Posted on 03/30/2023 6:07:50 PM PDT by DallasBiff
Official Music Video for "Mr. Blue Sky" by Electric Light Orchestra
(Excerpt) Read more at youtube.com ...
I saw ELO in Denver, 2018. I think the leftists would be singing to Mr Red sky.
Is that supposed to be funny? Or insightful? Or what?
‘Showdown’ is my favorite song of ELO’s. I still want to tie the lead singer down and shear him - bet he’s pretty cute under all that matted fur, LOL!
But ALL of their music was awesome for the ‘times.’
https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=dV0-Cho26IY
Sometimes don't wish what you wish for, it may come true.
Where?
Wikipedia page said their thing was to bring classical influences to rock music, but this didn't come across to me at the time.
To give them credit for this idea, ELO was founded in 1970, three years before Eumir Deodato came out with his disco version of Also Sprach Zarathustra, and six years before Walter Murphy did A Fifth Of Beethoven.
However, I think it must be said that The Beatles wove classical flavors into their music, probably influenced to some extent by their producer George Martin.
I liked them. But always felt they ripped from the Beatles.
I had the feeling that they stepped into the vacuum that was created when the Beatles broke up in 1971. It was just a matter of timing.
Remember, a lot of kids were really affected by the vanishing of the Beatles. It had such an “end of an era” feel to it at the time. ELO may have seen it as an opportunity.
Maybe so.
“I liked them. But always felt they ripped from the Beatles.”
As for this particular song, it is best appreciated along with the entire side of that LP (collectively titled "Concerto For A Rainy Day").
Jeff Lynne, who was ELO, .has explicitly stated that his goal was to extend the fusion of rock and classical music started by The Beatles.
That was also a fun memory like Mr. Blue Sky. I've always regarded ELO and Poco Harem as similar, never a huge fan of either, maybe Beatles chasers but I appreciated what they did. In the same camp of my more favored English bands like Emerson Lake & Palmer, Yes, Genesis, Gentle Giant, and King Crimson, (not in any particular order).
I wouldn’t put much stock into what is posted on Wikipedia in regards to ELO, or most other people other than ELO members. I’ve heard of all kinds different classifications for ELO, some fit a little, some don’t fit at all. I enjoy them for what they are.
I have lots of memories tied to music, and one in particular to Mr. Blue Sky. There was this one radio station that played Mr. Blue Sky every morning at 5:15 am when I was on my way to swim practice as a kid. It was a great song to get moving on a cold winter morning knowing that I had to soon jump in a pool they was always too cold. Strange how that is a good memory.
When my kids were growing up, I’d play Mr. Blue Sky as I drove them to their swim practice. They appreciated that for some reason too. I guess it has a good rhythm for swimming, particularly warming up. Good memories.
They were always open about being Beatles fans, even back when the band was called The Move.
Where’s the rest of the Concerto for a Rainy Day?
And...
Babylon the great has fallen...
So...
Let's Face The Music and Dance - "Follow The Fleet" (1936)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yy4QPRbTBE8
America, it was fun while it lasted...
BTW, I saw ELO decades ago, in Dallas!
Thanks for your post...
M
Though I admit that now, so many years later, their resemblance to The Fab Four is hard to miss, at the time there were a number of bands that were kind of picking up on concepts that the Beatles had introduced. I'm thinking here of Emerson Lake & Palmer and Yes. Kind of keeping the "psychedelic axis" going, as it were.
My point is they were just one of the bands that was carrying on in the direction the Beatles pointed out. In the context of the music of the time, they were just another good British rock band, a little more on the electronic side than The Who and Led Zeppelin.
With the wind-down of the Vietnam war, the "protest music" theme began to lose energy, which was taken up by the heavy even-a-spaz-can-dance-to-it beats of the disco era.
The Beatles were pathfinders and innovators in so many ways. They were a good rock band, a good blues band, a good heavy-metal band, an a good psychedelic band.
Baby Groot dancing in the “Guardians of the Galaxy 2’
opening to ‘Mr. Blue Sky” by ELO
https://youtu.be/OjrS6oJu1c4
🥰💖
This is what I think of everytime I hear that!
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