Electric Light Orchestra. ELO. Where do I even begin?
2021 marks 50 years of the band’s existence as ELO, and despite a name change in 2015, the band and its music live on. ELO was my first favorite band. They’ve been a part of the soundtrack to my life for as long as I can remember. I have so many memories of my childhood with ELO playing in the background. All the time I spent in the car as a child, for so much of it I had my peace sign headphones on listening to Secret Messages and Balance of Power, or my dad was playing “Jungle” or “Telephone Line” out loud in the car for my brother and I and we were goofily singing along and laughing. ELO will forever be one of my favorite bands, and to celebrate their 50 years of making magic, I want to share with you what ELO means to me.
ELO was THE band that single-handedly shaped my taste in music. ELO’s music has always been harmony-centric, sonically interesting, and different from the music of their peers. The sounds they’ve created are unique and innovative – they were always doing something wild and interesting. More than with any other band, I have found myself drawn to music that employs the same big elements you’ll find in ELO’s discography.
My entire life I’ve been drawn to music that is very harmony-centric. Most of my favorite bands focus heavily on harmonies in their music. It is arguably because of ELO that I fell in love with Queen when I was 12, or The Last Bandoleros when I was 17, or Breaking Grass when I was 19. Breaking Grass is a unique example when it comes to harmonies. Bluegrass music could not possibly be any more different from the classic ELO sound, yet it is because of the classic ELO sound that I love bluegrass music. Who could have predicted the ELO to bluegrass pipeline?
The ”orchestra” part of the Electric Light Orchestra has always been one of my favorite things about them. Strings in non-classical music is like magic in its purest form. I am obsessed with strings and string sounds in non-classical music. I am always the most obnoxious person in the comment section when one of my favorite bands uses strings or string sounds in their newest releases, just hollering about how much I love it. There is no song on this earth that strings cannot improve, I am convinced, and it was ELO that convinced me. They sparked that love, that obsession, and now I can’t get enough.
I always love picking out songs in the Top 40 that sound like ELO too, and every time I find one, every bone in my body wishes I could ask the artist what influenced that sound. Thad Cockrell was on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon with his song “Swingin,” and I very distinctly remember Jimmy himself talking about how much he thought the song sounded like ELO. I was fairly skeptical, but as soon as that chorus came in, I thought that song would’ve fit right in on Out of the Blue. The Weeknd’s “Save Your Tears” is reminiscent of Time to me; if a few more elements were added, just a little more production done, it could be on that record. Whether you agree or disagree with me on that, and I’m sure several people disagree, the point is that I can hear ELO everywhere I go. I hear elements from their music everywhere. That’s not to say that every artist everywhere was inspired by ELO, ELO was after all heavily influenced by The Beatles, but it's such fun to pick out those similar sounds in modern music.
It’s also worth mentioning the ELO - Traveling Wilburys – Tom Petty, George Harrison, Roy Orbison, and Bob Dylan pipeline. I knew who all of these musicians were before discovering the Wilburys, but it was because I discovered the Wilburys that I found a love for each of these musicians, and it is because of ELO that I discovered the Wilburys. George Harrison is my favorite Beatle, Tom Petty is my favorite musician of all time, Roy Orbison has one of my favorite voices ever, and Bob Dylan? He’s a legend (and I’ve seen him live!), and the Wilburys were my proper introduction to him. ELO led me to these incredible rock ‘n’ rollers, and who could ask for a better group of musical dads?
Even not being fully exposed to their full discography as a kid, I still, even with what little I had really heard as a kid, became so open to new-to-me and unique musical sounds. I was musically very open-minded to many genres (though there were some that I still refused to touch), and the discoveries I made as I grew up are ones that I’m not sure I would have made without ELO to open my mind. Their sonic uniqueness and the cinematic quality to their music put me on the path to discovering Greta Van Fleet. Their use of haunting chord progressions turned me on to songs like Fastball’s “The Way” or The Hollies’ “The Air That I Breathe.” Just being exposed to sounds that differed from what all my friends were listening to made me more open to other sounds that my friends weren’t listening to. I think ELO might be one of the reasons I find myself latched onto Tejano and Cuban sounds, sounds like those The Last Bandoleros and The Mavericks make. For me, those kinds of sounds are very different from what I was surrounded with where I grew up, but it was already so different from my peers to listen to ELO that listening to other things like that wasn’t difficult for me, and doing so has allowed me to discover so many new and beautiful bands.
I think ELO is an incredible example of an idea that has plagued me for a few years now – I believe that we are all a mosaic of everything we have ever loved, and that applies to music too. Who we are is due, at least in part, to the music we love. When I’m feeling introspective, I think about how my life might be different if I’d never been exposed to their music. ELO will forever be one of my favorite bands. I will forever cherish the music I’ve discovered because of them and the memories I’ve made with their music as the soundtrack.
Cheers to 50 years, to many more, and to the music that is reversible when time is not.