Yes, ELO is the Rock Hall Of Fame and Jeff was inducted into the Songwriters Hall Of Fame last year. He also was honored by the Queen Of England a couple years back. Jeff has been getting well-deserved honors.
The reason this song resonates with the listener is Jeff's use of Western movie motifs, the horse galloping in in the beginning, the piano sounding like every salon piano in every cowboy movie ever made and the violin and guitar parts playing red Indian music that was played in the movies as the Indian turned up to cause trouble . Because of these little touches of genius, you can't help but be transported into the song. Wonderful.
The British have always had a fascination with the American West. Jeff surely watched western movies as a kid and paints a great picture of the tropes many had.
The saloon-sound piano playing was done by the cello player Melvyn Gale and not the recently deceased Richard Tandy (RIP). Jeff Lynne had asked Richard to do it but he couldn't get what Jeff was asking for. Mel, a graduate of the Royal College of Music, was also an excellent piano player and said I know what you mean...he stepped in and nailed that section. This is what is missing on the more recent, but still excellent, ELO material.
"Wild West Hero" is a perfect, stunning fusion of elements of pop, rock and opera. And Jeff Lynne is a master at it, as we have known since "Mr. Blue Sky" at the latest. In my eyes, he is a musical genius on a par with Brian Wilson and Paul McCartney.
The instrument they use is called a vocoder a coding machine to synthesize the human voice and it’s been around since 1938. Hope that helps. Not used one myself, in my compositions it would probably scare the orchestra
There are some rare tunes ELO have done that never ended up on any albums yet are great songs. One is an instumental if you can find it. The tune is called drum dreams. You can only find it on the B side of the single Im alive (from the movie Xanadu). The tune is basically the drummer Bev Bevan tandy, and I guess Jeff is on synths and the orchestra. It's shortish, but it's worth a listen... if you can find it. I think you can find it somewhere on youtube.
Funny enough, it was band cellist Melvyn Gale who played the fast honky tonk piano portion. One would have thought keyboard master Richard Tandy - but no.
My post later! Richard was asked to do it but didn't capture what Jeff was asking for. Mel Gayle nailed it! The live version of the song is brilliant too, though it has a slightly different arrangement towards the end where Jeff restarts singing on his own and then the rest join in, it's brilliant. In the late 70s live shows you can see Mel and Richard together hammering the ivories on Roll Over Beethoven.
Mizzy & Meezy, great reaction! This song was was much bigger in the UK than the US, and that's because when it came out in '77, people in the UK were still fascinated by the American wild west, whereas people in America had moved on from that frontier to the new (final) frontier, space. In '69 we put a man on the moon, and suddenly kids in America were no longer playing cowboys and indians, but were into outer space motifs. England didn't have a space program, and as a small country filling up fast, the appeal of the wild west frontier that had been in America still held so much appeal for them. Yes, Jeff also loved space, obviously given many of his songs, and album artwork. But the kid in him never let go of the romance he'd had in his childhood of the American wild west, that theme just did not become passe in the UK the way that it did in America. I suspect a big reason we here in the US stopped romanticizing it was our guilt over the atrocities we'd committed against the indians in stealing their land. That guilt didn't hang on the shoulders of the Brits, so they kept on romanticizing the American western frontier. Personally, this was a song I skipped over when I listened to the album back in the '70s - '80s. I thought it was a bit cheesy, and not up to par with so many other great songs on the double-LP. But in recent years I've grown to like it. Not love it, but like it. ELO's my favorite band, so I like everything they did, to some degree. But this track would not be in my Top 50 ELO songs. Probably not even Top 75. ELO is in the Rock 'n Roll Hall of Fame, although it took them way too long to get in. Their induction finally came in 2017. Next from ELO, please react to their 1976 hit, *"Livin' Thing".