Electric light orchestra album by album thread

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by Meddle, Jul 25, 2015.

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  1. Blue Cactus

    Blue Cactus Forum Resident

    Location:
    Illinois
    I still think that Kuiama is one of the best tracks ELO ever did.

    My to go copy of ELO 2 is the UK Harvest LP (SHVL 806.) It sounds dynamic and powerful. However avoid the German and other European vinyl issues due to midrange suck out.

    For digital the 1990 Japan Sony CD (CSCS 6027) is very good and it's the only CD version to feature the US artwork.

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  2. Comet01

    Comet01 Forum Resident

    Skipped one:
    The Move's final release ("Do Yo" single) was released before ELO II.
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  3. no.nine

    no.nine (not his real name)

    Location:
    NYC
    I don't have much to say except that ELO 2 is one of my three favorites of their albums, and I ABSOLUTELY 100% agree with the quote which I excerpted from your post.

    The U.S. CD also uses this artwork, or at least the early pressings on Jet did. I didn't keep up with later remastered reissues so I don't know which cover they use. For some reason, I prefer this artwork even though it's admittedly nothing incredible. But it's got "something" which I think fits the music just right.
     
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  4. tmwlng

    tmwlng Forum Resident

    Location:
    Denmark
    There's a bonus track from the ELO II era on my Early ELO 2-CD entitled "Bev's Trousers", an early take of Showdown. I would love to hear their other working titles...
     
  5. applebonkerz

    applebonkerz Senior Member

    I absolutely loved their version of Roll Over Beethoven from the first time I heard it blaring out of my radio at the time of release. It was everywhere on our family vacation drive from Ohio down to Florida that year. My parents and brother were getting sick of it because I insisted the radio shouldn't be changed while that song was playing. It was also great seeing them play it live on TV several different times during the weekend late night Rock Concert-type shows from that era. I don't like the 2nd album overall nearly as much as the first album, but I still prefer it to what the band turned into as the years continued to pass.
     
  6. c-eling

    c-eling They're made of light,We never would have guessed

    I agree, I love the artwork on this, Yes a US CMU Pitman press exists with this art :)
     
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  7. Meddle

    Meddle Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    waxahachie TX USA
    Oh **** I forgot sorry let's talk about do ya then move on to Elo 2
     
  8. no.nine

    no.nine (not his real name)

    Location:
    NYC
    I think we've ALREADY moved on to ELO 2. :p
     
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  9. Meddle

    Meddle Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    waxahachie TX USA
    I know
     
  10. pinkrudy

    pinkrudy Senior Member

    ELO 2 i like more than the first album...
    however this album is almost like a straight prog album. i love prog so its ok...
    i never bought this album....i almost bought a uk harvest lp the other day...
    i may still buy it....i might need to listen to my cd rip one more time to convince me.

    to me elo started on the third day...
     
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  11. OneStepBeyond

    OneStepBeyond Senior Member

    Location:
    North Wales, UK
    I think it's only fair that I dig my original vinyl of ELOII out, at some point today. I only got that (and never heard the full album) until a year or so ago but found it to be an album that really draws me in. So I've not heard it that many times and not for a few months either. I could even be completing my collection, of the few albums I've not got around to - that's one great thing about these threads... reigniting a serious interest. :)
     
  12. The actual working title for the earliest take of Ma-Ma-Ma Belle was Auntie's Trousers, which someone (presumably Rob Caiger, with maybe Jeff Lynne's approval) changed to the slightly less controversial Bev's Trousers when this was officially released - it's also claimed that Auntie was a reference to a particularly bad experience the group had when recording at the BBC, which is why they never returned for any future radio appearances, unlike many of their contemporaries such as Queen. I'll hopefully get the opportunity to cover some of the more bizarre working titles later, since there are quite a few notable examples in the ELO vaults that deserve to be spotlighted... The Trojan Tapes Sessions in particular have a few brilliant ones, though I'm getting ahead of myself by even mentioning these already!
     
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  13. Larry B

    Larry B Senior Member

    Location:
    Hollywood
    I have had this avatar for 2 or 3 years, now. Says it all. Regarding the marginal SQ, I would love to read some background as to why this particular album suffers more than the others. Maybe just a lost master (or two) and not actually studio related.
     
  14. Thievius

    Thievius Blue Oyster Cult-ist

    Location:
    Syracuse, NY
    I do like ELO II, but in my mind it is one of the weaker of the band's early records. It starts off amazing with Old England Town, I love early Elo when they are grinding and thumping their cellos. Mama is a fine song, but it tends to drag a bit. But the album really comes to a screeching halt with Roll Over Beethoven. I've just never been a fan. Its just so repetitive and way too long, and melodically there's not a lot going on. From The Sun To The World is long as well, but it works for me because I find it creepy and melodically pleasing. I've always found the lyrics a bit mysterious and I confess I haven't tried to ait down and dissect them because I don't want to know if there's a grounded meaning to them. I find it more appealing to be pleasurably creeped out. Kuiama is the absolute star of this album, however, and its the perfect way to end the record. Its just so brutal lyrically and yet melodically it just hits all the right notes. I even love love LOVE the extended instrumental interlude in the middle - again the cellos are thumping and grinding, the guitar is singing, and then the violin chimes in and takes it away to new places. And then the climax at the end with the air raid sirens. Which, when I was a teen, I thought was the sound of their "Out of the Blue" era space ship taking off. :laugh:Either way, its a cool effect and an amazing way to cap off the record.

