If one is old enough to remember, you’ll know that a portion of this piece was used in the intro to ABC’s “Wide World of Sports.” “The music is reversible, but time is not.” Love ELO!
ELO is my favorite band ever musically! The most versatile band you will ever hear. The genius of Jeff Lynne creating the best symphonic Rock and futuristic pop in the history of music.
Seeing the thumbnail, my first two thoughts were "Daniel's gonna love this" and "It's about time somebody did some Prog-era ELO". This song in particular holds a place in my heart, because I first saw ELO on the Eldorado tour. About halfway through the show, Jeff Lynne announced that they were going to play a song from their next album, which would be released in a few months. That song was "Fire On High". Before the internet, people had to do lots of stuff by hand. One of my friends (who'd been with me at the concert) spent an afternoon rigging his turntable so that it would play records backwards, so we knew what the backwards portion said without waiting 40 years to be told. A lot of that afternoon was spent fixing how badly he'd screwed his turntable up. While I'm saying unflattering things about the Internet Age, I need to talk about the album cover. Yes, it is an electric chair, but next to the chair is a smoking stand pith a pipe, and in the seat of the chair are a comfy cushion and a pair of headphones. This is an electric chair for relaxing at home. None of that detail can be seen in those stupid little thumbnails, but are obvious when the picture is 13" by 13". Lacking the original album covers is a travesty you don't even realize. Cover art used to be an integral part of the album experience; nowadays they are just gone. At that first ELO show, their opening act was Peter Frampton. About two weeks later he recorded the bulk of 'Frampton Comes Alive' in San Francisco. Here's a shocker: there were only 875 people at the show, in a hockey rink that seated 7,000. To be fair, it was a Monday night, and Friday, Saturday and Sunday the same venue had had a triple-bill of Aerosmith, Ted Nugent and Robin Trower. A year later, ELO came back to a sold-out Hockey Rink, and Frampton was so successful he never came back at all. The Hockey Rink only had a capacity of 7,000 for a few more years. After 11 fans were killed in a stampede at a Who concert in Cincinnati, Ohio passed the "Who Law", which eliminated festival seating and required that all concert seats be numbered and assigned. When the audience could no longer grab a chair, run in and put the chair wherever they wanted, the capacity dropped to 5,500. Turns out that 1,500 of the previous seats hadn't actually existed. Of course, within a year all the ticket prices doubled, to make up for the lost revenues.
Like many bands of this era, ELO were just great storytellers! Look at the album cover. It shows an electric chair. Now picture this as you listen to the music... Picture a man in a cold dark cell. The man is frightened and alone. He has been condemned to die. Finally they come for him and you can hear his fear as they open the door and lead him to his fate. All along that final walk he hears the voices of condemnation, the feels the guilt for what he has done. You hear the choir of religious folk singing the last rights or praying for his soul. And then he is strapped into the chair... the tension builds until finally they throw the switch and the electricity pulses through him. We hear the spasms ripping through his body, over and over until finally he is released. He floats up out of his body, his suffering is over, but now comes the regret; the realisation of what he has lost. For a few glorious moments he relives the joy and passion of being alive until once again he is reminded of how much he has thrown away. All he has now is the memory, and the memory will sustain him and torment him forever. Those last deep thrums of the electric guitar are both brutal and glorious. The music is reversible. But time is not. Turn back... turn back... turn back... Man, I miss the storytellers!
Hi. I was a teen in the 70's. In 1975, no one had heard a song like this one. I bought this album, Queen's A night at the Opera, and many more. I am in my 60's now and Queen, ELO, and many more of the classic rock groups are what i still listen to today.
Thanks for the great reaction, Daniel! I think you'll like earlier ELO more than first two you listened to, which were pretty much pure pop (with some symphonic elements). ELO's earlier stuff is more progressive rock (with more symphonic elements than their later stuff). Their song "Tightrope" is their best song to me because I like pop with progressive elements rather than progressive with pop elements. Their progressive songs that are best known are "10538 Overture" and to a lesser extent "Kuiama". Beyond "Tightrope" I'd most highly recommend "Eldorado Overture/Can't Get it Out of My Head," "Evil Woman," and "Strange Magic"
Hey laddie,get your ears around this ELO song "Standin in the rain". You said on Mr blue sky you preferred rain instead of sunshine well this song is full of it along with thunder lightning and wolves howling!!!! I think you will like the arrangement on it.enjoy
Fire On High was used for the theme song of CBS Sports Spectacular, not ABC Wide World Of Sports. Since then, it has been used a billion times on TV sports clips and live sporting events to this day.
I remember a Girlschool song that had a backward passage at the end, and when I reversed it by spinning the turntable the other way, they were singing a chorus from "Lady and the Tramp" that went "We are Siamese if you please! We are Siamese, if you don't please!" and then one of the girls said "Hey, you---don't you know you're ruining your needle?" Some of the best guitar solos are backward ones, such as the one in Jimi Hendrix's "Are You Experienced?" Jeff Lynne himself played a sweet backward guitar solo in ELO's "Bluebird Is Dead" and there's even a backward violin solo in their "New World Rising" (both songs being part of the fantastic "Ocean Breakup" suite on side one of "On The Third Day", which is my favorite ELO music ever). John Lennon, of course, pioneered the use of backward snippets in such Beatles songs as "Tomorrow Never Knows" and "Rain."
The title is reminiscent of 'Night on Bald Mountain' by Mussorgsky, it's in the Disney film "Fantasia" and definitely Halloweeny. The song 'Fire on High' seems like an overture, especially with its placement at the beginning of the album but it's not a preview of the other songs on the album, just their band's sounds.
ELO was the soundtrack to my college days, along with Alan Parsons Project and all the first-wave punk, new wave and ska the late 70s had to offer. Great music.
Jeff Lynne is such a versatile songwriter. To think he came up with something like this , then more straight up pop ear candy like Livin Thing and Turn To Stone is impressive.
This song was what you heard, in its entirety, on the coolest ride at Seabreeze Park when I was a teenager. The ride was in a dark enclosed round room. It had two spider claws that went in opposite directions and each had about 6 or 7 bench seats that would hold 3 people. Each spider claw would spins it's seats in opposite directions as both claws spun around clockwise. Then at the major transition the ride slows and begins going again only backwards. All the while there are psychedelic images being projected on the walls and ceiling. Best ride of the summer and worth an hour or so wait in the hot sun.
we both know what standing in the hot sun 1 hour did for people after the ride started and what it usually smelled like inside...good times ;) i need another cmf bumper sticker
Anyone ever been to FunTown in Maine? They have been playing this song on their ride Astrophere for over 20 years. Nothing like hearing this song booming while being hurled through the air with strobe lights and lasers. Great reaction.
Please check out "Eldorado Overture" (the album's opening prologue, and "Can't Get It Out Of My Head" from ELO's "Eldorado, a Symphony by the Electric Light Orchestra" 1974 (their first worldwide gold selling album). All written by Jeff Lynne, words and music. Both listened together as "one" song is very enjoyable, and like being in a fantasy. The "Eldorado Finale" is pretty cool, too!...like your show, best of luck to you...
@@jaybrown3953 First time listening to it? It's not so much "pop" as it is "conceptual", but very unusual and lavish, for its time, I guess. Hope you liked it.
@@jaybrown3953 Sorry? I didn't say that you did! I meant that ELO has always been considered as a top 40 "pop" music group, and 'Eldorado' was a "concept" album, not so much as a 'pop' album...
The clipping, as you call it, is because the normal ADSR is being reversed. So now you end up with release, sustain, delay, and attack, in that order. When I got my first home computer, it had digital recording software. Once recorded you could perform rudimentary manipulation of the signal. We would record vocals, play them backwards, practice the reverse stuff, re-record it, and see how close we could make it to the original frontwise version. You have to make your own fun in New Hampshire. Best. Leo.
This was used as the theme music to “The CBS Sports Spectacular“ - their competitor to “ABC’s Wide World of Sports.” The ABC show was usually more interesting, and the opening credit sequence had the famous “agony of defeat” clip with the ski-jumper wiping out, but the CBS show definitely had the better music.
I love all these songs I haven't heard in a bazillion years. Backwards masking...I believe the first use of that was, of course, The Beatles, who Jeff Lynne worshipped, when John Lennon accidentally cued up a reel of his demo for "Rain" backwards. And the rest, they say, is history. Ringo's drumming on Rain is also a revelation. Deny his greatness after you crank Rain, I dare ya!
This was recorded in the '70's, if you spun the record backwards to hear the "message" you had to "turn back" or the needle would fall off the record as this is the first song on the side.
The full name of this song is "Fire on High Overture". It's a collection of themes found in the rest of the album. The whole album is really good. Also the acoustic guitar riff that you seemed to really like comes from a song on the album called "Down Home Town" which I personally call ELO's ode to Americana.
I have owned several copies of the album, Face the Music but I have never seen it referred to as the Fire on High Overture. I also never seen it referred to by that name in any article including by Jeff Lynne himself. Please advise as to where you came by that particular nugget of information. In addition your comment about the acoustic guitar piece in Fire on High coming from Down Home Town, I don't get at all. Yes there is acoustic guitar in DHT but it's a different riff to that in FOH. I do agree about the whole album being great however, especially Evil Woman.
Back in the 1970’s, Fire On High was used as the opening theme song to ABC’s Wide World of Sports. With Jim McCay’s voiceover with “The thrill of victory and the agony of defeat”.
My favorite ELO tune as well. The idea is that their were hidden in messages in music played in reverse. Turn back meant play the record backwards, turn back the turntable. A lot has been made of it over the years. Some songs were to said to have hidden meanings. Some bands have been accused of satanic lyrics in reverse. Further Aleister Crowley, who is on a Beatles album cover, sang about by Ozzy etc. taught to read backwards, play records backwards and said the Black Mass which was saying the Mass backwards. I just think it was an era of messing with people's heads and had no deeper meaning other than to create mystique and sell records.
I'm not sure everyone would agree with you in regards to backmasking just being innocuous fun or just a marketing technique to sell records. There is a deeper meaning to it if you care to go down that rabbit hole. It's like Halloween to most people is nothing more than harmless fun, but if you take a deep dive into the origins of Halloween it's no joke.
@@richardmyers1506 Why does making something unintelligible make it irresistible? If you can't comprehend it, how can you obey it? The band Def Leppard were taken to court when a teenager committed suicide after listening to one of their albums over and over again for a day, which contained some backmasking. They were acquitted.
@@Dragonblaster1 In my humble opinion, I don't think back masking necessarily puts one in a trance per se. It's, I believe, a dark spirit or a spell that attaches itself to a listener. Also, I don't think it matters if the words are understandable or not. A man by the name of John Todd gave lectures on this in the 70s. He speaks about this practice and how pervasive it is in both rock and country music (hip hop wasn't around then). It's a bit frightening to listen to him because a lot of things he said in the 70s has turned out to be true. Unfortunately he's completely discredited by the mainstream media and more than likely has been murdered. I wasn't aware of the Def Leppard case. I will look into that.
Great tune! The Beatles were the first band to use backmasking!! en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Backmasking The guitar parts of this most definitely have a "Funeral for a Friend" vibe!!! The more you listen to ELO, the more you will come to love them!!!! Have a fantastic weekend!
This song when it first came out for a time was used by ABC Sports. This song playing in the background and sports announcer Jim McCay saying “The Thrill Of Victory And The Agony Of Defeat.
Mr. Blue Sky is the fourth and fifth movements of the Concerto for a Rainy Day which was one whole side of an LP record. Unless one have listens to all five movements from the start one can not reasonably judge the work. The "turn back" was literal. To hear the message most would manually spin the platter of their record player backward. This would allow one to hear the backward masked audio in an understandable way but wasn't good for either the cartridge (needle), the disk (LP), or the turntable (record player). So the warning was to play it in the proper way by letting the turntable go, thus turning back from the widdershins direction one was forcing it.
