Interesting Article about ELO

Yes, it is.  I was intrigued by the parts where memories of specific events differed between Lynne and the engineer differed dramatically.  Loved Lynne's production on ELO.  Hate when he makes eveyone else--especially the Beatles--sound like ELO. 

Hi,
 
I've always liked this band ... and their first 5 albums ... or so.
 
Some folks make a big deal about the "production", but I think that is exagerated, because their group had more folks, and they were smarter and certainly more musically adept than most rock bands out there.
 
As such, this would likely mean that their production level would be better than most rock bands, and us thinking that was not the case is nuts. But a rock band, would never get the attention to detail in recording that a classical orchestra could and this has been well documented at some of those big time studios.
 
I don't think that Jeff Lynne is any better composer than anyone else, or that the work he did with ELO is better with him, or without him. I actually much prefer the work that Roy Wood did on his own, which is not as much leaning towards a hit record, like ELO's was ... and if you have never heard "Eddie and the Falcons" or "Mustard", you are missing some really crazy gems of creativity that ELO did not have, because you had to have a "song". And for the most part, he played ALL the instruments, btw!
 
The interesting connection, and I have not really heard it that much yet, and will check again, was the connection between Mack and Amon Duul 2. It would have to be Yeti, Carnival in Babylon, Wolf City, and Vive La Trance, the albums where the keyboard sound in AD2 was very strong and was manipulating the vision better ... than their format later ... which did not have the splendor of sound that helped them so much. And even later, it felt like a riff only, not a mantle and backdrop for the whole piece ... massive difference!
 
I think that Mack was aware of the riff/backdrop side of things, which helped develop some of the things that ELO did ... however, what Roy Wood did with the recording when he went his way, is also noteworthy, even though it does not have a whole lot of keyboards to set up the backdrop, usually left to another instrument.
 
In general, and it is the same with the CHB stuff, the keyboards are NOT a backdrop, but a riff for the music, and that is a big difference, the backdrop would always continue to show itself, and not disappear, and a riff only comes up when it's its time to show and that is that ... and this is one of the big definitions in "progressive" music, where the riff is less visible by itself than it is within the whole of the piece ... Steve Howe is a perfect example.