Mr Blue Sky: The Story of Jeff Lynne and ELO

This programme contains some strong language

BIRDSONG AND BLUESY GUITAR

BIRDSONG

PAUL MCCARTNEY: Funny, shy, ever so clever. Great musician.

And a total twat.

-RINGO STARR:

-You know, I've heard some of the end results

of what he does when he stays up all night.

The harmonies stack in and, you know, the music is great.

-BARBARA ORBISON:

-He has done Tom Petty

and he has done Paul McCartney, Roy Orbison, George Harrison.

-TOM PETTY:

-But he is a, a great, great artist, you know,

I'm glad you're doing this movie because somebody should.

-DHANI HARRISON:

-He's such a great producer.

And a complete control freak.

So he likes to, you know, do it his way.

-JOE WALSH:

-He hears the finished thing way before it's done.

And to have a musician as complete as he is, it's a real rare,

rare thing.

ERIC IDLE: He is... I mean, he's a composer.

But he's a recording artist, you know, that's what he really is.

He makes his music.

And that's all he does, really, all day, he makes music every day.

PLAYS UKULELE

'The first band I loved was the Nightriders.

'Yeah, Mike Sheridan and the Nightriders.

'I thought they were just absolutely marvellous.

'They had the brown mohair suits for a start, uh,

'which convinced me that they were brilliant.

'So in 1966, uh, when I saw the, the column in the newspaper,

'in the Birmingham Mail,

'it said "keen lead guitarist required for Nightriders".

'I went, "What? That's me."

'Since I'd seen them, I'd learned how to play.'

Oi! 'And I was ready to join, you know.

'I hope I get in this thing cos it's professional

'and I'd been doing all these horrible little menial jobs,

'you know, cos I didn't really want to go to work.

'I wanted to play my guitar.' Hey, Lucy.

'So I've got lovely memories of those days.'

Ah, that's better.

Oi!

You have certain styles and certain favourite passages in music that...

that have tickled you probably since you were an infant.

And I know that for a fact cos there was a...

a film called The High And The Mighty that I saw

when I was probably about...

I went with my mum and dad to the cinema in Birmingham,

I would be about five or something and, um, the signature tune in it.

LUSH STRING ORCHESTRATION

I remember being knocked out by it. Oh, what a tune that is.

But I can understand where my taste in...in chords and things come from.

And it comes from a way, way back.

Sort of from being a tiny kid.

# Da-da. #

This is my very first guitar that my dad got for me

for £2 from his friend.

And, uh, I've had it for all these... I've had it for, uh,

Gordon Bennett, uh, 43 years.

So, uh, hang on, 40...

Something like that, a lot.

And it was kind of hard to play when I first got it.

But now, as you can see...

STRUMS AND PLAYS CLASSICAL REFRAIN

..it plays beautifully, uh, and easily.

A real old banger.

And this is the guitar that I wrote all my first songs on.

And, if you come in this way, I'll show you my first studio.

Which is right there.

And that's called the BNO 2000 Deluxe.

And what you can do on that is multi-track, even though

it's only a stereo tape recorder.

You just bounce from the left to the right and back to the left

and keep adding instruments as you go.

And this is how I did... This is how I started out, basically,

as a songwriter and a producer.

This taught me how to be a producer

and this taught me how to be a songwriter. So not bad.

What first got me interested in music was my dad, really.

He used to have a great record collection.

But of all classical music and a lot of these great writers.

# And you enter sweet desire

# You took me

# Whoa-oh, higher and higher, baby

# It's a living thing

# It's a terrible thing to lose. #

It was always like a...a nightmare getting up at like 7:30

or something to go into the dark and I had to go on the bloody bus.

Get in, go upstairs on the bus

and everybody's like coughing up their guts.

And it's... You can't see through the air

because everybody smoked in them days.

It was vile, you know? Then you get off the other end

and you've got to spend eight hours in this place

where you don't really want to be at all.

That's why I used to have a guitar stashed somewhere.

It was so marvellous when I didn't have to go to work that first day

'and I knew I'd go, all I've got to do is go and practise.

'And it was just the best fun you could ever have.

'And get paid for it and all.'

PERCUSSIVE FINGER-PICKING NUMBER

'The great thing was that I had a drawer full of money

'and my mum one day said,

'"Where the hell did all that money come from in that drawer?"

'She thought I nicked it or something.

'I said, "I've earned it, Mum, playing music."

'"Don't be ridiculous. Where'd you get that from?"

'She just wasn't a big fan, I guess.'

Making their first appearance on our show this week is a great new group

from Birmingham, The Idle Race.

Well, let's have a word with one of them.