* If you've both heard it already, I suggest you react to it live at Wembley Stadium in 2017. It's tricky to find the link on CZcams because whoever uploaded it did not put the song name in the video title. So do a search on CZcams by typing this in exactly: *Jeff Lynnes Elo Wembley or Bust 2017 720p* It is 4-minutes and 8-seconds long, it has 6M views, and the channel name is keith mansfield. Jeff's nearly 70 in the performance, but he still sounds amazing! He's the only one left from the original band, everyone else is from his new "Jeff Lynnes ELO" band, which made a big comeback from 2013 up to Covid in 2019, when they stopped touring. However, to answer your question about seeing them live in person, you're in luck, because Jeff (age 76 now) recently announced he'll be doing one final tour across America this year! I'm not sure what city you're in, but here are the cities on the tour: Date City Venue August 24, 2024 Palm Desert, CA Acrisure Arena August 27, 2024 Seattle, WA Climate Pledge Arena August 28, 2024 Vancouver, BC Pepsi Live at Rogers Arena August 30, 2024 Portland, OR Moda Center September 1, 2024 San Francisco, CA Chase Center September 6, 2024 St. Louis, MO Enterprise Center September 7, 2024 Indianapolis, IN Gainbridge Fieldhouse September 9, 2024 Toronto, ON Scotiabank Arena September 10, 2024 Pittsburgh, PA PPG Paints Arena September 13, 2024 Cincinnati, OH Heritage Bank Center September 14, 2024 Cleveland, OH Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse September 16, 2024 New York, NY Madison Square Garden September 20, 2024 Philadelphia, PA Wells Fargo Center September 23, 2024 Boston, MA TD Garden September 25, 2024 Washington, DC Capital One Arena September 27, 2024 Chicago, IL United Center September 30, 2024 St, Paul, MN Xcel Energy Center October 2, 2024 Denver, CO Ball Arena October 9, 2024 Detroit, MI Little Caesars Arena October 11, 2024 Nashville, TN Bridgestone Arena October 12, 2024 Atlanta, GA State Farm Arena October 15, 2024 Austin, TX Moody Center October 16, 2024 Houston, TX Toyota Center October 18, 2024 Dallas, TX American Airlines Center October 21, 2024 Phoenix, AZ Footprint Center October 23, 2024 Sacramento, CA Golden 1 Center October 25, 2024 Inglewood, CA Kia Forum
Here’s a time when I can agree with you CK. Brits loved the Hollywood westerns - my late mother-in-law loved John Wayne movies and had loads of westerns on tape and DVD. And yes, playing cowboys and indians probably did last longer here than in the states. Another good 70’s example was Bernie Taupin’s lyrics for the EJ track ‘Roy Rogers’. Roy Wood also touched on the theme on the fairly sombre ballad ‘Wear a fast gun’. I’m sure that their childhood experiences influenced these tracks.
@@flanflinger37 You're pretty cool sometimes, flanflinger. But only when you agree with me. Yes, this song is a perfect example, as it failed to chart in the US but hit #6 in the UK and #9 in Ireland.
The Western fiction genre probably has a special role in European culture, a bit different from how it is perceived in its homeland. Europe was introduced to it in the late 1800s or so, with Buffalo Bill touring in Europe with his show, for example. European writers gave written in the genre, and there is also the category of movie, "Spaghetti-Western", for Italian-produced western movies. In the US, "Wild West mythology"probably has a less idealised position. The reverse is of course true with Medieval Knights fiction for example. In recent times, the genre has become less popular, but in post-war Europe, kids would watch things like Bonanza on TV regularly and "cowboys and indians" was a common kind of role play. It is within that context a song like this is written.
Please, please review "Night in the City." You'll thank me! LOL "Big Wheels" too! They're my two favorite ELO songs, tied for first place and terribly underrated.
I like all of ELO, but I wanted to suggest something a little different. Can I suggest the live version of I'm So Afraid by Fleetwood Mac from May 1976 UC Santa Barbara? Especially towards the end with the guitar and drums it's really good. The best recording of it has the wrong title, but it's at czcams.com/video/3GKQSeCxknk/video.html
Yes, ELO is the Rock Hall Of Fame and Jeff was inducted into the Songwriters Hall Of Fame last year. He also was honored by the Queen Of England a couple years back. Jeff has been getting well-deserved honors.
The reason this song resonates with the listener is Jeff's use of Western movie motifs, the horse galloping in in the beginning, the piano sounding like every salon piano in every cowboy movie ever made and the violin and guitar parts playing red Indian music that was played in the movies as the Indian turned up to cause trouble . Because of these little touches of genius, you can't help but be transported into the song. Wonderful.
Great to see father and son reviewing what is a brilliant song from the genius jeff lynne well done guys ❤
This was a radio hit in the UK...... where it reached number 6 in the charts.....and was never off the radio
My favorite song on this album!!!!!
When Jeff Lynne's ELO play this song in concert it's phenomenal...So, so good!
On the chorus, it's Jeff Lynne and bassist Kelly Groucutt singing. Wonderful harmonies.
The British have always had a fascination with the American West. Jeff surely watched western movies as a kid and paints a great picture of the tropes many had.
The saloon-sound piano playing was done by the cello player Melvyn Gale and not the recently deceased Richard Tandy (RIP). Jeff Lynne had asked Richard to do it but he couldn't get what Jeff was asking for. Mel, a graduate of the Royal College of Music, was also an excellent piano player and said I know what you mean...he stepped in and nailed that section. This is what is missing on the more recent, but still excellent, ELO material.
That's good Info, surprised to hear that. The Don't Bring Me Down video shows him on the keys, also.
