Part II and the Orchestra playing casinos and fairs all over the world. It watered down the legacy of the original, though right now Lynne is on his first ELO tour in 32 years. It might restore the group to their proper place in rock history and help bring them into the Hall of Fame. If that happens, expect some drama around the performance. Lynne hasn't spoken to certain members without a lawyer present for a few decades.
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