Geek Love: Electric Light Orchestra




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Geek Love: Electric Light Orchestra
by William S. Repsher

published 7/17/00

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William Repsher is a LeisureSuit.net staff writer based in Queens.

MOST RECENT YAK ABOUT THIS ARTICLE:

Subj: ELO
Hi Will,
It's Pat, one of your "strange cousins" from Altoona. Through all the intervening years I never let my passion for the quintissential ELO wane. I dubbed the albums onto cassettes that got me through the 80s and then I bought the CDs. IMHO their greatest records are Face the Music, A New World Record, and Out of the Blue. These are the ones I listen to repeatedly and I never tire of them. Of course I also still watch Star Trek, read Lovecraft, and eat potato salad.
-- Patrick Repsher
May 28, 2010 at 4:31AM
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The picture says it all. Christmas, 1977. Showing off my new ELO album in front of the tree. That's my mother next to me--her features have been blurred to spare her the shame. Guaranteed, after the rest of the presents were opened, the pictures snapped, the egg nog sipped, I went upstairs, slapped on my Radio Shack Nova 40's (a pair of headphones that gave out only last week) and cranked up what was the band's creative swan song, as everything that came after would be a let down.

I can trace my love of ELO back to two key moments, both occurring early enough in my life that I can blame it all on youthful naivete, although I cannot vouch for the years following. The first moment came as many similar ones did in the 70's: watching "The Midnight Special" on NBC. (Let's not get into the burning "Journey/Wheel in the Sky" fixation I had for a good six months after their appearance.) There was just something great about staying up late on a Friday night, in pajamas, to see what band Wolfman Jack would spring on his unsuspecting TV audience. As there was no MTV, his show and "Don Kirschner's Rock Concert" were the cat's ass, especially for kids like me in a small town. I don't think younger music fans understand how powerful and elusive rock music felt before it was in your face every minute of the day, and reduced to just another commodity.

I immediately thought ELO was cool because the lead singer had a white-boy afro, and there were hippies playing cellos. The first song they played, "Laredo Tornado" (off their 1974 "Eldorado"), simply blew me away--I'd never heard anything like it. The song was a relative "oldie" as their new album, 1975's "Face the Music", had just come out.

The second moment came a few weeks later, when I heard "Livin' Thing" for the first time blasting from the jukebox at Giorgio's Pizza Parlor. Again, it was like being punched in the chest--just the sound of ELO records, as with the Beatles, was amazing. I couldn't go apeshit because my old man was with me, buying a large pepperoni, but I made mental note. A few months later, I had gone so far as to buy a magazine at the supermarket that specialized in Top 40 song lyrics of the day just so I could understand what Jeff Lynne was singing on "Strange Magic." I was savvy enough to buy a copy of the far hipper teen heavy-metal rag Circus and put that on top of the rock lyrics rag.

And, I wish I could find this: a friend of one of my older brothers dubbed an eight-track of "Face the Music". He was a rich kid with an ultra-rare eight-track tape recorder (most eight tracks, like our shitty little Panasonic Pumps, were only players), and it was nearly "beneath" him to grant my brother this favor, as they were both into shit like Yes and Utopia albums with four songs, in outline format. I was afraid to ask who had a copy of the album to dub the tape from.

My brother returned the favor, as he always did. He got me in a headlock in the living room and derisively chrooned the chorus to "Telephone Line" ("Do-wop, diddy-do do-wop, do-wah do-lang/Blue days, black nights/Do wah, do lang") to demonstrate what an idiot I was for liking ELO. But I got payback when I caught him blasting my 45 copy of ABBA's "Mamma Mia" late one night in the basement when he thought everyone was asleep. He threatened to kill me if I told anyone.

Such was life for ELO fans in the 1970's. I knew I was in trouble when I discovered a few of my cousins from Altoona liked them, too. They also liked Star Trek, potato salad, Pink Floyd, and H.P. Lovecraft, in that order. They were strange kids--was I as strange? Possibly. The few kids I could openly talk to at school about ELO were full-on geeks: pencil holders in breast pockets, John Denver wire frames, earth shoes, good grades (except for gym), plaid polyester bellbottoms, bowl haircuts, dress shirts with horses on them--the whole shebang. We'd make light of golf shows on TV using "Fire on High" for their theme music . . . then we'd join the golf team. And play "Fire on High" on a car stereo next to the putting green. Strangely enough, a lot of kids on farms liked ELO. I'm now picturing romantic interludes with Old Bessie to the tune of "Mr. Blue Sky." Crop circles and Children of the Corn come readily to mind.

