"Birmingham Blues" by Electric Light Orchestra

[dogloverNV]

Jeff Lynne is AMAZING! All kneel and praise him! :)

[burlingtonbill1]

VERY under-rated ELO song. I like it much better than the more well-known "Mr. Blue Sky."

[MALCBAGGIE]

If ELO were from London, Manchester or Liverpool OOTB would be considered one of the top ten albums of all time. A underrated Midlands masterpiece-by a Brummie genius.

[dettigs]

truly one of the most under-rated songs ever, since most people have never heard this, and this is a kick ass song!!!!!!

[dannyharrison09]

LOVE TO MY DAD..02 04 1948 - 31 07 2007 .....LOVER OF ELO..I Love Jeff Lynne..Thx DAD

[dannyharrison09]

LOVE TO MY DAD..02 04 1948 - 31 07 2007 .....LOVER OF ELO

[frizzlefrap]

@dannyharrison09 .... your dad was young .... sorry bout his passing ..... listen to ELO will help ya get through the tough times ...... my dad has been gone for almost 30 years and it took a long time to get over .... hard to shake the sorrow from someone you know you can never talk to again ... a cruel part of life!

[kayakrazy1]

Great tune! A bit of "old school" sampling going on vis-a-vis Gershwin's 'Rhapsody In Blue.' An unexpected adaptation; works for me!! :)

[TAMPABAY53]

I'm holding the 8track tape right now. still plays

[Syzygy60]

I really need to refresh my ELO collection

[Syzygy60]

stop googling and ask me

[juliedavis64]

The chorus always reminded me of Golden years by David Bowie.

[squizzoo]

Where have all the great rock groups gone?

There was no one to replace them.

[kingj2038]

Jeff Lynne spoken word style + the wall of sound made ELO the first and only good rap group

[captaincomputa]

I always thought this song was about Birmingham FC!

[Syzygy60]

I bought this album back in 1977,wtill own it along with about 9 other ELO albums,all near mint

[Syzygy60]

filler

[anitashelby]

Absolutey A Great Share & Post!!!...5*s Thankyou hun...Anita..:)

[XxXtatsisXxX]

it's always great to hear elo !! thanks for sending my friend !!

chris

[farmersdaughter99]

FYI (if anyone is into triva), this song borrows a riif from Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue".

[creepycooper]

Brilliant track even ELO'S album tracks are fantastic and not just fillers, Jeff Lynne is a national treasure and should be in the R&R hall of fame along with Terry Hall, David Byrne and Brian Ferry.

[dogboner2001]

CC, unfortunately JL isn't yet in the RRHOF. He was a co-presenter w/Tom Petty for the solo enshrinement of fellow Wibury (and best mate) George Harrison in '04. The other members of the TW were enshrined as follows: Orbison '87, Dylan '88, and Petty (& The Heartbreakers) '02.

Sadly, the nominating BOD of said HOF hasn't seen the "Electric Light" yet in deeming JL worthy of inclusion. Perhaps someday as a producer...

[DallasaDanny]

Listened to this today. Wife asked me, wtf are you doing with all of this stuff in here? I say "I'm setting up the old turntable and stereo system so I can listen to my old albums". "But you don't have room for all this in here" she says. So I take out the wall between my "Man Cave" and the utility room (12x15) and now I have plenty of room. Maybe someday my "Man Cave" will be half the house. I paid for the fucking thing. I should at least get half. Get the fuck outta my "Man Cave" woman.

[Tobanaman]

Lol awesome. If you can I would suggest making your cave up too look like 0:27

[DallasaDanny]

*Light bulb flashes above head*

That wouldn't be too hard to do I suppose. For a small price I'm sure a print shop could make me a blown up wall mural of the inside of the album. Btw, there's a live DVD of them that aired on PBS in 2001. If you're an avid ELO fan this is a must see.

[hunkatiel]

@DallasaDanny Turn it up to 10, BLOW OUT ANOTHER WALL!

[pafemo]

@DallasaDanny Hey boy, really... you´ve got the Birmingham Blues, haven´t you?!!! long live rock&roll

[happyoldMEN]

@DallasaDanny BUAHAHA thats pretty dam funny!

[dettigs]

definitely an under-rated tune that many non-elo fans might have never heard but one of my favorites off the out of the blue album!!!

[terry1919]

Gee I never knew that ELO were travelers on US 280 going into Downtown Birmingham???

wow

[Forsure3333]

Best album ever!

[staygee1]

LETS AV YA!!!!!!!!!

[looneybineastman]

YES - neat album and a funky, bluesy - funloving sounding song - bring it on ~

[dvnobles]

Where are those pictures from -- the portrait ones...that's pretty cool.

//dan

[bobgeorge73]

Googled them and I think they are also from the inside cover of one of the ELO albums.

[mikapip]

@bobgeorge73 It does actually come from the inside cover! I remember have it posted on my wall, but then my husband said - come on now, you are 33 ! :-D

[DallasaDanny]

@bobgeorge73 Yes they are.. I still have the original album from when it was released.

