Electric Light Orchestra - The Midnight Special, NBC Studios, Burbank, CA, 1-17-1975

Here's an episode of Electric Light Orchestra (ELO) performing for the "Midnight Special" TV show.

In my poll asking people which Midnight Special albums they wanted to see me make, ELO got the most votes. Also, I've seen it claimed that ELO performed more times on the show than any other musical act. I'm not entirely sure of that. The Bee Gees, at least, would be right up there as well. But certainly they were one of the most. They were the host of an episode in 1975, and most of this album comes from that. But it also gathers up songs they did for the show in 1973 and 1974.

The first song, "Kuiama," comes from a June 29, 1973 episode. The second song, "Ma-Ma-Ma Belle," comes from a November 23, 1973 episode. "Showdown" and "Bluebird Is Dead" come from a February 8, 1974 episode. There are some additional songs that were played that I'm not including, because they're repeats. Namely, between 1973 and 1975, "Showdown" was played twice, and "Roll Over Beethoven" was played three times.

The rest of the songs, tracks 5 to 13, come from the 1975 episode mentioned in the title. The only problem was the last song, "Roll Over Beethoven." After about a minute, the emcee Wolfman Jack started talking over the music, then the episode came to an end. Luckily, that was a song that had been performed by ELO on the show twice before. So I used the 1973 version to finish it off (which is why that one song has "[Edit]" in its title). But the one minute I saved from the 1975 version is interesting, because that was a longer instrumental intro than usual for the song. The first part of that intro references Beethoven's "Fifth Symphony," which is what you'll find on the studio version. But the second part of that intro references Beethoven's "Moonlight Sonata," which I think was rare for the band to do. 

I was curious what was going to happen to the banter between songs for the episode ELO was hosting, since the band's lead singer, Jeff Lynne, was obviously a very shy person and rarely spoke on stage. It turns out there was very little banter, and what there was, mainly a naming of the band members, was spoken by Bev Bevan, the band's drummer.  

I noticed the lead vocals seemed low for all of these songs. So I ran them through the UVR5 program and boosted the vocals relative to the instruments on most of the songs. 

ELO was on the show three more times after this, in 1976 and 1977, including hosting it once more. So I would like to make another album out of that material, once it all gets released on YouTube. 

The music here is unreleased. The sound quality is excellent. 

This album is 49 minutes long. 

01 Kuiama (Electric Light Orchestra)
02 Ma-Ma-Ma Belle (Electric Light Orchestra)
03 Showdown (Electric Light Orchestra)
04 Bluebird Is Dead (Electric Light Orchestra)
05 In the Hall of the Mountain King [Instrumental] (Electric Light Orchestra)
06 Great Balls of Fire (Electric Light Orchestra)
07 talk (Electric Light Orchestra)
08 Orange Blossom Special [Instrumental] (Electric Light Orchestra)
09 Eldorado Overture - Can't Get It Out of My Head (Electric Light Orchestra)
10 Laredo Tornado (Electric Light Orchestra)
11 Flight of the Bumblebee [Instrumental] (Electric Light Orchestra)
12 talk (Electric Light Orchestra)
13 Roll Over Beethoven [Edit] (Electric Light Orchestra)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/w92oR4sv

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/en/7ROvDkjaZ03WyGS/file

The cover image of lead singer Jeff Lynne is a screenshot I took from the 1975 episode. I used Krea AI to help add detail.

Electric Light Orchestra - BBC Sessions, Volume 5: BBC Sessions, Volume 5: Radio 2 in Concert, BBC Radio Theatre, London, Britain, 11-7-2019

Here's the fifth, and possibly last, album of Electric Light Orchestra (ELO) performing for the BBC.

By this point, ELO was basically Jeff Lynne plus backing musicians. He formed the band in 2014 (again) and started regularly going on tour. There are a couple more BBC shows ELO did in the late 2010s, but I don't think I'll bother with them because they're all pretty similar to each other and to the original records.

However, I think this one is more interesting, because it's the only concert of a tour that never happened. Note the timing: this show took place in November 2019. It was the warm up show for a tour that was supposed to start in early 2020 - but that's when the Covid 19 pandemic hit, so the tour was cancelled. The tour was meant to promote the 2019 ELO album "From Out of Nowhere." Three songs from that album were performed in this concert: "From Out of Nowhere," "All My Love," and "Time of My Life." Due to the canceled tour, I believe this concert was the only time ELO performed them in concert.

Otherwise, it's a rather short concert, with the usual ELO hits.

This album is 55 minutes long.