The worst part was that the best aspect of ELO was their ballads, so implications arose from our love of "faggy" songs that chicks dug. "Can't Get It Out of My Head" may have been (and still is) a great song, but admitting as much in front of the ultra-cool Zeppelin/Sabbath crowd didn't cut it. "Going to California" was kind of faggy, too, but that song had gods giving each other bloody noses, man! And Zeppelin was into fantasy as much, too, although more stoner J.R.R. Tolkein ("Gollum, the evil one, crept up and slipped away with her-er, her-er, her-er") than the ELO "Battlestar Galactica" variety.

Zep fans blasted "Kashmir" from the eight-track and pretended they were riding a camel through the Sahara while driving around the mall parking lot stoned in a souped-up '76 Nova. Zeppelin didn't use goofball gimmicks like vocoders the way ELO or the Alan Parsons Project did. Even though ELO rocked on occasion, with stomping hits like "Do Ya" and "Don't Bring Me Down," there was still something pussy about them.

Our music teacher, whom we called Catfish because he resembled one, once had a "bring your own music" day where all the kids were to bring in their favorite songs, play them for the class and explain their choices. It was a welcome break from "Senior Delgato" and "My Hat It Has Three Corners," and the kids brought in the usual variety of shit. Girls with Dorothy Hamill haircuts swooned to Barry Manilow ("he's so sensitive"); heavy metal dirtbags blasted Sabbath ("you know, dudes, sometimes I think I really am Iron Man--aren't we all?"), and nerds like me brought the Beatles ("you must be on drugs not to recognize them as the greatest band ever . . . oh, sorry, you are on drugs"). Catfish surprised us all by bringing his own stuff--he couldn't decide between two artists, the first being Neil Diamond ("there's some interesting harmonic progression in 'I Am I Cried'"). The second? You guessed it: ELO. The thought of both Catfish and myself jamming to "Tightrope" was a hard concept to handle--I didn't raise my hand when he asked if anyone in the class was familiar with their work. No one did.

When did it all come crashing down for ELO and me? Well, never, albeit after a long dry spell. There's a period of serious disenchantment every adult goes through, usually from the early to the late 20's, where he tries to bury the embarrassing memories from his youth. This goes double for anyone raised in the 70's. The condition is exacerbated by anyone who goes to college and buys into a new, supposedly more sophisticated set of values, many as delusional and archaic as his teenage values. But the brick wall of 30 slowly materializes through the mist, just past that gloomy mid-20's period of "feeling old" (meaning "I'm no longer a teenager but am still trying to see the world that way"). The silly teen-cool defense mechanisms begin to slip, and one looks at teenagers and sees assholes, as he did unapologetically when he was that age. Something changes inside--a bridge is burned. And he starts noticing old favorites with the Super Saver stickers at the local CD shoppe and thinks, "Why the hell not?" Will the cashier laugh? Who cares? What will that smirking jack ass be shame-facedly purchasing in 2020?

ELO started fading, like the Beatles on "Hey Jude," with the two-record set "Out of the Blue", on which they sounded like a berserk parody of themselves--it was just too much of everything. Even worse was the band getting nailed for playing backing tapes during live performances, a phenomenon I heard myself on an HBO special of one of their concerts. All their older songs sounded gritty and live, but the newer ones sounded sleek with a full orchestral backing--about the only thing Jeff Lynne didn't do was stop playing and bow Partridge Family-style before the song ended. Of course, then came not just the nail in their coffin but the 70's coffin as well, Xanadu. Maybe it was bad timing, but much as I felt towards Queen and Cheap Trick, I was getting older, new wave was kicking in, and it was time to hide those ELO records in the bedroom closet. I didn't even bother buying the soundtrack to Xanadu, nor any album thereafter, as the damage was done. An ELO album was one thing--ELO backing Olivia Newton-John reeked a little too much of "Solid Gold" and "Dance Fever", i.e, death in spandex.

