What’s your favorite ELO lyric?
It’s funny how lyrics operate within the context of studio-recorded pop music. I’ve been listening to my favorite 10 or so ELO songs on my iPod lately, and while marveling at how good Jeff Lynne‘s voice could be the rare times he let it be heard without obstruction by the aural shades that were layers of multi-tracking and studio effects I also began to marvel at how much emotion his music could inspire despite the fact that there’s hardly an ELO lyric that, taken at word value alone, means a damn to me.
I first began to think about this while enjoying maybe my third-favorite ELO song, “Strange Magic.” I’ve loved this song since middle school, but I can’t even tell what he’s singing in the chorus after he sings the title. From what I can make out in the verses, which seem to race by in time to enjoy the next musical variation on the chorus’ arrangement, I’m not missing much, but because Lynne so artfully buries his lack of lyrical content sacrificing his pleasing vocal timbre in the process, it never matters for me. It’s probably best that I fail to pay attention to his lyrics. Beside, it’s magic; why should I try to make sense of it?
Whenever “Telephone Line” comes on I can actually follow along with the lyrics and get something directly out of them. It’s no surprise that this is one of the few songs on which Lynne avoids overdoing the effects on his voice. He knows he’s got a direct sentiment to express. Beside that song, though—only a few days after listening to these songs and thinking about this stuff—I can barely think of a couplet in a verse in an ELO song that I give a damn about removed from the music! Other than “You’ve made a fool of me,” in the beginning of “Evil Woman,” I’d have to think long and hard about a line outside the chorus in any song by them, let alone one that means anything to me.
How about you? Do you have a favorite ELO lyric, even as small as a couplet or ad-libbed aside?