01 talk (Electric Light Orchestra)
02 Evil Woman (Electric Light Orchestra)
03 talk (Electric Light Orchestra)
04 All Over the World (Electric Light Orchestra)
05 Do Ya (Electric Light Orchestra)
06 talk (Electric Light Orchestra)
07 Handle with Care (Electric Light Orchestra)
08 Livin' Thing (Electric Light Orchestra)
09 talk (Electric Light Orchestra)
10 From Out of Nowhere (Electric Light Orchestra)
11 Don't Bring Me Down (Electric Light Orchestra)
12 All My Love (Electric Light Orchestra)
13 Eldorado Overture - Can't Get It Out of My Head (Electric Light Orchestra)
14 talk (Electric Light Orchestra)
15 Time of Our Life (Electric Light Orchestra)
16 Rockaria (Electric Light Orchestra)
17 talk (Electric Light Orchestra)
18 Turn to Stone (Electric Light Orchestra)
19 Mr. Blue Sky (Electric Light Orchestra)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/d8a956Wc

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/DR0dgiidgBuAvx6/file

The cover photo comes from this exact concert.

Electric Light Orchestra - VH-1 Storytellers, Altman Building, New York City, 4-20-2001

Next up for the "VH-1 Storytellers" series is an episode by Electric Light Orchestra (ELO).

In 2001, ELO reformed after disbanding back in 1986, and released a new album, called "Zoom." But it was basically just the band's lead singer and songwriter Jeff Lynne using the ELO name. Only one other original member, Richard Tandy, was involved, and he only played on one song. 

The plan was to tour to support the album. However, the tour was cancelled due to poor ticket sales. But two concerts were performed. There was a full show done for PBS, which was later released on DVD, and which I've posted in full here. Then there also was this concert, for the "VH-1 Storytellers" TV show. For both concerts, Tandy played on all the songs, making it somewhat more of an actual ELO performance. 

ELO typically has a very full and produced sound, with lots of musicians performing on any given song. Sometimes, whole orchestras are involved. But this concert, while not exactly "unplugged," at least was more stripped down, making these arrangements a bit unique. The fact that the concert took place in front of only a couple hundred people was also highly unusual. The band only played two songs from the new album: "Alright" and "Moment in Paradise." Everything else were classic hits from the 1970s.

The actual concert had more songs. Unfortunately, as usual for this show, the first song, "Do Ya," started midway through.

This album is 42 minutes long.

01 Do Ya [Incomplete] (Electric Light Orchestra)
02 Evil Woman (Electric Light Orchestra)
03 talk (Electric Light Orchestra)
04 Telephone Line (Electric Light Orchestra)
05 talk (Electric Light Orchestra)
06 Don't Bring Me Down (Electric Light Orchestra)
07 talk (Electric Light Orchestra)
08 Alright (Electric Light Orchestra)
09 talk (Electric Light Orchestra)
10 Can't Get It Out of My Head (Electric Light Orchestra)
11 talk (Electric Light Orchestra)
12 Mr. Blue Sky (Electric Light Orchestra)
13 talk (Electric Light Orchestra)
14 Livin' Thing (Electric Light Orchestra)
15 talk (Electric Light Orchestra)
16 Moment in Paradise (Electric Light Orchestra)

https://www.upload.ee/files/17172256/ELECTRCLGHTO2001StrytllrsAltmnBildngNwYrkC__4-20-2001_atse.zip.html

alternate link:

https://pixeldrain.com/u/7cR4cNnU

The cover photo is a screenshot taken from this exact concert. I upgraded the image with the Krea AI program.

Electric Light Orchestra - Zoom Tour Live, Stage 36, CBS Television City, Los Angeles, CA, 4-24-2001

In 1986, Electric Light Orchestra (ELO) called it quits. Jeff Lynne, the band's lead singer and songwriter, went on to produce many albums and occasionally released an album of his own. In 2001, he put out a new ELO album, "Zoom." The plan was to tour to support the album, but ticket sales were below expectations, so the tour was cancelled. However, he did one full-length concert and had it filmed. It was later released as a DVD called "Zoom Tour Live." But it was never released in full in any audio format. I'm filling that gap by posting it here.

Note that I said it was never released "in full" in any audio format. In 2013, the album "Electric Light Orchestra Live" was released, consisting of highlights from this concert. But it was only 50 minutes long. That means an entire hour of the concert was left out.  

