Electric Light Orchestra stood out from their rock and roll peers in the 70s and 80s thanks to Jeff Lynne’s willingness to include classical vibes even into their hardest-rocking songs. Lynne’s production skills always shone, while his underrated songwriting ensured that the band had great material at their disposal.
Videos by American Songwriter
Over the course of 15 studio albums, ELO delivered several memorable closing tracks. Here are four of them that deserve special acclaim.
“Wild West Hero” from Out Of The Blue (1977)
Lynne and his band went for broke with Out Of The Blue. Incredibly, the wildly diverse double album, overflowing with memorable tracks, came from a brief burst of creativity after Lynne dealt with major writer’s block. “Wild West Hero” ends the whole thing on an epic note. It centers on a theme that resonated with Lynne, that of the everyday Joe who imagines himself in a more vibrant life. (That same theme elevated Electric Light Orchestra’s brilliant 1974 album Eldorado.) The saloon-style piano on the track is played by Melvyn Gale, who generally handled cello for the group. The song builds in measured fashion from its gentle verses to the storming choruses, sung by Lynne with a musical maelstrom swirling around him.
“Don’t Bring Me Down” from ‘Discovery’ (1979)
The joke at the time was that the title for Discovery should have been rendered as “Disco-Very”. Lynne admittedly courted the dance floors of the time with the rhythmic approach on many of the songs, albeit without sacrificing the band’s typical melodic elan. He saved the album’s big hit single for the closing track. “Don’t Bring Me Down” is a bit more muscular than most rock-disco hybrids of the time, although you can certainly bounce around to it if you wish. Notable here: the complete lack of strings. Lynne was beginning to move away from the orchestral flourishes to focus on a tighter pop-song approach. It certainly worked with this track, which still busts out of radio speakers with the same fervor it displayed back in the day.
“Hold On Tight” from ‘Time’ (1981)
We’re cheating a little bit with this one. Time was a loose concept album about a guy who hurtles forward into the future and tries to find his way back. As such, there’s a brief “Epilogue” track that comes at the very end of the running order. But “Hold On Tight”, which directly precedes it, ends the story of the album, even though it stands alone as a single quite fine. By this time, Lynne was starting to settle into his rockabilly period, albeit with gleaming production to modernize it all. “Hold On Tight” gallops along on a Jerry Lee Lewis-style groove. Lynne adds a verse sung in French to spice up the track a bit. The song offers a fine final message to send off to the album listeners.
“Alone In The Universe” from ‘Alone In The Universe’ (2015)
After Balance Of Power in 1986, Lynne left Electric Light Orchestra behind for long stretches, concentrating on his production work. On the three occasions that he did resurrect the brand, he did so as pretty much a one-man band. That was certainly the case on Alone In The Universe, where, except for some backing vocals and slight production touches, he did everything himself. The beautiful title track sends the album out on a note of dreamy melancholy. It showed that Lynne’s knack for matching up the sentiment of the lyrics with the vibes of the music remained unaltered by the passing of time. It certainly feels like the narrator is drifting through some great void in search of a lost love.
Photo by Ron Wolfson/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
Leave a Reply
Only members can comment. Become a member. Already a member? Log in.