It's a really strange song, but if you want some weird classic ELO, look up "Dreaming of 4000" with Marc Boland from T.Rex on guitar. The song is...well. interesting.
I've always loved the way this song was crafted. Lots of tension that builds in the first creepy part of the song to the release with the chorale ahhhhhhh.
Used to play that acoustic riff in my dorm in college. Blew people’s minds, kinda hard to get those accents just right sorta like pinball wizard. My favorite ELO too.
ds9 That fast-repeating 3-note organ riff punctuated by the stocatto power chords was a nod to Bach and his famous "Tocatta and Fugue in DMinor" organ masterpiece. Tho other portions sounded like a nod to Beethoven's 9th Symphony especially the "Halleluya Chorus". Parts sounded like what Beethoven would compose If he were alive today, and I'd say they probably got it right. Of course, he passed away almost 200 years ago. The three-chord-guitar-strumming sounds like a classical guitar. Very nice reaction.
Orchestra was a 50-Piece one,conducted by Louis Clark later of "Hooked On Classics" fame..RIP Louis. Mastered and Engineered by "Mack" at Musicland Studios,Munich,Germany.
A lot of people forget this song when they think of ELO but I like it for a change of pace. Evil woman is still one of my favorites by them. They were a pretty big band in the 70's.
I love the reverse of that album cover it’s the group looking in on a execution chamber, and if you look Richard Tandy is looking away because he didn’t like the idea of the cover
The reason you haven't really connected with ELO before now is because people keep requesting stuff from their "pop" era. Listen to 10538 Overture, even if its off camera. Its amazing and from their first album.
Actually, Eldorado was their fourth album in 1974 after Electric Light Orchestra (or No Answer in USA ) Electric Light Orchestra two and On the Third Day. But Eldorado is my favourite too, along with A New World Record.
One of your fellow UA-camrs Rick Beato did a vid on the best drum fills of all time which would've been perfect if he'd included Bev Bevan's brilliant fill after the acoustic guitar riff in the middle of this song.
I usually just skip the intro. Listening to the songs in the reverse was the big hype in the '70's. The teenagers heard the song on the radio and then they had to buy the LP to run it backwards to hear the messages. The next phase was songs which had words which rhymed with something obscene, but another word was there in its place in the radio version which was distributed to the stations in 45 records, so the teenagers had to buy the LP records which did have the anticipated offensive words which couldn't be played on radio.
I think you would enjoy most of the work on ELO, ELO II, On The Third Day, Eldorado (played as a whole !!!) and this album Face The Music. After that Jeff Lynne's work becomes more pop oriëntated. By the time he recorded A New World Record he really mastered the art of writing mainstream pop tunes and sometimes got carried away with that ;-) A New World Record could be considered as a kind of transition album as well as a prelude (or even pre-study) for what was to come with the Out Of The Blue album, wich featured Mr. Blue Sky, a song you've already done. I'v been an avid fan of Jeff's work with ELO, but over the years I find myself going back to the older albums, rather than the pop songs of Out Of The Blue and Discovery, Time and Secret Messages. And we're all trying to forget Balance Of Power was ever released ;-) If I had to pick another song for you, it would be Kuiama (from: ELO II, 1973). It's both a showcase of Jeff's early style of music writing and of his early development as a storyteller in his lyrics.
I always felt like the 4:00 mark influenced ELP; I can hear it at the 1:00 mark of "The Enemy God Dances With the Black Spirits". In reality, they're both references to Prokofiev's "Scythian Suite". I was disappointed when I learned my fantasy wasn't real; alphabetically I always liked the idea that ELP could have been influenced by ELO. Thanks for sharing another great reaction!
Halloween Playlist Suggestions: 1. Tubular Bells (Mike Oldfield) - instrumental, full side of LP, soundtrack for the scariest movie ever - “The Exorcist.” 2. The End (The Doors). Just plain desolate and disturbing. 3. D.O.A. (Bloodrock). One hit wonder about a person experiencing their own death. Creep city.
Any Blue Öyster Cult song is perfect for Halloween .. every “BOCtober” I go on a month long BOC binge which is easy to do with their catalog React to anything from the brand new album : The Symbol Remains You can’t go wrong with BOC
Eldorado, Face the Music, and New World Record are by FAR are the best of ELO... Those albumns spent the most time in my head phones while I fell asleep at night...
I've watched *three* ELO videos - through to the end! And, "Liked" all three! Hahaha! 😂🤣😂 Here goes number four! Woo Hoo! 💜💫✌🏼🎵 *That just reminded me of the George Carlin bit about walking into a room and forgetting what you went in there?!?! Or just a "blonde moment." 😉 Thank you, again!
If you want a creepy song (or two) to react to for Halloween, you HAVE to listen to The Beatles' "Cry Baby Cry" and let it flow into "Revolution 9"...then react to "Revolution 9" played backwards.
Awesome choice Daniel I just love it ! as is stated by another viewer , this song was well known as the theme song for the (wide world of sports) TV show. to anyone growing up in the 70's (only the fast part of the song ) The reversible part was their little gag . You already know what it says in reverse . We had such fun as kids discovering this backward bit for ourselves. They were such a class act with a brilliant sense of melody and timing . they had so many great songs. Living thing, Evil Woman, Turn to stone, . Jeff Lynn who wrote every song they ever did , went on to a long career as a solo act too , as well as part of the legendary band "The Traveling Wilburys" that consisted of other legends such as Bob Dylan, Roy Orbison , George Harrison, and Tom Petty. Jeff is still going strong today. You really should watch the groundbreaking video for a song released a few years back called "When I was a Boy" which is sort of an autobiographical trip through his career , using awesome effects . By the way I believe the smooth guitar you liked so much is Jeff's signature tone..He mostly played a Gibson Les Paul and Gibson Hummingbird, and the effect he used was a simple treble boost on a clean Chanel with a flanger (just a hint )
@Jack Bauer Yes I am aware of that song. I was generalizing ...If you want to be anal about it then ok, he wrote 99percent of all the songs they ever did . Hope this makes you feel better .