Note that four songs from the album, "Twilight," "Sweet Talkin' Woman," "Secret Messages," and "Confusion," weren't included on the DVD. So naturally I've included them here. However, there were still two problems. One, I didn't have an accurate complete set list, so I didn't know exactly where to insert these. I ultimately decided to bunch them together in the middle, since they didn't fit well either at the beginning or the end. The second problem was that there was no banter included with these four songs. There was nothing I could do about that.

Two more songs, "Rock 'n' Roll Is King" and "All She Wanted," weren't included in either the DVD or the live album. Unfortunately, they don't seem to have been bootlegged either, so they're not here at all.

When the ELO album "Zoom" came out in 2001, some people claimed that it was misleading to call it an ELO album, because Lynne pretty much did all the singing and played almost every instrument on every song. Only one other previous member of ELO, keyboardist Richard Tandy, played on the album, and he only played on one song. But Tandy played on all the songs in this concert, including the seven songs from "Zoom." And due to the necessity of having a band to perform a concert, this sounds different than "Zoom," carefully put together in the studio basically by one person.

This album is an hour and 52 minutes long.

01 Do Ya (Electric Light Orchestra)
02 Evil Woman (Electric Light Orchestra)
03 Showdown (Electric Light Orchestra)
04 talk (Electric Light Orchestra)
05 Strange Magic (Electric Light Orchestra)
06 talk (Electric Light Orchestra)
07 Livin' Thing (Electric Light Orchestra)
08 talk (Electric Light Orchestra)
09 Alright (Electric Light Orchestra)
10 talk (Electric Light Orchestra)
11 Lonesome Lullaby (Electric Light Orchestra)
12 talk (Electric Light Orchestra)
13 Telephone Line (Electric Light Orchestra)
14 Confusion (Electric Light Orchestra)
15 Twilight (Electric Light Orchestra)
16 Secret Messages (Electric Light Orchestra)
18 talk (Electric Light Orchestra)
17 Sweet Talkin' Woman (Electric Light Orchestra)
19 Turn to Stone (Electric Light Orchestra)
20 talk (Electric Light Orchestra)
21 Just for Love (Electric Light Orchestra)
22 talk (Electric Light Orchestra)
23 10538 Overture (Electric Light Orchestra)
24 talk (Electric Light Orchestra)
25 Easy Money (Electric Light Orchestra)
26 Mr. Blue Sky (Electric Light Orchestra)
28 talk (Electric Light Orchestra)
27 Ma-Ma-Ma Belle (Electric Light Orchestra)
30 talk (Electric Light Orchestra)
29 One Summer Dream (Electric Light Orchestra)
31 Tightrope (Electric Light Orchestra)
32 talk (Electric Light Orchestra)
33 State of Mind (Electric Light Orchestra)
34 talk (Electric Light Orchestra)
35 Can't Get It Out of My Head (Electric Light Orchestra)
36 talk (Electric Light Orchestra)
37 Moment in Paradise (Electric Light Orchestra)
38 Ordinary Dream (Electric Light Orchestra)
39 talk (Electric Light Orchestra)
40 Shine a Little Love (Electric Light Orchestra)
41 Don't Bring Me Down (Electric Light Orchestra)
42 Roll Over Beethoven (Electric Light Orchestra)

https://www.imagenetz.de/kbs85

alternate:

https://pixeldrain.com/u/De9jXodG

second alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/Pp6tDFa0M4IYVXC/file

The cover image is a screenshot taken from the DVD of this exact concert.

Electric Light Orchestra - BBC Sessions, Volume 4: ICAA Benefit, Wembley Empire Pool, London, Britain, 6-2-1978

This is the same concert as the one presented on the official Electric Light Orchestra (ELO) album "Live at Wembley '78." However, this has much better sound quality.

Instead of trying to explain the situation myself, I'm going to quote the Wikipedia entry on this album at length, since it does a good job:

"The sound on this album has led to accusations of the band lip syncing, as did the earlier video from which this CD was taken. However it has come to light that the sound used on the television broadcast... in 1978 was a poorly mixed effort in mono sound that used a lot of the backing tapes that were used admittedly by the band due to sound problems caused by the huge metal and fibreglass stage set. The tapes were for the band's ears only, to help them keep time, and should not have been heard by the audience."

In 2006, a new DVD version of the concert was released. This used the original tapes from the concert, presenting it in true stereo for the first time. Furthermore, all the overdubbed backing tapes and other problems were removed. Unfortunately though, this new version has never been released on CD.

So that's where I came in. I made sure this recording was based on the superior 2006 DVD. But even then there was a problem, because I noticed the vocals were way too low in the mix. This may have been a deliberate choice of singer-songwriter Jeff Lynne, I don't know. But regardless, I boosted the vocals relative to the instruments, and I think it sounds a lot better that way.