But considering the god-awful production sound Jeff Lynne created for Tom Petty, George Harrison, Roy Orbison, and above all, The Beatles (posthumously anyway), later in his career, I don't mind looking back and recognizing the great pop band he had with ELO in their 70's prime, no matter how weird things got towards the end. There was simply a perfect match between their yearning, string-laden melancholy and the perverse, unrequited day-dreaming of a boy in a small town. Rather than ride a camel in the Sahara, I chose to walk alone on the road to Eldorado. Well, there were a few million other wire-framed dorks with me, but let's pretend I was alone.

Name: Patrick Repsher
Subject: ELO
-- May 28, 2010 at 4:31AM
Hi Will,
It's Pat, one of your "strange cousins" from Altoona. Through all the intervening years I never let my passion for the quintissential ELO wane. I dubbed the albums onto cassettes that got me through the 80s and then I bought the CDs. IMHO their greatest records are Face the Music, A New World Record, and Out of the Blue. These are the ones I listen to repeatedly and I never tire of them. Of course I also still watch Star Trek, read Lovecraft, and eat potato salad.

Name: davey
Subject: erect 4 yak
-- Jun 6, 2008 at 8:39PM
I was quite impressed with the art noveau of the whole thing,johnny.Yak is neat.

Name: Mike D
Subject: elo
-- Feb 5, 2008 at 10:00PM
First of all your taking it to serious, music is fun, elo was fun, and if anybody thought elo were pussies they never seen a elo concert....those
guys could blow any 70's-80's.....band of the stage... I've seen over 100 rock concerts..no one could touch elo's live performance...

Name: Devorah Phillips
Subject: Why ELO was/is great
-- Nov 9, 2004 at 11:33PM
ELO and Jeff Lynne had an elusive beauty and sense of magic woven through their songs and lyrics that first captured my imagination when I was a slightly geeky ten year old. I remember buying "Out of the Blue" at the King of Prussia, PA mall, it was the first album I ever bought and I felt so cool. The idealism and sense of sad romanticism that permeates much of their music was where I lived when I was a teenager, and it still inspires me. While I agree that often times ELO's music lacks the "cool factor", the sheer aesthetics, cutting edge (for the time) and quality production techniques and individuality of their work cannot be denied. Also, I totally agree with the author's observation I don't think younger music fans understand how powerful and elusive rock music felt before it was in your face every minute of the day, and reduced to just another commodity."-- rock/pop music today has a "fast food" quality compared to how it was created back in the '70s.

Name: William S. Repsher Responds
Subject: Re: you suck!
-- Oct 5, 2004 at 8:20PM
I'm so hurt that I'm going to play Eldorado on eight track and just cry my eyes out. Damn you, lluasjol! Your words of passion sting like bees!

Name: lluasjol!
Subject: you suck!
-- Oct 5, 2004 at 6:53PM
Hey you, that Repsher guy,if you had a bad experience with ELO, that is your problem. sorry for you. Everyone is free to say what it`s think, so I think your opinion `bout ELO sucks!
At least show some respect for those who love that band.
Ps. If you talk the same you as think about everything be careful dont`t bite your tongue, you may get poisoned.

Name: William S. Repsher Responds
Subject: Re: ELO
-- May 27, 2003 at 6:55AM
Self revisionist? Buddy, I'm being nice. I had been a die-hard fan before Xanadu -- would buy ANYTHING they did -- and the movie just killed my fanhood at the time. Some bands freak out and record some off-puttingly experimental work -- like Radiohead with their truly awful Kid A/Amnesia albums.

With ELO, it was the exact opposite -- they stuck their finger in the wind, saw which way the trends were blowing (roller disco!) and set sail in that direction. Discovery is a pretty bad album, too -- slick beyond comprehension, moving into areas that were too commercial even for an unashamedly commercial band like ELO.

I wouldn't say AC/DC and Led Zep are over-rated so much as it makes no sense that ONLY them, and bands like Pink Floyd are now recognized as rock bands of the 70s. There were hundreds -- I get the impression kids not raised in that era don't quite grasp that, as this is all they're being fed historically. Live and learnd -- I'd also be willing to bet there are people out there digging around and finding a lot of great stuff they aren't being fed by radio and their parents' questionable tastes.