Roger, you've got how many records released now, because it's not

the same one in America that you have elsewhere, is it?

We have two, one in America, which is Here We Go Round the Lemon Tree.

And the song written by Jeff Lynne, our lead guitarist, uh,

which is called Impostors of Life's Magazine.

-Well let's give that a whirl, now, can we?

-Yeah, sure.

# How do you know what you feel is it real, is it real? #

So in the Idle Race, uh, we finally got a record deal.

So I wrote this song called Impostors of Life's Magazine.

I can't wait for this thing to arrive in the mail,

this record I've made and it's going to have my name on the label.

I'm going, "Whoa, I'm going to be a songwriter!"

The thing comes and I look at it and I go, "What the hell is that?"

And it says Impostors of Life's Magazine by G Lynn

without...without the E on the end, just L-Y-N-N.

And G, I thought, "Who's that? Gordon?"

You know, "I don't know any G Lynn around here."

So I was very, very disappointed, very upset

cos, you know, it was really my big moment and it,

it just turned to shit.

# Impostors of life's magazine. #

I loved it because we played all the pubs in Birmingham.

And it was the best apprenticeship,

if you like, for musicians that you could ever have.

because you play in a different pub every night, um, or club, or, er,

the town hall or somewhere, you know, a bit further afield.

It was quite... We got to be bigger and bigger as we played.

And, um, I loved playing with the Idle Race a lot.

After four years, I decided I'd join The Move with Bev Bevan

and Roy Wood.

We stayed as The Move for a couple of years

while we made this album called Electric Light Orchestra,

which is what we decided to call it when me and Roy used to hang out

at clubs in Birmingham and discussed this group with strings.

MUSIC: "10538" by ELO

# Did you see your friend crying from his eyes today... #

'10538 was the first one I'd ever written that'd gotten in the...

'in the top ten. So that was a big start.'

# ..Through the streets and far away. #

It was odd because I, I wasn't really aware too much of ELO.

But when I went to the concert, I realised I knew every song.

It was extraordinary.

So I sort of did know by, you know, from the radio,

I just didn't put them all together and go Jeff - ELO.

I think it's always a big mistake he left The Idle Race.

I think that's a much better title for a group.

Roy left after about three months and he never told us he was leaving.

He just disappeared and had this other group called Wizzard.

You know, it was a shame at the time,

'but also it proved to be a big opportunity for me

'because I was now the sole songwriter and the producer.'

You know, I'd been doing sessions for The Move

and things before Jeff joined.

But then he joined The Move as well.

And then they formed ELO and asked me to join.

# Did you hear what he said?

# He said they sold me down the river

# They thought I thought I was a fool... #

'Usually when I...I start to write a song, a new one, you know,

'you'll be either messing around on the piano or the guitar.

'And the first thing that comes

'is really like two or three chords in sequence.

'You go, "Mm, that's interesting."

'And you try to work on those two or three chords and sort of stretch

'it out to a fourth and a fifth and you've got a tune going through it.

'And your little tune's wandering in it

'and you're going, "Mm, this is good." And it...

'Some songs can, you can finish them in 15 minutes

'and some can take three months.

'You...you never know how it, how a song is going to develop.'

# ..I'm going to see the world like a rolling stone

# I'm stepping out

# I'm going to be somebody

# Ooh. #

When the Heartbreakers first kicked up

I had bought one of those, um, the first ghetto blasters.

You know, it was a Sony, made out of metal,

this really industrial ghetto blaster.

And you couldn't buy many... Cassettes were just becoming a thing

and there weren't many for sale but they had an ELO one for sale.

And I bought that.

And I carried it around with me on tour.

And I played it all the time and I really liked it.

And, um, I thought, you know, just what a record maker this guy is.

They say everyone was borrowing from

the people they admired.

Um, and so, you know,

when I heard ELO, it was very what we'd been doing on Sergeant Pepper.

This sort of - mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm - cellos, you know,

and the - nn-nn nn-nn nn-nn -

you know, very much what we'd been into.

Very sort of mathematical strings.

Um, and so I think the first thing was, "Ooh, that's...

"I know where he got that from."

But then you can't resist it. It's just so good.

You go, "Oh, gosh, bloody good song, wish we'd done that one."

You know, "God he's got, he's nailed those strings.

"He's singing it great. That guitar is good."

# I'll tell you once more

# Before I get off the floor don't bring me down. #

LAUGHS

That was the first time I saw Jeff or met Jeff,

he was coming out of this big spaceship

with lots of robots and then we went to his house.

Um, I ended up throwing a dart into his dart board

and it bounced off and went in my arm.

So I remember that day.

You know, if you listen to something like, like Mr Blue Sky,

you know, I hear it a lot in ads now and, um, or in movies.

