![\"Jeff](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Jeff-Lynne-Electric-Light-Orchestra-1970s-Musician-Far-Out-Magazine-1140x855.jpg\")
<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
(Credits: Far Out \/ Alamy)<\/p>\n
Sun 2 November 2025 17:30, UK <\/p>\n
For as much as rock and roll was about the live show, Jeff Lynne<\/a> never saw his music in those terms.\u00a0<\/p>\n Countless artists revel in the idea of making music that\u2019s made to be played in stadiums, but the production genius behind ELO was always more interested in the mechanics behind making a great song than having to worry about how it sounds on the live stage. He was more of a musical craftsman, and when he found that a song came together properly, he knew nothing on Earth felt better to him.<\/p>\n And it\u2019s not like it\u2019s hard to tell why he preferred the studio if you look at the band\u2019s live performances during their prime. A New World Record and Out of the Blue are among the finest records to come out of the 1970s, but when taking into account the amount of people that would have to have been onstage to make tunes like \u2018Telephone Line\u2019 and \u2018Mr Blue Sky\u2019 sound pristine, they would either needed a small town\u2019s worth of musicians onstage or make some compromises.<\/p>\n Every artist might have to deal with that dreaded word \u201ccompromise\u201d at some point in their lives, but Lynne felt that was too far over the line. \u2018Mr Blue Sky\u2019 may have been one of the best songs that he would ever write, but it was also the song that convinced him<\/a> that maybe the touring life wasn\u2019t really for him.<\/p>\n It\u2019s not like he didn\u2019t have opportunities to work outside the confines of the road, either. Right after taking a break from ELO, his run of albums with everyone from the Traveling Wilburys to Tom Petty to George Harrison to The Beatles gave him a better outlook on the studio. He could make himself comfortable in the producer\u2019s chair making symphonies, and it wasn\u2019t like it had to take much convincing, either. <\/p>\n He had already started to figure out the mechanics of what a hit song could sound like, and while \u2018Can\u2019t Get It Out Of My Head\u2019 was the first time he got a massive hit out of a record, Out of the Blue really is the masterpiece of his catalogue. The whole thing feels like one big journey through space, but even for a massive double record, setting things up on \u2018Turn to Stone\u2019 was a great way of getting everyone ready for his musical adventure.<\/p>\n