Xanadu was as good as it got for ELO in 1980? Fair game, but I don't consider that a compliment. Eldorado was as as good as it got for them in 1974, and I still recognize the radical difference in quality.

Name: Che' Kebooty
Subject: ELO
-- May 27, 2003 at 2:07AM
I have to disagree with the somewhat backhanded criticism of ELO in general. It sounds as if the author is a self-revisionist unwilling to revel fully in the joy of their music (guilty pleasure though it may be). Bands such as AC/DC, Led Zep, etc. have been given a patina of "cool"-nes s that is simply that - a patina and I have always felt they were terribly overated. And though the brickbats may fly in my direction, I will go so as to say that "Xanadu" (the song, not the movie) was about as good as it got for ELO in 1980. To have the mighty ELO, my favorite band, fronted by the gorgeous and talented Australian songbird Olivia Newton-John performing a superb-as-usual Jeff Lynne creation was simply too much. Don't let the image of "Solid Gold" and "Let's Get Physical ruin your reverie - those dark days would come only later!

Name: ELOforever
Subject: Geek Love: Electric Light Orchestra
-- Nov 1, 2002 at 11:52AM
Being the ELO fan that I am. I wish to alert others about their presence on the internet.
Right now ELO's "Don't Bring Me Down" is on the website:
POPULAR SONGS MUSIC VOICE
www.popsongsmusi cvoice.bravepages.co m

Click on to CLASSIC ROCK to vote for ELO.

Name: DJ
Subject: sleestak
-- Jan 11, 2002 at 7:52PM
Quote - Even when I cringe my way through the awful dreck that is "Horace Wimp"

You'll understand why I didn't give my full name when I tell you that when Horace cries (when she says yes) I do too!

I guess you have to be like Horace to appreciate it

Name: Karim
Subject: ELO en Suisse
-- Sep 23, 2001 at 7:39AM
Bonjour ELO,
Quant est ce que vous venez faire un Concert
en Suisse?????
Je vous aies jamais vu en Concert et j�ai Hate
avant votre retraite definitive.

Name: William S. Repsher Responds
Subject: Re: lyrics
-- Aug 30, 2001 at 9:31AM
Sun is shinin' in the sky
There ain't a cloud in sight
It's stopped rainin' everybody's in a play
And don't you know
It's a beautiful new day hey,hey

Runnin' down the avenue
See how the sun shines brightly in the city
On the streets where once was pity
Mister blue sky is living here today hey, hey

Mister blue sky please tell us why
You had to hide away for so long
Where did we go wrong?

Hey you with the pretty face
Welcome to the human race
A celebration, mister blue sky's up there waitin'
And today is the day we've waited for

Hey there mister blue
We're so pleased to be with you
Look around see what you do
Ev'rybody smiles at you

Mister blue sky, mister blue sky
Mister blue sky

Mister blue, you did it right
But soon comes mister night creepin' over
Now his hand is on your shoulder
Never mind I'll remember you this
I'll remember you this way

Mister blue sky please tell us why
You had to hide away for so long
Where did we go wrong?

Hey there mister blue
We're so pleased to be with you
Look around see what you do
Ev'rybody smiles at you
Ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba
Ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba

Name: diago marradonna
Subject: lyrics
-- Aug 29, 2001 at 1:00PM
how do you get the song lyrics on
(mr blue sky)

Name: Rick Pearce
Subject: ELO CANCELLED
-- Aug 21, 2001 at 4:32AM
I got my tickets from Ticketmaster for the bands show September 28 at Continental Arena in New Jersey.I went on line the day they went on sale and got 20th row floor seats.Not bad.Then shortly after they arrived in the mail I received an E-mail from Ticketmaster saying the concert had been moved to the PNC Arts Center, in Holmdel NJ.This is a nice place that seats less than half of the Continental Arena, but a great place for the show.Ticketmaster said I could get a refund by mail or a ticket exchange but I needed to go in person to the box office at PNC to get an exchange. I called PNC and was told the show was cancelled completely.I agree with much of what Mr. Repsher said. Both Jeff and the management company should realize that times have changed.Most of ELO's core audience is still unaware they have an album out. There is nothing wrong with playing smaller shows in better places where the sound would be better and the audience much more accessible.I hope the tour does come to the US.I know I will be at the show.(Strangely enough about eight years ago ELO PartII was scheduled to play Radio City Music Hall in New York and I had tickets for that show. That show was cancelled also. Unfortunately I didn't hear about the cancellation and went to New York on the night of the show only to learn of the cancellation when I arrived at Radio City.)

