poptimists | The Friday Canon: ELECTRIC LIGHT ORCHESTRA

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The Friday Canon: ELECTRIC LIGHT ORCHESTRA

The most requested canon ever! :-) Here you go Jeff, twenty-six UK Top 40 hits means EIGHT ticks across the tunes below. If you don't know any then get yourself over to Youtube and have a listen!

[Poll #1081557]
Roxette: (link)
1. It Must Have Been Love
2. The Look
=3. Joyride
=3. Listen To Your Heart / Dangerous
5. Fading Like A Flower

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I don't think I've even heard OF these people. I certainly haven't heard of any of their songs.

Based on the picture I don't think they're my thing. At all.

This is one of their best-known songs (and my favourite):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P7NwtjNpl-U

They are very pop, Lex (alth' they also rock out). You would probably like some of these, especially the disco-flavoured ones.

"Don't Bring Me Down" you almost certainly know, if only through the cover version on 'As heard on Radio Soulwax pt.2'.

and surely everyone knows Xanadu too

If you've seen 'Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind', you've heard "Mr Blue Sky". It turns up quite a lot these days, but randomly, so you might well have heard it on an ad.

Never seen it...are they prog-rock?

It was on an M&S ad as well I think. And yes, it seems to turn up more and more these days on all kinds of things.

and, er, doctor who. not that that will help

I've heard of them but never heard of any of the songs! I'm glad I'm not the only one in ignorance.

atomic kitten 'be with you' = Last Train to London sort of messed around with

Oooh blimey, yes! I've always had mixed feelings about LTTL as well, in an odd sort of way that makes even more sense.

WHERE IS XANADU?????

My bad - I used 'begins' instead of 'contains' :(

I may have to withdraw one of my eight votes in protest as obviously it is one of their finest moments (and Olivia's too)

Yee, 'Xanadu' may be one of *her* finest moments but I'm not sure it's an ELO great. Obv, it should still be on the list, of course. I'm surprised 'Four Little Diamonds' isn't on here, as I thought it was released a single. My bad there, I guess.

i wuv the xanadu album. what i don't like on it, is bobbins enough to merit the WTF listening.

The film is pretty WTF from start to finish. I'd never seen it until last year when I was in Australia (where it has cult status) and forced to see it by friends.

still not actually seen it!

You can get an idea of some of the WTF-ness of it from this clip (featuring another ELO song from the film):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HGEiDN3GH-0

although the whole thing really needs to be seen to be believed

Oh I totally think it's one of their finest moments too. It's got all the recognisable moments that make me love ELO - and so sounds as much their song as it is hers.

I like *bits* of it, but other bits are all wrong. For some reason, the verse (not chorus, obv), to me, makes her voice sound all flat and uninspired - and that's hardly the first thing I'd think of in connection with ONJ's voice.

Can't quite put my finger on it, may be something about so much of the song being in the upper registers? Which is, of course, typical ELO. But for some reason it doesn't really work for me. It seems so light and breathy in places that it's in danger of floating away. ELO typically have an undercurrent of darkness anchoring even their fluffiest song, IMHO (their best ones, anyway), and I fear that 'Xanadu' lacks that all-important element.

It kind of makes me think of Duran Duran and "Rio", weirdly - there's 10 seconds of the song here and there which really gets me, the intervening bits are such a disappointment. Although at least it's less disjointed than "Rio".

yes, i was also surprised at the lack of four little diamonds. i think it's the only ELO on my ipod due to GTA: Vice City

i have just found a cover of this by "Dj Happy Vibes Feat Jazzmin" in my iTunes. no idea why - could have been a podcast submission??

hmmm, never made it to a podcast if so...

Hurrah! Thanks, kat.

I was very good and only ticked 8 as instructed. This is what and why:

10538 Overture
From when Roy Wood was still involved. Heavy! Also, the most 'orchestral' ELO ever were really.

Evil Woman
So many great moments - the killer synth/clavinet "riff" in the chorus, the backing singers, the 'a propos of nothing' descending phrase on the violins in the middle (later much sampled)...

Livin' Thing
Guilty Pleasures anthem

Rockaria!
What it says on the tin. Sublimely silly. "I thought I saw the mayor there! But I wasn't really sure"

Mr Blue Sky
Duh. The false ending -> abrupt key and tempo change = gets me every time.

Shine A Little Love
Disco classic.

Don't Bring Me Down
Written for Discovery at the last minute because there weren't enough LOUD SONGS on the album. Stomp, stomp, stomp.

Here Is The News
I only heard this for the first time recently. Weird choice for a single (quite avant garde for ELO) from what is a pretty odd space-themed concept album. Perhaps not one of their best, but I like that Jeff Lynne wasn't resting on his laurels with all the dosh he'd got from sales of Out Of The Blue.

Livin' Thing - who wouldn't
Telephone Line - all telephone-based songs rule. this one has some lovely warbling sounds in it
Mr Blue Sky - OH COME ON
Wild West Hero - it just has such an epic feel to it, and i remember the video
The Diary Of Horace Wimp - some great silliness in the backing vocals, terrific 'concept'
Confusion / Last Train To London (1979) - just so catchy, well done for the guy out of OMD noticing that too.
All Over The World - euphoric
Don't Walk Away - aw sadness. i listened to this a lot after a gurl wouldn't dance with me at an school disco (a REAL school disco, alright!)

I heard this (at least "Ticket to the Moon") for the first time a few years ago - for some reason it got a lot of airplay in pre-millenium Ukraine. But it was probably two or three years later before I ever figured out who did the song. Definitely pretty good, just not as classic as the other stuff.

Am wondering now if I should've voted for Shine A Little Love, but I can't remember how it goes.

It's the one with the dum da-da-dum da-da-dum galloping one-note guitar riff and descending synth lines and the chorus goes: "youshinealittlelove on ma life hoo hoo-hoo" clap clap

(or something like that)

This is what's on it, in case you were wondering:

Ma-ma-ma Belle can eff off but the other three on there are blinding. But should I change my vote?

what the hell? Hold On Tight needs far more love

The most requested canon ever!

Really?

Jeff's been asking every week for the last seven months.

Can't Get It Out Of My Head not UK hit, sez Wikipedia. ;__;

Yep, I can believe that.

Disappointing lack of votes for "Turn To Stone" there too.

2 VOTES?

Lack of Sweet Talkin' Woman is making me very sad.

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The Friday Canon: ELECTRIC LIGHT ORCHESTRA

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AHEM

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Hurrah!

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Here is the News

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ELO EP

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"I'M ALIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIVE"

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