This actually was a benefit concert that was broadcast by the BBC at the time. ICAA stands for Invalid Children's Aid Association. The band was introduced by actor Tony Curtis, and some British royals attended. This also isn't the complete concert, just the portion that was broadcast. The rest is not in public circulation.

This album is 53 minutes long.

01 Standin' in the Rain (Electric Light Orchestra)
02 Night in the City (Electric Light Orchestra)
03 talk (Electric Light Orchestra)
04 Turn to Stone (Electric Light Orchestra)
05 Tightrope (Electric Light Orchestra)
06 Telephone Line (Electric Light Orchestra)
07 Rockaria (Electric Light Orchestra)
08 Wild West Hero (Electric Light Orchestra)
09 Showdown (Electric Light Orchestra)
10 talk (Electric Light Orchestra)
11 Sweet Talkin' Woman (Electric Light Orchestra)
12 Mr. Blue Sky (Electric Light Orchestra)
13 Do Ya (Electric Light Orchestra)
14 Livin' Thing (Electric Light Orchestra)
15 Roll Over Beethoven (Electric Light Orchestra)

https://www.upload.ee/files/16011022/ElectrcLghtO_1978_BBSessonsVolum4ICAABnefitWemblyEmpirPoolLondnBrtain__6-2-1978_atse.zip.html

The cover photo of band leader Jeff Lynne was taken in London just a week after this concert, on June 9, 1978.

Electric Light Orchestra - BBC Sessions, Volume 3: In Concert, The Guildhall, Portsmouth, Britain, 6-22-1976

Here's the third volume of Electric Light Orchestra (ELO) performing for the BBC. This time, it's another concert.

Like most of the content on Volumes 1 and 2 in this series, this comes from the official album "Live at the BBC." However, in my opinion, most of the lead vocals were mixed too low for this concert, with some songs worse than others. So I fixed that by using the audio editing program UVR5.

This isn't the full concert, but it's most of it. As the BBC often does, it cut things down to fit the music in a certain time slot. The axed songs include "10538 Overture," "Do Ya," and the final encore, "Roll Over Beethoven."

This album is an hour long.

01 Fire on High [Instrumental] (Electric Light Orchestra)
02 Poker (Electric Light Orchestra)
03 talk (Electric Light Orchestra)
04 Nightrider (Electric Light Orchestra)
05 talk (Electric Light Orchestra)
06 On the Third Day [King of the Universe-Not Susan-Bluebird-New World Rising] (Electric Light Orchestra)
07 talk (Electric Light Orchestra)
08 Showdown (Electric Light Orchestra)
09 Eldorado (Electric Light Orchestra)
10 Poor Boy [The Greenwood] (Electric Light Orchestra)
11 Illusions in G Major (Electric Light Orchestra)
12 talk (Electric Light Orchestra)
13 Strange Magic (Electric Light Orchestra)
14 Evil Woman (Electric Light Orchestra)
15 talk (Electric Light Orchestra)
16 Ma Ma Ma Belle (Electric Light Orchestra)

https://www.upload.ee/files/16003679/ElectrcLghtO_1976_BBSessonsVolum3InConcrtGuildhllPrtsmouthBrtain__6-22-1976_atse.zip.html

The cover photo of band leader Jeff Lynne was taken at the Beacon Theater in New York City in 1976. It's surprising that he's not wearing sunglasses, since that became his visual trademark for most of his career.

Electric Light Orchestra - BBC Sessions, Volume 2: In Concert, Golders Green Hippodrome, London, Britain, 1-25-1974

Here's another BBC album by Electric Light Orchestra (ELO). This time it's a short concert.

Most of this album has been officially released as part of the "Live at the BBC" album, so the sound quality is excellent. 

However, the first song, "Ma-Ma-Ma Belle," is different. This one is unreleased, and was uncovered by my musical associate Lil Panda. The sound quality on that one is about as good as the rest. It suggests there could be more of this concert that emerges into the public someday, knock on wood. Certainly if they were playing a typical concert from that time period, they would have played many more songs.

This album is 34 minutes long.