I like the new album and hope this is just a little skip in ELO's resurgance not a crash and burn.(When I had trouble in the late 70's getting tickets for a New York performance of the OUT OF THE BLUE tour, I arranged my vacation so I could drive from my home in New Jersey to Toronto to see ELO at Exhibition Stadium -with opening act Meatloaf.Yes- I was much younger and more adventurous but as many concerts as I have attended in my life,that drive was by far the furthest I have ever gone to see a band-and it was worth all the effort. Waiting a few more months now to see if one of my all-time favorite bands can make it happen again is still worth the wait.I am not giveing up hope yet.

Name: William S. Repsher Responds
Subject: Re: ELO
-- Aug 18, 2001 at 8:55AM
Dawn, blame it on Jeff, or whoever decided a band/artist that hadn't toured in almost 20 years, put out an album that fell out of the Top 200 in a matter of weeks, and priced tickets at a minimum of $70 a pop, AND had the nerve to book the band into massive 20,000-seat venues all across the country -- venues most Top 10 bands of today can't even sell out themselves anymore (notice all the package tours coming to town?).

In New York, they were booked to play two major venues -- they wouldn't have gotten anywhere near selling out even one.

It was just bad tour planning. If he had focused on the kind of house the band could have easily sold out, say a 2,000-seat theater, the band could have easily had a triumphant return tour -- hopefully with tickets priced less than $50. He did himself in, and even though I'm a fan, screw him for not recognizing all these extraneous factors, as if nothing had changed since their last triumphant world tour in the early 80s.

Ask yourself how you got 4th row seats -- at those prices, and if the show was still on, I'd be willing to bet I could order seats right next to you at this very moment. Shame on Jeff for screwing his fans like this.

Name: DAWN THOMAS
Subject: ELO
-- Aug 18, 2001 at 2:15AM
I am very upset that this concert was cancelled. I waited 20 years to see Jeff Lynne perform once again, and to my chagrin, it seemingly will not happen. House of Blues Production should realize that great artists such as Lynne, should be supported fully. I am highly disappointed, since I had 4th row from the stage seats. If you think the geek love guy gave you a good story, you should listen to mine. I miss this band. ELOII was nothing without the voice and talent of Jeff Lynne.

Sincerely,

Dawn M. Thomas
Cleveland, Ohio

Name: Sleestak
Subject: ELO
-- Jul 31, 2001 at 10:31PM
ELO is always going to be my favorite band. 'Sweet Talkin Woman' was the one that jumped out of the radio and grabbed me.

From The Idle Race, to The Move, to ELO I am hopelessly addicted to Lynne's stuff. Even when I cringe my way through the awful dreck that is "Horace Wimp" I know that "Ticket to the Moon" or "Fire on High" will make up for it.

The only wish I have is for them to let me choose the single for an album. If they were to let me do it I promise I wouldn't choose the biggest piece of dreck on the album like they always did.

I guess I am also a sick sad clown (and not British one either). But it really doesn't matter at all. I like em.

Name: William S. Repsher Responds
Subject: Re: Geek Love: Electric Light Orchestra
-- Jul 28, 2001 at 6:04PM
Hats off to "Lord Darkness" -- the only sick, sad clown I've ever heard to praise Jeff Lynne's awful 80s production values. Where you plugging in from the British Isles, Lord? Because only the British carry on like this over Jeff Lynne, whose done many great things in his life, but turning a snare drum into a tin can and a full orchestra into a flattened-out synthesizer were not two of them.

Name: Lord Darkness
Subject: Geek Love: Electric Light Orchestra
-- Jul 28, 2001 at 5:45PM
"the god-awful production sound" ???

Are you deaf, or just keeping that crackpipe warm?

