ELO Blogs
(56 views)Hello, dear friends – well, as you have probably guessed from the title of this blog, am about to have a little break – will be back on AR next Monday (6th July). So in the meantime, let me take you for a visit to that nice old place, Nostalgiaville, with some favourite tunes, which I hope you’ll enjoy!
First up, one of Neil Diamond’s finest, if you know what I mean ;)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JavM0jvfdDo
Talking of fine, something very summer-y from ELO – but not the “obvious” choice!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=38y59LjrMVM
And how about this forgotten gem from Messrs Hall and Oates – they say nostalgia isn’t what it used to be, but it certainly is, at least for LOM ;)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yNk6ErNl89s
And then on a vaguely similar theme, a delightful song from the delightful Maxine Nightingale - listening to this always puts the smile back on my face :)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQhLxJKcHOc
Finally, a classic from the King of Pop, from a much happier era - may you rest in peace, Michael …
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y3r2_yFBSek
Have a great week, dear friends – enjoy the weather and please remember to ignore all the idiotic “warnings” from our beloved Nanny State – cos such warnings are seriously bad for one’s mental health J For heavens’ sake, we only have about three-and-a-half days of decent weather in this country each summer, so just make the most of it and don’t worry too much ;)
Rant over and out ;) Bye for now, dear friends, take care and see you again soon J
Tags: Michael Jackson ELO Hall and Oates Maxine Nightingale Neil Diamond
(97 views)Net Lag: That glazed look when you have been online for too long.
Prairie dogging: When something happens in a call centre with cubicles, where people's heads pop up over the walls to see what's going on.
Open-Collar Workers: People who work at home or telecommute.
Adminisphere: The rarefied organization layers beginning just above the rank of call centre manager. Decisions that fall from the “adminisphere” are often profoundly inappropriate or irrelevant to the problems they were designed to solve.
Stress puppy: A person who thrives on being stressed-out and whiny.
Keyboard Plaque: The disgusting buildup of dirt and crud found on a computer keyboard.
Idea hamsters: People who always seem to have their idea generators running.
Mouse potato: The on-line generation's answer to the couch potato.
Blamestorming: Sitting around in a group discussing why a deadline was missed or a project failed and who was responsible.
Under Mouse Arrest: Getting busted for violating the company’s web browsing rule of conduct.
Alpha Geek: The most knowledgeable, technically proficient person in an office or work group. "Ask Tim, he's the alpha geek around here."
Mission critical: We are stuffed if this fails!
Chainsaw consultant: An outside expert brought in to reduce the employee headcount, leaving the top brass with clean hands
404 Peep: Someone who is clueless, from the World Wide Web error message "404 Not Found", meaning the requested document couldn't be located.
Tags: ELO
(96 views)Good morning, friends, and welcome to another Obscure Song of the Day blog. I trust everyone is looking forward to the weekend as much as I am. And I can think of no better way to head into it than with some good, old-time rock 'n roll and then the same again with a distinct difference.
"Roll Over Beethoven", penned by Chuck Berry, is one of the most widely covered songs in popular music and a staple of rock and roll bands. The lyrics of the song mention rock and roll and the desire for rhythm and blues to replace classical music. The song has been covered by many other artists and Rolling Stone ranked it #97 on their list the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.
Chuck Berry's version was originally released as a single by Chess Records in May 1956. According to Rolling Stone, Berry wrote the song in response to his sister Lucy always using the family piano to play classical music when Berry wanted to play contemporary popular music.
One of the more popular cover versions of "Roll Over Beethoven" was done by The Electric Light Orchestra. ELO's elaborate eight-minute reworking of the track included an opening musical quote from Beethoven's Fifth Symphony and clever interpolations of material from the symphony's first movement into Berry's song. ELO closed all their concerts using this number, their signature song. (At an ELO concert in the late 70's, I saw the band play the song as a 20-minute finale. Tremendous!!)
My using the ELO version in today's blog sparked a debate of sorts among a few people I consulted. I was told that The Beatles version was the one most people associate with the song and that's the one I should use. I maintained, however, that the ELO version, with its classical parts is the one people think of.
Be honest, when you hear the familiar opening strings of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony (dah-dah-dah-dum), don't you also hear Jeff Lynne's ripping guitar intro right behind it?
At any rate...with one of the greatest rock and roll songs ever written - no matter who performs it - here are Chuck Berry and The Electric Light Orchestra with "Roll Over Beethoven"....
Chuck Berry
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gsp4VCbVvn4
The Electric Light Orchestra
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DxDLgf3clFg
Tags: ELO Chuck Berry
(130 views)Happy Thursday, my friends. I hope you're all doing well and are well into the post-holiday swing of things.
There is one VIP out there, a good friend of mine, who has been a bit under the weather the past couple of days and I would like to dedicate today's blog to him in hopes that it makes his day a little bright and maybe hurries him on his way to recovery from what ails him. This one's for you James (ELObsessive).
