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.
Secret Messages
Electric Light Orchestra Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
That is floating on the wind
The secrets never end
And now they call,
They sing, they play, they dance
For you, from out of the blue,
What can you do?
They call to me across the air
The messages across the atmosphere
They whisper in your ear, they're calling everywhere
Where words cascade like rainbows tumbling from the sky
Then I'll be there, I'll be there
When messages will call to you their secrets all around
Without a sound, they're all around
Those secret messages that spill into the air from far away
So far away
A flowing river of illusion running with confusion
Never gone - it goes on and on
The secret messages are calling to me endlessly
They call to me across the air
The messages across the atmosphere
They whisper in your ear, they're calling everywhere
The song "Secret Messages" by Electric Light Orchestra is a poetic expression about the idea of communication, specifically those messages that are hidden within the wind, portrayed as secrets that never end. The song' opening lines describe the phenomenon of information floating in the air via an unseen stream which carries secret messages that offer new experiences such as singing, playing, and dancing, seemingly appearing from nowhere. The intriguing moment the song's title words are sung underlines the need to unravel the hidden content in the messages, leading to the chorus where the secrets are personified as singing, calling, and whispering in the air, beckoning to the listener like sirens.
The second verse of the song further emphasizes that the messages are everywhere, in the form of a crescendo, where words fall like colorful rainbows pouring from the sky. The words culminate on a positive note that the singer will be there to give response to the messages as they come, often without any sound at all. The lyricist skillfully masks the dark nature of the song with its upbeat melody, but the actual message is that the secrets continue to exist in this world, flowing like a river and creating confusion along the way.
Line by Line Meaning
A moving stream of information
The constant flow of information is like a stream that keeps moving
That is floating on the wind
Information travels and spreads easily, like a breeze carrying it
The secrets never end
There are endless secrets that surround us
And now they call,
The secrets are reaching out and calling to us
They sing, they play, they dance
The messages are lively and energetic, engaging us with their presence
For you, from out of the blue,
Unexpectedly, these messages come out of nowhere and are meant for us
What can you do?
It's up to us to interpret and respond to these messages
The secret messages are calling to me endlessly
The constant flow of secrets is calling to me without end
They call to me across the air
These messages reach me through the atmosphere
The messages across the atmosphere
The messages are sent and travel through the atmosphere
They whisper in your ear, they're calling everywhere
The messages are inescapable and seem to be calling from all around us
Where words cascade like rainbows tumbling from the sky
In a place of wonder, words and messages flow like rainbows tumbling down from the sky
Then I'll be there, I'll be there
When the messages call, I'll be there to receive them
When messages will call to you their secrets all around
Eventually, the messages will reach out to us and share their secrets openly
Without a sound, they're all around
Silently, these messages are everywhere around us
Those secret messages that spill into the air from far away
The messages that come from a distance and spill into the air around us
So far away
The distance from which these messages come seems so far away
A flowing river of illusion running with confusion
The messages come like a river of illusions, flowing with confusion
Never gone - it goes on and on
The messages never truly disappear, they continue to flow endlessly
Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Written by: JEFF LYNNE
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
The Archive of My Life
1983 on #mymusicalroadto50
Electric Light Orchestra - Secret Messages
Since getting “Out of the Blue” and “Discovery” and managing to acquire most of their back catalogue during this time, I’d got “Time” from my sister for my ninth birthday, so I was ready when this album was released in ‘83.
I was never keen on the singles they released post Xanadu though, and much preferred the album tracks.
Ok so this was eventually released as a single, but when I bought it in Woolworths they’d only released “Rock and Roll is King” which I didn’t really like at all.
So upon putting the needle down and hearing this track it felt like my faith in the band had been restored.
I like this one a lot.
Fikry Setiawan
A moving stream of information
That is floating on the wind
The secrets never end
And now they call,
They sing, they play, they dance for you
From out of the blue
What can you do?
The secret messages are calling to me endlessly
They call to me across the air
The messages across the atmosphere
They whisper in your ear, they're calling everywhere.
Where words cascade like rainbows
Tumbling from the sky
Then I'll be there, I'll be there
When messages will call to you
Their secrets all around
Without a sound, they're all around.
The secret messages are calling to me endlessly
They call to me across the air
The messages across the atmosphere
They whisper in your ear, they're calling everywhere.
They're calling everywhere.
Those secret messages that spill
Into the air from far away
So far away
A flowing river of illusion
Running with confusion
Never gone - it goes on and on.
The secret messages are calling to me endlessly
They call to me across the air
The messages across the atmosphere
They whisper in your ear, they're calling everywhere.
The messages across the atmosphere
They whisper in your ear
(Secret messages)
The secret messages are calling to me endlessly
(Secret messages)
The messages across the atmosphere
They whisper in your ear (secret).
amonamarth1672
Моё первое знакомство с ELO произошло, когда мне было 8 лет. Теперь мне 51 и я всё ещё слушаю их! Как говорится- первая любовь не ржавеет!
pepa zdepa
@amonamarth1672 - Да, очень захватывающая музыка, так что я влюблен в нее уже 40 лет :-) , вам также должно понравиться Эннио Морриконе :-)
amonamarth1672
@pepa zdepa Да, и Поль Мариа, Джеймс Ласт тоже 👌👍👍👍🤗
Наталья Падутова
Мне 60 и своим молодым коллегам я стараюсь рассказывать о том прекрасном, которое любила и люблю до сих пор. На ELO нет равнодушны.
Мастер Ленты
Как-будто и не было этих сорока лет… Спасибо, ELO!
Alison Shenton
TOTALLY AGREE WITH YOU ANOTHER LEGEND ONE OF THE BEST BANDS EVER TO EVOLVE I THINK YOU'RE AMAZING 🥰 MR LYNNE AS YOU SAY NO AIRES AND GRACES HAS NEVER FORGOTTEN WHERE HE CAME FROM XXX ❤️🦋🌈
Adam Dorey
One of ELO's most underrated albums and one of their best.
Paul Outdoors
Agree 100% Adam. "Time" is superb also 👍😊
Juraj Krucko
yes, one of the best😀
Jeffrey Fisher
Like others I have to agree, but for myself EVERY ELO album is so. Just because a particular album didn't have a Top 20 or so hit song on doesn't mean it wasn't and good! For me the one exception and I'm sure people will disagree is "On The Third Day" although the concept is still brilliant and I love listening to be the tracks 😀.