//LD

Name: Rick PEARCE
Subject: ELO
-- Jul 26, 2001 at 3:48AM
It is nice to see comments from former (and current)ELO fans. I actually started my love of the band with the last version of the Move. I got a Capitol swirl singlle of "TONIGHT" (one of the last Move singles in the US) and loved it. Shortly after this I read in some magazine about The Move recording under the ELO name, so I got the first album and I've been a big fan ever since. I just got my tickets on line for the New Jersey Continental Arena show Sept 28. I saw them in 1981 for the TIME tour at this same place when it was called the Byrne Arena. I also have followed Bev and Kelly with Part II which I thought was quite good. Nice to hear I am not completely alone in my love of this band.

Name: Dave Johnson
Subject: ELO
-- Jul 25, 2001 at 9:30PM
Well, speaking of members of the band, as the post previous to mine does, I had the honor of taking the new lead singer, Greg Szabo to dinner!!

Name: T.G. Brown
Subject: ELO
-- Jul 24, 2001 at 1:29PM
Being a big ELO fan in the 70's, I recently (5/00) promoted one of their shows at the local baseball stadium. ELO (ELO II) was great, but we only drew 2,000, and I lost my butt! But it was great as I got to party several nights with Kelly Grocutt and the boys, and I even took the new guitarist, Dennis York (lights and sound), and another roadie out to play golf at my club! It was an experience I will never forget!

Name: ray stein
Subject: elo
-- Jul 23, 2001 at 4:19PM
i too am a huge elo fan and laughed in reminiscence about my "swooning" .I enjoy the new "zoom"albu m..is that a Bev Bevan sighting?

Name: sharon granger
Subject: elo/app/moody blues
-- Jul 17, 2001 at 2:10PM
hElLO FANS
I am happy to know that I am not the only one out their with good musical taste. Ok you guessed it I must be old. I have seen all my favorite groups at least once. I love the sound of strings, horns and organs in there music. I was lucky to see the TIME tour, to this day I know it was the best concert I ever saw. I will always be a fan of these great groups that in my humble opinion changed the music industry for the better. Sadly ALAN PARSONS PROJECT and E.L.O. are not in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. I hope some day they will be appreciated for all the great music they have given us over the years. keep the light burning brite.

ELO/APP/MOODY BLUE
FAN4EVER
SHARON

Name: Jeff Prejean
Subject: ELO-Traffic ticket
-- Jul 11, 2001 at 11:41PM
During the Out of the Blue tour I was in the 10th grade. They played at LSU Assembly Center in Baton Rouge w/o the spaceship. Supposedly it was too much put it up & take it down each night so they only used it at every other concert. I was so disappointed and determined; I was able to see them the next night in Gulfport/Biloxi, about a 2-3 hour drive. How I was able to pull this off w/ my parents at that age still amazes me.
Anyway we are cruising along I-10 east near the LA/MS border and these 2 limos blow by us. I tell my brother step on it that must be them. About 5 minutes later, MS Highway Patrol has a speed trap set & we all get pulled over. I get out of the car and walk to the limos & they have their doors open & I say hello. Of course they reply w/ their Brtish accents and that was about it. Their limo driver signed their ticket & they were gone in seconds while we were there about 30 minutes. Anyway, that was my brush w/ greatness.

Name: Jes�s Mar�a Rey Nu�o
Subject: ELO - ZOOM
-- Jun 26, 2001 at 6:43PM
Have a listen at the new album ZOOM. You won�t be dissapointed, sure!!!!!

Name: William S. Repsher Responds
Subject: Re: My First Favorite Band
-- Jun 3, 2001 at 8:39AM
Chuck, FYI, if you go to Leisure Suit's main page, you can see my review of Zoom, which I stumbled across months before its mid-June release. I guess you could say I was pleasantly disappointed -- too tasteful. But what the hell, if you buy it, you'll most likely keep it for a few good tracks.

