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David is an occasional blogger, software engineer, Nintendo fanboy, liberal, news magazine addict, voracious TiVo user, and bibliophile. He was born in St. Louis, grew up in southern Indiana, and returned to St. Louis to attend Washington University. He hasn't managed to escape yet. He's a fan of free wine tastings, too many tv shows to name, and eating out. David makes his living developing web applications used internally by his employer. He doesn't blog about work because he's heard too many stories about that causing workplace troubles. There's more on the about page. |
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12 January 2003 - 6:54 pm
Paul McCartney once said, and I'm paraphrasing here, that the Beatles would have sounded like ELO if they'd stayed together. I suspect Paul intended this to be a compliment, and I know Jeff Lynne took it as such, but I usually think of it as an argument in favor of the Beatles breaking up. Anyway, if you're unfamiliar with the Electric Light Orchestra, I'll just mention that ELO is generally known for songs that come out sounding a bit over-produced. Generally speaking, the same can be said of most of the musical projects Jeff Lynne has been involved in. (Examples: The Travelling Wilburys; George Harrison's last album, an album that Harrison wanted to be sparse, but Jeff Lynne, as the producer, couldn't resist adding in all kinds of shitty production effects.)
That said, the reworked version of "Mr. Blue Sky" that Lynne put together for the VW commercial (the one with the guy going through the motions day after day at work -- click here and watch "Bubble") has had all of the distortion and weird effects of the original removed, and I really like it. A lot. It's too bad Lynne didn't find this more minimalist style earlier in his career.
Posted by on 12 January 2003 at 6:55 PM
Comments
two things struck me about that commercial
1. it's the same song they're using in the "adaptation" ads, but starts at a different (earlier) part
2. it does sound very beatlesesque -- that's the first thing i thought of when i first heard it: "this _can't_ be beatles"
Posted by Adam on 14 January 2003 - 7:40 PM
But doesn't the fact that the first thing you thought when you heard the song was "this can't be the beatles" mean that the beatles were the first association you made with the song?
Posted by david on 15 January 2003 - 11:39 AM