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Joined: April 29 2006
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Topic: You left them behind, surprised they're here. Posted: July 27 2011 at 07:37
A couple come to mind for me: ELO and Kraftwerk. I wasn't really big into either of these but I had Out Of The Blue and Autobahn. When I became a big prog fan, I didn't keep up with either. So it was years between me moving on and joining this site. When I saw they were here I was surprised, but I still don't have any interest in getting back into them. Of course if any fans want to convince me...
Released date are often when it it impacted you but recorded dates are when it really happened...
Joined: May 29 2006
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Posted: July 27 2011 at 07:44
I love both those bands. If you lean towards the more experimental, you should check out Kraftwerk's Radio-Activity, otherwise The Man Machine is my favorite of theirs.
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Posted: July 27 2011 at 08:13
For me ELO were like Supertramp, while I love commercial music and don't have a problem with prog bands being successful, I just didn't like the direction they moved into.
Kraftwerk were something else and the direction they moved into after Autobahn was exactly to my liking - the BBC aired the Minimum-Maximum 2004 concert tour by them recently - excellent stuff - if you get the chance to see it, do so.
A couple come to mind for me: ELO and Kraftwerk. I wasn't really big into either of these but I had Out Of The Blue and Autobahn. When I became a big prog fan, I didn't keep up with either. So it was years between me moving on and joining this site. When I saw they were here I was surprised, but I still don't have any interest in getting back into them. Of course if any fans want to convince me...
Have you heard "No Answer"? Most people say "Hey Todd, isn't that the album with Roy Wood? Although I'm not quite sure where they are going with this? Some people in the past have tried to identify with this album by making the association with Roy Wood first and maybe having doubts about his talent for 1 reason or another and then as a result passing up the album all together. There are a few songs written by Jeff Lynne which are closer to the Beatles in sound then anything he wrote after the fact. They are obscure and bizzare in nature. Instrumental pieces on "No Answer" are very reminiscent of Gentle Giant. The acoustic guitar is pretty close to sounding like Gary Green. The strings are very fitting as they are on Gentle Giant's "A Dog's Life"
. Some of the material including the spoken word or storytelling of Roy Wood brings early Zappa to mind. There is an instrumental which is truly reminiscent of Mason Williams piece "Classical Gas". It has a darker melody though. It is easy to identify the band's sound through out the listening experience due to the few Jeff Lynne songs, however if someone were to play the instrumental tracks for you it would sound like a bizzare prog band from the early 70's and the more typical string arrangements which were used later in the band's career are not present here. Some of the material is more likely to be in the style of Frank Zappa. The early Zappa solo releases like Lumpy Gravy or 200 Motels. The string arrangements are based on a style and approach like that and not at all like what is present on ELO II or "On the Third Day". The irony of the song "Mr. Radio". Writing credits split between Lynne and Wood are not conflicting to the flow of the album. This is their more serous minded progressive release.
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Posted: July 27 2011 at 08:25
I wasn't too impressed with ELO's debut - some of the Beatles homage seemed to sail dangerously close to plagiarism to my mind - but I really like Eldorado.
Joined: March 08 2008
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Posted: July 27 2011 at 09:10
Call me the pop whore, but my favorite ELO album is A new World Record (Because of Do Ya, Telephone Line, and Shangri-La). I'll second Bluebird is dead - one of my favorite 1970's bands, pop or otherwise. So damn catchy, kinda the opposite of ELP. ELP took classical music and gave it a rock dressing. ELO took rock music and gave it a classical dressing. I'd wholeheartedly take the latter any day.
I will agree that "A new world record" is ELO's best album and Telephone Line their best song. Though i'm not a big fan of them i like them a lot.They have great arrangements and they remind me a little bit of the beatles with a more pop sense. I like kraftwerk too but just consider them as a completely different band.
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Posted: July 27 2011 at 11:24
Slartibartfast wrote:
A couple come to mind for me: ELO and Kraftwerk. I wasn't really big into either of these but I had Out Of The Blue and Autobahn. When I became a big prog fan, I didn't keep up with either. So it was years between me moving on and joining this site. When I saw they were here I was surprised, but I still don't have any interest in getting back into them. Of course if any fans want to convince me...
The first two albums are not only by far Kraftwerk's best work, but are also why they are here.
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Posted: July 27 2011 at 11:35
I never got into ELO, except for a song here and there (like Roll Over Beethoven or Fire on High), so you have my permission to continue to ignore them.
Kraftwerk is still cool in my book. Autobahn is one of my favorites of theirs. I also like Man Machine and Computer World. Both feature short, tight tracks, very different from Autobahn, but still very satisfying. Trans-Europe Express is good too, but gets overly repetitive in a couple of places.
The world of sound is certainly capable of infinite variety and, were our sense developed, of infinite extensions. -- George Santayana, "The Sense of Beauty"
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Posted: July 27 2011 at 13:24
I never got into Kraftwerk, I don't know why. What my memory tells me was in the US they were viewed as electronic/tons of keyboards? I could be way off base...dunno.
I enjoy ELO very much, Out of the Blue is one of my favorites.
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Posted: July 27 2011 at 13:56
Slartibartfast wrote:
A couple come to mind for me: ELO and Kraftwerk. I wasn't really big into either of these but I had Out Of The Blue and Autobahn. When I became a big prog fan, I didn't keep up with either. So it was years between me moving on and joining this site. When I saw they were here I was surprised, but I still don't have any interest in getting back into them. Of course if any fans want to convince me...
Same for me
I stand with Roger Waters, I stand with Joan Baez, I stand with Victor Jara, I stand with Woody Guthrie. Music is revolution
Joined: February 18 2004
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Posted: July 27 2011 at 14:25
I always remember someone at school (this was about 1977) telling me that ELO were just copying I Am The Walrus. That just stuck with me and I've never been able to forget it! However I do have a nice double CD of the early years which includes From The Sun To The World which is excellent prog stuff in anyone books. I hated Telephone Line and all the other commercial guff they did towards the end of the seventies. Nowadays it seems classic stuff but my interest in it is limted to being happy to hear it on the radio occasionally much like The Beatles. Why do I need to buy it ?
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Posted: July 27 2011 at 17:13
ELO is with Supertramp, Roxy Music, Queen and 10cc the founders of art pop rock, the standard bearers of crossover progressive music, as my mind sees it,, and ears hears it
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You left them behind, surprised they're here.
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Slartibartfast wrote:
