The Jefferson Airplane

SUE’S SUNDAY SOJOURN: Each week Sue will showcase a particular artist or band during her entire two hour set.  Each week, prior to the set, there will be a blog post where she will write about her memories, favorite stories or share other interesting tidbits about the artist.  The idea here is not to tell the story of the band or play two hours of their greatest hits.  The idea behind Sue’s Sunday Sojourn will be to spend time with Sue, down in her music vault.  As she puts together the set, she will reminisce and share special memories.  “I remember when this came out,” or, “I recall hearing this for the first time and I thought…”  She might share little known facts, favorite memories, fun stories or maybe even some personal experiences. 

The sets will have plenty of the big hits but be ready for a few obscure tunes that may be her personal favorites.  She will probably include a few rarities or possibly unreleased material, along with other assorted curios.  So join her every Sunday night from 7-9 PM SLT as she lets you into her world.

Jefferson Airplane

“Get them while they're young and bend their minds.”

Spencer Dryden, Drummer, Jefferson Airplane

This is one of my greatest musical love affairs, so why did I wait this long to feature it on the Sojourn?  I’ve been asking myself that question and I’ve finally come up with an answer.  There is just so much I could say here and they have played such a central part in my musical life, that I was overwhelmed and didn’t know how to begin.  A good example of this is when I went through the music and created the set, which I usually do before I write this piece, and placed all of the songs I wanted to include into one list.  Normally, I would then prune the list down from like three hours (a couple of times closer to four) down to the two hours you hear each week.  I looked at the list this time and I had to prune it down from 6 hours and 37 minutes!!!  I had over six hours of the Airplane that I thought was the best and needed to be a part of the set.  I had to make some hard choices.

They are not only one of my greatest musical love affairs, they are probably the oldest with the exception of the Beatles.  My love affair with them started in 1966, before most people in the country had even heard of them.  Before I can explain that, I need to tell you a bit about their beginnings and maybe my own.  Like their drummer, Spencer Dryden, said in the quote above, they got me when I was young and they bent my mind early.

The band was formed in San Francisco in 1965 and there were several personnel changes very early on but they quickly settled into what would be their classic lineup.  There were two exceptions; their first female vocalist was not Grace Slick but another woman, Signe Anderson.  Skip Spence would be the drummer for the first album only before being replaced by Spencer Dryden.  This early lineup (shown below), with Spence and Anderson, recorded their first album, Jefferson Airplane Takes Off, released in 1966.

The Jefferson Airplane in 1966

This album didn’t do all that well.  The band never toured to support it and they made no TV appearances.  Even though they were a sensation in the San Francisco Bay Area, they would remain relatively obscure until their second album in 1967.

In the fall of 1966, my older brother went off to attend a school in San Francisco where we had family living at the time.  It was after he was settled and the school year had started that mom and dad took us out of school in early October and we went to visit my older brother in San Francisco and the rest of the family out there.  My brother and I had always been close and we had shared our love of music with each other.  It was in his room during this visit that he shared a new album he had and he couldn’t wait to play it for me.  To repeat what Spencer Dryden said at the opening, they were about to get me young and bend my mind.

It was a few days later that we were walking down the street, I think to some restaurant we had a reservation at, that I saw something amid the city noises, pedestrians, cars with honking horns and corner Hare Krishna groups.  It was a plywood wall cordoning off a construction site and on it were a bunch of posters including several similar to the one shown below.  (This one is not quite the same and wass for a spring concert, not a fall one.)  I wasn’t used to reading the psychedelic lettering but with some effort I read, “Jefferson Airplane.”  It was also the first time I had ever heard of what was to become a very famous Bay Area concert venue, the Fillmore.  This was my new favorite band and they were playing nearby.  Unfortunately, I didn’t get to see them and I was probably a bit too young for a rock concert anyway.

