“The start of my new career”: The album Jeff Lynne credited with making him a producer
For a period of time, Electric Light Orchestra were one of the biggest pop groups in the world, and for good reason. Having achieved global success with their symphonic approach to pop, the masterful works of Jeff Lynne and his band have been celebrated since the 1970s, with songs such as ‘Mr Blue Sky’, ‘Don’t Bring Me Down’ and ‘Evil Woman’ becoming almost universally adored.
The group weren’t an overnight success by any stretch of the imagination, and worked hard at fine-tuning their sound over the course of multiple albums, really expanding around the time of their fourth album, Eldorado, and taking things to an even higher level throughout the latter part of the ‘70s with A New World Record, Out of the Blue and Discovery.
Lynne’s vision as both a songwriter and producer was ultimately what thrust the group towards stardom, and his decision to layer the band’s sound with emphatic orchestral sections was befitting of their name. He might well have cut some corners to achieve this, having admitted that he would use tape loops to create the ambitious orchestral passages and that during the time of performing Eldorado live, they used to simply make the sound bigger by employing this technique. “You needed something because it had this grandiose name,” Lynne recalled, “And really it was just this group with a cello in it.”
However, despite their massive success, Lynne wasn’t necessarily after the fame that came with churning out records or performing on stage to massive audiences. What he truly wanted was to be recognised for his efforts in the studio as a production wizard, and after the release of Out of the Blue, Lynne felt he had achieved everything he possibly could with ELO. Everything was becoming stale to him, and his “producer’s head wouldn’t let [him] enjoy it”, to use his own words.
“There was no way of following that,” he said of their 1977 album, “But there were contracts to fulfil, so I was forced to do things I didn’t want to do.” There would be a total of five more ELO albums after Out of the Blue, taking the group up to 1986, when they disbanded, and with the release of each one, Lynne felt as though he was being tested to the limit of what he could realistically achieve with them. He was desperate for a new challenge and to feel a sense of importance in his work again.
Having worked as a producer on two albums with guitarist Dave Edmunds in the early ‘80s, he wasn’t without his means of escape, but he needed another outlet other than the band to sink his teeth into and prove what he was capable of as just a producer and not a songwriter. Edmunds would pass on Lynne’s contact details to a certain George Harrison after having worked with him, and before long, Harrison had obtained Lynne’s services for his 1987 album, Cloud Nine.
“As soon as I was free of the last one,” Lynne said in reference to the 1986 ELO album Balance of Power, “It was right at the time that George called me, after Dave Edmunds had given him the number. It was exactly the right time.” Lynne had clearly found a way to return to what he loved most, and in assisting Harrison with the production of the album, he had marked the start of a new beginning.
“It turned out fantastic in the end,” he said of working on Cloud Work. “George’s album was a big hit, he had a number one in America. So that was the start of my new career and my new attitude, probably, ‘cos I was enjoying it again.” Lynne would, of course, find himself performing once again shortly after, forming the Traveling Wilburys with Harrison and embarking on a new solo career, but at least he’d found a way to restore his love for his craft.
