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Post by Timeblue on Jan 29, 2020 18:41:41 GMT
Jeff could go to his grave friends with only one of the 7 that made him a global icon and megastar. While I agree with much of what has been said before (basically, that Jeff behaves like a dick about this and that conveniently wants to change the past), I disagree with what you say here, Timeblue . I don't think they made him a global icon and megastar. I think Jeff made himself a global icon and he would have made it with other guys all the same while, on the contrary, it's the other guys who were famous thanks to Jeff. The quid of the issue is that the ability to write those brilliant songs was Jeff's. No one would have made it without those songs... except Jeff. There must have been a million drummers, bassist, keyboardists, etc... with whom he could have gotten together, but I doubt that, say, Hugh McDowell would have been able to get himself another genius songwriter to take him to the top of the music world. Jeff, on the opposite, would have made it all the same, with these guys or with others. janne : is there a way of reading that inteview? Jeff probably would have made it big anyway but he needed those 6 to propel him to the heights that this group of musicians took him to. Remember,he had been in the business around 10 years with only limited success before FTM and ANWR came out. If these albums had been made with Mikes Edwards and de Albuquerque,Colin Walker,Wilf Gibson etc etc then I think Jeff would not be where he is now. The magnificent 7 made ELO the biggest band on the planet for a time but as soon as the string section went followed by Kelly their fortunes started to wane. We could argue all day about this but Jeff is what he is,a genius with a very selfish streak....
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Post by Helmut83 on Jan 29, 2020 19:15:22 GMT
As I see it, he didn't need those 6. He just needed any 6 good enough for it, and there were many. And I think he could have made it with Edwards, de Albuquerque, Walker, etc... if his songs had been more "sellible" back then.
I think the fact that ELO took off with FTM and ANWR has nothing to do with the musicians and everything to do with the kind of songs. At that time Jeff started writing more "digestible" pop songs, as opposed to the first albums where he forced himself too much with progressive rock stuff that fewer people liked.
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Post by claytonm4500 on Jan 29, 2020 19:57:28 GMT
Successful? I guess that depends on what you mean by successful. Jeff's comeback has been a huge success and it was due to good timing. The music was kept alive, no matter what ELO part 2/The Orchestra did. By successful, I mean they toured around the world throughout the 1990s and 2000s, sometimes even with full backing orchestras. Being that it retained former ELO members including popular vocalist Kelly Groucutt, it was as close as people could get to seeing the band perform live through those years when Jeff wasn't doing it anymore. My parents had seen ELO Part 2 in 2000 when they visited our city and the auditorium was near full and all age groups were present in fair proportion. And I was not suggesting that Jeff's current work as Jeff Lynne's ELO isn't successful - it very much is and with good reason. But I was referring to Jeff's comeback with ELO in 2001 with the album Zoom and its subsequent tour. My understanding is that the album didn't do well, nor the singles that were released from it. To top it all off, the tour didn't last very long and was cancelled due to low ticket sales.
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Post by lasttrain929 on Jan 29, 2020 20:01:53 GMT
When I first became an ELO fan I very much saw them has a group, granted Jeff was the driving force behind their success. But my early memories are of Hugh running through laser lights across the stage, Mik with the blue violin, Bev with his excellent drumming. I could go on. So for me it’s sad that there will be no reconciliation. I had high hopes that he might have brought them on for a couple of songs at Wembley (can you imagine the reception that would have got) but no it wasn’t to be. Sadly it’s never going to happen. Best of luck to anybody going to the new tour, hope it’s another big success.
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Post by janne on Jan 29, 2020 20:15:11 GMT
Jeff could go to his grave friends with only one of the 7 that made him a global icon and megastar. While I agree with much of what has been said before (basically, that Jeff behaves like a dick about this and that conveniently wants to change the past), I disagree with what you say here, Timeblue . I don't think they made him a global icon and megastar. I think Jeff made himself a global icon and he would have made it with other guys all the same while, on the contrary, it's the other guys who were famous thanks to Jeff. The quid of the issue is that the ability to write those brilliant songs was Jeff's. No one would have made it without those songs... except Jeff. There must have been a million drummers, bassist, keyboardists, etc... with whom he could have gotten together, but I doubt that, say, Hugh McDowell would have been able to get himself another genius songwriter to take him to the top of the music world. Jeff, on the opposite, would have made it all the same, with these guys or with others. janne : is there a way of reading that inteview? Unfortunately, this magazine doesn't publish their articles online. And it's in Swedish... The short bit about Bev was the only interesting bit. The rest was the same stories that has gone around in all the English rock magazines the last few months.
