![\"Jeff](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Jeff-Lynne-Electric-Light-Orchestra-1970s-Musician-Far-Out-Magazine-1140x855.jpg\")
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(Credits: Far Out \/ Alamy)<\/p>\n
Thu 15 May 2025 19:00, UK <\/p>\n
Every musician who has walked the Earth is capable of taking themselves a bit too seriously when they start making their classic records. They might not have lost an ounce of sheen as a songwriter by any stretch, but all the fame and attention can lead to some people\u2019s heads to balloon to twice their original size and lead to their downfall if anyone dares to question their new artistic direction. However, for someone who has written some of the finest tracks of the 1970s and worked magic for other artists, Jeff Lynne<\/a> has always kept a firm head on his shoulders.<\/p>\n He knew that it was a privilege for him to be working as one of the greatest musicians on the planet, but underneath those shades was a brilliant mind always willing to toy with what a pop song was supposed to be. And even when it was a carbon copy of an old Beatles tune, it hardly mattered when Lynne could take the basis of it and transform it into a symphonic suite whenever he wanted to.<\/p>\n Then again, it\u2019s also easy to make fun of Electric Light Orchestra if some naysayers wanted to. The idea of having an entire orchestra of people onstage playing instruments felt like the antithesis of the guitar\/bass\/drums setup most people had known, but if they bothered to drop the layers of pretension for more than one song, they would have seen the kind of genius that Lynne was behind the scenes, especially when working with Tom Petty and The Beatles as a go-to producer.<\/p>\n If anything, Lynne was the furthest thing from the other prog-rock bands that he got roped in with during his prime. The biggest names in music at the time may have been acts like Yes and Genesis, but in terms of the grandiose presentation, ELO seemed to have much more in common with bands like Queen. There was a lot of theatricality still, but he was always trying to write pop songs rather than grandiose events.<\/p>\n \u201cI liked pop. I didn\u2019t like all the pretentious meandering of 20-minute songs in the early \u201970s.\u201d<\/p>\n Jeff Lynne<\/p><\/blockquote>\n That didn\u2019t mean that he couldn\u2019t make something extravagant when he wanted to. The band\u2019s sophomore release already had a few songs that stretched out for minutes on end, trying to tell some grand-scale epic, but it was no surprise that Lynne tired of that fairly quickly and decided to move on to songs like \u2018Livin\u2019 Thing\u2019 and \u2018Do Ya<\/a>\u2019 later down the line.<\/p>\n\n