Hi Daniel, great reaction. I'd recommend you try the album "Eldorado" which is in the same style. It is my view ELO's best album. It is truly a concept album so best listened from start to finish.
Not a big ELO fan, but I love this song. I also listen to the group that keeps you hydrated and balances your PH. The Electro Lyte Orchestra....sorry. Is good Halloween song.
Imagine turning a gas fire on a range up to high. Watch the flame grow, I've heard this is what Fire on High is about. Close your eyes and imagine the flame rise.
Please, listen to two songs I know you will like alot. Alan Parsons, I wouldn't want to be like you and Gary Wright's My love is alive. These are my ideas based on what I've seen you get excited about so far. I'd really be interested in your reaction to these two particular songs ! Thank you my young brother!🤘✌💕
Good for October. I had heard this before, but forgot about it. Then I recognized it when the guitars came in. Never heard it reversed! TY. It was good timing to slow me down with that mysterious beginning part. I had just watched my favorite version of Fleetwood Mac's The Chain (again), and Lindsey Buckingham's performance on that (lead guitar, vocals) always puts my body on some kind of speed. I was physically all revved up. Please, whenever you react to it, see that live show on the UA-cam channel Lindsey Buckingham Gems. It starts with still photos during Lindsey's live-show guitar intro, then it goes to the video. You can not possibly regret the choice.
Might as well continue with that same album - next song is Waterfall, then Evil Woman (if you want a GREAT Halloween track!!). Side A concludes with Nightrider. Side B has Poker, Strange Magic (another must listen), Down Home Town & finally One Summer Dream (another must). This album is a spinning staple in my house, and Fire On High is ALWAYS blasted loud!
Nice review. A classic ELO track. You got the reason for the vocal reversal partially correct. In 1974, and like with Led Zeppelin, ELO was accused by Christian fundamentalists of placing “satanic backward messages” in songs, specifically one in their previous album Eldorado. A publicized Media show was made by the fundamentalists demonstrating ELO, Zeppelin, and other rock groups’ “evil ways”. It was all rubbish, of course. Fire On High and its created backward message from the album Face The Music that followed Eldorado was Jeff Lynne’s joking answer to the silliness. That stated, Jeff is a creative guy, and has enjoyed using backward masking in unusual ways (non-satanic, of course) since the group’s first album years earlier. At some point, you might want to react to their long version of Roll Over Beethoven.
Another couple three things: The "accoustic" section of this piece was used by News Casts across the globe during their opening credits... The "Halleluiah" section is from Handel's "Messiah"... I, personally, would use this piece to test out speakers... If they could reproduce the awesome sound at max watts without "clipping", I would consider them "WORTHY"...
If one is old enough to remember, you’ll know that a portion of this piece was used in the intro to ABC’s “Wide World of Sports.”
“The music is reversible, but time is not.” Love ELO!
Common mistake: It was used for the competing show CBS Sports Spectacular.
Boy, I remember that! What a long time ago...
@@chronomatt6990 I use to watch that intro just to see Secretariat : D
@@chronomatt6990 Correct, ABC was the Thrill of Victory and the Agony of Defeat (I don't remember the actual name of the song).
Poker was also used in many commercials at the time.
ELO is my favorite band ever musically! The most versatile band you will ever hear. The genius of Jeff Lynne creating the best symphonic Rock and futuristic pop in the history of music.
MASTERPIECE! I love Bev Bevan on the drums...Awesome!
Seeing the thumbnail, my first two thoughts were "Daniel's gonna love this" and "It's about time somebody did some Prog-era ELO". This song in particular holds a place in my heart, because I first saw ELO on the Eldorado tour. About halfway through the show, Jeff Lynne announced that they were going to play a song from their next album, which would be released in a few months. That song was "Fire On High".
Before the internet, people had to do lots of stuff by hand. One of my friends (who'd been with me at the concert) spent an afternoon rigging his turntable so that it would play records backwards, so we knew what the backwards portion said without waiting 40 years to be told. A lot of that afternoon was spent fixing how badly he'd screwed his turntable up.
While I'm saying unflattering things about the Internet Age, I need to talk about the album cover. Yes, it is an electric chair, but next to the chair is a smoking stand pith a pipe, and in the seat of the chair are a comfy cushion and a pair of headphones. This is an electric chair for relaxing at home. None of that detail can be seen in those stupid little thumbnails, but are obvious when the picture is 13" by 13". Lacking the original album covers is a travesty you don't even realize. Cover art used to be an integral part of the album experience; nowadays they are just gone.
At that first ELO show, their opening act was Peter Frampton. About two weeks later he recorded the bulk of 'Frampton Comes Alive' in San Francisco. Here's a shocker: there were only 875 people at the show, in a hockey rink that seated 7,000. To be fair, it was a Monday night, and Friday, Saturday and Sunday the same venue had had a triple-bill of Aerosmith, Ted Nugent and Robin Trower. A year later, ELO came back to a sold-out Hockey Rink, and Frampton was so successful he never came back at all.
The Hockey Rink only had a capacity of 7,000 for a few more years. After 11 fans were killed in a stampede at a Who concert in Cincinnati, Ohio passed the "Who Law", which eliminated festival seating and required that all concert seats be numbered and assigned. When the audience could no longer grab a chair, run in and put the chair wherever they wanted, the capacity dropped to 5,500. Turns out that 1,500 of the previous seats hadn't actually existed. Of course, within a year all the ticket prices doubled, to make up for the lost revenues.
The reverse words are “ the music is reversible but time is not, turn back turn back turn back”
Like many bands of this era, ELO were just great storytellers! Look at the album cover. It shows an electric chair. Now picture this as you listen to the music... Picture a man in a cold dark cell. The man is frightened and alone. He has been condemned to die. Finally they come for him and you can hear his fear as they open the door and lead him to his fate.
All along that final walk he hears the voices of condemnation, the feels the guilt for what he has done. You hear the choir of religious folk singing the last rights or praying for his soul. And then he is strapped into the chair... the tension builds until finally they throw the switch and the electricity pulses through him.