And I think it was in a movie I watched recently.

And it...it was just... It's just amazing, you know.

And it's...it's not derivative.

It's... It's not... It's not really coming from anybody but Jeff.

Nobody could do it quite like that.

I mean I'm a sucker for sort of the hits.

So Mr Blue Sky is a pretty special song.

It's probably the one that everyone would choose

so it's a bit boring to choose it.

But it's great. I mean, it just works.

And if you're in the car

and it's a nice day, it really works.

# Doo doo ba-ba ba-ba

# Doo doo ba-ba ba-ba

# Doo doo ba-ba ba-ba baah baah baaah

# Baaah baah baaah! #

METRONOMIC BEAT

ROCK GUITAR

You know, I re-recorded all of my old songs.

They...they just didn't have the sound I remembered or thought

I'd got on them in the day I did them.

Some of them are like 35, 36 years old, 37.

So they are quite old, you know,

and they were made on 16 track or 8 track.

'It was just nice to have all this facility

'of Pro Tools and just re-do them

'all in my own time. And just in the old days

'I'd have to do them in like six weeks -

'write it, record it and get in there,

'finish it and be on tour playing them.

But now I've got time to get them exactly as I really want them.

Luckily, I've managed to do it, I have.

MUSIC: "Do Ya" by Jeff Lynne

-OK, that was good, cut them both.

-Yeah.

-Good, OK.

-Two good ones.

-Yeah.

So, anyway, that's that one done.

I knew I could make them better because I had all these years of experience working with

George and Paul and Roy Orbison and Tom Petty.

And all these fantastic people. I've learned so much working with them, you know.

I mean, hopefully they learnt a bit working with me too.

# Well I think you know what I'm trying to say, woman

# That is I'd like to save you for a rainy day, yeah

# I've seen enough of the world to know

# That I've got to get it all to get it all to grow

# Do ya, do ya want my love?

# Come on now Do ya, do ya want my face?

# I need it

# Do ya, do ya want my mind?

# All right, yeah! Do ya, do ya want my love?

# Oh, look out!

# Do ya, do ya want my love?

# Do ya, do ya want my love?

# Oh, oh-h! #

MUSIC: "Only The Lonely" by Roy Orbison

# Only the lonely... #

'Only The Lonely, I suppose, is the first one of those things when I was real young

'that I heard and thought, "My God, how does that happen? What is that? How does it work?

"How do all these people know what they're doing?"

'Seems like hundreds in the studio. Obviously, it doesn't sound that big now,

'but it still sounds pretty big, I tell you.'

# There goes my baby

# And there goes my heart

# And they're gone for ever

# So far apart

# But only the lonely... #

'It sounds fantastic, and then there's all these other people

'and strings and backing vocalists and guitar players, drummer.'

# Only the lonely Dum-dum-dum-dum... #

'And they're all doing it once in one go. And that to me is like...

'I never want to have to do that. I don't want to have to set that up, that session, that's not my scene.

'Mine is the opposite to that, you know, I like to do it one at a time.

'But I can still comes out with the same result at the end.'

We had a telephone call, like, from management.

And that Jeff Lynne was trying to reach Roy Orbison.

And so, we allowed the number to be given to Jeff.

And so, maybe three hours later, the telephone rang and I said, "Hello."

And nobody said anything.

I said, "Hello?" and a click.

Then somebody called again. And I knew it was Jeff intuitively.

And then somebody called again. And I said, "Hello?"

Then there was a moment of silence and then somebody said, "It's Jeff Lynne. Could I talk to Roy Orbison?"

And I said, "Yes, he's waiting for you."

# And the chord we play! #

THEY LAUGH

-Thank you and come back next week.

-Thank you very much, ladies and gentlemen.

And that was my latest song.

Wonderful as it might be.

Ah-h!

'Roy Orbison was just astonishing, because...

'he could just open his... not even open his mouth.

'You'd stand there by the mic and you'd say, "Has he started yet?"

'And it'd just come out gradually that he's just pretending to sing it.'

OK, you don't want me to go... # Still missing you

# California blue. #

No, it's really what you hear, you know?

'And then he'd go, "OK, let's do a take."

'He'd say, "OK, I think I've got it. Let's try it."

'And you'd start and you go blam! All the needles would bend and it'd be, like, so loud.

'It'd be 100 times louder than he was practising it.

'You know, so it always used to take you by a big surprise.'

# California blu-u-ue. #

And it was Jeff, really, that got him back and made him comfortable with recording again.

And really completely revitalised Roy's career.

And we went to listen to the songs.

And the first one that Jeff played for Roy was A Love So Beautiful.

And Roy listening to what Jeff had done to the song.

And he just started crying. And we had never seen that. I mean, I had been married to Roy for 20 years.

And then Jeff looking and Jeff not knowing,

I mean, what to do with Roy just sitting there

and having tears roll down his face.

Then the good part came. "Thank God you got it as up tempo."

# Anything you want, you got it

# Anything you need, you got it

# Anything at all, you got it

# Ba-a-aby

# Anything you want... #

And we got out of the tears. But it was just so incredible to see, you know,

Roy always, like, finding...

He probably listened to something that just totally surprised him,

that he didn't think Jeff could add to the song, you know?

George wanted a producer for an album.

And he hadn't recorded an album for like eight, nine years. He wanted someone to help him

and he had just really started listening to Jeff's music.

I think Telephone Line was on.

Although that's an obvious one. But it is a very catchy song.

And that was on the jukebox for a long time before we met Jeff.

So we kind of felt we knew him when we did meet him.

# Hello

# How are you?

# Have you been all right

# Through all those lonely lonely, lonely, lonely nights? #

-And I think everybody's...

-# That's what I'd say... #

..had an experience where, you know, they've had a bad telephone call with somebody they care about.

And the way it gets to you. And I think he captured that.

# Yeah-ah-ah... # 'Dave Edmunds told me that...

# Hey... #

'George was looking for me, George Harrison, and would like to work with me on his new album.

You know, once he decided to do an album and he decided he'd do it with somebody whose music he liked,

and he got to know Jeff, that whole process happened.

George wanted to make sure that we were good pals before we stated.

So we went to Australia to watch the Grand Prix.

Hanging out with George Harrison, you know, and I'm going,

"This is, like, the best thing. And, of course, when you're with George you can get in anywhere.

And anything you want. "What would you like?"

"Can we see the cars and that?" "Yeah, you can have a sit in them."

You know, in the racing cars in Formula 1. You're going, "Shit, this is brilliant."

And we'd go there in a helicopter, of course, you don't mess about.

They worked all day and came out and took a break, played a bit of cricket on the lawn,

went back in, you know, had dinner, then maybe would go in and hang out and listen

and then the fun began. But they were very, you know, serious about when they were working,

but unhinged when they weren't, you know.

'We were great pals for about 16, 17 years.

'It was a marvellous time just to be working with him then in the studio.

'And, I mean, I actually literally kept pinching myself.'

They came from a point of...reference

that was just too close for them not to hit it off.

And they loved each other's music.

It was Full Moon Fever time as well, wasn't it?

That was when Jeff had just done Tom's record.

And I remember that record playing continuously.

I still... I love that record, that's one of my favourite records.

# Oh hey-ho, oh, oh! #

-Yeah, we should do some of them as well.

-Really?

-Yeah, maybe just try a moving one.

-# Hey-ho-ho! # Bluesy, man.

-Yeah.

'At the time, I was renting a house in Beverly Hills.'

And I was driving down the road on an errand,

and I pulled up at the light and looked over and there was Jeff.

Somebody kept tooting the horn at me.

And I looked and it was Tom. Tom Petty. And I'd only met him once before.

And that was at a concert with Bob Dylan.

He was backing Bob Dylan, his group, the Heartbreakers, were backing Bob.

And, erm, he stopped me, I pulled over, I got out and we had a chat.

And he said...

"Wow," he said, "We're just playing George Harrison's new album and it sounds fantastic.

"Do you fancy writing some songs together and see what happens?" I said, "Sure, I'd love to."

'You know, we played guitars quite a bit, hanging around,

'and we wrote a couple of songs together, you know.

'I had one and he helped me finish it off.'

And the next song we wrote was Free Fallin'.

And so we had the two songs. It was the Christmas holiday, so there weren't many people around.

So we called Mike Campbell, cos he had a studio,

and we went over there and just made those records.

# She's a good girl

# Loves her mama

# Loves Jesus

# And America too... #

And he was kind of leaning over the piano as I remember it,

and he said, "Free falling," you know, and I sang it, but I could only get half the word in.

# Free... # And then I put in "Free fallin'".

And he's like, "That's it!"

# Now I'm free

# Free fallin'

# Oh! #

And so we started work on a couple of songs. We did about two or three to start with.

And it was... We got on really good as well, no problem.

We made them in Mike Campbell's garage.

And that was all thanks to George as well, really, you know.

MUSIC: "When We Was Fab" by George Harrison

# Back then, long time ago When grass was green

# Woke up in a daze... #

'So when I was working with George on Cloud Nine,

'we used to hang out every night after the sessions,

'listen back to what we'd done in the daytime.

