Turn To Stone
Another of the sounds of my youth was a band from the UK called Electric Light Orchestra. In the 1970s, they were popular in an alternative radio airplay sort of way, with a total of six top 10 hits here in the United States and at least 15 top 10 hits in their home country. This was quite an achievement for the band from Birmingham, England, whose trademark sound of electrified violins and falsetto voices has remained a stable and almost constant musical trigger throughout the subsequent decades.
The sound, created to mix electric rock instruments with a classical orchestra, was the twist juxtaposed to the growing Southern Rock proliferation in and around my activities in the earlier years. The term "light orchestra" was derived from small orchestras popular in England in the 1960s. Naturally, I had assumed for most of the earlier years that the word electric was applied to both the instruments and the lighting on the stage. Whatever the meaning behind the band's name, there was a beauty to their sweet melodies, other-worldly harmonies, and sometimes strange but always exciting lyrics.
My first introduction to Electric Light Orchestra came through Casey Kasem's Top 40 on the morning of January 26, 1975. I know these things because of the chart dates and my memories of how much of the music during that era of my life would be heard on local radio stations and then jump into the top 40. Others would arrive at the radio stations soon after their top 40 entry. The song, "Can't Get You Out of My Head," was a lush ballad with a woeful tune about a dream, written by ELO's leader, Jeff Lynne, to prove to his father that he could write a song with a melody. Although this was my introduction, the tune was from the band's fourth released LP called "Eldorado."
By 1975, my dreams of leaving Long Island were already advanced. For years, my goal had been to go to California and live in Los Angeles. Although I had been to LA only once on a cross-country camping trip as a kid (the trek to Disneyland in the years before Disneyworld), it held a significant draw for years as a place filled with sunshine and the world of Hollywood. There was a time in my life when I dreamed about winning the Academy Award and walking along sandy beaches and palm tree-lined streets. Some of those dreams were literal during sleep hours, others were the day version while drifting away in puffs of smoke, listening to music and 'spacing out' or what most teenagers in the 1970s did.
The music of the Electric Light Orchestra at the time was a change from what else was on offer. It was ethereal. It felt like boarding a spaceship and floating off to another world. That was the magic of the band. I bought the album in early 1975 and recall my fascination because its cover captured the Wicked Witch of the West's hands being electrified by the ruby slippers on Dorothy's feet from The Wizard of Oz. This blend of music and movies captivated me—the ultimate of escapism. I found the album trippy and glorious, almost akin to what might play well on a Broadway stage or at a concert hall. In their more orchestrated ventures, they sounded like the Beatles, thoroughly filling the room with a quintessentially British sound. From the "Eldorado" experience, I went back to explore the previous releases called "The Electric Light Orchestra," "ELO 2," and "On the Third Day." From these come earlier classic sounds such as "10538 Overture" and "Roll Over Beethoven."
My absolute love for the band was yet to come. During my 1975-1976 senior year in high school, the band released "Face The Music" and new music, including "Evil Woman," "Strange Magic," "One Summer Dream," and "Nightrider," amongst others.
In the summer of 1976, I left Long Island and moved to Phoenix, Arizona. A four-year pit stop that provided the getaway from my high school years but increased the urgency to move my ass to Los Angeles eventually. Toward the end of the year came what is likely my favorite Electric Light Orchestra album called "A New World Record," a selection of ethereal pop rockers from beginning to end that lightened up my fall in my new world and took me well into 1977. Music that will trigger me to my foray into the desert heat and my first struggling year of university included "Tightrope," "Telephone Line," Rockaria!," "So Fine," "Livin' Thing," "Above the Clouds," "Do Ya," and "Shangri-La."
In the fall of 1977, my college education was falling apart, and I was finding different ways to spend my time in lovely Phoenix. Part of me still had a foot in Los Angeles, and another part felt I needed to get myself situated financially to help that happen. I was working in restaurants and partying daily and as addiction will go, I had become somewhat comfortable with the lifestyle. In October, another stellar ELO release was offered, "Out of the Blue," again offering so many different falsetto-laden classics that rang true to the times then and are still playing in various ways on television and in film today. From the double-record release came songs like (one of my favorites) "Turn To Stone," "It's Over," "Sweet Talkin' Woman," and "Mr. Blue Sky" (trust me, you know this one).
My Electric Light Orchestra era continued into 1979 and 1980 when I finally found myself in Los Angeles. The "Discovery" album brought songs like "Shine a Little Love," "Confusion," "Last Train to London," and "Don't Bring Me Down." But it was the universally panned Olivia Newton-John film called "Xanadu" that people tend to forget highlighted the music of the Electric Light Orchestra (along with The Tubes). Songs like "I'm Alive,"" All Over the World," and the title cut with Newton-John's "Xanadu."
By 1981, I had moved on into an entirely different musical world, only to return to the magic of ELO through the world of music all around us on a daily basis. ELO has an unbreakable particular trigger to the 1970s. However, the connection not only feels nostalgic but also lightens any mood in the current day for what it continues to be.
#RIP Richard Tandy.
The city streets are empty now (the lights don’t shine no more)
And so the songs are way down low
A sound that flows into my mind (the echoes of the daylight)
Of everything that is alive (in my blue world)
I turn to stone when you are gone
I turn to stone
I turn to stone when you comin’ home
I can’t go on