01 Ma-Ma-Ma Belle (Electric Light Orchestra)
02 King of the Universe (Electric Light Orchestra)
03 Bluebird Is Dead (Electric Light Orchestra)
04 Oh No Not Susan (Electric Light Orchestra)
05 New World Rising (Electric Light Orchestra)
06 talk (Electric Light Orchestra)
07 Violin Solo - Orange Blossom Special [Instrumental] (Electric Light Orchestra)
08 talk (Electric Light Orchestra)
09 In the Hall of the Mountain King [Instrumental] (Electric Light Orchestra)
10 Great Balls of Fire (Electric Light Orchestra)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15994869/ElectrcLghtO_1974_BBSessionsVolum2InConcrtGoldrsGreenHppodrmeLondnBrtain__1-25-1974_atse.zip.html

The cover is from an ABC TV show in June 1974. Band leader Jeff Lynne is the one in the photo without glasses (for once, since he's well known for always wearing them). The other one is Mike de Albuquerque, who played bass and horns.

Electric Light Orchestra - BBC Sessions, Volume 1: 1973-1977

It's time I turn my attention to what the Electric Light Orchestra (ELO) did for the BBC. I've found enough for four albums. Here's the first one.

There's an official album called "Live at the BBC." That's the source of the first six tracks. Those come from a BBC concert at the Paris Theatre, in London, Britain, on April 19, 1973. Note that Roy Wood had already left the band by this time.

But that concert was only 35 minutes long. I thought that was rather short, so I looked around to see if any other material could be added. It turns out ELO often lipsynced on TV show appearances, or sent in music videos instead. Truly live performances were rare. But one exception to that was the U.S. TV show "The Midnight Special." Tracks 7 and 8 are from a 1974 appearance on that show. Then tracks 9 through 12 are from another appearance. I could have included a few more songs, but I only chose ones that the band didn't do on other BBC appearances.

This album is one hour long.

01 From the Sun to the World (Electric Light Orchestra)
02 talk (Electric Light Orchestra)
03 Kuiama (Electric Light Orchestra)
04 talk (Electric Light Orchestra)
05 In the Hall of the Mountain King (Electric Light Orchestra)
06 Roll Over Beethoven (Electric Light Orchestra)
07 Can't Get It Out of My Head (Electric Light Orchestra)
08 Laredo Tornado (Electric Light Orchestra)
09 Livin' Thing (Electric Light Orchestra)
10 Do Ya (Electric Light Orchestra)
11 Telephone Line (Electric Light Orchestra)
12 Rockaria (Electric Light Orchestra)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15983988/ElectrcLghtO_1973-1977_BBSessonsVolum1_atse.zip.html

The cover photo was taken at an ABC TV show in August 1973.

Various Artists - Heart Beat 86, National Exhibition Centre, Birmingham, Britain, 3-15-1986

Here's an impressive 1986 benefit concert with performances by the Moody Blues, Electric Light Orchestra (ELO), Robert Plant, George Harrison, Roy Wood, UB40, the Fortunes, and more. It's completely unreleased, but the sound quality is excellent.

The inspiration for the concert began with Bev Bevan, the drummer for ELO. He was inspired by the Live Aid benefit concert in 1985, and wanted to do something for his hometown of Birmingham, England. All the proceeds went to benefit the Birmingham Children's Hospital. The concert ended up having a unusual Birmingham focus, with the vast majority of the musical performers originally coming from Birmingham. Some acts that hadn't been in the spotlight for some time, such as the Fortunes and Applejacks, got back together for this concert.

The concert was massive, nine hours long. Big acts like ELO and the Moody Blues played sets that lasted an hour or so. However, this album only contains an hour and a half of that. That's because all I could find was the portion that was later broadcast on BBC TV and radio. Parts of it also was broadcast on MTV in the US, and two songs ("The Voice" and "Lucille") come from that, with slightly lower sound quality. If anyone has any more of this, please let me know so I can add it in. But while it's sad that so much of the concert is missing, at least what is here has excellent sound quality.

One big act to perform was Robert Plant. Although he was having a very successful solo career, he avoided that kind of music and played rockabilly covers with the backing band the Big Town Playboys instead.

I think the ELO set is particularly interesting. Normally, ELO concerts were big productions, with lots of orchestral instruments and backing tapes and so on. This was a much more stripped down kind of performance, but the band showed they could still rock. It also was the band's first concert in four years. They would only play an additional handful of concerts in 1986 before breaking up. I'd especially love to hear the rest of their set, because I don't know of any other concert recording by the original ELO from after 1978 with this level of sound quality.

The Moody Blues were the last big act of the concert. But then everyone from all the earlier acts joined them on stage for a finale. Three songs were played: "Lucille," "Money (That's What I Want)," and "Johnny B. Goode." Unfortunately, I couldn't find a recording of "Money." But probably the highlight of the concert was "Johnny B. Goode," because a very unexpected guest star showed up on stage: George Harrison. He sang lead vocals on part of the song. But just having him there was a big deal, since he'd been pretty reclusive for the last decade or so. Apparently, even most of the other musicians were starstruck to be on the same stage as the ex-Beatle. 