'And George had this idea that...

He said to me, "You know what, me and you should have a group."

And, I said, "Wow, that's a good idea. What a smashing thing."

And I said, "Who, would we have in it? And he said, "Well, how about Bob Dylan?"

I said, "That's a good idea!" Then I said, "How about Roy Orbison?"

-He said, "Yeah, that's a good idea." Oh, bollocks!

-PHONE RINGS

Sorry, loves. I've got to turn this off somehow.

DOG BARKS

DOOR SLAMS

So, anyway, this was like... This went on for a few...I suppose, a couple of weeks. And, er...

..everybody agreed. And then... And I thought "Wow, what about Tom?"

The Traveling Wilburys came along, so we spent even more time together.

And I think in the Traveling Wilburys, he's often overlooked.

His contribution was so huge, you know, it was...

There couldn't have been a Traveling Wilburys without Jeff.

My dad had just had dinner with Roy, so it all just kind of worked out.

Bob had the studio, Tom had my dad's guitars, Jeff was doing Tom's record.

So they all just got together.

MUSIC: "Handle With Care" by The Traveling Wilburys

# Been beat up and battered around

# Been sent up and I've been shot down

# You're the best thing that I've ever found

# Handle me with care. #

'So that's how it happened, and we just got together one day and started jamming around this table.

'And I remember Bob was a bit late and we were all going, "Ooh, Bob's late."

'Anyway, the first one George had half written already,

'and it was called Handle With Care, and that was the first single.'

They had a lot of fun.

And they made some great music.

I think, for George, it was one of the most enjoyable times

I'd ever seen him have, you know, like, in 30 years.

He just, he really enjoyed...

and I guess they all did.

There's a Roy Orbison number on the first album

called Not Alone Any More.

# It hurt like never before

# So I'm not alone any more... #

And that was really Jeff and Roy's song.

I mean, we all contributed a little bit.

No-one was really happy with it, you know?

I think we all thought, "Better write another song."

Well, that is not good enough for Jeff Lynne.

He came in the next day,

stripped the song.

He had the lead vocal and the drums.

And he completely re-wrote the song

around this lead vocal that was there.

And wrote this incredible song, you know?

And now it's one of my favourite ones on the album.

And there's nobody that could do that.

# Well, it's all right

# As long as you've got somewhere to lay

# Well, it's all right

# Every day is just one day. #

The first album was doing fantastically well.

It was in the top five and just an amazing reaction.

People were really loving it. And right then, Roy died.

Very sad. The End of the Line, we did, like,

a tribute to Roy by doing the video

with just a rocking chair with his guitar in it.

And that was our symbol for Roy, you know, and our tribute.

And it, it's pretty poignant, really.

And Roy's not with us any more, which is a tragedy.

-JOE WALSH:

-Bands get together

and there's a magic there.

And it lasts as long as it lasts.

But when it's a true band,

and it's the band's time,

there's a...

a magic to it.

And the Wilburys are truly

one of those special chemistries,

making really special music.

# Even if you're old and grey

# Well, it's all right

# You still got something to say

# Well, it's all right. #

I think we both loved a lot of the same music.

We...we discovered that we had both produced Del Shannon.

# Walk away. #

Every time, right?

# Walk away. #

Yeah, if you think it's a good idea.

Yeah, let's try that.

-You know what also might be good?

-What?

Hand claps and a bongo.

-THEY LAUGH

-Hand claps and a bongo?

Shit, I came to the right session!

-THEY LAUGH

-My specialty, man!

'I think Jeff's...

'If you want to define his three biggest influences,'

I think they'd be Del Shannon,

Roy Orbison and the Beatles.

And maybe in that order.

# The one who understands what I've gotta do

# I've gotta find a place to hide with my baby by my side... #

Who would have thought, yeah, that one day, Del Shannon

would actually come to my house in Chardon,

and we'd do a demo together on MY tape recorder?!

It was fantastic, really. And I was so thrilled to know Del.

# We've got to keep searching, searching

# Find a place to hide

# Searching, searching... #

GIRLS SCREAM

I started to take notice of The Beatles in '63.

It was all a bit wishy-washy before that.

The '60s really did change things,

and it WAS the Beatle revolution.

The Beatles did come along and they represented something

that just set fire to all these fumes

that were waiting to be set fire to.

Well, he wasn't there by accident.

It's a pretty good compliment that The Beatles got back together

and hired you to be the producer!

That's...you know,

I'm sure they could have got anyone they wanted.

I think it was George who said, "No, we need a producer," you know?

It could be dangerous just to all go in the studio.

It could get nasty.

Cos you've got egos, you know, flying around.

