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Post by BSJ on Aug 10, 2019 21:36:14 GMT
Just because we are young doesn’t mean that we can’t be fans, just because I was only born the year Zoom came out and am automatically disqualified from being a “long term” fan doesn’t mean ELO and their music impacts me any less than someone who happens to be much older than me.
I doubt Jeff would have given a life long fan three kiss's! smileys-whistling-823718
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Post by elophile on Aug 10, 2019 21:48:02 GMT
Just because we are young doesn’t mean that we can’t be fans, just because I was only born the year Zoom came out and am automatically disqualified from being a “long term” fan doesn’t mean ELO and their music impacts me any less than someone who happens to be much older than me. You two have just as much right to be wacko ELO fans as anyone else does!!! I'm way older than you two spring chickens but I skew just a hair or two too young to have been into ELO back in the day. Other than hearing the hits on the radio I didn't get into to ELO until around 2008. Then my mind was blown and I haven't been the same since! Fandom can happen to anyone at any time!
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Post by unomusette on Aug 10, 2019 22:12:35 GMT
Being a relatively old school fan doesn't mean you have all the credentials either. I got into ELO aged 14 in 1978 but lost my way a bit in between and still don't really know songs like The Bouncer and Long Black Road like a proper fan would. I just pretend to know what they sound like and hope nobody notices
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Post by BIuebird on Aug 10, 2019 22:30:24 GMT
I agree, it shouldn't matter what age you are to be considered a fan! Heck, I wasn't born until a few years after the original version of ELO had disbanded. All the bands I like the most were formed before I was born; that doesn't make me any less of a fan than anyone else. On the contrary, I have personally noticed that younger fans in general tend to appreciate an older band's entire body of work. Not necessarily true with ELO, but with other groups, I find that fans who grew up listening to everything as it came out are more likely to completely dismiss a band's later work. Maybe younger fans appreciate everything more because of the current mainstream music that we have to compare it to? Anyway, thank you both for sharing your amazing experience so far! Your retelling has made me feel like I was there with you, with all of the anxiety included. I think giving Jeff an original drawing was a fantastic idea, I am sure he appreciated that. I am anxiously awaiting the next part!
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Post by BSJ on Aug 10, 2019 22:31:26 GMT
I lost track during the 80's. Came back to my religion five years ago! The same year the church of Horace opened his heavenly doors.
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Post by Timeblue on Aug 11, 2019 8:05:31 GMT
I too was 14 back in 78 when I bought Sweet Talkin'Woman. I could have been described as jumping on the bandwagon as ELO were the biggest band on the planet at that precise time! I've never let my commitment to them waiver having seen them 4 times (twice in 86,2017 and 18) along with Violinski too, as well as buying virtually everything that has come out on vinyl. You two are the same kind of age as me back then and if you like a band such as ELO then good for you! I hope you keep the faith for another 40+ years....
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Post by nobodyschild on Aug 12, 2019 0:45:47 GMT
Glad to see people here appreciate good taste no matter the age. It gets annoying being constantly told by young people my taste in music (and pretty much everything else lol) is “uncool” simply because it’s old and/or not what they listen to or like, and for older people to think young people can’t really know anything about it (I have literally been asked “ELO? Do you even know what it stands for?” ) But no matter, I wouldn’t have it any other way—we all know who’s got the best favorite band BIuebird —I think what you say is true about younger fans appreciating the entire catalogue more. Having not been alive back in the day, it’s not as easy for us to get into a band, simply because of lack of exposure; had I never heard Mr Blue Sky in Guardians, I wouldn’t have ever gotten into ELO and I think it’s also true we appreciate it more because of the mainstream music we have to compare it to today (though pretty much anything would sound good compared to modern stuff). I always have to scoff at my mom when she says there were plenty of songs back in the 70s/80s that she didn’t like either, one of them being Old Time Rock n Roll (and then I have to scoff at Bob Seger for writing that thinking that music back then was already bad, ha! But I do love that song so I can’t complain) unomusette The Bouncer is such a great track! If you want another rare gem, try this one (a personal favorite):
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Post by tightrope on Aug 12, 2019 1:22:53 GMT
Until I found this site, I though maybe I was the only one who understood the genius of Jeff's music. I knew of ELO's music in the 70's but until I saw them on the "Out of the Blue" tour in '78 and was completely blown away, I had never thought of how many great songs Jeff had written. Most of my friends were into southern rock and country so ELO wasn't "cool" to them either. It was fine with me because I knew what I liked.
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Post by BSJ on Aug 12, 2019 1:34:26 GMT
My girlfriend loved J Geils. No meeting of the minds, there.
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Post by elophile on Aug 12, 2019 2:41:31 GMT
I too was 14 back in 78 when I bought Sweet Talkin'Woman. I could have been described as jumping on the bandwagon as ELO were the biggest band on the planet at that precise time! I've never let my commitment to them waiver having seen them 4 times (twice in 86,2017 and 18) along with Violinski too, as well as buying virtually everything that has come out on vinyl. You two are the same kind of age as me back then and if you like a band such as ELO then good for you! I hope you keep the faith for another 40+ years.... You longtime ELO fans definitely deserve respect for your dedication through all those years when the biggest ELO related news you could hope for was Jeff going out to eat with Joe Walsh...
