At Date: Sat, 10 Jul 2004 06:56:04 -Miguel wrote:

>...Which brings us to ELO... I could either take 'em or leave 'em... and of 
>all the supposedly Beatles influenced bands I have personally rejected to 
>listen to some because, as I said, "I was there" and, IMHO, know what a 
>Beatle influence song should sound like... Jellyfish, Oasis, Cheap Trick, 
>and (umm) The Knack, I honestly and sincerely fail to see the connection, 
>with these bands one has to be hard-pressed to hear the true infusion of 
>Lennon-McCartney... Don't get me wrong, they are great bands, but 
>Lennon-McCartney?... sound-wise a hint perhaps, but not even close... but 
>that's just my personal opinion...
>
>...ELO I've embraced somewhat... I think Mr. Lynne has a good grasp and 
>dominion of the studio and is a halfway decent songwriter... Few producers 
>can convert the recording studio into a "musical intrument" and bring forth 
>interesting sounds; i.e. Mark Hudson, Ray Davies, McCartney, of course, 
>etc... The problem I have with Jeff Lynne is that his productions, as 
>decent as they may be, end up sounding the same all the time... Just listen 
>to his productions of Roy Orbison, Del Shannon, Wilburys, George Harrison, 
>and of course his own ELO stuff... they don't offer any musical challenges 
>to the ear, as opposed to say, George Martin who would, together with The 
>Fabs bring a fresh approach to each song everytime around...

Some good points all...

You've brought up an interesting issue with the other Beatles influenced 
bands in that you're right in saying that none of these acts ever stopped to 
emulate Lennon-McCartney as songwriters....only as per their "sound" -- 
which, of course, was nearly exclusively George Martin's doing. To that end 
Jeff Lynne has always been a great melodicist and arranger....but he's a 
horrible lyricist -- self-admitted too. In the "Afterglow" boxed set he 
makes mention of the fact that on every ELO album the songs were always 
recorded first and the vocals were added at the end of the sessions, almost 
as an afterthought, whereby the lyrics were pretty much ad-libbed.

It maybe more correct in the future to say that bands like The Raspberries, 
Cheap Trick, Badfinger, aren't so much Beatles sounding, but actually 
Martinesque.


Jaimie Vernon,
President, Bullseye Records
http://www.bullseyecanada.com
Author, Canadian Pop Music Encyclopedia
http://www.canoe.ca/JamMusicPopEncycloPages