The rock band Jeff Lynne said created musical magic: “Always amazing”
Every perfect song Jeff Lynne ever made with ELO wasn’t done by accident.
He had studied under some of the greatest rock and roll artists that have come before him, and even if some of his records didn’t light the world on fire, there’s hardly any note that feels out of place when going through his entire catalogue. He knew the formula for what made people love old-school rock and roll, but he never thought of coming anywhere close to what his heroes could do back in the 1960s.
Then again, almost everything that Lynne did came from copying The Beatles’ homework to some degree. John Lennon thought as much when he first heard some of their tunes, and it’s not like Lynne was exactly shy about his Fab influence, but there was a lot more than simply being a fan of the British invasion. Because underneath everything, Lynne had a far more eclectic taste than most other rock stars.
Anyone of Lynne’s generation could have easily gone as far back as Elvis Presley and stopped caring, but there was always a classical bent to what he did as well. Half of the greatest ELO songs sound as if Tchaikovsky happened to listen to a lot of Chuck Berry, and when he arranged the strings, it felt like getting an entire orchestra to try and capture the same spectral power of Jimi Hendrix. It was unique for the time, but Lynne wasn’t the first to blend both genres.
The Moody Blues had already begun working on baroque pop as far back as Days of Future Passed, but Pete Townshend seemed to be the first one to look at the album as a classical piece of music. Whereas The Beatles would use strings and the occasional orchestral flourish on a few of their songs, The Who’s material already had a symphonic weight to it with the traditional rock and roll setup, so it was a no-brainer for them to make their way to Tommy eventually.
Before anyone heard tunes like ‘Go to the Mirror’ and ‘Pinball Wizard’, though, Lynne was already a massive fan. ‘My Generation’ had sent shockwaves through the UK when it first came out, and even when the band were trying to be a singles act, tracks like ‘The Seeker’ and ‘Anyway Anyhow Anywhere’ are the best that the latter half of the British invasion ever spat out.
Lynne had already become used to listening to rock and roll 24/7, but he singled out The Who as the band that helped him refine his sound, saying, “I used to do them onstage with a group called The Nightriders and The Idle Race as well. ‘Pictures Of Lily’ and that kind of stuff. I used to love playing all those Who songs. They had something about them, The Who. It was like magic, the sound. And just watching Pete Townshend, he was always amazing.”
Then again, Lynne was never going to show anyone the power of his windmill strum or try to get his drummer to start playing wild fills like Keith Moon. In terms of tone, though, there are many tunes in their back catalogue that have the same thunderous guitar sound that Townshend was known for, whether it was the chordal blast that opens up ‘Do Ya’ or hearing the beginning of ‘Rockaria’ blend rock and opera seamlessly.
Lynne may have still had a lot of learning to do after breaking up the Idle Race, but Townshend was the one teaching everyone that followed what was possible in rock and roll. All they had were instruments in their hands, but if they layered them in just the right way, those songs had the power to move mountains.
