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Post by babyzoomer on Jul 9, 2017 23:20:20 GMT
Check out this video about 'simular songs':
It's worth it for a laff.
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Post by jackpunch on Jul 9, 2017 23:34:50 GMT
Even in its 2LP form, Secret Messages was never a concept album. Much like Sgt. Pepper, it stated off being heavily influenced by nostalgia, only to evolve into something very different by the end product. Stranger, Hello My Old Friend and Beatles Forever are the most obvious examples of Jeff's original intention, while Motor Factory would have been similarly-themed had he not decide to completely rewrite its lyrics, which were initially based around a fictional chant of workers at the Longbridge car plant. In many ways, you could argue that Jeff's vision for Secret Messages (or Unexpected Moments as it was once to have been titled) was far more layered than anything The Beatles came up with, since Hello My Old Friend works as Jeff saying farewell not only to a rapidly-changing hometown he no longer recognised, but as a deliberate swansong for ELO, it's final chorus altered slightly to fit this idea. As for Beatles Forever, I find this improves massively if you consider it the logical conclusion of Jeff mourning John Lennon, which first manifested in 21st Century Man then the Time Tour tribute medley. As for its reworking into Video! just a few months after the original studio version was dropped from the final running order for Secret Messages, I find the later effort lacking due to it being a thinly-veiled excuse for Jeff to indulge his dream of finally getting to experiment with a Fairlight. Stripped of its "poor man's Trevor Horn" production approach (to quote a notable reviewer), clearly even Jeff felt there was untapped potential remaining, hence it's chorus melody eventually turning up at a much slower tempo in A Love So Beautiful - a song Jeff claimed to have written on spec with Roy Orbison, even though he was clearly recycling, just as he did with Night Calls for Joe Cocker, which can trace its lineage to Tears In Your Life, After All and Sirens. If there's one thing I've learned from years of studying Jeff's craft, it's that he never lets a good melody go to waste. How else do you explain The Way Life's Meant To Be sounding so close to Across The Border? He really wanted that basic idea to succeed, even if it owes much of its existence to Heroes And Villains by The Beach Boys... As was stated during George Harrison's endless plagiarism trials - you've only got eight notes, and most of the ways you can put them together sound crap. One of the things I've always enjoyed about JL's music is his desire (and ability) to escape the endless DCG cord progression of much of what passes for 'pop' music. 8 notes? What happened to the other 4?
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Post by babyzoomer on Jul 9, 2017 23:42:03 GMT
I know it's an oversimplification - as far as I could see (at the time i.e. in the 70's) it was based on the "Mary Poppins" music method (doh, a deer, a female deer) etc etc....
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