Is that similar to choosing Brian Eno over Brian Ferry?
Bland, unoriginal pop, the only point of interest being that the strings were integrated into the band instead of being overdubbed by session men. Any spark of interest or originality they might have begun with left with Roy Wood.
I like a few of their cuts, but that snazzy snare drum sound gets old very quickly.
Love 'em, but don’t have any of their albums. I do have a 2 disc singles collection called “Strange Magic” that has about 27 or 28 of their hits on it.
All time favorite band. Just love the rock/classical fusion.
Love them, I say get 'em!
I love, love, love ELO!
But, I will be the first to admit that their lyrics are about as vapid and useless as you can get. But that is not an insult. Verily, that is a testament to how good the music is. Even though the lyrics are vacuous enough to make you want to pull your own head off, the music is great enough to overcome that disadvantage.
ELO rocks!
As to the OP:
“What do we think of ELO, do we like them?”
I do. And if you don’t? Who cares?
We think they had an idea and it was a good one. We think that it was not necessary for them to promulgate their idea more than once.
No, you’re not. I can’t stand any of the stuff I’ve heard on the radio, so I’ve never bothered with their albums.
I could be missing out, but that’s a chance I’m willing to take.
Like would be a strong word for how we feel about them, hate would be too.
I wanted to like them. In the early '70s I was heavily into the idea of incorporating classical ideas into rock, a la Emerson, Lake & Palmer, Procol Harum, Jethro Tull (“Bouree”), etc. Unfortunately, ELO sucked.
They aren’t bad, but Madame Pepperwinkle is a huge fan of the movie Xanadu, and… that pretty much spoiled them for me.
Yes! Time is so underrated. It’s probably my favorite ELO album. All fans of Sci-Fi concept albums (yes, all 3 of you) need to get this ASAP.
The problem is that ELO is nothing like those other bands. Plus their classical leanings didn’t last very long. They have more in common with Cheap Trick than ELP.
I went out and bought the first couple of albums, but then Roy Wood left. For him the concept just didn’t work out - it didn’t develop or at least must have seemed to have less potential for exploration than he had originally believed.
I think he wanted to make it a far rougher rock and blues concept, you can hear it in the early singles.
They did bring plenty of innovation, but less in the music itself and more in the way it was set up live, much better sound systems instead of the absolutely dreadful echo and rubbish slapback sound of the day, better use of lights, images and also in scale.This all made it possible to develop the stadium sound and this has heavily influenced how music could be promoted - especially in the US which had plenty of stadia that now could find another income stream that had not really been available before due the the terrible sound set-ups of previous years.
Its not really music to get passionate about, it was ok for its day
Indeed, that’s exactly the problem. Yet they were hyped at the time of their first couple of albums as being in that progressive rock bag (while simultaneously being hyped as the natural extension of “I Am the Walrus”/“Strawberry Fields Forever”-era Beatles), and they did have that Beethoven’s 5th/“Roll Over Beethoven” medley, which was at least clever in concept, though it wore out its welcome on the radio real fast. The comparison to Cheap Trick is an apt one, and I’m not much of a fan of theirs either, though I’d take “Dream Police” over “Strange Magic” any day of the week.
Upthread, when I said
the “proggy orchestral power-poppish rock” bands I had in mind to compare them to were bands like The Moody Blues, The Alan Parsons Project, and maybe Styx. ELO was at a disadvantage compared to those bands because, for the bulk of their career, Jeff Lynne handled all the songwriting and lead vocals himself, and, while he’s not a bad singer (or songwriter), he’s not strong or versatile enough to put out whole albums’ worth of great material with enough variety to satisfy me.
casdave brought up ELO as a live act, which I hadn’t even thought to consider. The quality of their live shows is certainly relevant to how much respect they deserve and “what we think of them,” but not to the OP’s question of whether he should delve further into their catalog.
Amen.
Do Ya, Don’t Bring Me Down, and Hold On Tight - three songs that even today will make me turn. it. up. I love them.
‘Do ya’ was originally the B-Side of ‘California Man’ by The Move. That B-Side had 2 tracks on it, off the top of my head I can’t remember the other one. This was also released by The Move as a single in its own right.
It was also on the album ‘Message from the country’
I went out and bought both single and album
