They incorporated the sounds of string ensembles, vocoders and dub echos into rock songs, thereby creating a very sophisticated studio version of rock. The musical content of ELO songs often went far beyond usual chord structures, mixing pop songwriting with classical romanticism and synthesized sounds. The band claim that their music "picks up where The Beatles' 1967 song I Am the Walrus left off."
Formed in 1970 by Roy Wood, Jeff Lynne and Bev Bevan (the remaining members of the 1960s rock group The Move). The band used cellos, violin, horns and woodwinds to give their music a classical sound. This was an idea Roy Wood initially had while with The Move, to take rock music in a new direction. In 1970 when Carl Wayne left the The Move, Jeff Lynne, front man with fellow Brum band Idle Race, responded to Wood's second invitation to join the line-up, with the lure of starting the new band. To help finance the fledgling project, two more Move albums were released during the recording of their eponymous first album in 1971 which produced the UK hit 10538 Overture. In the US this album was released with the mistaken title of No Answer, due to a mix-up with an uncompleted telephone call to the American label and subsequent secretarial message.
However, tensions soon surfaced between Roy Wood and Jeff Lynne. With most of the media attention focused on Roy Wood, differences in musical direction, and a disastrous first live outing, it was no surprise when the band went through the first of its many line-up changes as Wood took Hugh McDowell and Bill Hunt with him to form Wizzard. Despite the music press's predictions that the band would fold without Wood, Jeff Lynne stepped up to lead the band, with Bevan remaining on drums, bassist Richard Tandy switching to moog synthesizer, Michael d'Albuquerque on bass, Mike Edwards, Colin Walker (cello) and Wilfred Gibson replacing Steve Woolam on violin. They released ELO 2 in 1973, from which came their first U.S. chart hit, a hugely elaborate version of the Chuck Berry classic Roll Over Beethoven. After their second album, violinist Gibson was dismissed and replaced by Mik Kaminski. They also released On The Third Day in 1973, with Mike Edwards playing all the cello parts due to Colin Walker leaving the band. Later that same year saw the return of Hugh McDowell, who had jumped ship the year previous, to replace cellist Colin Walker.
In 1974 Lynne hired a thirty-piece orchestra, choir and Louis Clark, then began work on the next LP Eldorado, A Symphony, a concept album about dreams, scoring their first U.S. Top Ten hit with Can't Get It Out Of My Head in 1975. Eldorado would become ELO's first gold album.
After the release of Eldorado, bassist and vocalist Kelly Groucutt and cellist Melvyn Gale joined, replacing de Albuquerque and Edwards respectively.
The band split in 1983. In 1985, Lynne, Tandy and Bevan reunited and recorded the album "Balance of Power". This reunion was short lived and the band split once more in 1986. Bev Bevan and Louis Clark, with the consent of Lynne, toured and recorded as ELO Part II from 1988 until Bevan's retirement in 1999. In 2000, Lynne and Tandy reformed Electric Light Orchestra and released a new record, "Zoom". "Zoom" proved to be a commercial failure, and the duo split once more in 2001.
In 2014, following support from BBC Radio 2 DJ Chris Evans, Lynne and Tandy reunited as a part of BBC Radio 2's "Festival in a Day" to perform under the new billing, "Jeff Lynne's ELO", a name Lynne devised as a response to ELO tributes, imitation bands, and offshoots who used ELO to promote their own tours.
In February 2015, Jeff Lynne's ELO performed at the Grammy Awards with Ed Sheeran, and in September of that year they announced a new album would be released under Columbia Records. Jeff Lynne's ELO - Alone in the Universe was released on November 13, 2015, and was ELO’s first album of new material in almost 15 years.
The second album under Jeff Lynne’s ELO, Jeff Lynne's ELO - From Out of Nowhere, was released on November 1, 2019.
There is more than one artist with the name "ELO". The vast majority of scrobbles to "Electric Light Orchestra" are for the rock band from England.
ELO, is a South Korean singer, who debuted with the album, 8 Femmes, on August 26, 2016.
Mister Kingdom
Electric Light Orchestra Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
But those who die - they never see the sun come.
Shining through their window pane,
They pass away.