We hear the spasms ripping through his body, over and over until finally he is released. He floats up out of his body, his suffering is over, but now comes the regret; the realisation of what he has lost. For a few glorious moments he relives the joy and passion of being alive until once again he is reminded of how much he has thrown away. All he has now is the memory, and the memory will sustain him and torment him forever.
Those last deep thrums of the electric guitar are both brutal and glorious.
The music is reversible. But time is not.
Turn back... turn back... turn back...
Man, I miss the storytellers!
The music is reversible but time is not! Turn back! Turn back! Turn back!
Too late for that...
I use to think the reverse version sounded like “bad news ... bad news ... bad news ... all the surfers in ...” lol
Test. Fast to hear utsikt an lp!
It's also a joke you only get if you listen to it on vinyl, because if you don't 'turn back', the needle will go off the edge of the record. ;)
The ELO album Face the Music . One of my favorite ELO albums. A mix of their older prog rock and the oncoming pop rock mega group.
Hi. I was a teen in the 70's. In 1975, no one had heard a song like this one. I bought this album, Queen's A night at the Opera, and many more. I am in my 60's now and Queen, ELO, and many more of the classic rock groups are what i still listen to today.
Thanks for the great reaction, Daniel! I think you'll like earlier ELO more than first two you listened to, which were pretty much pure pop (with some symphonic elements). ELO's earlier stuff is more progressive rock (with more symphonic elements than their later stuff). Their song "Tightrope" is their best song to me because I like pop with progressive elements rather than progressive with pop elements. Their progressive songs that are best known are "10538 Overture" and to a lesser extent "Kuiama". Beyond "Tightrope" I'd most highly recommend "Eldorado Overture/Can't Get it Out of My Head," "Evil Woman," and "Strange Magic"
Hey laddie,get your ears around this ELO song "Standin in the rain". You said on Mr blue sky you preferred rain instead of sunshine well this song is full of it along with thunder lightning and wolves howling!!!! I think you will like the arrangement on it.enjoy
Best Band ever musically!!! More ELO please!
Fire On High was used for the theme song of CBS Sports Spectacular, not ABC Wide World Of Sports. Since then, it has been used a billion times on TV sports clips and live sporting events to this day.
The guitar effect was a phase shifter. Great reaction. Thanks for reversing the vocal. I always wondered what they said.
I remember a Girlschool song that had a backward passage at the end, and when I reversed it by spinning the turntable the other way, they were singing a chorus from "Lady and the Tramp" that went "We are Siamese if you please! We are Siamese, if you don't please!" and then one of the girls said "Hey, you---don't you know you're ruining your needle?" Some of the best guitar solos are backward ones, such as the one in Jimi Hendrix's "Are You Experienced?" Jeff Lynne himself played a sweet backward guitar solo in ELO's "Bluebird Is Dead" and there's even a backward violin solo in their "New World Rising" (both songs being part of the fantastic "Ocean Breakup" suite on side one of "On The Third Day", which is my favorite ELO music ever). John Lennon, of course, pioneered the use of backward snippets in such Beatles songs as "Tomorrow Never Knows" and "Rain."
Play it backwards again and you'll get your house back your car back and all the other stuff.
The title is reminiscent of 'Night on Bald Mountain' by Mussorgsky, it's in the Disney film "Fantasia" and definitely Halloweeny. The song 'Fire on High' seems like an overture, especially with its placement at the beginning of the album but it's not a preview of the other songs on the album, just their band's sounds.
This is the acoustic jam i was telling you about. When i was younger everybody who played acoustic guitar always jammed this.
I love this piece! Very unusual for ELO. You'd probably like Eldorado Overture/Can't get you out of my head.
ELO was the soundtrack to my college days, along with Alan Parsons Project and all the first-wave punk, new wave and ska the late 70s had to offer. Great music.
Jeff Lynne is such a versatile songwriter. To think he came up with something like this , then more straight up pop ear candy like Livin Thing and Turn To Stone is impressive.
You could say the same about Robert Smiths of The Cure some goth classics and some pure pop
This song was what you heard, in its entirety, on the coolest ride at Seabreeze Park when I was a teenager.
The ride was in a dark enclosed round room. It had two spider claws that went in opposite directions and each had about 6 or 7 bench seats that would hold 3 people. Each spider claw would spins it's seats in opposite directions as both claws spun around clockwise. Then at the major transition the ride slows and begins going again only backwards.
All the while there are psychedelic images being projected on the walls and ceiling.
Best ride of the summer and worth an hour or so wait in the hot sun.
we both know what standing in the hot sun 1 hour did for people after the ride started and what it usually smelled like inside...good times ;)
i need another cmf bumper sticker
Anyone ever been to FunTown in Maine? They have been playing this song on their ride Astrophere for over 20 years. Nothing like hearing this song booming while being hurled through the air with strobe lights and lasers. Great reaction.
Please check out "Eldorado Overture" (the album's opening prologue, and "Can't Get It Out Of My Head" from ELO's "Eldorado, a Symphony by the Electric Light Orchestra" 1974 (their first worldwide gold selling album). All written by Jeff Lynne, words and music. Both listened together as "one" song is very enjoyable, and like being in a fantasy. The "Eldorado Finale" is pretty cool, too!...like your show, best of luck to you...
I'm listening to Eldorado right now.
@@jaybrown3953 First time listening to it? It's not so much "pop" as it is "conceptual", but very unusual and lavish, for its time, I guess. Hope you liked it.
@@symphonyxXx I never said it sounded like pop!
@@jaybrown3953 Sorry? I didn't say that you did! I meant that ELO has always been considered as a top 40 "pop" music group, and 'Eldorado' was a "concept" album, not so much as a 'pop' album...
The clipping, as you call it, is because the normal ADSR is being reversed. So now you end up with release, sustain, delay, and attack, in that order. When I got my first home computer, it had digital recording software. Once recorded you could perform rudimentary manipulation of the signal. We would record vocals, play them backwards, practice the reverse stuff, re-record it, and see how close we could make it to the original frontwise version. You have to make your own fun in New Hampshire. Best. Leo.