Electric Light Orchestra were a symphonic rock group from Birmingham, England who released eleven studio albums between 1971 and 1986 and another album in 2001. ELO were formed to accommodate Roy Wood and Jeff Lynne's desire to create modern pop songs with heavily classical overtones, but falling under a light rock category. However, the band's direction for most of their existence was set by Lynne who, after the band's debut record, wrote and arranged all of the group's original compositions and produced every album.
The band was first successful in the United States, billed as 'The English guys with the big fiddles'. They soon gained a cult following despite lukewarm reviews back in their native United Kingdom. They were managed by agent Don Arden, father of Sharon Osbourne.
By the mid-1970s, they had become one of the biggest selling bands in music. From 1972 to 1986, ELO accumulated twenty-six U.K. Top 40 hit singles and twenty U.S. Top 40 hit singles. The group also scored twenty Top 20 U.K. hit singles, as well as fifteen Top 20 appearances in the U.S. Billboard charts. The band also holds the record for having the most Billboard Top 40 hits of any band in U.S. chart history without ever having a #1 single. Despite the fact that the majority of the group's material was never researched, audited and certified, ELO collected 21 RIAA awards, 38 BPI awards, and sold over 100 million albums worldwide, 50 million of those being sold between 1971 and 1982.
ELO has always been one of my most favourite bands and were, in fact, the first concert I ever attended.
Without further adieu....for you my friends....and especially for you James....here, from their album "Eldorado"....is the Electric Light Orchestra with "Illusions in G Major"....
Feel better mate!!
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=QL-6uOL2GRo
Tags: ELO Jeff Lynne
(2039 views)If you haven't already, wished him, please join me in singing a big Happy Birthday to James (ELObsessive)!
Have a very Happy Birthday, James!!! Hope you're out and about pursuing your intellectual interests! ;-)
www.absoluteradio.co.uk
psst.....all right...my spies. you've had a long enough break.......get busy now....lol
Tags: ELO
(112 views)Happy Saturday and welcome to the weekend!! Can you believe there are just 12 days before Christmas??!!
Well, I told you the Obscure Song of the Day blog would be fun leading up to Christmas and I hope I don't disappoint. To get everyone just a little more in the holiday spirit I'll be posting a Christmas song each day until that very magical day arrives.
Wizzard were a Birmingham-based band formed by Roy Wood, former member of The Move and co-founder of Electric Light Orchestra.
Not long after the release of Electric Light Orchestra's first album, Wood found himself at odds with co-leader Jeff Lynne. He decided he wanted to head off in a different musical direction and left, taking band members Bill Hunt (keyboards and french horn), Hugh McDowell (cello), and ELO's sound engineer, Trevor Smith, with him, to found Wizzard. Also in the line-up were former Move bassist Rick Price, drummers Charlie Grima and Keith Smart (all taken from Birmingham group Mongerel), plus saxophone players Mike Burney and Nick Pentelow.
With Wood's distinctive warpaint make-up and colourful costume, not to mention regular appearances on BBC Television's “Top of the Pops” in which members and friends variously appeared in pantomime horses, gorilla costumes or as roller-skating angels, often wielding custard pies for good measure, they were one of the most picturesque groups in the British glam rock era.
They scored their first Top 10 hit in 1973 with "Ball Park Incident". Their biggest hit was with their second single. "See My Baby Jive", Wood's faithful and affectionate tribute to the Phil Spector generated 'Wall of Sound', made #1 in the UK Singles Chart for four weeks. The follow-up, "Angel Fingers", also topped the charts for one week.
Wizzard released two albums, “Wizzard Brew”, and “Introducing Eddy & The Falcons”. The band had initially intended their second album to be a double, with one disc a set of rock and roll pastiches, the other disc jazz-rock. The record label heard the rock and roll set, and said they intended to release that as a single album.
By autumn 1975 they had split, leaving a farewell single "Rattlesnake Roll", which failed to chart, plus a third album “Main Street” which their record label did not release as they deemed it too uncommercial. It did finally see the light of day in 2000, however, after languishing in the vaults for around 25 years and had been for some time presumed lost.
To get the festivities started, I bring you Wizzard with their 1973 Christmas single "I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday"….
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=VvjWrdt4jlY
Tags: ELO Wizzard Roy Wood Jeff Lynne
(152 views) When what is now generally recognised to be ELO’s finest album, the 17-track masterwork “Out Of The Blue”, was released in 1977, the band’s management boasted that every track could be released as a single. Well, maybe that was a rather over-the-top claim; but certainly, there were several tracks apart from the four that were eventually chosen (Turn To Stone, Sweet Talkin’ Woman, Mr. Blue Sky, and Wild West Hero) that would have been great singles.
One of these tracks, which Kenny Everett played a lot on his Capital Radio show at the time (mind you, he played a lot of ELO, period!), is undoubtedly Sweet Is The Night. It’s the opening track on what was Side 4 of OOTB in vinyl days – and even though it directly follows the final track of Side 3, the classic Mr. Blue Sky, it doesn’t seem like a let-down in comparison. Some achievement eh!