Silly girl to be a fool;
You didn't play the golden rule.
'Cause once you're done with one world,
There's another waiting there.
[Chorus]
Help me. Such a lonely soul,
In dreams,
To leave behind the world.
Mr. Kingdom, help me please,
To find the rainbow's end.
Looking from this empty room;
The corridors of endless gloom
Go crawling through the night,
To meet the dawn that's on the way.
Oh, to sleep, perchance to dream,
To live again those joyous scenes.
The laughter, and the follies
That are locked inside my head
[Chorus x 2]
I can dream of flying high
Above the city's cares, and never be afraid of anyone,
'Cause there ain't no one there.
[Chorus x 3]
The song "Mister Kingdom" by Electric Light Orchestra delves into the concept of life and death, and the idea of another world waiting beyond death. The opening lyrics illustrate the contrast between life and death, where people who are alive get to experience the daylight while those who have passed away never witness its beauty. The song talks about a girl who didn't abide by the golden rule, and now she's in search of help from Mr. Kingdom to find the rainbow's end. The chorus highlights the singer's loneliness and his yearning to leave the world behind, to find solace in his dreams.
The second verse of the song encompasses the emptiness and bleakness of life; the singer is stuck in a dark room, surrounded by corridors of gloom, with only hope for a new dawn that's yet to come. However, the singer takes refuge in his dreams and memories, reminiscing about the joyous moments he'd experienced in his past. The final verse seems to provide a silver lining, where the singer can fly high above the city's worries and not be afraid of anyone.
Line by Line Meaning
Daylight comes to those who live,
Living people experience the daylight.
But those who die - they never see the sun come.
Dead people can never experience the daylight again.
Shining through their window pane,
The daylight passes through the window of the dead person's room.
They pass away.
The dead person passes away.
Silly girl to be a fool;
The artist thinks it is foolish for the girl to not follow the 'golden rule'.
You didn't play the golden rule.
The girl did not follow the 'golden rule'.
'Cause once you're done with one world,
After you die, you are finished with this world.
There's another waiting there.
There is another world waiting for you after you die.
Help me. Such a lonely soul,
The artist is asking for help because they are alone.
In dreams, To leave behind the world.
In their dreams, the artist wants to forget about the world.
Mr. Kingdom, help me please, To find the rainbow's end.
The singer is asking 'Mr. Kingdom' to help them find happiness and fulfillment.
Looking from this empty room;
The artist is looking around from an empty room.
The corridors of endless gloom Go crawling through the night,
The corridors around the singer are dark and never-ending.
To meet the dawn that's on the way.
The dark night is leading to the morning sunrise.
Oh, to sleep, perchance to dream,
The singer wants to sleep and dream.
To live again those joyous scenes.
The artist wants to relive happy memories in their dreams.
The laughter, and the follies That are locked inside my head
The artist wants to remember the good times that are trapped in their mind.
I can dream of flying high Above the city's cares,
The singer can dream of flying above their problems and the stress of the city.
and never be afraid of anyone,
The singer is not afraid of anyone in their dreams.
'Cause there ain't no one there.
No one is there to bother the artist in their dreams.
Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Written by: JEFF LYNNE
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
Robert Cochran
on State of Mind
An overlooked album which more people should listen to
Rodney
on Rockaria!
Weit in die Ferne , man hört, man hört die Musik
Philip Kassabian
on Starlight
A nice ELO song.
Philip Kassabian
on Starlight
A lovely ELO song.
Philip Kassabian
on Wild West Hero
An absolutely beautiful song.
Philip Kassabian
on Last Train to London
Never heard this ELO song before.
Philip Kassabian
on All Over the World
An ELO song that surprisingly few people know about. To me this rivals Mr. Blue Sky.
Philip Kassabian
on Ticket to the Moon
A song about a person being utterly confused in a difficult situation. He can't even fathom the journey he's about to take to the moon. It's surreal to him.
Philip Kassabian
on Strange Magic
A very mysterious and awe inspiring song. Definitely one of ELO's better songs.
Philip Kassabian
on Livin' Thing
It's a great song and to me it symbolizes the meaning of loss and how absolutely devastating it can be for a person.