Name: Chuck Padgett
Subject: My First Favorite Band
-- Jun 2, 2001 at 9:57PM
The first single I ever bought, as a 12 year old in 1976, was "Telephone Line." A couple of years later, I bought a cut-out of Out Of The Blue for $5, which was an amazing price for a double album. I was blown away and I started to seek out the earlier material and they quickly became my first favorite band. My sister had New World Record, which crept into my collection until I bought my own copy. Same story with Face The Music, Eldorado and On The Third Day, which I borrowed from my cousin Jim. The early stuff really blew me away and for Christmas of 1978, my mother got me the Three Light Years box set with my direction. I completed the collection with the first two albums and it was amazing to me how in 5 years ELO had put out this incredible body of work. The early stuff sounded like it could have been rock & roll from the 18th century and the later stuff sounded like it was from the future. I still really love listening to this era of ELO. I was not as impressed with the material that followed, other than the occasional tune and I'm kind of leery of what Zoom will be like. The beauty of ELO was lost as the music simplified into 50's style tunes.

From The Sun To The Earth,
Chuck

Name: William S. Repsher Responds
Subject: Re: Hippy Music
-- May 30, 2001 at 9:00PM
Tris, I, Too, will surely see ELO when they hit New York this summer. Grandaddy, indeed, rocks, with even more of an early Bowie influence than ELO. Divine Comedy? Not bad, but when it comes to faggy Britpop, Pulp are it for me, the best band in England, and I'm still waiting for the next damn album after This Is Hardcore, which is taking forever.

NYC ELO fans should also be excited about something else -- charter member Roy Wood is coming to play a small club over the course of a few nights come November. This will be the first time I'll have been penciled in for anything that far in advance -- a strange feeling.

Name: Tris Lowe (UK)
Subject: Hippy Music
-- May 29, 2001 at 2:12PM
I was introduced to ELO in about 1992 when I was 13.
I called it "Hippy Music" due to the picture on the front of the "Heroes of Pop Music" cassette.
I never let on to my friends what it was but as I got older I found out more and became more fond of ELO.
I've seen ELO Part II paly many times and I'm looking forward to seeing Jeff, Richard Tandy and the rest of the new line up
in the not to distant future.
I also have the Grandaddy Album which is great.
I also reccomend an English group called The Divine Commedy, if you like ELO, you may like them.

Name: William S. Repsher Responds
Subject: Re: Cool in Sweden
-- Jan 15, 2001 at 8:57AM
Good news, Tor (as in "By Tor and the Snow Dog"?) -- ELO, with Jeff Lynne, is apparently back in the studio and working on a new album. At least that's what Jordan Hoffman told me. And, yes, Grandaddy has their 70s references down -- they tip their hats to Bowie quite a bit, too, on that album.

Name: Tor
Subject: Cool in Sweden
-- Jan 14, 2001 at 2:44PM
Ahh, in Sweden there was no problem liking ELO. I won "Out of the Blue" in a competition in a Donald Duck (Kalle Anka in Swedish) magazine when I was ten. I loved the album and bought every record with ELO.

Then I became a new romantic (Gary Numan, Ultravox, Depeche Mode etc.) and it was a bit embarrassing to admit I liked ELO, but I never hid my records.

Then one day I heard "Chrystal lake" by Grandaddy and really liked the song. There was something ELO:ish about it. So I bought the album (Sophtware slump), put on the headphones and made a great discovery. Just before "Chrystal lake" theres a quote from ELO's "Face the Music". Someone is imitating the backward-voice from the intro of "Fire on high". So I guess it's cool to like ELO again?

And now I'm old and wise and I still love ELO, especially the underestimated Time-album.

-- Tor / Sweden

Name: Dan Nobles
Subject: ELO writer
-- Oct 23, 2000 at 5:09PM
If I would take a second to see where I'm at on the internet, I would realize that you ARE a writer. Keep up the good work.

Name: Dan Nobles
Subject: ELO/etc
-- Oct 23, 2000 at 5:07PM
I really enjoyed your piece about ELO. If you are not a writer, you should be one. I was one of those that got caught onto ELO and the Moody Blues with the Time album and Long Distance Voyager, respectively. Then, working my way backwards, I realized all the other songs that I liked, but never knew who really made them. Yes, ELO has the distinction of being sometimes sappy pop and when the first chords of "Do ya" come screeching out, you want to jump up and say, "See? See how cool they are?", but you end up convincing only the die-hard fans like yourself. And boy are we diehard fans! I got to this page by searching for "new elo album" because I just got a tidbit of news today that Jeff Lynne is in the studio producing one and wanted to confirm it. It seems impossible, but I'll be there to buy it if it's true. Yes, I like APP, too. I have a theory (please don't beat me up) that those of us who like Moody Blues, ELO and APP, etc. are here because we can comprehend and see the beauty of orchestral rock. It's really thinking-person's music no matter how sappy it may seem.