The shortest track of the original double album (apart from a very short instrumental number), it's a delicious slab of string-drenched power-pop, with (at times) Dylanesque vocals, great hooks, and an irresistibly catchy chorus that almost defies you not to sing along with it! The vocal harmonies on this song are just exquisite, with the call-and-response vocals between Jeff Lynne and the band’s bassist, Kelly Groucutt, among the finest that they have ever done.
One vocal slip, unless I’m mishearing it – at 2 mins 4 secs – is that Jeff sounds as if he’s singing “rays of morning bite”, which is underlined by Kelly Groucutt’s response vocal with the correct word, namely “light”! But I have never seen anyone else comment on this, so maybe it’s just me! But it’s sounded that way to me for over 30 years now!
All in all, a most satisfying and beautifully-crafted, ELO song which has truly passed the biggest test of all music – time.
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=_uN0dgexJ8s&feature=related
Tags: ELO Jeff Lynne
(279 views)Hello my dear friends - just to say I'm going to be away from VAR for a few days, will be back on Tuesday ... as ever, I am confining any details of what I'm doing to the total privacy and confidentiality of VAR's admirably secure shout-box system, just in case young Reet and her legions of super-sized-bribed informants are spying on me, which of course they probably are ;-)
Here are a few favourite tunes of mine that have been buzzing round my head recently, for various reasons ... which I shall leave you with, in the hope that you enjoy them:
From Mr. Ray Davies: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MzpShIhvrjU
From Ms. Diana Ross: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UaYHRx9-v2M
And last and by no means least, Mr. Jeffrey Lynne: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vCFl59jqNuI
BFN, my lovely friends, am looking forward very much to seeing you all again next Tuesday ... and once again my heartfelt thanks for everything .... mega hugs to you all XXXXXXXXXXXX
Tags: ELO The Kinks Diana Ross
(165 views)Once more Wednesday has risen and laid down the challenge. Who would dare wrestle this beast of day and emerge truimphant. Where is our champion on this the WORSE DAY OF THE WEEK! Only 1 person (with his faithful sidekick) dare take on the horror. He is our champion and remains undefeated! Let's here you roar for STEVEEEEEE THEEE ONEEEEEEEE!
Thank you and yes it's safe to come out of the shadows, Igor doesn't bit (You don't, do you? LOL). Hope you all had a great time getting down last week. This week promised to be as good with some really great tunes being requested. Thought I would start the show with this all time classic from Don Hendley. Here's the End of the Innocence: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gScfjVwqQTs
Hope that put you all in the mood for a real great time. The next one is from that most loveable of Canadians Mommyerin. I think she want's to teach all the children how to rock hard so here's Metallica with Wolf and Man! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bA14Vw033Us
Not to be out-done the wonderous Fire Princess has spanned the world to pick this heavy hitting tune from those masters of mayhem AC/DC and You Shook Me All Night Long. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bomv-6CJSfM
Time to chill. Pull up that comfy chair (just ask for one off the Spanish Inquistion! *WINK*) and let the song flow through you. A big thanks to Tony Brandon for this great song from the eternal John Lennon simply named Imagine. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BPROGyJ2FNA
The Wednesday Request Show would not be the same without the lovely Elaine and her requests. Once again she's gone for a kickin' tune from those mysterious objects in the sky: The Foo Fighters. Here are the lads live in our special studio with Generator! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCBfM1-p7GM
Next up is a request from the most magnificant and wonderous of all the supernatural beings. The Greek god with the most. Here's good old Bob Dylan just for you Zeus with I want You. Everyone sing along! (Please he's got a thunderbolt trained on all of us! ROFLOL!!!!) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K5NRpRu5Lb8&feature=related
We have a very special request next for large hearted Mia. This is for James (aka ELO Obsessive) Here's ELO with Strange Magic live in our wonderful studio. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=28_unHqjVp0&feature=related Take care James. Our thoughts are with you.
To finish off this weeks show the final request goes to that Hot, HOT lass Black Cat. Here's something different with Drowning Pool and Bodies. Krank those speakers all the way up to the Max! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sO_QntXc-c4
Tags: Don Henley Metallica ELO John Lennon Foo Fighters AC/DC Bob Dylan
(276 views)Well Guys!!! Over the last couple of days I have been asking you who you think the VIP pictured below is!
Well can I firstly say thank you to all of you who had a go at guessing!!! I and the VIP in question have laughed out loud at many of the suggestions…. They have been funny!, confusing!,inspired! and outrageous. Well done to the few that did guess correct!!!!! Well finally, for those who are interested to find out the identity of the pictured VIP (And even those who aren’t, Ha Ha!!) I can now reveal that it was indeed our lovely VIP friend……..
James – aka ELObsessive
Ain’t he a Handsome Fella!!!!!
Thank you all !!! And Thank you to James for his permission to do this blog!!!
Huggie Wuggies to you all!!! XXXXX
Oh and For you all!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=98P-gu_vMRc&feature=relatedTags: ELO
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