I returned with my family, sans my brother, to Massachusetts and Jefferson Airplane had a couple of more personnel changes.  Drummer Skip Spence was replaced by Spencer Dryden and Signe Anderson left the group to raise a family.  I really wish I could recall the details of that Airplane handbill poster I saw.  Signe Anderson played her last concert at the Fillmore on October 15, 1966.  The poster I saw that day may very well have been for that show.  At the show, the band gave her a public farewell and she said goodbye to all the fans with the following, "I want you all to wear smiles and daisies and bounce balloons. I love you all. Thank you and goodbye."  I will play this “Farewell to Signe” on Sunday night.

They had already recruited a new singer from another band, Grace Slick of the Great Society.  Grace was married to Great Society drummer, Jerry Slick and she had already written White Rabbit and was performing it with them.  They recorded one single, written by Jerry’s brother, Darby Slick, Somebody to Love.  When Grace came over to the Airplane, she brought both of these tunes with her and they would become big hits for her new band.

I was 3000 miles away back on the East Coast and unaware of any of this.  I had gone through the next few months in withdrawal and craving my beloved Jefferson Airplane.  It wasn’t until the following spring, in May 1967, that I got my next taste. I read in TV Guide (I think) that MY Jefferson Airplane was going to be on the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour.  I finally got a new taste of Airplane as I watched them on our TV, which was black and white so I didn’t originally see it in color as you can see it below.  This is the same performance I saw exactly 50 years ago next month.

I hadn’t noticed that the woman singing had changed, at least for a while.  Things “psychedelic” were just starting to appear and I think I had heard this song before on the radio, but didn’t know it was my Jefferson Airplane.  Even in black and white, the psychedelic essence of the performance was not lost on me.  Remember, they had gotten me early and they were continuing to bend my mind.

The album this new song was off of was Surrealistic Pillow and it was one of the first albums I ever bought and I couldn’t play it enough.  I drove my parents nuts!  The Airplane had hit the big time and I would never again find myself unable to get my fill of them.  I would buy each of their albums as they were released and always made sure I caught their TV appearances.

They not only were on the radio now, they would play two of the most famous festivals of the 60’s, the Monterey Pop Festival and Woodstock.  They would record a total of seven studio albums and various live releases before breaking up in 1972.  For those six years, they truly did bend my young mind.  Jorma Kaukonen and Jack Cassidy had already formed a new Band, Hot Tuna.  In 1974, Grace Slick, Paul Kantner and Marty Balin got together and formed Jefferson Starship as a next generation band.

Fun Fact…

In real life, DJ Sue is Grace Slick’s 7^th cousin.  We both go back to a common ancestor in Massachusetts during the 1700’s.  We have never met but I learned this around the year 2000 when I read an article in a genealogical journal on her ancestry.  No shit!!!

DJ Sue’s Vault…

I no longer have my first copy of Surrealistic Pillow but above is a 1970’s replacement in my collection currently.  What I believe to be the oldest piece of vinyl in the vault that I bought myself is my copy of After Bathing at Baxters (1967), their third album shown below.  You can see from the picture below that it is quite worn.  I didn’t go back and pick up Jefferson Airplane Takes Off (1966), the album my brother had played for me, until I already had these two.

Conclusion…

Each week when I open Sue’s Sunday Sojourn, I usually play a snippet of something as an intro to lead into my theme song.  Sunday, I will use their introduction at the Monterey Pop Festival and you will hear Grace Slick laugh at that introduction as my theme cuts in.  In closing my sets, I’ve been picking appropriate songs, sometimes combining them with a closing snippet.  This week, I’ll close with one of their closing numbers at a concert at the Fillmore East in New York City.  This venue was the east coast sister to the original Fillmore in San Francisco.  As they go into their closing number they will describe the Grateful Dead’s run in with the State Police in New Jersey.  Pay attention because before they start the song, Grace Slick refers to the Dead as, “…dirty dope addicts, they deserved it.”

I don’t know if any other band has had as much musical influence over me as the Jefferson Airplane had.  They got me young and they so bent my mind.  Why have I always been something of a hippie?  Blame the Airplane.  Blame them and start a revolution.  Come to AWT Sunday night from 7-9 PM SLT for Sue’s Sunday Sojourn as I relive some of my best musical memories and share them with you.