By the way, it was hoped that there would be a reunion of the 1960s band the Move, since two major figures from that band, Jeff Lynne of ELO and Roy Wood, were at the concert. Plus, this was all about highlighting the best musical acts from Birmingham, and the Move definitely were one of those. It was announced the Move would reunite for the concert, but band member Carl Wayne didn't show up for some reason, so the reunion never happened. This was the closest to a Move reunion ever. That is no longer possible since Wayne passed away in 2004.

Note also that Denny Laine performed a set. However, his set was plagued by sound problems, and none of it was included in the BBC broadcast. He did sing lead on one verse of "Johnny B. Goode" for the final encore though. Also, Dave Edmunds was at the concert, but only had a minor role, playing a guitar solo on the song "Lucille" during the encore. And Noddy Holder, the lead singer of Slade, was at the concert, but his only role was singing a verse of "Lucille."

One final note. The emcee, Oliver Spencer (formerly known as Roger Spencer), used to be a member of the 1960s band Idle Race, also from Birmingham. The BBC recording included some stand-up comedy he did between acts, but I cut most of that out, since it doesn't have the same relistening value as the music.

This album is an hour and 37 minutes long.

01 Share It with You (Steve Gibbons Band)
02 B.S.A. (Steve Gibbons Band)
03 talk (Oliver Spencer)
04 Let It Be Me (Fortunes)
05 talk (Fortunes)
06 You've Got Your Troubles (Fortunes)
07 talk (Oliver Spencer)
08 See My Baby Jive (Roy Wood)
09 Are You Ready to Rock (Roy Wood)
10 talk (Roy Wood)
11 I Wish It Could Be Christmas Every Day (Roy Wood)
12 talk (Oliver Spencer)
13 I Got You Babe (UB40 & Ruby Turner)
14 Tell Me When (Applejacks)
15 talk (Oliver Spencer)
16 She Walks Right In (Robert Plant)
17 Come On (Robert Plant)
18 [Every Time I Hear] That Mellow Saxophone (Robert Plant)
19 He's in Town (Rockin' Berries)
20 talk (Oliver Spencer)
21 Telephone Line (Electric Light Orchestra)
22 talk (Electric Light Orchestra)
23 Do Ya (Electric Light Orchestra)
24 Rockaria (Electric Light Orchestra)
25 talk (Electric Light Orchestra)
26 Hold On Tight (Electric Light Orchestra)
27 Don't Bring Me Down (Electric Light Orchestra)
28 talk (Oliver Spencer)
29 Tuesday Afternoon (Moody Blues)
30 Question (Moody Blues)
31 Nights in White Satin (Moody Blues)
32 The Voice (Moody Blues)
33 Lucille (Noddy Holder, Roy Wood, Dave Edmunds & Everyone)
34 talk (Oliver Spencer)
35 Johnny B. Goode (George Harrison, Denny Laine, Robert Plant & Everyone)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/oygUAcFT

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/ldz5LsvyWmzV42C/file

The cover photo shows Jeff Lynne and George Harrison during the "Johnny B. Goode" finale from this exact concert. The photo was originally in black and white, but I used the Palette program to colorize it, then made some additional changes in Photoshop. Note that Lynne and Harrison were just starting to get to know each other around this time. They would go on to become good friends, as well as band mates in the Traveling Wilburys.

Electric Light Orchestra - The Night the Light Went On in Long Beach (Long Beach Auditorium, Long Beach, CA, 5-12-1974)

Normally, I would not post this album, because it has been officially released. However, I'm posting this because the official version sounds rather bad and musical associate Lil Panda carefully edited every song to make the album sound better.

This album comes from early in the career of Electric Light Orchestra (ELO), before they had most of their hits. But it may be more interesting because of that. Later on, the band would have more of a well-produced, orchestral sound, which limited how spontaneous they could be on stage. At this stage, they were more like a conventional rock band, including doing covers they never did on any studio albums: "Day Tripper" by the Beatles, "Orange Blossom Special" by Johnny Cash, and "Great Balls of Fire" made famous by Jerry Lee Lewis.

