The artist Jeff Lynne always wanted to work with: “He’s brilliant”
Jeff Lynne could justifiably claim to be living out every classic rock fan’s dream whenever he gets up in the morning. As much as he could be described as a living legend on his own, it feels like every single fan of the founders of rock and roll could live vicariously through Lynne’s triumphs, whether that was him rubbing elbows with Brian Wilson or producing some of the final Beatles tracks. But that doesn’t mean every artist was crossed off Lynne’s bucket list.
Then again, anyone who had as much as he did could have justifiably lived his life as the happiest man on Earth. Anyone could claim to be a huge fan of a particular band, but the fact that Lynne studied under the Beatles and eventually got to join a group with George Harrison was the equivalent of a kid in a candy store, especially when he got to pull out all of his lessons for Harrison’s solo material.
That’s not where Lynne started, though. Granted, he was always a rock and roll fan, but The Move was much different than the multi-layered masterpieces he would come up with. Despite his penchant for hooks, a lot of the best parts of his first act were about finding their feet in the same kind of blues stomping grounds that birthed the British blues boom and the R&B scene from around the same time.
Lynne may have cut his teeth there, but it became abundantly clear that he was no bluesman. Eric Clapton had already been wiping the floor with every other guitarist in the world, and by the time Jimi Hendrix crashlanded on English soil, there was no point in anyone trying to become the next best thing. It was time for Lynne to move on, but he never forgot those stomping grounds.
“I haven’t seen him for a few years, but we used to hang out a bit.”
jeff lynne
Going back to his roots always meant reconnecting with a little bit of soul, and Steve Winwood was among one of the finest in the scene at the time. Aside from eventually forming Blind Faith with Clapton, his work in the Spencer Davis Group already put him one notch above every other singer, and when he started plotting his comeback, Lynne knew that he could take him to new heights.
Although the frontman was already kneedeep in producing Roy Orbison and Traveling Wilburys albums, he felt that he needed to find the right time to work with Winwood, saying, “There was a lot of R&B going on. Obviously, you had The Spencer Davis Group with Steve Winwood, who I love – he’s a brilliant guy. He’s one guy I’d like to work with one day. I haven’t seen him for a few years, but we used to hang out a bit.”
And it’s not like Winwood couldn’t have also used a little bit more of a push. His version of ‘Higher Love’ was in heavy rotation during the 1980s, but if he had someone like Lynne producing it, it would have benefited from not sounding a touch dated like it does today, with its synthetic opening competing with his vocal in the mix half the time.
There were always common friends between Lynne and Winwood, so there might be a chance that we could get a passing single or perhaps even an entire record from them. Both of them had worked with George Harrison in the past on some of his famous tunes, so it might be a matter of them networking the right way and finding the right time when both of their schedules work themselves out.