“Rock music is intended to broaden the generation gap, alienate parents from their children and prepare young people for revolution.”

 

Paul Kantner, The Jefferson Airplane

Boston

Update posted 3/24/2017 at the bottom, after the conclusion.

SUE’S SUNDAY SOJOURN: Each week Sue will showcase a particular artist or band during her entire two hour set.  Each week, prior to the set, there will be a blog post where she will write about her memories, favorite stories or share other interesting tidbits about the artist.  The idea here is not to tell the story of the band or play two hours of their greatest hits.  The idea behind Sue’s Sunday Sojourn will be to spend time with Sue, down in her music vault.  As she puts together the set, she will reminisce and share special memories.  “I remember when this came out,” or, “I recall hearing this for the first time and I thought…”  She might share little known facts, favorite memories, fun stories or maybe even some personal experiences. 

The sets will have plenty of the big hits but be ready for a few obscure tunes that may be her personal favorites.  She will probably include a few rarities or possibly unreleased material, along with other assorted curios.  So join her every Sunday night from 7-9 PM SLT as she lets you into her world.

Boston

Boston's Debut Album (1976)

Last week I told you about a camping trip in the fall of 1976 and maybe I should have told the story I’m about to, first.  It happened a few weeks or maybe a couple months earlier but I don’t recall the details of timing.  It was America’s Bicentennial Summer and it was when I first heard the band, Boston.  Being named for a city or place was not unusual as there were bands like Chicago and Kansas already well established but this was a city that literally hit close to home.  Only seven years early we had moved from Massachusetts in 1969 and went back several times a year to visit family.  I knew this city very well.

During the summer, I began to see a commercial on TV for a new album by a new band named “Boston.”  Commercials for albums weren’t really unusual at the time but what got me about this one was the way the band sounded.  I can’t really describe it but the vocal harmonies were delicate and beautiful but the guitars were hard rock, or were they a part of the delicate harmony?  Was it possible that they were both?  Below is a video of Bradley Delp, Boston’s lead singer, singing More Than a Feeling.  This is the performance video that was edited into the commercial I recall seeing.  They sounded so different from any other band and I fell in love with their sound.

That unique sound was the work of mastermind, Tom Scholz, the leader of the band.  He was already writing some of the tunes that would appear on Boston’s first album when he graduated with a Master’s Degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).  Scholz designed various pedal effects for the band’s guitars that gave them their unique sound.  One created a “violin-like sound” for the electric guitars.  That is why they sounded so unique.

That debut album was recorded almost entirely in Tom Scholz’s basement, which did not make the record company happy, but it was one of the bestselling debut albums ever. I’m sure you are not surprised that I bought this album as soon as I could.  It remained a permanent fixture on my turntable for a couple of weeks as I almost wore it out playing it constantly.  The song, Rock & Roll Band, further hit home as they sang the line, “Dancing in the streets of Hyannis.”  I was still a bit homesick for my old home in Massachusetts and Hyannis MA was just a couple of towns over from where I used to live.

The album cover (shown at the top) is interesting and depicted a planet, probably Earth, exploding and several ships escaping.  They seemed to each carry a city and the one in the foreground was labeled, “Boston.”  It was during this initial “binge phase” that I noticed something when I was looking at the album jacket one day as it lay on my bed.  I was looking at it upside-down and it struck me that the ships were actually guitars!  (See below.)

Click to enlarge

It took two full years for their second album, Don’t Look Back, to come out.  This was due to problems with management and Tom Schloz’s perfectionism.  This album contained many more great tunes and still carried the signature Boston sound.

Now years went by and many, including myself, wondered what happened to this great band.  There was never an announcement saying that they had split up and we’d here nothing for seven years.  Then in 1986 they finally released their third album, aptly named, “Third Stage.”  The album quickly climbed to the #1 position on the Billboard charts, along with their single, Amanda.  Those of us on the sidelines watching had assumed that this album would just be a footnote and would be the final death throes of Boston.  Weren't we were pleasantly surprised to be proven wrong?