Most of what I learned about this album comes from the very informative Wikipedia page about it:

The Night the Light Went On in Long Beach - Wikipedia 

In short, it was meant to be the follow up to the band's third studio album, "On the Third Day," released in 1973. But it suffered from various sound quality issues, both on and off stage. The band's equipment truck broke down on the way to the gig, so the band wasn't able to perform a soundcheck. As a result, the band wasn't mixed well in real life. Worse, when it came time to make the album, the wrong version was used, one labeled "Rough Mix, Do Not Use." Between these problems, the sound quality was so muddy that the album was initially only officially released in Germany. It only got released in Britain in the 1980s and in the US even later.

Then the album got rereleased in the 1990s, finally based on the correct tapes. This version sounded better. However, even this version still had issues. So Lil Panda worked from the rerelease version and used the recent computer technology that allows one to isolate the different instruments so he could do his own mix. That's the version you have here. I'm posting it because I could hear the improvement with this new version. So kudos to Lil Panda for working on this and sharing it.

This album is 40 minutes long.

01 Daybreaker [Instrumental] (Electric Light Orchestra)
02 Showdown (Electric Light Orchestra)
03 Day Tripper (Electric Light Orchestra)
04 10538 Overture [Instrumental] (Electric Light Orchestra)
05 talk (Electric Light Orchestra)
06 Orange Blossom Special [Instrumental Version] (Electric Light Orchestra)
07 In the Hall of the Mountain King [Instrumental] (Electric Light Orchestra)
08 Great Balls of Fire (Electric Light Orchestra)
09 Roll Over Beethoven (Electric Light Orchestra)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15771069/ElectrcLghtO_1974_TheNghttheLghtWentOninLngBeach_atse.zip.html

The cover is the original cover from the official album. In the 1990s, the album was rereleased with a totally different cover, so this cover is rather rare.

The Traveling Wilburys - Volume 2 - Non-Album Tracks (1989-1990)

The Traveling Wilburys were a great but short-lived "supergroup," consisting of George Harrison, Bob Dylan, Tom Petty, Roy Orbison, and Jeff Lynne. Unfortunately, they only made two studio albums, and never did any live performances. The unexpected death of Orbison due to a heart attack effectively killed the group, even though they did their second album without them.

Due to the limited amount of material the band made together, people naturally want more. And since their albums were called "Volume 1" and "Volume 3" (as a joke), it's just as natural that when people put together stray tracks to make another album, they call it "Volume 1." Many others have put together various versions of "Volume 2," but here is my attempt.

In terms of actual songs recorded by all of the Traveling Wilburys, it's slim pickings. I count four songs, all of which eventually came out as bonus tracks as part of the archival album "The Traveling Wilburys Collection." So I started with those four. 

Luckily, and the reason this album is possible, is that different members of this band helped out with various solo albums. Plus, member Jeff Lynne typically did the production, and he had a distinctive sound that he put on everything he produced during this time period. So, if it wasn't an actual Traveling Wilburys song, I limited myself to song where at least two of the band members collaborated, and it had their typical production sound. To help make things clear, I've included who was on each track in the song list. And while I didn't list the songwriters, many of these were collaborations. For instance, the big Roy Orbison hit "You Got It" that starts this album was co-written by Orbison, Petty, and Lynne.

I could have included more songs, but I tried to avoid songs that were on very famous albums, such as George Harrison's "Cloud Nine," Tom Petty's "Full Moon Fever," and Bob Dylan's "Oh Mercy" and "Under the Red Sky." For the sources of the other songs, check the mp3 tags. But I'll note I did use some songs from Lynne and Orbison solo albums from around that time. Maybe it's just me with my personal record collection, but those don't seem as overplayed as the songs from the other albums mentioned above. (Certainly, the song from Petty's album are played on the radio a zillion times a day.)

I think there's a good mix of songs sung by all the band members, except for Dylan. He's heard some here and there, but not as much as the others. That's not too surprising, since he's tended to do his own thing for his long music career. I've added an early, unreleased version of his song "Everything Is Broken" as a bonus track, just in case you want to up the amount of Dylan on the album. But it's only a bonus track because it doesn't have any of the other Wilburys on it. I considered using the Dylan song "Under the Red Sky" because it has a Harrison guitar solo on it, but I ultimately decided against it because it didn't have that Jeff Lynne-esque sound all the other songs have.

The last song is somewhat unusual because it comes from a solo album by Jim Horn, a saxophone player who is a long-time session musician. I've included it because, although it's mostly an instrumental, it has vocals by Tom Petty and Jeff Lynne only (Horn doesn't sing at all). Those vocals have that exact Traveling Wilburys sound, and the production is by Lynne, also making it fit sonically with the rest. Using the audio editing program X-Minus, I boosted the vocals some (so that's why there's "[Edit]" in the song title).