Surprisingly(!) HE LAUGHS

You know, we really got to know Jeff.

I mean, I got to know him hanging out with him and George,

but then we really got to know him on Free As A Bird.

And he was a lifesaver on that.

And, you know, he put that cassette together.

And it was a crackly old thing, you know.

It was a cassette, and you don't use that.

You normally make your demos on cassettes

and then make a proper record,

and get rid of all the crackly and the hiss and everything.

DEMO CASSETTE PLAYS

# Free as a bird... #

You didn't interfere with anything

but the vocal phrases, cos it's a demo.

Nobody cares about time. And if we were going to work...

and Jeff is very precise.

That's one of the things I love about him.

You know, his stuff just...

it just rolls out, and there's not a thing wrong.

You know, you listen to it...

and then you stop listening to it so precisely,

and it just rolls over you.

It's like "Ooh, I love this!"

MUSIC: "Free As A Bird" by The Beatles

# Free as a bird... #

The first afternoon, really, was just banter, you know.

It was all the three of them.

They hadn't been in the same room for years.

And so I'm just sitting there with them

like, in the club with them, you know.

And it's just, like, "Wow, I'm in the Beatles club!"

And it's like...like a club meeting,

and having a reminisce.

It was just superb. It was like...

Hamburg stories, you know,

all the Liverpool stories.

It was just magnificent.

And I was just willing just to sit there for ever

and not ever do a bit of work.

And just listen to these stories.

They were the stories you sort of almost knew,

but these are the real, you know, the real kind of...

..the real thing, the real, actual, as it really happened.

So when we came in to do it, erm...

we had John in the ears, you know.

And we just played along with it. Um...

I'm not sure how we started it.

Jeff will remember better.

I know I played bass!

It was so hard to do.

I mean, because, laying that voice in there,

which has got a piano glued to it,

was really difficult, you know.

It was almost...virtually impossible.

But we got it done somehow.

And Paul really helped on that,

because he sort of ghosted John's voice a little bit underneath.

And, uh, it was, it came back really good in the end.

For what it started out as, it was amazing.

So I'm pretty chuffed with it.

You know, he was just...again, had the right sensibilities.

He wasn't going to take it somewhere completely different,

and, you know, he had the respect

for what they wanted to do, obviously.

And he's told me about, you know, how hard it was.

And he did a lot of work there.

And, I'm sure, over to Paul McCartney to explain that.

That was it.

We had the cassette of John and we just gradually built it up.

Did this, did that, put a bit of bass on...guitar.

George ended up putting the slide on,

which is like the final icing on the cake.

We sang.

But I think for all of us, the most exciting thing was,

even though John was no longer on this planet,

here he was in the studio with us.

And it was very special, you know. All of us, like, "Wow!"

I mean very...you know, big, big moment.

I think my dad brought Jeff in and I think that was a big...

everyone was like, "Whoa, what's going on here?"

And, you know, he was the only one that could have done that

at the time, with his meticulous nature.

And they didn't have Pro Tools.

There were, you know, aggregate time clocks

for the John Lennon piano track,

but then they had to phase out the vocals and fly back in...

I mean, it was just right down Jeff's street.

Neil Aspinall comes looking for me,

which was great in itself.

But he said,

"Oh, can you come in the studio a sec?

"Paul and George want you to, want you to check these harmonies

"they're just doing, they're working out."

And I thought, "What? ME check 'em?!"

-"OK, I'll fucking do it!"

-HE LAUGHS

You know, it's quite astonishing, really.

It's something you'd never expect to happen.

And there it was, and I was checking them, and they were brilliant.

The harmonies sounded great.

We recorded them straight away, and, uh...

and then the sessions went along really well after that.

And there was another one that we started working on,

but George went off it.

"Fucking 'ell! Fucking rubbish, this is!"

It was like, "No, George, this is John!"

"It's still fucking rubbish," you know.

"Oh, OK then." HE LAUGHS

So that one...that one's still lingering around,

So I'm going to nick in with Jeff and do it.

Finish it, one of these days.

You know, he always wants the click track.

He wants the click, and I keep saying,

"I AM the fucking click!"

Of course when we got the song finished, I'll never forget,

Paul came and gave me a big hug and he said,

"Well done! You've done it!"

So I was chuffed about that.

And that's how it went.

MUSIC: "Can't Get It Out Of My Head" by Electric Light Orchestra

# Midnight

# On the water

# I saw

# The ocean's daughter... #

To me, pop is the best genre of all

because it's got everything.

It's got everything you need.

You know, Elvis, The Beatles...

I mean, everything is in there.

All these different millions of styles,

and it's just...beautiful, pop music.