So, why seven years?  There were many problems, especially legal ones with management, the record label and even between the members themselves.  These problems would continue to plague the band through its various incarnations and future albums, which would come out only once a decade: Walk On (1994), Corporate America (2002) and Life, Love & Hope (2013).

The Nicest Guy in Rock and Roll...

Brad Delp, the lead singer for Boston, so prominent in the video above, had a golden voice that everyone loved.  He also played guitar, keyboards and other instruments, though he rarely did so with Boston.  The superstardom, talent and success never went to his head.  In fact you would find Brad Delp still signing autographs hours later after a concert was over.  He didn’t want anyone to go home disappointed so he took it upon himself to treat the fans with that much care.  It wasn’t long before he had earned the moniker, the “Nicest Guy in Rock and Roll.”

Brad Delp, the Nicest Guy in Rock and Roll

It wasn’t just signing autographs.  Jim Hinkle of the band, Aces and Eights said of Delp, “Brad was the kind of guy who’d always remember your name, no matter when you saw him last.  He was real, as genuine a man as you get.”  His love, kindness and generosity were legendary in the industry.  He was often described as brightening up any room he entered.  That is why the Rock & Roll world was shaken to its core on 9 March 2007 when we learned that Brad Delp had taken his own life.  I recall weeping at the news.

I’m going to discuss Brad’s suicide in considerable detail because I feel it is a story that should be told.  I also understand that many of you really can’t face the topic and I invite those to skip ahead to the next section, “Aftermath.”  You should be okay picking up the story there.

Let me start by saying that I have had a bit of experience with this subject.  As an Emergency Medical Services worker, I have been on many suicide scenes and witnessed many things.  Once I also contemplated taking my own life.  Those near me intervened and pulled me back from the brink.  Don’t worry, that was 15 years ago and I’ve never come close again, but it does give me a unique insight.

There are two types of suicides, those by people that want to die and those crying out for help and don’t want to die.  Unfortunately, due to the incredible engineering, preparation and effort, it was obvious to me that Delp wanted to die.  One of the great misconceptions about suicide is that there is always a suicide note.  I have found that there usually isn’t one in the real world.  This is because suicide is usually a selfish act.  The suicidal person is only thinking about escape for themselves and usually doesn’t consider what their death will do to others around them, though sometimes there is an expressed belief that people would be better off without them.  In my particular case, I just wanted the images in my head to stop and I could think of no other way to end them.

Bradley Delp was an exception to this.  The “Nicest Guy in Rock and Roll” was thinking about everyone else, even thru his own self-inflicted demise.  I should probably explain what he did.

 Brad Delp died of carbon monoxide poisoning.  Before he did this, he took great pains to seal the room airtight using plastic and duct tape.  He sealed a dryer vent hose to the tailpipe of his car and ran it through the window, carefully sealing that up too.  In addition, he had obtained two charcoal grills, which he lit up in the room, creating more of the deadly gas.  He then prominently taped a sign outside of this room warning responders of the danger inside.  The “Nicest Guy in Rock and Roll” was thinking about the safety of others until his final breath.  I have never seen nor heard about such efforts taken before a suicide for the wellbeing of others, especially strangers.  The room was sealed with great care to keep the rest of the house from becoming toxic and then warnings had been placed outside.  In my opinion, that was unprecedented and it was unlike any suicide I’ve ever seen or heard about.

He was found with a note clipped to his tee shirt which said, “Mr. Brad Delp. J’ai une ame solitaire. I am a lonely soul.”  The note continued with contact information for his fiancé before continuing, “Unfortunately, she is totally unaware of what I have done.  I take complete and sole responsibility for my present situation.”  The use of the French is not surprising since he was raised as part of a French Canadian family.

There was nothing in it trying to blame or guilt anyone.  Instead, he explicitly says that the blame remains with him and no one else should feel guilty.  He also left behind letters for his kids, his ex-wife, his fiancé and others.  It is my understanding that these letters were written to help his family and friends understand and cope with his death.  That was Bad Delp.

