Music Blog

A NEW WORLD RECORD

Nancy's Notes 🖊️🎶

Written for Glyn’s Mixed Music Bag #10, March Monthly Challenge Week 10 where we are asked to write about a song by any group or solo singer beginning with the letter E or F.

The only problem with songs like “Telephone Line”, “Mr. Blue Sky”, “Don’t Bring Me Down”, “Livin’ Thing” or “Evil Woman” is trying to figure out which one I want to listen to first. These days with online streaming services such as Amazon Music, YouTube, Spotify, etc., it’s so easy for us to listen to tunes wherever, whenever we want.

The songs titles I mentioned are just a handful of the great hits by ELO, that little rock band formed in 1970 in Birmingham, England by Jeff Lynne, Roy Wood and Bev Bevan. Their idea was to create a band that used orchestral instruments such as woodwinds, horns, and strings as the main focus rather than guitars. It was a crazy idea but it took off and the group achieved global success.

Over the years, just like all groups, there were disagreements, splits, total breakups. Apart from a brief reunion in the early 2000s, ELO remained largely inactive until 2014, when Jeff Lynne re-formed the band as Jeff Lynne’s ELO.

I had no idea which song to feature today so I read the names to my 4-year-old granddaughter and asked her to choose one .… that’s the truth! Of course, like any 4-year-old, she said “Mr. Blue Sky” (she laughed at that title) but since I wrote about that one not long ago for Jim Adams’ Song Lyric Sunday, I decided to go with a different one.

“Livin’ Thing” was written and produced by Jeff Lynne; it appears on ELO’s 1976 album “A New World Record” and was also released as a single. Music critics have said it’s “an extremely catchy record that has all the vocal and instrumental hooks to keep you listening”. Who am I to argue with that? And if you’re wondering about the meaning of the song, who better to ask than the guy who wrote it? Jeff Lynne has this to say: “’Livin’ Thing’ is simply a love song. Everybody would always say, oh, that’s about a whale or it’s about orgasms or it’s about whatever, lots of different things. It wasn’t really about that at all. It was just about love.” Nice one, Jeff.

This is “Livin’ Thing” by ELO:

Lyrics

Sailin’ away on the crest of a wave, it’s like magic
Oh, rollin’ and ridin’ and slippin’ and slidin’, it’s magic

And you and your sweet desire
You took me, oh (higher and higher, baby)

It’s a livin’ thing
It’s a terrible thing to lose
It’s a givin’ thing
What a terrible thing to lose

I’m takin’ a dive
Dive

Makin’ believe this is what you’ve conceived
From your worst day (I’m takin’ a dive)
Oh, movin’ in line, then you look back in time
To the first day (I’m takin’, I’m takin’)

And you and your sweet desire (don’t you do it, don’t you do it)
You took me, oh (higher and higher, baby)

It’s a livin’ thing
It’s a terrible thing to lose
It’s a givin’ thing
What a terrible thing to lose

I’m takin’ a dive
All the same
Hey

Takin’ a dive, ’cause you can’t halt the slide
Floating downstream (I’m takin’ a dive)
Oh, so let her go, don’t start spoiling the show
It’s a bad dream (I’m takin’, I’m takin’)

And you and your sweet desire (don’t you do it, don’t you do it)
You took me, oh (higher and higher, baby)

It’s a livin’ thing
It’s a terrible thing to lose
It’s a givin’ thing
What a terrible thing to lose

It’s a livin’ thing
It’s a terrible thing to lose
It’s a givin’ thing

Source: Musixmatch
Songwriters: Jeff Lynne
Livin’ Thing lyrics Š Emi Blackwood Music Inc.

Mixed Music Bag 2024 – week 10 – Echo & The Bunnymen

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27 thoughts on “A NEW WORLD RECORD”

  3. This is the first record I bought by ELO. As a second-generation music lover, once you discover and devour The Beatles it’s not a large jump to find ELO soon afterwards. All of their albums are great, from their debut with Roy Wood and the heavy classical influence, through the prog-pop, the peak years, and even their “decline” in the mid-80’s.

    Mr. Blue Sky: The Jeff Lynne & ELO Story is an excellent documentary if you can find it streaming somewhere. Actually, it’s on YouTube apparently!

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    1. Oh, I absolutely agree with you, Houston. The Beatles were inspired by the likes of Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Arthur Alexander, Larry Williams, Elvis, et al, and in turn the Beatles inspired everyone else, including ELO. They’re terrific and I loved the connection between Jeff Lynne and George Harrison in the Traveling Wilburys. Truly great stuff.

      Mr. Blue Sky is “the happiest song ever” according to some critics. I featured it a few weeks ago for Song Lyric Sunday‘s challenge to write about a song dealing with mental health. It’s an epic piece.

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  8. I’ve been a fan since the beginning. I went to one of the gigs on their first tour, when they played at our uni on the back of 10538 Overture making the charts here. They didn’t have a full orchestra yet, Bev Bevan’s drum kit kept moving across the floor so a roadie had to lie on the stage to hold it down, and after playing for about 40 minutes they said “that’s all we have.” So they did 10538 again as encore. From such small beginnings…

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    1. That is such a great anecdotal story, Clive. I love personal bits of info like that. As great as 10538 is, the meaning is rather heavy, that a man would become more relevant and important by his death than by his life. I preferred to go with this fun, inspiring ‘love’ song. And who doesn’t recognize those opening string chords? Just brilliant! I’d love ELO and this song even if 10538 wasn’t my postal code, which it is! 😃

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      1. It was a good memory. A midweek gig, for some reason, when most of ours were on a Friday or Saturday. A walk to the secondary site off campus on a foul night, couldn’t have been more than a hundred there. They got better!

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    1. Oh my goodness, Willow! You got that right! Jeff Lynne is just so extraordinary and I adore him as part of Traveling Wilburys, too. A great talent and ELO’s sound is so rich … immediately recognizable. Others have tried but no one did it as well as ELO! 🩶🩶

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