Hello to any new readers; the blog is pretty self-explanatory, and any real detail you want you can probably find on the sidebar. Anyway on to today's post.

Is ELO making a comeback? So far I count three songs used in commercials- Do Ya and one other (sorry I don't remember which) recently, and the awesomely done VW commercial with Mr Blue Sky that led me to ELO in the first place. I read somewhere that Jeff Lynne actually arranged the pieces that they used in it- I hate it when a good song is used in an average commercial and it's taken apart and reassembled shorter and lacking the best part of the song. Best Buy is using The Cars' 'Just What I Needed' now, and every time I hear it I will the chorus to come in right. It doesn't, and Best Buy's marketing has actually backfired. Pour millions into something and try to tie in a song that makes sense, and look what you get. (Sorry all you marketers and advertisers out there...)

I won't make you sit through a tirade (even though I should; it's exacty what I had in mind when I sarted this blog. Maybe when I figure out how to put in a separate folder on the site I will...memo to me...) on the disfigurement of Led Zeppelin's 'Rock and Roll,' I think it'd be best if I leave it at that the friggin' commercial has ruined that song for me...grrr...

Anyway back to my semi-original topic: VW's incredibly perfect commercial. I think it starts with a guy living in a boring, repeated life where everyday is the same. Then, one day, he looks out his window at the opposing office building and sees a (presumably, I don't really remember but it makes sense for advertising, stories, etc....whatever) a really hot girl doing the exact same thing and looking back at him. I think they go to meet each other at some bridge connecting the buildings, and somehow a VW comes into play, but I don't recall from the five or so years since it was on. Whatever..ELO's in it. The artistic concept of it is brilliant- rather than repeating multiple times and taking up time to show boredom and repetition, it breaks up the screen in four and offsets almost identical images by a second or so. The guy gets out of bet, gets dressed (or something like that, see previous line) and the screens are all (I think) a slightly different color. It's really cool. And best of all there's 'Mr Blue Sky' in it. I saw the commercial and I was like "Woah. That was the coolest commercial ever." It had a great song I had never heard before, and I didn't even realize what it was for. I watched it intentionally whenever it was on (or at least when I found it) and apparenly figured out that it was for VW. Some new car. Years later, when I found ELO's Greatest Hits in my parents CD stacks, and found the song...oh man. I played it a dozen times in a row. Seriously. I think the only other time i did that was when I discovered Abbey Road but I played the whole disk. And wore it out, my mp3s of it are all messed up.
Anyway, awesome commercial. Unbelievable, it was as if someone had condensed pure frickin' emotion and made it a video.

Speaking of video, I don't know if there's music video for the song, but I have a great (in my opinion; this is my site) idea for Mr Blue Sky.

Okay, it's like this: the radio in the beginning is somebody's alarm clock- we don't see them and it doesn't really matter. Th camera could come up through a buiilding or whatever and show the street, it's early morning but there's sun at a pretty flat angle. At the interlude, (you know, the drums and guitar for a few measures) it's like a musical: women popping out of windows and talking to each other, the gossip is the words about the weather; they're singing the song. It switches over, still singing and talking, and there's the street again, but kids are playing in it, again like a musical. It's an ideal world at this point- a Garden-like existence: promise of sun and fun right now.

Okay, by "running down the avenue" we have a guy, (maybe the same guy from the VW deal? I dunno) leading, like, a spontaneous parade down the street. Everybody's in this play, it's full of people and the words are now the guy speaking and singing to the people they parade is passing on the road. Everyone in town is out, it's a Mardi Gras of emotions and colors. The guy (call him the Conductor from here out) is now in full regalia: coattails, top hat and vibrant actions. He's entertaining the crowds, sharing the 'gospel' if you will of the fact that Mr. Blue Sky, the one who's been away, is returning! He's Lehrman's dream chorister- looking around, trying to get to evryone, happy to the core and showing others why.

The part where we hear "please tell us why" (the whole rising pitch and cowbell chorus-thing) is the parade of people behind him (heretically? maybe, hadn't thought of that) asking why Mr Blue left in the first place. The repeat, the second time, it's all the people except the Conductor asking. They're still ecstatic, but now wanting to know how they can stay that way.
Then we hear the guitar solo. It's a party in the streets- I can imagine people with balloons (camera idea: after the solo and the next verse, balloons fly up to the camera, maybe some kid lets them fly in glee, and while the music goes to the repeated chorus, we go to the same clip of the first time, the parade asking why and all that) and added laughter in the backgroud: like I said, a party, a spectacle, a carnival atmosphere perhaps even complete with dancers in costume and clowns. Wait, no clowns. "Hey you with the pretty face" is back to the Conductor, singing directly to one person- like a baby in a carriage. We see the baby, and then the camera moves up and we see the beaming parents and the overjoyed crowd. They aren't drug-induced happy, they're genuine. Like religiously happy. (Totally separate conversation there- I might get to it some other time. Remind me) In the whole baby scene, the Conductor is basically spelling out what's going on, for the kids' benefit as well as for us. The next part, where we hear "Hey there Mr Blue/ We're so pleased to be with you" is the Conductor on his own. Not his voice, but his acting. He's talking to Mr Blue who, steadily, has been coming into view. By this point it's full afternoon sunshine, 'there ain't a cloud in sight' (couldn't resist) Mr Blue is a ball of light- he could be a person but there's so much light he's obcured. The camera (and us viewers) see him from the side, just above and behind the crowd, so there's noc conflict with seeing him and the sun at the same time. I deally, we don't see the sun at all, because the light is coming from Mr Blue.

In the center of the song, in the changed-voice part, it's just more of the party. We see Mr Blue pass, finally, as mentioned before: the apex of the song, befor the key change or whatever it is that makes the third verse sound so much like a letdown. In the verse, we see Blue continue down the road, away from the people. This is low, but he's definitely leaving. The light starts to dim but we don't get darkness until the very end at "Mister Blue Sky, Bye"
Where we hear the third verse, it's the Conductor talking/singing to Mr Blue- hence the 'you' in the lines. The "I'll remember you" is important too: here we have to see only the Conductor's face. He's emotional but not really sad; he's only the Conductor because he is the one most affected by Mr Blue's return. For him, this on par with a religious experience.
The whole video is, actually- the people are changed on an almost fundamental level, Mr Blue Sky is practically a religious figure, his exit at the end is almost mythic in size...pretty cool analogy for a song.

At that quick return to the chorus near the end, the people and the Conductor (sounds kind of like the Matrix...not what I had in mind) are remembering the greatness of Mr Blue's temporary return: an epic day which everyone will claim to have been present for and a story that will last much like myth.

The operatic part is his final exit from the video- the sun going down, the vibrancy fading. His departure leads directly to the change in spirits reflected after a few measures- no singing, little sound- the people of this city are initially depressed because it's over, and then exuberant because it happened. (have to say, borrowed that bit)

We hear soon the drum part, with voices coming in: this is the memory that people remember. After this, the sun is almost completely gone, a few last rays of color over the horizon, and then...darkness.
Mr Blue Sky, however, is not gone. As the city has pointed out, he's come before, and they know he'll come again. At the very end, the robotic "Mister Blue Sky, Bye"; that's the faith, if you will, of the people. They can let him go because they know he'll be back.


Ridiculously deep song. I've been blogging for almost 90 minutes, all but the first ten or so on 'Mr Blue Sky.'

Wow.

Maybe I'll do 'Fire On High' next. Maybe. I think I got started on this from my Jacob paper. I was working on it and then thought, "Is ELO making a comeback?" And then started writing in Google Desktop. Genius invention- a notepad that knows when I want to write something down. Well, perhaps not that smart, but still, it pops up unobtrusively whenever I want stock info, or news, or weathe,r or something, and among all those times I tend to have something random to write.

On Jacob? Still making him a schizo. I'ma try (I like making new contractions. I'm all in favor of standardized language for writing, but here I write as I would speak and [wow, you get way more color when you tilt the screen straight...] and I have a tendancy to shorten phrases. We all do.) to work on a middle draft for this paper- I can show more revisions that way but it takes more time. The prof for Genesis suggested it to help work on organization. So far for every paper I've gotten "good sentences, great writing, try organizing it this way." So, fine. Just means more time...whatever.

Blogs are cool.


Yachtzee! I found the commercial. You can see it here.
Jackpot number two, I must be lucky right now: you can hear some of "Mr Blue Sky" at the ELO site. Turn up your speakers because its greatness should be shared. If you hear something else try selecting it from the panel on the left.