Name: William S. Repsher Responds
Subject: Re: ELO/Alan Parsons Project
-- Sep 24, 2000 at 8:14PM
Linda, a Celtic Rock-Pop artist influenced by ELO? I have to hear this. If you're still out there, contact the editors so you can send along a demo tape. We're going to make you a star -- or have a good laugh at your expense.

Name: Linda
Subject: ELO/Alan Parsons Project
-- Sep 20, 2000 at 3:48PM
I grew up with all those - Alan Parsons, Beatles, CSN, and ELO...and I do not feel any shame about it! Perhaps the secret Donna Summer/Skating Rink enjoyment causes more sheepishness now, but at that time, I was a fledgling violinist, and ELO was THE COOLEST! Rock with an orchestra??! How much better could things get??! And then APP with Edgar Allen Poe put to music - again a combination of rock and symphonic styles. I loved it, and still do, and now that I am doing my own fusion sort of music (Celtic Rock-Pop), I have an even greater appreciation for their innovative albums, though I admit I didn't sit with all my friends and listen to Out of the Blue.
That was my "I'm at home all day by myself and I have to clean the house" music!! ;-)

Name: William S. Repsher
Subject: Re: Oh come on Mr. Repsher!
-- Aug 29, 2000 at 8:36AM
Anne, it's no secret, I am deeply in touch with my "sebaceous" side, although I tend to keep it well hidden under a very large rock. I'd rather not forget my extensive ELO collection, but simply place it in the context of the times.

But a good question: why don't I look back on music when I was four years old and relate to that sense of "resplenderous innocence"? Was I never resplenderously innocent?

Name: Anne
Subject: Oh come on Mr. Repsher!
-- Aug 29, 2000 at 12:02AM
I know! I know!! ELO embodied a certain wholesome brand of canned optimism, but they certainly exuded a sweet simplicity of music. I realize I'm an urchin (Being born the year OUT OF THE BLUE was released), however, ELO has always sent me to a time of resplendorous innocence. A time when my dad gave me Out of the Blue and Xanadu when I was 4 years old.
I realize, that most people want to forget their extensive ELO, APP, and Boston Collections, but nothin's gonna stop me from getting out A New World Record and listen to Shangri La! LOL!
Just take some time every once in a while to sort of dust things off, and secretly get in touch with your long discarded sebaceous side!

Name: William S. Repsher Responds
Subject: Re: In the same boat.
-- Jul 24, 2000 at 7:27AM
Ray, ELO as an aphrodisiac for the ladies? I don't know -- it didn't work that way for me -- unless, of course, we're counting sex with myself.

Alan Parsons Project, eh? Keep reading these pages -- he's about to make an appearance on Leisure Suit very soon.

Name: Ray Torres
Subject: In the same boat.
-- Jul 23, 2000 at 4:54PM
In Puerto Rico my native land,ELO was none existent.I was introduced to them by a buddy in High School that had been in the States.I remember him telling me to check them out 'cause we liked the Beatles,Eagles and Allen Parsons Project.I've always been a romantic and sensitive to what the opposite sex likes and attracts them.I was hooked right away.Just like you,I listen to them using headsets and would close my eyes and my soul get carried away by their music and lyrics.In P.R. it was considered cool in those days to listen to Rock and understand it, so I didn't have a problem being an ELO fan.But here in the States is different.I've talked to friends here about music and favorite artists and it seems that if you like certain types you are casted as a homo,strange or not withit.Who cares, as long as I feel good listening to it that's all that counts.I'm not ashame of liking them, I know many cool people that likes them and thay are normal good persons.Be proud to be part of the few!

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Geek Love: Electric Light Orchestra by William S. Repsher

Geek Love: Electric Light Orchestra
by William S. Repsher