[PedroTheMash]

@bobgeorge73

The portraits are from the booklet that came with FOUR LIGHT YEARS, The Box Set.

[ChrisRedfield007]

@bobgeorge73

The portraits are found in the 'Out of the Blue' album ;)

[wbetson]

They are from the poster that was included in the original album.  Beautiful artwork on this album, I used to stare at it for hours looking at all the detail..

[DallasaDanny]

@dvnobles yes they are the inside album covers. I still have the original album with the portrait sleeves.

[Syzygy60]

@dvnobles bobgeorge is correct,I have the original album,near mint,as I was careful with my records,u'd love my collect :)

[dvnobles]

@Syzygy60 very cool! I have all their albums as well. correct about what?

[RadaMcLaren32C]

@dvnobles If you buy the Out of the Blue Anniversary Edition album, its in the booklet :)

[PedroTheMash]

@dvnobles ELO released FOUR LIGHT YEARS an Album Compilatin Box Set. The portraits are from the accompanying booklet.

[dvnobles]

Another great ELO track...I've always wonder why Jeff yells "I messed up!" at :21... :)

//dan

[bobgeorge73]

Sounds like he's yelling "PLAY SOCCER" !!!..which I suppose makes sense seeing that he's a big Birmingham supporter :-)

[dvnobles]

It's actually "I messed up!", but it's backwards...I found this many years ago when I was in to finding all their 'secret messages'.

//dan

[SheriffTankStoner]

@bobgeorge73 I always thought it was 'gatzahvah' he was shouting but 'play soccer' does make sense considering this song was about B'ham.

[no1elofaniknow]

@SheriffTankStoner "Play soccer" WOULD makes sense, IF that's what the British call it. BUT they don't. They call it "football".

[SheriffTankStoner]

@no1elofaniknow I know that but maybe Jeff wanted to use the word 'soccer' in place of 'football'. Some British people do use Americansied terminology in place of their own at times and vice-versa. Status Quo used the word 'vacation' (in place of 'holiday') in their song 'You're In The Army, Now' and The Kinks used the Americanised phrases like 'Parking Lot' (in place of 'car park') and Bowling Alley (in place of 'Ten-Pin Centre') in the song 'Come Dancing'

[no1elofaniknow]

@SheriffTankStoner Good point, Sheriff.

[Doobie1975]

@dvnobles I used to think Jeff was yelling out "I say rock!"

[frizzlefrap]

@dvnobles ..... doesn't sound like he said that to me!

[PaulTettam]

I love the industrial revolution almost as much as I love ELO and all their songs. This one is pretty good, too.

Turned to stone,

Paul

[bobgeorge73]

RIP Kelly Groucutt 1945 - 2009. We'll miss you

[seventiesgetsome]

Modern day Beethoven is right and even Mozart! Pure musical genius right here! If you've got a good ear for musical talent, these guys have it.

[Harvanic]

I always loved that Gershwin undertone at 27 seconds etc, its so clever. :)

[ringglove]

Brilliant album and tell me, has there ever been a better album cover than this?

[sanktalucia66]

You're SO right - it's the best cover ever!! The cover of A new world record is also beautiful.

[FinnMove]

But not equal with A New World Record.

I like Out of the Blue in its own way, though.

But there are songs which are only fiilings like this. This was not as habit to Jeff

Lynne before.

[Iminto60s2]

Modernday Beethovan

[sunsets1970]

Superb song, a real knees up mother brown,good ol happy rocker!!

[dixiesda]

Great track and Album...Thank's for sending S...

[looneybineastman]

I wish ELO had more air time on radio back in the 70s and 80s. Some people are just now realizing they exist. My brother found one of their albums on the street back around 1979. We listened and got hooked - great talented band.

[Burqua12]

It's all clear to me, that ELO:s music came from "out of the blue", probably from some musical and enlightend higher race of aliens.

;OP

Just take a look at the incredible musical development from the records before "Out of the Blue" ("Face the Music", "A New World Record" etc; of course those records were good too but not to the same extent).

[joshta8]

I love this album cover to cover.........listening to it with a good set of headphones brings it to a new level

[MisterQuebec]

As usual I could have never figured out the lyrics had they not been printed somewhere. Like George Harrison, Lynn is hard to understand.

[looneybineastman]

randomness can be bliss...

[FLUFFYTheMorbid]

I own Out of the Blue, and let me tell you, this song sounds much better on vinyl.

[dneiltony]

thankyou for this........

[csishadow]

love the photos along with this.....

[garyco3]

Elo,many songs that could have been hits.Ha,great sounds from 1977,i like this one.

[bernieplop]

brilliance personified

[stretchmark8]

Thank's for posting this,i have been looking for this song on you tube for so long,it is one of my favourite ELO songs,most people think that mr blue sky is all they did,real fans like you and me know different!,thank's again.

[Eltoniobonio]

Dead right. I'm a George Harrison fan and i feel like that when people say they like 'My Sweet Lord'.

[ELONut]

KOOL