This Album Cover Looks Really Cool If You’re Sixteen & Stoned

Thanks to the fact that my photographer friend Terry recently admitted publicly that he had been listening to Electric Light Orchestra, I can finally slither out of my little closet of shame and confess: I think ELO is one of the most amazing pop bands of the seventies. As long as Jeff Lynne’s hair isn’t blocking the sound (now I remember why Phil Spector’s hair looked so familiar a couple of years ago), any listener would probably acknowledge that tracks from albums like On The Third Day (1973), Eldorado (1974), Face The Music (1975), A New World Record (1976), and Out Of The Blue (1977) not only formed part of the tragic soundtrack of the early teen years for some of us, but also hold up surprisingly well today. For me the rediscovery of ELO started when I used Pandora for the first time a few months ago, and typed ELO as a sort of random test of Pandora’s capabilities. I was surprised a little by Pandora’s ability to spew out an interesting playlist based on entering a slightly forgotten band, but I was more surprised at how great the songs still sound. And a little embarrassed at my secret guilty pleasure. If you were alive and cognizant in 1976/1977, you might have experienced the same trauma that I did: while punk was in it’s early gestation, amazing double albums of SuperPop like ELO’s “Out of the Blue” and Stevie Wonder’s Songs In The Key Of Life were saturating the airwaves. That was a tough year or two; you might find yourself trying to hide your canary yellow hair and Clash albums so you could date the nice Catholic chick who was still playing KC & The Sunshine Band, Peter Frampton, or the BeeGees. Hearing these ELO songs after not hearing them for literally decades was a little unsettling; suddenly I was pining over Carol [REDACTED], Jeanne [REDACTED], and Kathy [REDACTED] and sloppy first kisses all over again. In fact, I just relived my whole heartbreaking relationship with Helen [REDACTED] by listening to Strange Magic and Evil Woman back-to-back. I’m gonna go cry in my room beneath my Farrah Fawcett poster now.

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