# And I can't get it out of my head

# No I can't get it out of my head. #

'We're going to play Electric Light Orchestra

'from last year. Showdown.

'Which I thought was a great record

'and I was expecting it to be number one.

'And it's a nice group.

'I call them Son of Beatles,

'although they're doing things that we never did, obviously.'

MUSIC: "Showdown" by Electric Light Orchestra

There aren't any other producers really like him.

I think he could do whatever he sets his mind to, and...

..I've always found him very easy to work with.

And I always enjoy whatever, you know, I hear that he's done.

STEVE JAY: Some people like to use a specific microphone all the time,

or a specific instrument.

I'm not in that school of thought.

I found that Jeff likes to experiment too.

You use a room as the echo that you want.

Which is always better than some gadget, you know.

The natural sound of air moving.

It's got a magic to it

that you can't recreate in a box, I don't think.

You know, every room in his house

is part of his studio.

They're all set up.

The furniture is in a certain place for sound.

And the living room is not really a living room.

It's a...it's a recording room, you know?

And, depending on what idea he's trying to accomplish,

depends what room you go play in.

HE STRUMS ELECTRIC BANJO

Paul actually said to me when I was working with him,

he said, "Oh, you're very thorough, aren't you?"

And I think that's a good thing.

You know, I look after all the little details

and make sure there's not any little bit of stuff

that shouldn't be there lurking around.

I'm just trying to get the best sound I can on all this stuff.

And, you know, I think...

..I do try and get different sounds.

Different drum sounds and different...

I try and make them old-fashioned, you know,

which is a lot of fun.

Trying to recreate old rooms in new rooms.

HE STRUMS GUITAR

I pay attention to things that a lot of people don't.

That's probably one of the things.

STEVE JAY: Yeah, Jeff likes to work.

You know, he likes to work.

Um, and, uh...we're pretty much

rocking here all the time.

When I started, there were no rules and regulations.

Nobody cared how loud you had it.

There wasn't little monitors and people snooping around, going,

"Hey! What do you think you're doing?!"

And people with white coats on. There weren't any of that.

We come from the same school, you know?

We're old analogue guys

trying to figure out the digital world.

ERIC IDLE: He not interested in fame,

he's not interested in money, as such.

You know, he doesn't, he's not, you know...he's...

he's one of the most BALANCED people.

You would never think of him as a rock'n'roller.

I had a hit on Broadway

and then he had a hit on Broadway but he never went to his.

HE CHUCKLES And I thought, "That's really kind of cool, you know?!"

Can we try that once more?

He blew me away.

He's doing three albums right now or he...

He may have finished one of them, I don't know.

And he was doing show tunes.

And they were so beautiful, so beautiful.

Jeff has listened to the, you know, these songs that he likes

and recreated them and heard them and put that sort of ELO sound on them.

Just squeeze a bit more, a bit more, uh, into that lead guitar.

OK.

# She may be the beauty or the beast

# May be the famine or the feast... #

A tiny bit of licence with it.

You can still find little spaces to put your own little,

uh, naughty bits in.

# She may be the mirror of my dream... #

The first song is called She. It was recorded by Charles Aznavour

and I loved the... I loved the tune so much.

I've always loved it ever since I first heard it in the '60s.

I've done a thicker version of it.

More of a harmony version, like a lot of backing vocals

and stuff like that.

How was that?

-Nice.

-OK, good. Double that, double it.

And he's got the...a great voice.

He's got a really beautiful voice, you know, being a singer,

you know, it's not easy to do what he does.

Got a really classic voice, you know.

And it's...individual voice, too, it's distinctive.

You don't... It's nobody else, you know, it's Jeff Lynne.

# I'm wild again Beguiled again... #

What motivated me to go in the direction of these tunes was

just really the fact that I'd been listening to them and only thinking

about it, never planning on it, you know, but it took me about probably

three years of just thinking about it to even start doing it.

And I thought, I've got to try them because now I understand them.

He obviously loves... all of those songs.

And has studied the craft of songwriting and understands it.

And rather than getting...

some really good session man to come in and play

and sing over that, uh, he spent a lot of time doing stuff himself.

Uh, a lot of people wish they could do that but they can't.

That makes it different. That makes it different.

That feels good, don't it?

Yeah, that's great.

# Just running scared Oh... #

Roy actually told me that this was his favourite one that he ever did.

It's a wonderful masterpiece of a tune.

Because it's so simple that it, it almost defies belief.

# Which one would you choose?

# Then all at once... #

It's marvellous, it's like a miniature opera.

To me, it's like a masterpiece anyway.

And simplicity itself.

Anyway, Roy was a genius, you know, and, uh,

fantastic voice and everything.