Jeff Lynne's ELO will be on Tour in the Summer and Fall of 2024 in North America for 32 concerts.
Jeff's final USA ELO tour ("Over and Out") kicks off in August.
Farewell 'Over and Out' tour begins in the US this summer!
All those honky tonk saloon style piano bits in this song are played by Mel Gale one of ELO's two cellists.
The best album I have ever purchased.
Wore the bloody thing out. Played it more than any album I've bought before or since.
Still do to this day.
Jeff Lynne’s ELO is touring this year. Over and Out Tour. Better get your tickets. This is it!
Still hoping here in the UK. Or should I buy a ticket and book a flight!
"Wild West Hero" is a perfect, stunning fusion of elements of pop, rock and opera. And Jeff Lynne is a master at it, as we have known since "Mr. Blue Sky" at the latest. In my eyes, he is a musical genius on a par with Brian Wilson and Paul McCartney.
ELOs Out Of The Blue was a huge part of my childhood. I wore out several copies of that album. Every song is amazing.
ELO actually recorded with a full orchestra to get the big string sounds. But the lead violinist was a member of the band.
They are indeed in the Rock and Roll Hall of fame in 2017.
Your ELO reactions are brilliant. Have you tried Last Train To London?
I hope you two are going to one of his concerts this year
The instrument they use is called a vocoder a coding machine to synthesize the human voice and it’s been around since 1938. Hope that helps. Not used one myself, in my compositions it would probably scare the orchestra
There are some rare tunes ELO have done that never ended up on any albums yet are great songs. One is an instumental if you can find it. The tune is called drum dreams. You can only find it on the B side of the single Im alive (from the movie Xanadu). The tune is basically the drummer Bev Bevan tandy, and I guess Jeff is on synths and the orchestra. It's shortish, but it's worth a listen... if you can find it. I think you can find it somewhere on youtube.
yall should do Prologue / Twilight. very good 80s ELO
Albums from Eldorado onwards they actually used a full orchestra! And yes, they are in the Rock and roll hall of fame 👍
If you haven’t done Fire On High yet, I would highly recommend that you do. You’re missing out if you don’t.
Funny enough, it was band cellist Melvyn Gale who played the fast honky tonk piano portion. One would have thought keyboard master Richard Tandy - but no.
Yep. Talented guy Mel Gale.
My post later! Richard was asked to do it but didn't capture what Jeff was asking for. Mel Gayle nailed it! The live version of the song is brilliant too, though it has a slightly different arrangement towards the end where Jeff restarts singing on his own and then the rest join in, it's brilliant. In the late 70s live shows you can see Mel and Richard together hammering the ivories on Roll Over Beethoven.
@@paulmckearney4945 Talented musician Mel Gale.
Mizzy & Meezy, great reaction! This song was was much bigger in the UK than the US, and that's because when it came out in '77, people in the UK were still fascinated by the American wild west, whereas people in America had moved on from that frontier to the new (final) frontier, space. In '69 we put a man on the moon, and suddenly kids in America were no longer playing cowboys and indians, but were into outer space motifs. England didn't have a space program, and as a small country filling up fast, the appeal of the wild west frontier that had been in America still held so much appeal for them. Yes, Jeff also loved space, obviously given many of his songs, and album artwork. But the kid in him never let go of the romance he'd had in his childhood of the American wild west, that theme just did not become passe in the UK the way that it did in America. I suspect a big reason we here in the US stopped romanticizing it was our guilt over the atrocities we'd committed against the indians in stealing their land. That guilt didn't hang on the shoulders of the Brits, so they kept on romanticizing the American western frontier.
Personally, this was a song I skipped over when I listened to the album back in the '70s - '80s. I thought it was a bit cheesy, and not up to par with so many other great songs on the double-LP. But in recent years I've grown to like it. Not love it, but like it. ELO's my favorite band, so I like everything they did, to some degree. But this track would not be in my Top 50 ELO songs. Probably not even Top 75.
ELO is in the Rock 'n Roll Hall of Fame, although it took them way too long to get in. Their induction finally came in 2017.
Next from ELO, please react to their 1976 hit, *"Livin' Thing".* If you've both heard it already, I suggest you react to it live at Wembley Stadium in 2017. It's tricky to find the link on CZcams because whoever uploaded it did not put the song name in the video title. So do a search on CZcams by typing this in exactly: *Jeff Lynnes Elo Wembley or Bust 2017 720p* It is 4-minutes and 8-seconds long, it has 6M views, and the channel name is keith mansfield. Jeff's nearly 70 in the performance, but he still sounds amazing! He's the only one left from the original band, everyone else is from his new "Jeff Lynnes ELO" band, which made a big comeback from 2013 up to Covid in 2019, when they stopped touring.
