submissions
| Electric Light Orchestra – Rockaria! Lyrics
| 17 years ago
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Grebulous: you're exactly right. They hired a female opera singer (German, IIRC) to sing the aria portions, and the beginning of the song features her mis-starting, and, I think, saying something in German.
findsomepeace: "Mayor" is what it says on the album's lyric sheet. |
submissions
| Electric Light Orchestra – Shangri-La Lyrics
| 17 years ago
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I recall listening to this album, and this song, one day when I was in high school. My mother wandered by, listened, and said, "I actually like this song! Who is it?" |
submissions
| Electric Light Orchestra – Do Ya Lyrics
| 17 years ago
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Ace Frehley (original member of KISS) has also done a not-bad cover version of "Do Ya". I've also read that Sheryl Crow has covered it, but I've yet to be able to find that version. |
submissions
| Electric Light Orchestra – Mr. Blue Sky Lyrics
| 17 years ago
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From Jeff Lynne's notes in the re-released version of "Out of the Blue"
"I rented this little chalet in Switzerland, in the mountains just beyond Lake Geneva. I rented this gear from a little shop in a village, a little music shop, with a Revox tape recorder, an electric piano -- I had my guitar there -- and just sat there to try and write. For two weeks, I came up with nothing -- and I only had four weeks to write this double album! I was sort of thinking, 'bloody 'ell, maybe I can't come up with anything.' The weather had been really bad and then one day I got up and it was fantastic, the sun was brilliant and shining, all the mountains were lit up and this mist had gone away. It was gorgeous and I came up with 'Mr. Blue Sky.' I just kept coming up with songs then, y'know? They just came real quick and I came up with about fourteen in the two weeks after the first empty two weeks." |
submissions
| Electric Light Orchestra – Evil Woman Lyrics
| 17 years ago
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In 2006, "Face the Music" was re-released, with several bonus tracks, including a different, "Stripped Down Mix" version of "Evil Woman". That version includes a fourth verse:
Hang out for just a while
And I'll tell you a story that'll make you smile
'Bout a dark-eyed woman with a Cadillac
But all she had was on her back
Well, a fool rushed in, and thought he saw
Just the kind of woman that he'd adore
She lay beside him and turned on her charms
But this devil's woman sure knows how to do you wrong |
submissions
| Electric Light Orchestra – Xanadu Lyrics
| 18 years ago
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Yes, it's from the movie "Xanadu", for which ELO wrote and performed a number of songs.
"Xanadu" is from the poem "Kubla Khan", by Samuel Taylor Coleridge:
"In Xanadu did Kubla Khan
A stately pleasure dome decree..." |
submissions
| Electric Light Orchestra – Do Ya Lyrics
| 19 years ago
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A couple of notes on this song:
1) Except for "Roll Over Beethoven", this is probably the oldest ELO song (from the standpoint of when it was written). Jeff Lynne wrote it while he was a member of The Move (the band that was the predecessor to ELO). gpciie, this might explain why it doesn't hang with the rest of the album for you.
2) It's now being used as the soundtrack for a new ad campaign in the U.S. by Monster.com (a job-search web site).
3) Back in the 1990s, it was very nearly used by Gatorade as the soundtrack to an ad featuring Michael Jordan. I know the guy who wrote the ad; he said that everyone at the agency and at the client loved it, but they realized that fairly few people in the target would recognize the song. Too bad. |
submissions
| Electric Light Orchestra – Secret Messages Lyrics
| 21 years ago
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The title of this song (and its album, also called "Secret Messages") refer to the fact that, in the early 1980s, several parent groups were concerned about rock bands allegdly using "backwards masking" to insert Satanic messages in their songs.
One such group was pushing to have parental warning labels placed on albums that they determined had these backwards messages. One of the targeted albums was ELO's "Face the Music;" on the song "Fire on High," the band had placed a very obvious (but clearly non-Satanic) backwards verse. (The backwards words? "The music is reversible, but time is not. Turn back...turn back...turn back..")
In keeping with this theme, the "Secret Messages" album contains numerous backwards-tracked snippets. One line in "Danger Ahead" is played backwards, and there are also little messages sprinkled between some of the tracks (saying such sinister things as "Welcome to the show" and "Thank you for listening"). |
submissions
| Queen – Who Wants To Live Forever Lyrics
| 22 years ago
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Back in '91 or '92, not too long after Freddie died, the rest of the band did a benefit concert, with all sorts of other musicians joining them. Seal (who I didn't know anything about at that point) did an incredibly moving rendition of this song. |
submissions
| Electric Light Orchestra – Is It Alright Lyrics
| 22 years ago
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This song will always remind me of Joann, a girl I knew in college. We were "just friends," and, although I offered to be more than that to her, she seemed to far prefer the guys who treated her like crud. When I hear this song, I wonder where she ended up, and if she ever found a guy that really made her happy. |
submissions
| Electric Light Orchestra – Turn To Stone Lyrics
| 22 years ago
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It's 1982, and I'm playing Dungeons and Dragons over at my friend Leon's house. My character got petrified (turned to stone) by a basilisk. Although the effect got reversed, I spent a good chunk of the game unable to do anything, so it was a frustrating evening. As I got into my car to drive home at the end of the night, this song (of course!) was on the radio... |
submissions
| Electric Light Orchestra – Don't Bring Me Down Lyrics
| 22 years ago
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Yes, "grroosss" is the actual word (taken straight off the lyric sheet). Jeff Lynne says it's just a word he made up, although Mack (the German engineer who worked on this album) noted that it sounded kind of like the German word for "good morning." Most folks think it sounds like they're singing "Bruce;" for that reason, when the song is performed these days, Jeff will sing "Bruce" instead. |
submissions
| Electric Light Orchestra – Just For Love Lyrics
| 22 years ago
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When my wife first heard this song, she thought the line was "just fall down," instead of "just for love" -- once she pointed that out, I couldn't hear the song without thinking that. |
submissions
| Electric Light Orchestra – Livin' Thing Lyrics
| 22 years ago
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I remember that they did a TV ad for this album (A New World Record). It depicted a discus-thrower throwing a "discus," which was actually the ELO "starship." After it lands, a track-and-field judge (portrayed, IIRC, by Slim Pickens) comes running up with a tape measure, and says, "It's a new world record," as the chorus to "Livin' Thing" swells. Hearing this song always takes me back to 1976, and seeing that ad. |
submissions
| Dire Straits – Ride Across The River Lyrics
| 22 years ago
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When I was a DJ in college, we used the intro of this song as the "bed" for our station ID. So, whenever I hear it, I can always hear, "WLHA, 94.1 FM, Madison" over it... |
submissions
| Electric Light Orchestra – Oh No Not Susan Lyrics
| 22 years ago
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I entered the lyrics as they appear in the album notes. However, they aren't quite accurate: the line "They just don't mean a thing" is, in the actual recording: "They just don't mean a f***ing thing." Jeff Lynne (the writer and lead singer) has remarked that he's rather surprised that this lyric made it past the BBC censors. |
submissions
| Electric Light Orchestra – Evil Woman Lyrics
| 22 years ago
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Just a point of interest: the string crescendo about 3/4 of the way through the song (just before the final verse) is a backwards-tracked version of the strings from the song "Nightrider." Both songs originally appeared on the album "Face the Music." |
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