ELO is the most versatile band ever, this is why they are so cool and exist 50 years after...Please Tour in 2022!
This was used as the theme music to “The CBS Sports Spectacular“ - their competitor to “ABC’s Wide World of Sports.” The ABC show was usually more interesting, and the opening credit sequence had the famous “agony of defeat” clip with the ski-jumper wiping out, but the CBS show definitely had the better music.
best ELO song ever
Have you listened to Do Ya or Birmingham Blues by ELO? Masterpieces both!
ELO’s El Dorado album has a great cut that radio never plays but is my favorite of theirs: LAREDO TORNADO ❤️
And Boy Blue
@@bearballin That’s a great one too!!
And Eldorado Overture, plus Eldo Finale.
@@symphonyxXx YES!
Not to forget Eldorado, the title track.
Quite a song (?) to open an (any) album !
I love all these songs I haven't heard in a bazillion years.
Backwards masking...I believe the first use of that was, of course, The Beatles, who Jeff Lynne worshipped, when John Lennon accidentally cued up a reel of his demo for "Rain" backwards. And the rest, they say, is history.
Ringo's drumming on Rain is also a revelation. Deny his greatness after you crank Rain, I dare ya!
It happened first with "Tomorrow Never Knows". Just read that over again in Bob Spitz' "The Beatles Biography".
@@firebird7479 well, John disagrees but he didn't exactly have the best memory. www.bbc.com/culture/article/20141003-the-hidden-messages-in-songs
I never thought about,that Jeff Lynne could have been influenced by the Beatles with the backward messages!This is an interesting theory!
This was recorded in the '70's, if you spun the record backwards to hear the "message" you had to "turn back" or the needle would fall off the record as this is the first song on the side.
The gearshift is reverse-able, but the gas pedal is not. Brake! Brake! Brake!
I used to fall asleep to this album. I never found it disturbing to listen to the intro on this track, just enjoyed their art. Thank you!
The full name of this song is "Fire on High Overture". It's a collection of themes found in the rest of the album. The whole album is really good. Also the acoustic guitar riff that you seemed to really like comes from a song on the album called "Down Home Town" which I personally call ELO's ode to Americana.
I have owned several copies of the album, Face the Music but I have never seen it referred to as the Fire on High Overture. I also never seen it referred to by that name in any article including by Jeff Lynne himself. Please advise as to where you came by that particular nugget of information.
In addition your comment about the acoustic guitar piece in Fire on High coming from Down Home Town, I don't get at all. Yes there is acoustic guitar in DHT but it's a different riff to that in FOH.
I do agree about the whole album being great however, especially Evil Woman.
Back in the 1970’s, Fire On High was used as the opening theme song to ABC’s Wide World of Sports. With Jim McCay’s voiceover with “The thrill of victory and the agony of defeat”.
fire on high is his best musical work
Lot of production thought in ELOs music. Jeff must have loved his time in the studio.
My favorite ELO tune as well. The idea is that their were hidden in messages in music played in reverse. Turn back meant play the record backwards, turn back the turntable. A lot has been made of it over the years. Some songs were to said to have hidden meanings. Some bands have been accused of satanic lyrics in reverse. Further Aleister Crowley, who is on a Beatles album cover, sang about by Ozzy etc. taught to read backwards, play records backwards and said the Black Mass which was saying the Mass backwards. I just think it was an era of messing with people's heads and had no deeper meaning other than to create mystique and sell records.
I'm not sure everyone would agree with you in regards to backmasking just being innocuous fun or just a marketing technique to sell records. There is a deeper meaning to it if you care to go down that rabbit hole. It's like Halloween to most people is nothing more than harmless fun, but if you take a deep dive into the origins of Halloween it's no joke.
@@richardmyers1506 Why does making something unintelligible make it irresistible? If you can't comprehend it, how can you obey it? The band Def Leppard were taken to court when a teenager committed suicide after listening to one of their albums over and over again for a day, which contained some backmasking. They were acquitted.
@@Dragonblaster1 In my humble opinion, I don't think back masking necessarily puts one in a trance per se. It's, I believe, a dark spirit or a spell that attaches itself to a listener. Also, I don't think it matters if the words are understandable or not. A man by the name of John Todd gave lectures on this in the 70s. He speaks about this practice and how pervasive it is in both rock and country music (hip hop wasn't around then). It's a bit frightening to listen to him because a lot of things he said in the 70s has turned out to be true. Unfortunately he's completely discredited by the mainstream media and more than likely has been murdered. I wasn't aware of the Def Leppard case. I will look into that.
@@richardmyers1506 I don’t believe in souls or spells.
you need to do Evil Woman ... my favorite by them
Great tune!
The Beatles were the first band to use backmasking!!
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Backmasking
The guitar parts of this most definitely have a "Funeral for a Friend" vibe!!!
The more you listen to ELO, the more you will come to love them!!!!
Have a fantastic weekend!
Excellent Choice! : )))
I can tell you what the backwards message says but don’t want to spoil it this early.
ELO has a lot of fun with backwards masking on the Secret Messages album. It turns out to be mostly silly messages.
This song when it first came out for a time was used by ABC Sports. This song playing in the background and sports announcer Jim McCay saying “The Thrill Of Victory And The Agony Of Defeat.
Mr. Blue Sky is the fourth and fifth movements of the Concerto for a Rainy Day which was one whole side of an LP record. Unless one have listens to all five movements from the start one can not reasonably judge the work.
The "turn back" was literal. To hear the message most would manually spin the platter of their record player backward. This would allow one to hear the backward masked audio in an understandable way but wasn't good for either the cartridge (needle), the disk (LP), or the turntable (record player). So the warning was to play it in the proper way by letting the turntable go, thus turning back from the widdershins direction one was forcing it.
It's a really strange song, but if you want some weird classic ELO, look up "Dreaming of 4000" with Marc Boland from T.Rex on guitar. The song is...well. interesting.
I've always loved the way this song was crafted. Lots of tension that builds in the first creepy part of the song to the release with the chorale ahhhhhhh.
