december 3rd extract-electric light orchestra

December 3rd extract from "Totally Shuffled-A Year of Listening to Music on a Broken  iPod"

Electric Light Orchestra-Mr Blue Sky  

  

ELO existed within a weird sort of other type music. Post-Glam. Pre-punk. Post punk. Prog. But not prog. Pop. But not really pop. Overblown album sleeves and mad art concepts from a bunch of old rockers from Birmingham. Birmingham, U.K., not Birmingham, Alabama. If any band was never hip or cool then ELO was that band. Some prog bands (such as ELP and Yes) and old hippies (such as Fleetwood Mac were) rightly ridiculed and dismissed as old irrelevant dinosaurs by the advent of punk but ELO remained unscathed. I don’t think that it was because there was an affinity between ELO and the new guard (not so new as it turns out but that’s another question altogether). It was because that ELO were irrelevant in that good way. They were as relevant to the issue as say, a record by James Last. It’s not as if they were beneath contempt but they didn’t seem to register as a worthwhile target.

But ELO were massively popular. Incredibly popular. They’ve sold over 50 million records worldwide but I’ll bet you’ll never find anyone admitting to being a big fan of ELO. ELO were not just solely listened to by sales reps who drove Ford Granadas and who only possessed albums on 8 track tapes. You may get a few people letting on that they’ve had a few ELO records but no-one will ever say that they’re their favourite band. What’s more you’d never get any “serious” music afficiando giving ELO the time of day. There never seems to have been a retrospective of their work in any of the monthly music magazines: Mojo, Q, or even that odd one that deals with “Rock” with a capital R  ELO are still somewhere “out there” to this day,existing an stange sort of parallel universe and not fitting neatly into any sort of category.

I’d guess though that more than a few of those 50 million records were bought by lank- haired, great coat, flare-wearing fans of Yes and Led Zeppelin. And the same goes for fans of The Clash, The Pistols and rest of the scorched-earth safety pin brigade. Likewise with everyone else. All those deep and intense music critics such as Paul Morley, Julian Cope, everyone who writes for The Wire magazine and The Quietus will have a ELO record or two.  I’ll wager that nestled close to Crass’ “Penis Envy” and The Fall’s “Perverted by Language” on someone’s shelves that there’s an ELO compliation. Mine.

I’ve got to be honest here. ELO aren’t one of my favourite bands either. Not even close. But I do love their singles. This one, “Evil Woman”, “Telephone Line”, “Wild West Hero”, “Don’t Bring Me Down”-how can anyone not fail to love these songs? If any band was ever destined to deserve a “Best of” album then ELO are that band.

A final thought. The Beatles were praised for being one of the first British bands to sing with a non-American accent. (I can’t really hear it myself). Listen to this track though. ELO sung with a Brimingham accent! How brilliant is that! And on the break in “Hold on Tight” they sang in French with a Brummie accent. Now that can’t be bettered.  

Get/see/read the rest of "Totally Shuffled... " here... 366 other tracks by 366 different artists. 592 opinionated pages about 30-odd years of buying and listening to music. Wasted hours in record shops and everything from the wildly obscure to the highly commercial. Every single genre of music really. Just whatever the first track that shuffled up on the (broken) iPod every day for a year turned out to be.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Totally-Shuffled-Listening-Broken-ebook/dp/B00CJYZ3CA/