'ELO 'ELO.
One song that
never fails to get me in a good mood is ELO’s Mr Blue Sky.
It evokes very specific memories of mine and Glyn’s first Edinburgh Festival in 2008. We wrote a comedy three-hander play set in the basket of a hot-air balloon, titled ‘The Balloon Debate’ – and every night we used Mr Blue Sky as our playout.
We had a very tight get-in and get-out for the show, in which we had to build and then dismantle our faux-wicker basket. The technician would leave the song playing while we packed up; all of us singing along as we did it.
The show was well-received by our audiences, but less so by critics. We also lost a lot of money. Despite overwhelming odds, the song still brings back happy memories.
It is written in the style of the late-Sixties Beatles, ‘Peppered’ with references in more ways than one. The “everybody’s in a play” lyric of the first verse gently paraphrases Penny Lane, as does the fire bell a few bars later.
The song is irresistibly upbeat; little wonder that Paul McCartney earmarked it as one of his personal favourites. Every bar is concisely written and immaculately produced. It’s clever without being overworked and positively reeks of the summer.
I may not be a driver, but if I was, this would be the first track I’d play on my car stereo (this has nothing to do with the outro being used in a car advert.)
So, click the link below and crank up your computer speakers: today's forecast calls for blue skies.
It evokes very specific memories of mine and Glyn’s first Edinburgh Festival in 2008. We wrote a comedy three-hander play set in the basket of a hot-air balloon, titled ‘The Balloon Debate’ – and every night we used Mr Blue Sky as our playout.
We had a very tight get-in and get-out for the show, in which we had to build and then dismantle our faux-wicker basket. The technician would leave the song playing while we packed up; all of us singing along as we did it.
The show was well-received by our audiences, but less so by critics. We also lost a lot of money. Despite overwhelming odds, the song still brings back happy memories.
It is written in the style of the late-Sixties Beatles, ‘Peppered’ with references in more ways than one. The “everybody’s in a play” lyric of the first verse gently paraphrases Penny Lane, as does the fire bell a few bars later.
The song is irresistibly upbeat; little wonder that Paul McCartney earmarked it as one of his personal favourites. Every bar is concisely written and immaculately produced. It’s clever without being overworked and positively reeks of the summer.
I may not be a driver, but if I was, this would be the first track I’d play on my car stereo (this has nothing to do with the outro being used in a car advert.)
So, click the link below and crank up your computer speakers: today's forecast calls for blue skies.