This album is 51 minutes long, not including the bonus track.

01 You Got It (Roy Orbison with Tom Petty & Jeff Lynne)
02 Cheer Down (George Harrison with Tom Petty & Jeff Lynne)
03 Runaway (Traveling Wilburys)
04 A Love So Beautiful (Roy Orbison with Jeff Lynne & George Harrison)
05 Poor Little Girl (George Harrison with Jeff Lynne)
06 Lift Me Up (Jeff Lynne with George Harrison)
07 Nobody's Child (Traveling Wilburys)
08 California Blue (Roy Orbison with Tom Petty & Jeff Lynne)
09 Cockamamie Business (George Harrison with Jeff Lynne)
10 Don't Treat Me like a Stranger (Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers with Jeff Lynne)
11 Like a Ship (Traveling Wilburys)
12 Blown Away (Jeff Lynne with Tom Petty)
13 Maxine (Traveling Wilburys)
14 Work It Out [Edit] (Jim Horn with Tom Petty & Jeff Lynne)

Everything Is Broken [Early Version] (Bob Dylan)

https://www.upload.ee/files/16701028/TRAVLNGWILBRYS1989-1990_Volum2_atse.zip.html

For the cover art, I found a promotional photo of the band taken around the time of the release of their first album. There's a famous logo of the band name, but looking at the band's official website, I noticed a different band name logo. So I used that one, then added "Volume Two" with a similar font to some of it.

Jeff Lynne - Acoustic (1990-2012)

Jeff Lynne is best known as the lead vocalist and main songwriter for ELO (the Electric Light Orchestra). ELO is known for combining orchestral arrangements with rock music. As a result, sometimes the band has been criticized for overly lush production. I can see that point, but I also sometimes find charm in the "everything but the kitchen sink" approach.

That said, if you've followed this blog for long, you'll have noticed I have a particular fondness for acoustic music. Lynne is a talented songwriter with many hits to his name. It would be nice to hear some of those songs in stripped down versions. But whenever Lynne has played live, either solo or as part of ELO, he's used a full-band style. 

I've only found a few exceptions to that, where he played in solo acoustic mode, and I've gathered them all here. In 1990, as part of a radio station interview, he played two classic cover songs that had influenced him, "Runaway" (by Del Shannon) and "It's Over" (by Roy Orbison). In 2001, he played two more songs, "Can't Get It Out of My Head" and "Ordinary Dream," for another radio station appearance.

Most of the rest of the songs here come from a 2011 reunion of Lynne with Richard Tandy, who was in ELO from 1971 to 2001. Lynne generally played acoustic guitar and sang while Tandy played the piano. The vast majority of the songs on this album are officially unreleased, except a couple from this performance. The whole thing was professionally recorded in a studio and a video of it was put on the Internet. But only a few songs from it have been released, and generally on obscure things, like Japan only bonus tracks.

The last song, "Livin' Thing," was recorded in 2012. For some reason Lynne only performed about a minute of the song. But he did just enough to end with a repeat of the opening chords. So I edited that minute-long version into a two-minute long version by repeating the whole thing and then adding some more of the opening chords for a fade out. Hopefully, it's enough to make it feel like a full song and not just a snippet of one.

I think it's a wonderful revelation to hear these songs in such a stripped down form. The one downside to this album is that it's rather short, at only 32 minutes long. Normally, I don't like to include two versions of the same song on one album. But since this album is short, and Lynne so rarely does any acoustic versions at all, I've included two versions of "Can't Get It Out of My Head" here.

01 Runaway (Jeff Lynne)
02 It's Over (Jeff Lynne)
03 Can't Get It Out of My Head (Jeff Lynne)
04 Ordinary Dream (Jeff Lynne)
05 Evil Woman (Jeff Lynne with Richard Tandy)
06 Showdown (Jeff Lynne with Richard Tandy)
07 Save Me Now (Jeff Lynne with Richard Tandy)
08 Telephone Line (Jeff Lynne with Richard Tandy)
09 Steppin' Out (Jeff Lynne with Richard Tandy)
10 Strange Magic (Jeff Lynne with Richard Tandy)
11 Can't Get It Out of My Head (Jeff Lynne with Richard Tandy)
12 Livin' Thing [Edit] (Jeff Lynne) 

https://pixeldrain.com/u/wLwP8wZQ

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/qWNmdg6D3yyTIig/file

For the cover art, I took a screenshot from one of the videos of the 2011 performance with Tandy that I found on YouTube.

In February 2025, I improved the image somewhat with the help of the Krea AI program.