Critics called them 'dull' and laughed at the spaceships. Did they not realise Jeff Lynne was a songwriter to rival Lennon and McCartney?

 

When the Beatles broke up in 1970, the world suffered one mighty post-traumatic stress disorder and an even worse case of separation anxiety (that continues to this day). The Beatles broke up! Oh no! Nevertheless, the search for "the new Beatles" was on. The Beatles, as a band, are irreplaceable, but it never stopped contenders reaching for their throne. Badfinger and Big Star were good, classic, and successful in replicating the sound, but not the commercial success. It took Jeff Lynne and his band Electric Light Orchestra to reach and meet the ambitions of the Beatles template – making their 70s back catalogue good enough to match the Fabs.

 

The Beatles knew this. And you know it. You just do. ELO's Showdown was a favourite song of John Lennon. Lennon remarked that ELO were the "Sons of the Beatles". Ringo Starr and George Harrison made frequent guest appearances on ELO albums. As many know, Lynne was in the Travelin' Wilburys with Harrison.

 

Lynne was the producer of choice for post-Beatles' solo projects: George Harrison's Cloud Nine, Paul McCartney's Flaming Pie, and numerous Ringo Starr projects. He even ended up replacing George Martin as the Beatles producer for the final singles Free as a Bird and Real Love. If the Beatles can place this much trust in Lynne and believe in his music, why are they still in the ghetto marked Guilty Pleasures? Should we now accept that, yes, ELO were just as good as the Beatles during their own classic run in the 1970s?

 

When ELO began they never hid their ambition; this was a band who wanted to be the next Beatles. When Roy Wood and Jeff Lynne started the Electric Light Orchestra project (after the Move), the manifesto was clear – "Pick up where the Beatles left off" – and for the next eight years, they did exactly that.

 

Debut single, 10538 Overture, was a fairly straight tribute to the Beatles, but the following albums No Answer and ELO II managed to build on the heavily orchestrated, guitar-packed, trippy sounds of 10538 Overture, retaining their own identity. ELO gave the world Beatles albums as if the Beatles never broke up.

 

Roy Wood left (to form Wizzard) before the third album, making ELO "The Jeff Lynne Show" from here on in. On the Third Day consisted of almost epic pop songs with the ever-present Beatles influence: the Lennon-esque Dead as a Blue Bird (complete with backwards guitar solo), the rocking Ma Ma Ma Bell (featuring Marc Bolan on guitar). All four tracks on the B-side were connected into an Abbey Road-style medley. Lynne paid further tribute on the live album The Night the Lights Went On (recorded in Long Beach) with a mightily distorted version of Daytripper.

 

However, unlike the Beatles, ELO were frequently finding themselves in a position of being more popular in the US than the UK. Their fourth release, Eldorado, A Symphony, went to No 12 in the US Charts, but did not even chart in the UK. Can't Get It Out of My Head became an FM classic. And unlike the Beatles, critics started to tear into the ELO sound as "boring" and "dull". It was anything but boring and dull: Face the Music and A New World Record eschewed the orchestrated prog of Eldorado and explored the Beatles influence even further, with the pure pop perfection of Telephone Line and hit Evil Woman (which directly references the Fabs with the line "there is a hole in my head where the rain comes in", a magpie lyric snatched from Fixing a Hole).

 

Of course, the Beatles had the White Album and Lynne again followed in their footsteps with the release of Out of the Blue, the finest concept album about weather ever made, including the utterly fantastic Mr Blue Sky. But nobody was prepared for the Beatles-go-disco of Discovery. (Fun fact: ELO influenced Daft Punk, who sampled Evil Woman and whose iconic light show is similar to the ELO video for Last Train to London).

 

Detractors of ELO have always pointed out the pompous use of strings, the vocoders, and the spaceships – critics never forget about the spaceships. Sure, but what about the songs?! It's time to release Electric Light Orchestra from the Guilty Pleasures ghetto and place them in the "You know what? This is just as good as the Beatles" bracket.

 

Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/musicblog/...er-than-beatles

 

 

I love most of ELO stuff, especially the early albums. Can't get it out of my head is one of my favourite tracks.

Mmmm, well the piece was written by Creation records founder Alan McGhee who recently hailed Oasis underwhelming new album Dig Out Your Soul (personally it is a step backwards after their previous album Don't Believe The Truth) on a par The Beatles Revolver & the Rolling Stones Beggars Banquet.

 

I like ELO quite a lot (Can't Get It Out Of My Head is my fav with The Way Lifes Meant To Be a close second), but I prefer the output of Badfinger as Peter Ham had a vocal honesty that Jeff Lynne lacks IMHO.

I agree about Badfinger, lots of good stuff by them. I own lots of ELO albums,one of my fave bands from the 70's, and although I wouldn't make a direct comparison to the Beatles, I can see a loose homage to their legacy. Lynne always wanted to overproduce his songs, sometimes he came up with classics,almost trying to reprocate Lennon & McCartney. On the whole I give Lynne credit for convincing George & Paul that he was almost good enough to have been a Beatle, almost. :)

Didn't Lennon once say had the Beatles have stayed together - ELO is what they would have become (or is this mentioned here and I've just missed it - so excited I've got TT tickets this morning and am still on Cloud 9). Strike that - I've just seen it mentioned in not so many words!!!!!! More excited than I thought I was!

 

I honestly only know one Badfinger song and I think that was sh/te so I'm with Jeff Lynne all the way on this.

 

And on a totally different tangent - ANWR was the best album of the 70's for me!

 

Norma

Edited October 31, 200816 yr by Norma_Snockers

And on a totally different tangent - ANWR was the best album of the 70's for me!

 

One of my faves too :)