Aftermath…

The following day, Boston’s website had been taken down and visitors were greeted by a black screen and only one sentence written in simple white letters.  It read, “We've just lost the nicest guy in rock and roll.”

Brad Delp’s letters and notes, as stated above, went out of their way to blame no one for his situation, so why he did it would become the subject of much conjecture and discussion.  Friends and family were quick to point out how unhappy he was with Boston and being in the middle of all of the fights between band members, management, etc.  They claimed that he especially didn’t like Tom Scholz and they saw him as the source of Delp’s unrest.  This view of holding Scholz to blame was put forth by the Boston Herald and Scholz sued members of the Delp family and the Herald for defamation of character.

In true Boston fashion like one of their albums, Brad Delp’s death would be drawn out over many years and many lawsuits.  It wasn’t until 2015 that the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts, the highest court in the Commonwealth, found in favor the Herald and the Delp family.  Tom Scholz was not about to let the matter finally rest.  In early 2016 he filed a petition with the Supreme Court of the United States.  Last summer, 9½ years after Bradley Delp died, SCOTUS refused Scholz’s petition.  We are now just past the 10^th anniversary of his death this month and I think his “ame solitaire” can finally rest in peace.

DJ Sue’s Vault…

Above, you can see my original vinyl copy of Don’t Look Back (1979).  I really don’t have anything rare or unusual from them.  I did look for my original copy of their debut album, the one I binge listened to in 1976, but found that it is somehow missing.

Conclusion…

The fights, lawsuits and disagreements abounded but they came out with some of the most unique sounding and kick-ass Rock that the world has ever known.  I look back to that summer of 1976 and watching that commercial on TV of a happy Bradley Delp singing More Than a Feeling.  Who could have foreseen where it all would go in the end?  I certainly could not.

The Grateful Dead are famous for the line, “What a long strange trip it’s been.”  I think it perfectly describes Boston.  In the end there were lots of hurt feelings, bruised egos, and lawsuits but in the end we also lost the greatest guy in Rock and Roll.  Despite it all, we were left with some amazing music.

Join me Sunday Night at AWT from 7-9 PM SLT as I share two hours of Boston.

Update posted 3/24/2017

After I made this post three days ago, I learned of the death of Boston drummer, Sib Hashian, on March 22.  Hashian was the drummer for their first two albums but was replaced during the making of the third album.  After he left Boston, he sued Tom Scholz, in true Boston fashion, for the back royalties he was due.  The two settled out of court.

Sib was performing on stage Wednesday when he collapsed and died.

Sib Hashian

The Legendary Chuck Berry (1926 – 2017)

Chuck Berry doing the "Duck Walk."

We lost a great one yesterday, the immortal Chuck Berry and what can I really say?  He was one of the most influential pioneers of Rock ‘n’ Roll Music, beginning in the early years when it was referred to as “Race Music.”  From his very first single in 1955, Maybellene, to his upcoming new album, Chuck, slated to be released this June, the man never slowed down or stopped entertaining us.  He was still playing concert dates last summer with plans to do so again this year.

Known for his infamous “duck walk” on stage, he brought us so many Rock classics.  His awards and accolades are too numerous to list.  He was one of the first artists inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and he has three songs on their list of 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll.

We must remember that without Chuck, Beethoven would never have rolled over and there would have been no one to tell Tchaikovsky the news.  It all began with Chuck Berry.  I find it ironic that I sit here writing this when I will be covering the Electric Light Orchestra tonight and will be featuring one of the greatest covers of Roll Over Beethoven ever.  The song was covered by many, including the Beatles, and remains one of his greatest.

In 1977, two Voyager spacecraft were launched that would eventually travel into deep space and leave our solar system.  On board it was felt that we needed to include some description of us and who we are for any intelligent being that might find it someday.  Included among the sound recordings of whale songs, greetings in 55 languages, and other content, was a recording of Chuck Berry’s Johnny B. Goode.

