E.L.O. Classic or Dud?

https://youtu.be/ebbcPIsv-Ds?t=52s

Would have been cool if they properly toured the U.S. (played Hollywood Bowl and Radio City Music Hall last year), but I settled for the blu-ray. And also a pretty good performance by Strange Magic: The ELO Experience on AXS TV's World's Greatest Tribute Bands ;)

Also, was looking for footage on YouTube of this: August 26, 1978, Anaheim, CA: This show started with a lot of theatrics. First, just before the start of the show, skywriters wrote "ELO - THE BIG NIGHT" across the sky for the audience to see. Tony Curtis came on stage to introduce the band, when he found himself in a Star Wars style laser battle with Stormtrooper-style stuntmen who supposedly parachuted in and fought a mock battle with the actor. The audience was then treated to a fireworks show before the spaceship finally opened and the show began.

https://youtu.be/ebbcPIsv-Ds?t=52s

― MaresNest, Sunday, 9 July 2017 03:40 (eighteen hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

geoblocked to the uk apparently. for those who can't access it it's 'asia no junshin (true asia)' by puffy amiyumi, which is either an elo pastiche or rip-off.

When she was in high school, Ami sang for a band called 'Hanoi Sex'.

Didn't the guy from Jellyfish write songs for them? Would explain the ELO pastiche elements.

oh yeah, andy sturmer's mentioned in the wikipedia page. holy shit, i have to listen to more of this now.

A quick way to sample a lot of Puffy--The Puffy AmiYumi Song Finder, Pt. 1:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h6hogTM0qvE

"Asia No Junshin" isn't Andy Sturmer, but he's written and produced probably 1/3 or more of their stuff.

There are heavy Beatles, ELO and similar influences (especially early on), singles released in mono and other geekery. The cutesy duo format can be off putting but they kicked a lot of arse, and were insanely popular.

There was no skywriting, saucers or Tony Curtis on the Time tour, but they did have a surprisingly simple and effective method of hyping the audience before the show--a digital clock readout over the stage which counted down the seconds from 5:00 minutes until showtime. Each minute closer it got, we went crazier; by the time it reached 1:00 the whole arena was counting along. Then they started slowing down the clock.

Stage fog built up until it reached 0:00, then flashed E:LO and an R2-D2 wannabe rolled out and delivered the vocodered intro to "Twilight."

i’ve come back to ‘time’ for the first time in ages, and have played it all the way through five times in the past three days. yes it’s ridiculous, but it’s also insanely accomplished and perfect in some ways. currently undecided between this and ‘elo 2’ as their best album.

Between 'Time' and 'ELO 2', not to be confused with Kurt Vonnegut's 'Between Time and Timbuktoo."

Also, Jeff Lynne must have been listening to the Ultravox 'Vienna' album a whole lot when he made 'Time.'

it is striking how stridently this is album is 1981. it almost couldn’t be from any other time.

the production and mixing absolutely blow me away. every track is as dense as a rainforest, but all the levels and timings are perfect. lynne must have agonised over this.

https://pitchfork.com/news/jeff-lynnes-electric-light-orchestra-announce-new-album-share-song-listen/

Jeff Lynne’s ELO—the latest incarnation of Jeff Lynne and his band Electric Light Orchestra—are releasing their first new album in four years: From Out of Nowhere is out November 1 (via Columbia). Below, listen to the title track.

you could say this album came...

...

...out of the blue

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S5dRg2bq4oc

I was in Target the other day and heard "Mr. Blue Sky" come on, and it was almost immediately apparent that it must have been the re-recorded version (which I had never heard before). At the least what they played sounded faster and lacked the coda. A box store edit, perhaps? Or maybe it was the remarkably faithful/lazy Weezer version?

wait did i post about ELO i have been listening to ELO tonight and have drafted some posts about how Don't Bring Me Down began the 1980s I may have posted them

He re-recorded a bunch of stuff in 2012 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mr._Blue_Sky:_The_Very_Best_of_Electric_Light_Orchestra ostensibly as he thought it sounded better, but suspicion was that it was because he got all the publishing etc from it.

In much the same way Squeeze re-recorded their songs and Taylor Swift is going to next year.