Also listen to "Secret Messages" it's full of mysterious Hidden Messages,Masked Messages!
Wow, this brings back lots of fun memories!
Used to play that acoustic riff in my dorm in college. Blew people’s minds, kinda hard to get those accents just right sorta like pinball wizard. My favorite ELO too.
ds9
That fast-repeating 3-note organ riff punctuated by the stocatto power chords was a nod to Bach and his famous "Tocatta and Fugue in DMinor" organ masterpiece.
Tho other portions sounded like a nod to Beethoven's 9th Symphony especially the "Halleluya Chorus". Parts sounded like what Beethoven would compose If he were alive today, and I'd say they probably got it right. Of course, he passed away almost 200 years ago.
The three-chord-guitar-strumming sounds like a classical guitar.
Very nice reaction.
The message is at the end of the 2nd side of the vinyl album too 🤗.
The acoustic guitar part reminds me of the song "Driver"s Seat."
There’s a lot to chose from ELO, I’d recommend “Tightrope” to continue your ELO journey.
Orchestra was a 50-Piece one,conducted by Louis Clark later of "Hooked On Classics" fame..RIP Louis. Mastered and Engineered by "Mack" at Musicland Studios,Munich,Germany.
Most ELO albums have a track for opening live concerts, this was one of them.
ELO made some of the best progressive Rock Albums in the 70's. Eldorado is in the top 40 albums of all time.
Great reaction as always Daniel !
Never heard it reversed so thanks for that ! ✌❤🌻😷🎶
A lot of people forget this song when they think of ELO but I like it for a change of pace. Evil woman is still one of my favorites by them. They were a pretty big band in the 70's.
I love the reverse of that album cover it’s the group looking in on a execution chamber, and if you look Richard Tandy is looking away because he didn’t like the idea of the cover
Lots of great songs by ELO - you happened to react today to one of my favs!!!
This jacket is reversible, but these pants are not! Return them. return them.
lol
Same.
Playing records backwards was kind of the fun things we did as kids. The have lots of great songs.
The reason you haven't really connected with ELO before now is because people keep requesting stuff from their "pop" era. Listen to 10538 Overture, even if its off camera. Its amazing and from their first album.
I have to agree 10538 Overture is a must listen, even if it’s off camera just appreciate how the later stuff got to be
Actually, Eldorado was their fourth album in 1974 after Electric Light Orchestra (or No Answer in USA ) Electric Light Orchestra two and On the Third Day. But Eldorado is my favourite too, along with A New World Record.
He should listen to "In the Hall of the Mountain King" also.
One of your fellow UA-camrs Rick Beato did a vid on the best drum fills of all time which would've been perfect if he'd included Bev Bevan's brilliant fill after the acoustic guitar riff in the middle of this song.
I like Bevs drumming on "Fire on high",but also on"One summer dream".
I usually just skip the intro.
Listening to the songs in the reverse was the big hype in the '70's. The teenagers heard the song on the radio and then they had to buy the LP to run it backwards to hear the messages. The next phase was songs which had words which rhymed with something obscene, but another word was there in its place in the radio version which was distributed to the stations in 45 records, so the teenagers had to buy the LP records which did have the anticipated offensive words which couldn't be played on radio.
The Spooky bit was edited out in the Single Version,the flip of "Sweet Talkin' Woman",issued in 1977.
I think you would enjoy most of the work on ELO, ELO II, On The Third Day, Eldorado (played as a whole !!!) and this album Face The Music. After that Jeff Lynne's work becomes more pop oriëntated. By the time he recorded A New World Record he really mastered the art of writing mainstream pop tunes and sometimes got carried away with that ;-)
A New World Record could be considered as a kind of transition album as well as a prelude (or even pre-study) for what was to come with the Out Of The Blue album, wich featured Mr. Blue Sky, a song you've already done.
I'v been an avid fan of Jeff's work with ELO, but over the years I find myself going back to the older albums, rather than the pop songs of Out Of The Blue and Discovery, Time and Secret Messages. And we're all trying to forget Balance Of Power was ever released ;-)
If I had to pick another song for you, it would be Kuiama (from: ELO II, 1973). It's both a showcase of Jeff's early style of music writing and of his early development as a storyteller in his lyrics.
This is primo ELO! Thanks for reacting to this.
All this earth is it Ebeneezer, definitely from Charles Dickens Christmas Carol, including the hallelujah being sung right after
ELO ELDORADO..........must listen
I always felt like the 4:00 mark influenced ELP; I can hear it at the 1:00 mark of "The Enemy God Dances With the Black Spirits". In reality, they're both references to Prokofiev's "Scythian Suite".
I was disappointed when I learned my fantasy wasn't real; alphabetically I always liked the idea that ELP could have been influenced by ELO.
Thanks for sharing another great reaction!
Thanks so much for doing this one, I think the part at the beginning might give some people a Halloween feel but I just know I like the song, thanks 😊
Chorus was from Richard Tandy's Keyboards.
Good instrumental though here are some of their best to react to, Can’t GetIt Out of My HeadLivin’ Thing,Strange Magic,Do Ya,Rockaria and many others!
Halloween Playlist Suggestions:
1. Tubular Bells (Mike Oldfield) - instrumental, full side of LP, soundtrack for the scariest movie ever - “The Exorcist.”
2. The End (The Doors). Just plain desolate and disturbing.
3. D.O.A. (Bloodrock). One hit
wonder about a person experiencing their own death.
Creep city.
Heheh, two of those have been done so far, and Tubular Bells is on the way.
Any Blue Öyster Cult song is perfect for Halloween .. every “BOCtober” I go on a month long BOC binge which is easy to do with their catalog
React to anything from the brand new album : The Symbol Remains
You can’t go wrong with BOC
Also John Carpenter's Halloween theme songs from part 1 and 2 of the movies.
Robert Thompson, Bloodrock was an October favorite for local radio when I was young. Good call
@@DiconDissectionalReactions go with Bloodrock, it fits the morbid theme.
My friends and I damaged more than one stylus spinning the LP backwards to hear that bit back in the 70s. Why not, eh?