My entire show tomorrow, Monday, March 20, will be a tribute to him.  So stop playing with your Ding-a-Ling and join us at AWT tomorrow night, 7-9 PM SLT.

I have never known a world without Chuck Berry.  I think Keith Richards spoke for me and legions of other fans and musicians yesterday when he tweeted…

"One of my big lights has gone out.”

The Electric Light Orchestra

SUE’S SUNDAY SOJOURN: Each week Sue will showcase a particular artist or band during her entire two hour set.  Each week, prior to the set, there will be a blog post where she will write about her memories, favorite stories or share other interesting tidbits about the artist.  The idea here is not to tell the story of the band or play two hours of their greatest hits.  The idea behind Sue’s Sunday Sojourn will be to spend time with Sue, down in her music vault.  As she puts together the set, she will reminisce and share special memories.  “I remember when this came out,” or, “I recall hearing this for the first time and I thought…”  She might share little known facts, favorite memories, fun stories or maybe even some personal experiences. 

The sets will have plenty of the big hits but be ready for a few obscure tunes that may be her personal favorites.  She will probably include a few rarities or possibly unreleased material, along with other assorted curios.  So join her every Sunday night from 7-9 PM SLT as she lets you into her world.

The Electric Light Orchestra

I recall John Lennon being asked back in the late ‘70’s, “If the Beatles were around today, how would they sound?”  He answered the question by saying that they would probably sound a lot like ELO.  He had also, at various times, referred to ELO as the “Son of Beatles.”  There are quite a few Beatles/ELO connections and I wrote a blog post almost six years ago in which I covered these and gave a decent retrospect on The Electric Light Orchestra.  You can read that post here and I’ll try not to overlap with it here, except for a couple of necessary tidbits.

If you read that post, you’d know that the Electric Light Orchestra was a concept for a new band or project started by members of a band called the “Move.”  The Move was a very success and famous band in the UK but they never really made it big in the United States.  I wasn’t even aware of them before researching them after I became an ELO fan.

And I wasn’t really a fan of theirs for a few years.  Yeah, I saw their records in the record store and I recall hearing them on the radio but I didn’t really pay that much attention to them until one camping trip.  My senior year of high school had just started but it was early enough in the fall that it was still warm.  My parents allowed me to go on this camping trip with older teens and college students, mostly because my older brother and two cousins were going.  Still, the pot and beer flowed freely and we all felt good all weekend long.  I seem to remember that I brought along a bottle of Boone’s Farm.  Yes, I know!  Wine with a screw cap, but we were kids and this was a last hurrah of America’s Bicentennial Summer for us.

My Loudmouth portable 8-track player
(a pic of 1 like mine I found on the net)

We stayed up late into the night Friday into Saturday, having a good time.  As an afterthought, I brought along General Electric Loudmouth, a portable AM/FM/8-track tape player, shown at the left.  After listening to several tapes, the batteries started to give out and even high we could hear the tapes were starting to slur, so I switched it to FM radio and found us a rock station.  We would obviously need more alcohol on Saturday and we could add batteries to the list.  It was very late and we still sat around the fire, letting it burn down to just orange coals as we passed one last joint around.  That’s when I first heard it.  Those opening musical notes along with the ringback tone as the listener waits to see if anyone answers.  We then hear one side of a phone conversation…

“Hello, how are you?
Have you been alright through all those lonely
Lonely, lonely, lonely, lonely nights?
That's what I'd say; I'd tell you everything
If you pick up that telephone, yeah, yeah, yeah.”

The early morning hour, the weed, the darkness, the embers in the fire; I don’t know which one of those contributed to the experience. Maybe it was all of them or maybe it was none of them.  That song so moved me!  The DJ came on and told us it was off of the brand new ELO album, A New World’s Record.  I heard it a few more times that weekend and each time it stunned me in the same way.  I had become an ELO fan and I can’t hear it today without an intense feeling of nostalgia going back to that evening.