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Post by BIuebird on Aug 12, 2019 3:02:02 GMT
nobodyschild Oh, we shared the "other young people telling us we are uncool for liking older music" issue. I had one close friend in high school who liked the same kind of music as me, but the rest of them mainly thought I was weird for listening to older music. I used to burn CDs for my other friends hoping to "convert" them. Do you kids still burn CDs? Probably not! All I can say is I tried, at least they liked some of the stuff. I started getting into ELO in college. I had always liked their music that I'd heard on the radio. However, it was one of those things where I knew the songs, but I didn't know the band's name, you know? Just casual. My parents had some of their records on vinyl, but they hadn't played them since I was a little kid. My college roommate had brought some of her parents' records and a turn table with her, and she had ANWR on vinyl. "Tightrope" made me really pay attention to ELO, it hooked me! I bought a used copy of the record myself soon after, while I was visiting Athens, GA (the hometown of another of my favorite bands... it's small, but has a ton of record shops). I also picked up some ELO tapes there to play in my ancient car, because all it has is a tape deck. It was a memorable trip! Anyhow, like you said, it's not as easy for younger people to get into older bands, simply because their music isn't played often on contemporary radio, etc. I think that another reason younger fans may have an easier time appreciating an older band's back catalogue, is because we get to look at it all at once, as a whole. Does that makes sense? For example, ELO's late 70s/80s output was probably fairly jarring to fans who had been following the group from the beginning. They went from using a full string orchestra, to using mostly synthesizers with few actual string parts. I can understand people having that disconnect, even though Time is my overall favorite ELO record. Hah, my mom says the same thing about all the "bad music" in the 70s/80s (funny, she doesn't like Bob Seger either). I still hold that it couldn't be nearly as bad as most of what is popular today!
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Post by nobodyschild on Aug 12, 2019 5:44:06 GMT
No, I’ve never burned a CD in my whole life...it just hit me the other day that “compact disc” is what CD stands for! Haha. I think part of the reason younger fans appreciate the whole catalogue is because of the way we are exposed to it—the first ELO songs I heard (after Mr Blue Sky) were Tightrope, Sweet Talkin Woman, Boy Blue, Strange Magic, Rock n Roll is King, Showdown, Hold on Tight, etc, so we get exposed to the whole body of work all at once, out of order of the years the albums came out. I was playing Time the other day, and my parents kept going “oh yeah, I remember this playing on the radio all the time” to pretty much every song, and I was just sitting there going “you mean there was all this good music, that you *knew* existed, and never bothered to tell me about it?!?” How different my life would be if I’d never heard Mr Blue Sky in Guardians of the Galaxy... *shudders*
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Post by Timeblue on Aug 12, 2019 14:57:16 GMT
My son is 23 and without any pushing from me,discovered ELO for himself around the age of 18/19. I'm not one for playing them constantly so I am not really sure when he 'found them'. He accompanied me to Wembley the other year and thoroughly enjoyed himself.He too used to burn CDs for his car and whenever he drove me anywhere there would be an ELO CD on....
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Post by Chippa on Aug 12, 2019 16:06:05 GMT
I too was 14 back in 78 when I bought Sweet Talkin'Woman. I could have been described as jumping on the bandwagon as ELO were the biggest band on the planet at that precise time! I've never let my commitment to them waiver having seen them 4 times (twice in 86,2017 and 18) along with Violinski too, as well as buying virtually everything that has come out on vinyl. You two are the same kind of age as me back then and if you like a band such as ELO then good for you! I hope you keep the faith for another 40+ years.... You longtime ELO fans definitely deserve respect for your dedication through all those years when the biggest ELO related news you could hope for was Jeff going out to eat with Joe Walsh... As a longtime member of every incarnation of this forum, I can confirm this! When there weren't Jeff-related projects to talk about, we'd obsess on him making a public appearance, even if it was just him walking out of his house in his robe to get the paper. (jk, that never happened.....I don't think so, at least).
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Post by queenofthehours on Aug 12, 2019 17:14:36 GMT
You longtime ELO fans definitely deserve respect for your dedication through all those years when the biggest ELO related news you could hope for was Jeff going out to eat with Joe Walsh... As a longtime member of every incarnation of this forum, I can confirm this! When there weren't Jeff-related projects to talk about, we'd obsess on him making a public appearance, even if it was just him walking out of his house in his robe to get the paper. (jk, that never happened.....I don't think so, at least). I can remember that story about Jeff going out to eat with Joe Walsh! Back then it was big deal news - not a patch on the quality content we are getting now though. If Jeff hadn't got back in action I can't even imagine what we'd all be doing here now. It would have been pretty hard to keep up the enthusiasm but I'm sure we would have done it. Hope is a great thing.
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