I can't really do it justice but I do it as good as I can do it.

But I can still get up there and hit that note.

But only if I use a pair of stepladders!

# You turned around and walked away with me. #

Songwriter, singer, drummer, guitarist, you know,

he can do it all.

He's not bad at all.

Hello, Jeff, how you doing?

All right.

-Hello, Jeff, how you going?

-All right?

# Have mercy

# Have mercy, baby

# Have mercy

# Mm, have mercy on me

# Well, I went to see the gypsy to have my fortune read

# She said, man Your baby's going to leave you

# Her bags are packed up under the bed

# I cried, have mercy

# Have mercy, baby

# Mm, have mercy, have mercy on me

# I said, if you leave me, baby

# Girl, if you put me down

# I'm going to the nearest river, child

# And jump overboard and drown

# Don't leave me, have mercy

# Have mercy, baby

# Have mercy, have mercy on me

# Well now, hey, baby Hey, hey now

# What you trying to do?

# Hey, hey, baby Hey, hey now

# Please don't say we're through

# I said if you stay, baby

# I tell you what I'm going to do

# I'm going to work two jobs Seven days a week

# And bring my money home to you

# Well I said, have mercy

# Have mercy, baby

# Mm, have mercy Have mercy on me

# Have mercy, have mercy on me

# Have mercy

# Have mercy on me

# Mm, have mercy... #

Working together was...was great.

Cos you want someone who can control the situation

without appearing to.

And that comes from his character.

He just is that kind of guy, you know, that he gets things done.

But you wouldn't know he was pulling the strings.

Very modest, innocent in some ways.

At the same time, amazingly accomplished.

His music certainly hasn't been overlooked because you hear it.

It's part of the fabric of all our lives.

But the man himself is very shy and retreating, you know,

I don't think you ever saw his picture on an album jacket

or anything back in the ELO days.

He's a great, great friend.

Jeff will do anything for you if he's your friend.

He's a wonderfully gifted artist.

He plays... I don't even know how many instruments he plays.

But he plays a lot of them.

He's a true master of what he does.

And I don't know... Uh, you know,

it's hard to say it in a way that doesn't sound like it's forced.

I mean, whatever Jeff does is beautiful.

You know, he's a very loyal person and as a producer he's

meticulous, and as a songwriter he's melodic as can be.

If I hadn't been doing the music, I'd have been really probably

not very happy cos, I mean, just, all it was, was these black

mornings, you know, grey skies, raining and freezing cold.

Getting up on the upstairs of the bus.

Going into town, going to work.

That wasn't really what...

That didn't have any kind of fascination for me at all.

So I'm so glad I got into the... into the rock'n'roll music,

into the pop and rock.

I had three albums in the Top Ten as a producer in America.

Which is quite an amazing thing, to have three in the Top Ten.

And I was nominated for Producer of the Year, but didn't get it.

That's OK, I still did the albums and that,

that was more fun than getting that.

# And you really got a hold on me

-# Doo, doo, doo, doo

-Long time ago when we was fab... #

# Been beat up and battered around

# Been sent up and I've been shot down

# You're the best thing that I've ever found

# Handle me with care... #

# Free as a bird

# It's the next best thing to be

# Free as a bird... #

# Every time I look into your loving eyes

# I see a love that money just can't buy

# One look from you I drift away

# I pray that you are here to stay

# Anything you want, you got it

# Anything you need, you got it

# Anything at all you got it, baby... #

HE PLAYS MANDOLIN

-Hey. Hey!

-HE LAUGHS

'Today's forecast calls for blue skies.'

# Sun is shining in the sky

# There ain't a cloud in sight

# It's stopped raining Everybody's in their play

# And don't you know it's a beautiful new day?

# Hey, hey Running down the avenue... #

One of the great things about getting the job

was to stop my mum banging up the stairs, running up the stairs,

shouting, "Hey, come on, you lazy bugger, get up."

And this would be like at 7:30 or eight o'clock in the morning.

This one morning she did this.

I said, "Hang on, Mum, before you start,

"I'm not getting up today or ever again.

"I'm a professional musician now."

And you should have seen the look on her face!

# Where did we go wrong?

# Mr Blue Sky, please tell us why you had to hide away for so long?

-# So long

-Where did we go wrong?

# Hey, you, with the pretty face Welcome to the human race

# A celebration Mr Blue Sky's up there waiting

# And today is the day we've waited for

# Mr Blue Sky please tell us why

# You had to hide away for so long

-# So long

-Where did we go wrong? #

# Well, I stuck my finger in a woodpecker's hole

# And the woodpecker said, God bless my soul

# Take it out, take it out Take it out, take it out. #

Thank you.