I went out one afternoon after school the following week and bought that album.  Every cut off of it was a winner.  I especially liked the song, Do Ya, which I’d later learn was them covering themselves from when they used to be the Move.

When their next album came out it was a double, Out of the Blue.  Here were many more great ELO tunes to listen to.  I was a bit disappointed when the next studio album, Discovery, was released.  They had begun to go Disco just like the Bee Gees had done.  I was heartbroken but I had by this time acquired all of their earlier albums and had plenty of ELO to play.  It was easy for me to do as a radio DJ.

An ELO concert was something to see and I regret never having seen them live.  Many bands used session musicians to play violins and other instruments and some even toured with these extra musicians.  However, with ELO they were key members of the band and all seven members were featured on every song.  This included a guitar, bass, drums, keyboards, two cellos and a violin.  That is what you saw on stage in the spotlight.  The Cellos were adapted so they could dance around stage with them and these string instruments had brightly colored finishes instead of the traditional wood grain.  (See the photo below.)  ELO most certainly put on a spectacular show.  After the release of Out of the Blue, their stage show included the ship shown in the picture at the top of this page.  It would open revealing the band inside and they’d play the concert from within it.

Hugh McDowell (white cello) and Mik Kaminski (blue violin) in concert

It is my opinion that their heyday was in the 1970’s and they died a slow death through the 1980’s.  It is also my opinion that they were on life support after the release of their disco-ish album, Discovery.  Then again, they did have a few hits in the 80’s too, like Rock and Roll is King.  (I'll play it Sunday.)  I guess a lot of this is individual taste and I thought that they had abandoned their “Album Oriented Rock,” FM radio roots and turned pop.  Their death was so tragic that when they disbanded in 1986 there wasn’t even a public announcement made and no one even noticed.

Of the three members of the Move that became the Electric Light Orchestra, Jeff Lynn, Bev Bevan and Roy Wood, one only stuck around for the first two albums.  Roy Wood left part way through recording the second ELO album and formed a new band, Wizzard.  Bev Bevan was the only one of the trio who was a founding member of the Move from 1965 on.  Jeff Lynn was a late comer to the Move but he was the only one of the three to see ELO to the end in 1986.  Bevan would leave to join Black Sabbath in 1983.

Lynn and Bevan jointly owned the name, “The Electric Light Orchestra.”  After disbanding they did tour in various combinations, sometimes only having one former ELO member in the lineup.  These were rather hollow representations with little substance.  In 2001 the Electric Light Orchestra released a new album, Zoom.  Unfortunately it was Jeff Lynn and a bunch of guest musicians.  The only other former ELO member to appear on the album was keyboardist, Richard Tandy, and he only appeared on one track.  Nothing off of this album made my final two hour cut for the set this Sunday.

In 2015 Jeff Lynn released another album using the name “Jeff Lynn’s ELO.”  No other former ELO members appear on it but I will say this.  It is a great Jeff Lynn record and even charted well but it’s just that, a Jeff Lynn album and not ELO.  In my opinion it sounds more like the Traveling Wilburys than the Electric Light Orchestra.  I will play one cut from this album on Sunday and you can decide.

DJ Sue’s Vault…

Above is my vinyl of On the Third Day.  I know somewhere in my mother’s attic there is a box with my old Loudmouth and a few tapes.  I saw the box a few years ago so I know one of the tapes was a double length 8-track of Out of the Blue.  I gave a twenty minute search a few says ago hoping to be able to photograph both for this post but alas, I was not able to find it.

Conclusion…

Today all I need to hear is those opening notes of Telephone Line and suddenly I’m 17 again, back on that camping trip, before the trauma and the PTSD.  Music has the power to do that.  I also get that from reminiscing and sharing this with all of you in Second Life.

My Electric Light Orchestra died after the release of Discovery and that is how I wish to remember them.  There was only one Electric Light Orchestra and there will be no other.  Join us on Sunday night as the young me relives that Strange Magic from the 70’s, the magic that was ELO.

The Move 1969 (l to r) Jeff Lynn, Roy Wood, Bev Bevan and Carl Wayne