However, to answer your question about seeing them live in person, you're in luck, because Jeff (age 76 now) recently announced he'll be doing one final tour across America this year! I'm not sure what city you're in, but here are the cities on the tour:
Date City Venue
August 24, 2024 Palm Desert, CA Acrisure Arena
August 27, 2024 Seattle, WA Climate Pledge Arena
August 28, 2024 Vancouver, BC Pepsi Live at Rogers Arena
August 30, 2024 Portland, OR Moda Center
September 1, 2024 San Francisco, CA Chase Center
September 6, 2024 St. Louis, MO Enterprise Center
September 7, 2024 Indianapolis, IN Gainbridge Fieldhouse
September 9, 2024 Toronto, ON Scotiabank Arena
September 10, 2024 Pittsburgh, PA PPG Paints Arena
September 13, 2024 Cincinnati, OH Heritage Bank Center
September 14, 2024 Cleveland, OH Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse
September 16, 2024 New York, NY Madison Square Garden
September 20, 2024 Philadelphia, PA Wells Fargo Center
September 23, 2024 Boston, MA TD Garden
September 25, 2024 Washington, DC Capital One Arena
September 27, 2024 Chicago, IL United Center
September 30, 2024 St, Paul, MN Xcel Energy Center
October 2, 2024 Denver, CO Ball Arena
October 9, 2024 Detroit, MI Little Caesars Arena
October 11, 2024 Nashville, TN Bridgestone Arena
October 12, 2024 Atlanta, GA State Farm Arena
October 15, 2024 Austin, TX Moody Center
October 16, 2024 Houston, TX Toyota Center
October 18, 2024 Dallas, TX American Airlines Center
October 21, 2024 Phoenix, AZ Footprint Center
October 23, 2024 Sacramento, CA Golden 1 Center
October 25, 2024 Inglewood, CA Kia Forum
Here’s a time when I can agree with you CK. Brits loved the Hollywood westerns - my late mother-in-law loved John Wayne movies and had loads of westerns on tape and DVD. And yes, playing cowboys and indians probably did last longer here than in the states. Another good 70’s example was Bernie Taupin’s lyrics for the EJ track ‘Roy Rogers’. Roy Wood also touched on the theme on the fairly sombre ballad ‘Wear a fast gun’. I’m sure that their childhood experiences influenced these tracks.
@@flanflinger37 You're pretty cool sometimes, flanflinger. But only when you agree with me. Yes, this song is a perfect example, as it failed to chart in the US but hit #6 in the UK and #9 in Ireland.
Got VIP tickets for St Paul MN....it's gonna be THAT good. Between now and then, I do hope Jeff releases a new album by the same title.
Get your tickets now. Farewell tour later this summer.
first listen to the "saloon" parts in the middle, got the goosebumps to the max!
That "boing-boing" twangy sound you were half-expecting to hear is an instrument called a "jaw harp" or "Jews harp." Just FYI
Lookin' forward to it!
Todo de ELO es Oro
The Western fiction genre probably has a special role in European culture, a bit different from how it is perceived in its homeland. Europe was introduced to it in the late 1800s or so, with Buffalo Bill touring in Europe with his show, for example. European writers gave written in the genre, and there is also the category of movie, "Spaghetti-Western", for Italian-produced western movies. In the US, "Wild West mythology"probably has a less idealised position.
The reverse is of course true with Medieval Knights fiction for example. In recent times, the genre has become less popular, but in post-war Europe, kids would watch things like Bonanza on TV regularly and "cowboys and indians" was a common kind of role play. It is within that context a song like this is written.
One of my favorite songs from my all time favorite rock/classical band!! A country western and classical piece mashed together!! 🎻🎸
with a bluesy backdrop don't ya think?
Your in for a TREAT!iii👍
Next you need to listen to Across the border.Same sort of genre.Again you will be amazed!!!
They have the Beatles sound
Time travel
He had a great voice. If you haven't listened to Eldorado yet you really should.
Please, please review "Night in the City." You'll thank me! LOL "Big Wheels" too! They're my two favorite ELO songs, tied for first place and terribly underrated.
Cowbell at the ready 🫡
I keep hoping you'll react to NIGHT IN THE CITY off the same album!
England does it best 🏴
All the best bands in them days came from england beatles an bee gees just to name a couple an it gose on
I like all of ELO, but I wanted to suggest something a little different. Can I suggest the live version of I'm So Afraid by Fleetwood Mac from May 1976 UC Santa Barbara? Especially towards the end with the guitar and drums it's really good. The best recording of it has the wrong title, but it's at czcams.com/video/3GKQSeCxknk/video.html