Honoring the Pop Mastery of Jeff Lynne's ELO | Features

Electric Light Orchestra is one of the few bands that can put together a complete setlist of songs that are not only hits, but are also ingrained in our collective subconscious. The chic, funky and bittersweet “Evil Woman,” which was rushed out after the rest of the 1975s Face the music was finished, became the soundtrack to many a walk through the cereal store in the years that followed. The electric effervescent “Mr. Written after the clouds literally parted, ending weeks of writer's block, “Blue Sky” has been a morning shower staple practically ever since Out of the blue was published in 1977. “Showdown”, a song from 1973 On the third day The film, which John Lennon particularly liked, experienced a second life in the 90s on the soundtrack to kingpinwhich in turn inspired its use in a Michelob commercial that aired during the Super Bowl in 2022.

Despite their familiarity, these songs have not become a sonic backdrop; Just try not to sing along when you hear one. The British band's iconography, a mix of neon jukeboxes and flying saucers, matches their rich palette of dark rock, unbeatable pop hooks and layers of symphonic sophistication. The group has disbanded and reformed several times since its founding in 1970, most recently in the 2010s under the name Jeff Lynne's ELO; This is the new edition of the band led by the co-founder and lead singer with the puffball hairstyle. A pair of friends who caught the Bridgestone Arena stop on their 2019 tour described it as a musical home run derby, with Lynne and her band belting out classics over the outfield wall to thunderous applause. I was a little regretful that I hadn't bought tickets; Luckily, there's another chance to see the group when their Over and Out farewell tour of North America hits Stone on Friday.

British-born Lynne grew up a working-class child in Birmingham – the same industrial city where metal godfathers Black Sabbath were born – and began his career as a musician with what was essentially a broken toy. “I don't read music or anything,” Lynne said in a 1986 radio interview for Westwood One's Startrack profile. “I just got a guitar – it was a plastic guitar, the first one I had, from a friend who had it since he was a little kid. I learned a few tunes on one string, up and down the neck. There was only one string on it.”

As a teenager in the early '60s, Lynne frequently attended youth dance clubs where a local rock group called The Nightriders performed. Their lead guitarist Roy Wood left the band to concentrate on his new project The Move and Lynne was recruited. The newcomer quickly proved to be something special, and the band changed their name to The Idle Race and reorganized themselves around his work. Their 1966 eponymous second album, produced and largely written by Lynne when she was 21, was a psychedelic pop masterpiece that earned comparisons to the Beatles. However, the high praise from critics and fellow artists (including Marc Bolan and the Fab Four themselves) failed to translate into a hit.

Eventually, Wood asked Lynne to join him and drummer Bev Bevan in The Move. As they produced that band's last two albums, another progressive sound began to emerge that was clearly their own thing, and so ELO's always lush, never sluggish rock 'n' pop was born. Between 1971 and 1986 they released 11 studio albums. Although they never achieved a No. 1 billboardThey were consistently in the top 40 of the major US singles charts for almost 15 years, both in the UK and the US.

In his next appearance, Lynne stepped out of the spotlight and expanded his career as a producer and occasional supporting actor. In 1987 he produced George Harrisons Cloud ninewhich brought the Quiet Beatle back into the pop charts. Then came the legendary supergroup The Traveling Wilburys, a kind of Americana archetype consisting of Lynne, Harrison, Bob Dylan, Tom Petty and Roy Orbison. At the same time, Lynne Orbison helped make a big comeback in 1988 and produced Mysterious girlwhich was published in 1989 shortly after Orbison's death; Petty's five-times platinum solo LP and rock 'n' roll touchstone Full moon fever came a few months later.

As the list continues, it becomes clear that Lynne, his collaborators, and his grand vision have shaped multiple generations of popular music for fans and fellow musicians around the world. (If you like Cheap Trick, The Flaming Lips, Daft Punk or The Lemon Twigs, Lynne is a person you can thank.) If all pop geniuses must at some point go from active participant to former master, there is hardly a better legacy that they could leave behind.