Artist: Electric Light Orchestra
Title: Mr Blue Sky
Description: single; album track, Out Of The Blue
Label: Jet
Release date: 1977
First heard: 1977
1977 was the year punk broke wide open: God Save The Queen, Damned Damned Damned, Sid replacing Glenn Matlock, The Clash, Oh Bondage! Up Yours, Blank Generation, Never Mind The Bollocks. I, meanwhile, could be found sitting cross-legged on the carpet of the family living room listening intently to the Concerto For A Rainy Day, which comprised Side Three of Out Of The Blue, a double LP whose generous gatefold sleeve, complete with lyrics, gave a 12-year-old something to get his head round while the lush, orchestral music flowed from the modest speakers attached to Mum and Dad’s “music centre”.
Crucially, I did not grow up with an older brother, as I was the eldest. Many of my friends did. To generalise wildly, my recollection is that those with older sisters had a greater affinity for soul. As a consequence of having elders to follow, these second or third children developed a more “mature” taste in music, which for 70s boys generally meant progressive rock or heavy metal, and it meant LPs, not 45s. It’s inevitable that younger siblings absorb older music. But if you’re the eldest, you’re the canary in the mineshaft, figuring it out for yourself. (In the years hence, my younger brother Simon used to sneak into my bedroom to listen to my punk records when I was out.) I discovered ELO, and their classic sixth and seventh long-players A New World Record and Out Of The Blue, through my Dad. They were his band. I was being handed down my formative musical taste – and my first favourite band! – from a parent. (I liked my Mum’s Elvis records, too.)
ELO’s was pretty sophisticated symphonic rock – literally Dad rock, if you will – and a natural evolution from the asunder Beatles who’d enraptured Jeff Lynne’s generation so, but it wasn’t prog or metal, it wasn’t intellectual or visceral. It wasn’t cool. It was pop music played by rock musicians and a longhaired string section, wasn’t it? Nevertheless it electrified my 12-year-old ears and lit my fire.
I loved Mr Blue Sky then, when it became their seventh top 10 hit and I love it 45 years later. Can you imagine how many times I’ll have heard it in the interim? (It used to be on Smooth 70s, for a while my default adult kitchen radio station, at least once a day.) It does not tarnish. From the clearly faked “radio announcement” and crude thump-thump-thump intro riff, through the cloudbursting joy of its verses (“don’t you know, it’s a beautiful new day, a-hey-hey”) and the punched-up chorus, they cook with gas for a full five minutes, using Vocoder and choral effects to tip a simple pop tune into sepulchral glory. It takes a certain chutzpah to illustrate the line “running down the avenue” with a panting sound – and indeed to link the songs in the Rainy Day concerto with what sound like BBC rain sound effects but which Lynne actually recorded in Munich. It’s so uncool it becomes cool. Little wonder if stands up so well to the test of cover versions, my favourites being one by the Delgados, and of course Jim Bob’s mournful take, which he recorded for my Radio 4 sitcom of the same name, and which I will always cherish.
Having self-consciously forsaken ELO in my teens, and found some new bands of my own, I rediscovered Jeff, Bev, Hugh, Kelly, Mik, Richard and Melvyn in young adult life when all bets were off again, and I found that I really appreciated the craft. If you know Out Of The Blue, you’ll know The Whale, for instance, a haunting instrumental for cetacean lovers, and Birmingham Blues, a personal hymn to home: just two examples of the band’s versatility and voracity. I joined the ELO Fan Club and memorised their names and taught myself how to draw them all; that’s how much I loved them. And I knew which band member appeared where in the airbrushed inner sleeve illustration of the bridge of the logo spaceship. And Mr Blue Sky was my favourite song by my favourite band.
Until 1979, which is the year punk broke wide open in Northampton.
Circles Of Life 
As soon as I read the tweet, my first thought was of The Delgados cover. A hidden gem of a band.
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Sigh, the first LP I bought with my own money. I discarded it to follow “cool” music in my teens, twenties and thirties. Recently bought the double vinyl at a record fair and feel in love with Concerto for a Rainy Day again. It is, as the piece says, a wonderfully crafted and enjoyable record!
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One of my faves too, as are ELO. I can never remember if this was the first single I ever bought or not! If it wasn’t, it was one of the Beatles’ singles from the ‘Oldies But Goldies’ section at our local Our Price, all of which I gradually collected with my pocket money over a year or so whilst also buying cheapo ex-chart singles from the bargain buckets at Boots or Woolies in Wandsworth’s Arndale Centre as my first record purchases.
Jeanette
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I love Mr Blue Sky, but Wild West Hero is my favourite – I remember waiting, waiting for it to be played on the radio, before I could buy the single and play it over and over. So different today when we can have any music with a few clicks.
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That hit the nail on the head. Have been listening to the album a lot lately since seeing Jeff and co in Newcastle. Beautifully written piece, especially the brothers element. So true.
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That hit the nail on the head. Have been listening to the album a lot lately since seeing Jeff and co in Newcastle. Beautifully written piece, especially the brothers element. So true.
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