Post by queenofthehours on Apr 3, 2016 19:09:06 GMT
I recently went away on a short coach holiday. Of course the driver we had, like any sensible driver, had Radio 2 on but the reception wasn’t fantastic and the volume was never consistent. About a quarter of the way into the journey a track come on the radio, bear in mind the volume was only just audible and the sound wasn’t exactly clear, it was rather distorted. “This is nice,” thought I. “It sounds a bit 80s, a very nice pop song. I must make a note of it when I get home, I know you can look up track lists on the internet. I wonder who it’s by? I can’t make out the words. What old 80s bands do I know? Haircut 100 or something? (I don’t know why I thought of them!) Some group I know but don’t know well enough perhaps? Probably some old pop star making a comeback. Sounds good anyway. I wonder what it is…hang on…is it…maybe it’s…of course! It’s ‘Ain’t it a Drag’!”
I was amazed at how different it sounded on a terribly tuned radio compared to the cd version. It didn’t sound like itself at all. Hearing it and not hearing it at the same time brought out the qualities you’d miss if you KNEW what you were hearing. For instance the drums and rhythm really stood out as the vocals were almost inaudible. Immediately I got impressions of Time-era rhythms and drums. If anything is sounded just like “Rock ‘n’ Roll is King” .
I heard the track many more times on the coach through the holiday and I was amazed (on the radio’s more audible days) at how clear Jeff’s vocals were. Usually old singers making a comeback either disguise their singing with “modern” production or have it buried so far in the mix you can’t hear it for all the blips and blops of the computerized backing track. But Jeff’s voice is so clear and perfect I would never have guessed it was a new song! It sounded very Wilbury (more so on the radio's less audible times) – It could easily have George and Tom doing backing vocals, very ‘Wilbury Twist’. It could easily have come from Time too – that’s why I really did think it was an old track from back in the day that I had missed! Jeff is a master at both making music and production. He hides behind nothing. I know we sometimes have a little moan about how he sounds these days but truly he is the same as he was when he was at his height plus that little bit you NEED to add to be a success in the 2010s. Jeff writes music how he used to but FRESHER. The reason we think he’s different now is because we know what we are listening to. We pick up too quickly on the fresh part. If only we had more wonky radios, we’d hear everything anew and not listen so superficially.
On the same journey Bryan Adams’ ‘Do What Ya Gotta Do’ came on often. Again I was at a loss to know what it was or who was singing it but guess what it was that gave the game away? The fact the production is more Jeff than ‘Ain’t it a Drag’ was! I was hearing more of Jeff’s backing vocals over the tiny coach speakers than I was ol’ Bryan’s. You don't need to hear a Jeff Lynne production to feel it anyway. Because I wasn’t sure what the track was for a few minutes these thoughts crossed my mind – “This sounds just like Jeff, one of those times he produced someone else like Julianna Raye. Yes, this is very Julianna. It’s not good enough for an ELO number yet is has all the hallmarks and it sounds so fresh”. In fact both tracks sounded very fresh to me.
At one point in the journey I was treated to ‘Ain’t it a Drag’, the Bryan Adams track, and a song by Paul Carrack, a new single I believe, one after the other – it was marvellous Jeff and Paul – two old singers who STILL have all their skill and freshness of voice AND for the first time ever I was able to say – “I can see both of these guys in concert"!