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Post by fluffy on Jan 29, 2020 20:22:45 GMT
well put Janne!
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Post by Horacewimp on Jan 29, 2020 20:26:43 GMT
While I agree with much of what has been said before (basically, that Jeff behaves like a dick about this and that conveniently wants to change the past), I disagree with what you say here, Timeblue . I don't think they made him a global icon and megastar. I think Jeff made himself a global icon and he would have made it with other guys all the same while, on the contrary, it's the other guys who were famous thanks to Jeff. The quid of the issue is that the ability to write those brilliant songs was Jeff's. No one would have made it without those songs... except Jeff. There must have been a million drummers, bassist, keyboardists, etc... with whom he could have gotten together, but I doubt that, say, Hugh McDowell would have been able to get himself another genius songwriter to take him to the top of the music world. Jeff, on the opposite, would have made it all the same, with these guys or with others. janne : is there a way of reading that inteview? Unfortunately, this magazine doesn't publish their articles online. And it's in Swedish... The short bit about Bev was the only interesting bit. The rest was the same stories that has gone around in all the English rock magazines the last few months. Did he tell the story about how The Wilburys formed that’s really interesting and hardly ever told.
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Post by Helmut83 on Jan 29, 2020 21:30:08 GMT
janne : is there a way of reading that inteview? Unfortunately, this magazine doesn't publish their articles online. And it's in Swedish... The short bit about Bev was the only interesting bit. The rest was the same stories that has gone around in all the English rock magazines the last few months. Ah, what a pity. I do defend myself in Swedish (I understand about 80% of what I read) so I thought it could be an interesting read -for once Jeff had referred to the taboo subject of Bev Bevan and his old bandmates!-, but if it's not online, what can I do? In any case, if the rest is his usual speech that we have heard 300 times, it sounds like it wasn't so interesting after all.
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Post by Helmut83 on Jan 29, 2020 21:32:02 GMT
Unfortunately, this magazine doesn't publish their articles online. And it's in Swedish... The short bit about Bev was the only interesting bit. The rest was the same stories that has gone around in all the English rock magazines the last few months. Did he tell the story about how The Wilburys formed that’s really interesting and hardly ever told. What did you hear more times in your life? That story, or the presentation " he worked with the likes of George Harrison, Roy Orbison, Bob Dylan, Tom Petty and the Beatles"?
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Post by Horacewimp on Jan 29, 2020 21:34:14 GMT
Did he tell the story about how The Wilburys formed that’s really interesting and hardly ever told. What did you hear more times in your life? That story, or the presentation " he worked with the likes of George Harrison, Roy Orbison, Bob Dylan, Tom Petty and the Beatles"? Good lord!! Did he work with those people, excuse me I’ve some googling to do.
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Post by Helmut83 on Jan 29, 2020 21:40:00 GMT
No, no! Say it properly, the formula doesn't go like that. It's not "he worked with those people"; it's "he worked with the likes of" those people.
* (although in the case of Bob Dylan, it could be "he worked with the dislikes of Bob Dylan").
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Post by Timeblue on Jan 29, 2020 22:04:27 GMT
I suppose the one tiny bit of hope that we can take from this is the fact that Jeff allowed the question to be asked in the first place, normally questions like these are off limits to the interviewer. Could Jeff be mellowing? nope....
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Post by BSJ on Jan 29, 2020 22:18:17 GMT
Did he tell the story about how The Wilburys formed that’s really interesting and hardly ever told. What did you hear more times in your life? That story, or the presentation " he worked with the likes of George Harrison, Roy Orbison, Bob Dylan, Tom Petty and the Beatles"?
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Post by ShardEnder on Jan 30, 2020 0:02:49 GMT
It's true that Bev sold his 'rights' to the name back in the late 80s so to me that means up until then Bev was one third owner of the ELO name. You're correct in saying Roy, Jeff and Bev were equal partners when ELO started out, though it should be noted that Bev didn't sell his then-50% share back to Jeff until late 1999, which is why ELO Part II was forced to rebrand as The Orchestra soon after (and even this didn't stop certain former members of that group from continuing to trade on their often loose association with the infinitely more profitable ELO name).
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Post by Timeblue on Jan 30, 2020 0:06:02 GMT
I wasn't sure of the exact date.
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