Eldorado, Face the Music, and New World Record are by FAR are the best of ELO... Those albumns spent the most time in my head phones while I fell asleep at night...
I've watched *three* ELO videos - through to the end! And, "Liked" all three!
Hahaha! 😂🤣😂
Here goes number four! Woo Hoo!
💜💫✌🏼🎵
*That just reminded me of the George Carlin bit about walking into a room and forgetting what you went in there?!?!
Or just a "blonde moment." 😉
Thank you, again!
Oops! -what you went in there *for*
I didn't want to EDIT and lose my ♥️
If you want a creepy song (or two) to react to for Halloween, you HAVE to listen to The Beatles' "Cry Baby Cry" and let it flow into "Revolution 9"...then react to "Revolution 9" played backwards.
Manhattan Transfer's song Twilight
Zone will be great fun song for Halloween. (But their biggest hit is Birdland)
Awesome choice Daniel I just love it ! as is stated by another viewer , this song was well known as the theme song for the (wide world of sports) TV show. to anyone growing up in the 70's (only the fast part of the song ) The reversible part was their little gag . You already know what it says in reverse . We had such fun as kids discovering this backward bit for ourselves. They were such a class act with a brilliant sense of melody and timing . they had so many great songs. Living thing, Evil Woman, Turn to stone, . Jeff Lynn who wrote every song they ever did , went on to a long career as a solo act too , as well as part of the legendary band "The Traveling Wilburys" that consisted of other legends such as Bob Dylan, Roy Orbison , George Harrison, and Tom Petty. Jeff is still going strong today. You really should watch the groundbreaking video for a song released a few years back called "When I was a Boy" which is sort of an autobiographical trip through his career , using awesome effects . By the way I believe the smooth guitar you liked so much is Jeff's signature tone..He mostly played a Gibson Les Paul and Gibson Hummingbird, and the effect he used was a simple treble boost on a clean Chanel with a flanger (just a hint )
I recently found out ELO has a new album From Out of Nowhere ,released last November
@Jack Bauer Yes I am aware of that song. I was generalizing ...If you want to be anal about it then ok, he wrote 99percent of all the songs they ever did . Hope this makes you feel better .
Il' l make sure I remember your infinite wisdom dick weed
Hi Daniel, great reaction. I'd recommend you try the album "Eldorado" which is in the same style. It is my view ELO's best album. It is truly a concept album so best listened from start to finish.
Not a big ELO fan, but I love this song. I also listen to the group that keeps you hydrated and balances your PH. The Electro Lyte Orchestra....sorry. Is good Halloween song.
Wonderfully different ❤️❤️❤️❤️
That was awesome how you flipped it!!!
The university of illinois used this song as the theme song for their basketball team in the 90s, they nick named the team the young guns.
The Beginning Message,played backwards said "The Music,is Reversable,But Time Is Not...Turn Back..Turn Back...TURN BACK!"
This song was used for Wide World of Sports on ABC.
Common mistake: It was used for the competing show CBS Sports Spectacular.
@@chronomatt6990 And if you remember the clip of the ski jumper careening off the ramp, you probably have a Polio shot scar.
I was about to say the same thing lol.
I thought it was the CBS Sports Spectacular
CBS Sport Spectacular.
Imagine turning a gas fire on a range up to high. Watch the flame grow, I've heard this is what Fire on High is about. Close your eyes and imagine the flame rise.
Roll Over Beethoven. Sounds as good now as in '73.
Please, listen to two songs I know you will like alot. Alan Parsons, I wouldn't want to be like you and Gary Wright's My love is alive. These are my ideas based on what I've seen you get excited about so far. I'd really be interested in your reaction to these two particular songs ! Thank you my young brother!🤘✌💕
Love ELO
Good for October. I had heard this before, but forgot about it. Then I recognized it when the guitars came in. Never heard it reversed! TY. It was good timing to slow me down with that mysterious beginning part. I had just watched my favorite version of Fleetwood Mac's The Chain (again), and Lindsey Buckingham's performance on that (lead guitar, vocals) always puts my body on some kind of speed. I was physically all revved up. Please, whenever you react to it, see that live show on the UA-cam channel Lindsey Buckingham Gems. It starts with still photos during Lindsey's live-show guitar intro, then it goes to the video. You can not possibly regret the choice.
Great choice daniel.i dont know about halloween but one of the greatest instrumentals ever- i dont count the reverse english.
It says the music is reversible, but time is not: turn back, turn back, turn back! Backwards.
RIP John. We lost an American treasure to COVID. He wrote this at the age of 24: JOHN PRINE - Hello In There (Live From Sessions at West 54th)
Might as well continue with that same album - next song is Waterfall, then Evil Woman (if you want a GREAT Halloween track!!). Side A concludes with Nightrider. Side B has Poker, Strange Magic (another must listen), Down Home Town & finally One Summer Dream (another must). This album is a spinning staple in my house, and Fire On High is ALWAYS blasted loud!
Nice review. A classic ELO track. You got the reason for the vocal reversal partially correct.
In 1974, and like with Led Zeppelin, ELO was accused by Christian fundamentalists of placing “satanic backward messages” in songs, specifically one in their previous album Eldorado. A publicized Media show was made by the fundamentalists demonstrating ELO, Zeppelin, and other rock groups’ “evil ways”. It was all rubbish, of course.
Fire On High and its created backward message from the album Face The Music that followed Eldorado was Jeff Lynne’s joking answer to the silliness. That stated, Jeff is a creative guy, and has enjoyed using backward masking in unusual ways (non-satanic, of course) since the group’s first album years earlier.
At some point, you might want to react to their long version of Roll Over Beethoven.
The message on "Waterfall" is satanic.I don't remember exactly,what it says,but it is something with:"my sweet satan"
Another couple three things: The "accoustic" section of this piece was used by News Casts across the globe during their opening credits... The "Halleluiah" section is from Handel's "Messiah"... I, personally, would use this piece to test out speakers... If they could reproduce the awesome sound at max watts without "clipping", I would consider them "WORTHY"...