    So I really like ELO II, and yet it pales by comparison to the album that was to follow - my absolute favorite ELO album of all time. But that's a discussion for another day...
     
  15. ampmods

    ampmods Forum Resident

    Location:
    Boston, MA, USA
    The first two albums are the most experimental ones that ELO released. There is a sense that they wanted to keep the pop side of what The Move did far removed from the prog side. What's interesting to me is that especially on the first album Jeff Lynne's voice sounds more like how he sang in the Idle Race than in The Move. Both albums have real highs and some things that don't work as well to me.

    Electric Light Orchestra (No Answer):
    My favorites are "Queen of the Hours" (gorgeous melody), "Look At Me Now," "Mr. Radio" and "Whisper In The Night." I don't understand why "First Movement" is so close to "Classical Gas." I think "10538 Overture" is ok but I prefer "Message From The Country" which feels like it's nearly the same song.

    ELO 2:
    The best songs here are "Kuiama" and "Momma" but the other things are interesting too. It's obvious they are trying to fully flesh out what the orchestral part of ELO is about in the context of a rock band. And generally this one sets the tone more than the debut. But imo they didn't really nail it until the next album. I may be the only ELO fan who doesn't care for "Roll Over Beethoven." I get how important it was to their career and how it kind of married Chuck Berry (and The Beatles for that matter) with Beethoven and serves as sort of a mission statement. But it just feels like a novelty song to me.

    Do Ya:
    The Move version is great and powerful. Definitely more 'rocking' than the ELO version later. But... the ELO version is more lush and fully orchestrated which to me is the more fully realized version.
     
  16. OneStepBeyond

    OneStepBeyond Senior Member

    Location:
    North Wales, UK
    I did get the LP of ELO 2out and played it (evidence to be found in part 51 of 'Now listening to...' :D) and very much enjoyed it. Although I can't say it holds my attention quite as much as most of the later albums.

    It's a very different thing to what came along late in the decade of course; nothing wrong with that at all. Have to say that I'm another that's not big on their version of Roll Over Beethoven - it's ok but a bit weird to run into it here, IMO. Not a track I'd want to hear too often - probably a bit too much of a novelty for that.

    All in all, a very good album that deserves an airing once in a while and I'm glad I have a copy - after all those decades of not knowing it. :)
     
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  17. the no guy

    the no guy Cat on the moon

    Location:
    Lisboa
    My least favourite, and least played, ELO LP. But it has Kuiama, which is one of their greatest songs, so that makes it essential. I can't stand Roll Over Beethoven. I just think that it's a terrible song by ELO or anyone else. Sorry Chuck!
     
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  18. formu_la

    formu_la I'm not a robot

    Location:
    Toronto, Canada
    I like the album, not big on Roll Over Beethoven though like some other posters.
     
  19. Scope J

    Scope J Senior Member

    Location:
    Michigan
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    Last edited: Jul 29, 2015
  20. Scope J

    Scope J Senior Member

    Location:
    Michigan
    [​IMG][​IMG]
     
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  21. Rapid Fire

    Rapid Fire Hyperactive!

    Location:
    Mansfield, TX, USA
    Being an ELO fan since early 1977, I haven't heard any songs from the first two albums (except what was on OLE-ELO) until I bought the CD remasters which came out in the late 90's or so. I now have both No Answer and ELO II on vinyl as well now.
    I find these two to be decent stepping stones for what the band was to achieve later on. I do like 10538 Overture and Mr. Radio from the debut quite a lot and I find their cover of Roll Over Beethoven to be fantastic.
     
  22. Thievius

    Thievius Blue Oyster Cult-ist

    Location:
    Syracuse, NY
    What's interesting to me is that the second track is called "Momma" on the Harvest vinyl. In every other mix or format I've encountered over the years its been "Mama." No big deal, I've just never seen that before.
     
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  23. Helmut

    Helmut Well-Known Member

    Location:
    Germany
    Can it be that the "Jet" label is a counterfeit? Completely different publishers (Yellow Dog Music ????) and "Produced by Jeff Lynne for Move Enterprises ????
     
  24. I realise this probably isn't the case, but wasn't Yellow Dog a bootleg imprint best known for its Beatles titles? I'm not sure when (or even if) Jet reissued ELO 2, but this surely isn't a 1973 vintage release since Don Arden's label didn't even have any direct involvement with Jeff Lynne until the following year when it put out Eldorado in the UK - the original LP was contracted via Harvest and United Artists for the US market. Also, this is the first I've heard of Jeff being a member of Move Enterprises, Ltd, though I suppose it's possible he was promoted to the board along with Roy Wood and Bev Bevan, who all went on to be 1/3 stakeholders in the group, which of course formed out of The Move. I'm guessing that Anne-Rachel Music Corp was an interim publishing company Jeff may have been signed to, and it's telling that instead of making the other major players in ELO equal share partners, the band technically existed as himself with Bev the only other properly recognised member, the rest little more than just a revolving door of session players rather than being recognised for their often significant contributions... Kelly Groucutt was perhaps the most notable example of someone challenging this.
     
  25. Helmut

    Helmut Well-Known Member

    Location:
    Germany
    But Chuck Berry's "Roll over Beethoven" is still published at "Jewel". And the (few) Jet-labels I have don't mention the publishers. It remains dubious. More questions than answers....
     
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