But I’m particularly pleased with Livin’ Thing because I like the chorus, it’s really interesting. “I wrote so many songs so quickly in that 1974-1978 period and it was like a conveyor belt really, I was just banging them out. What did Jeff think of it? “Yeah, I thought it was good,” he casually said.
In 1976 they began recording the album A New World Record and showcased it by releasing Livin’ Thing which gave them their biggest hit to date when it reached number four. The line-up changed slightly over the next few years and they were regulars on the chart with songs like 10538 Overture (1972), Roll Over Beethoven and Showdown (1973) and Ma-Ma-Ma Belle (1974). They took with them drummer Bev Bevan and brought in the high quality musicians Richard Tandy on bass, Bill Hunt on keyboards, Wilf Gibson on violin and Hugh McDowell and Andy Craig on cellos and released their eponymous debut album in December 1971. At the same time Roy and Jeff had the idea of wanting to fuse rock with classical music and eventually formed the Electric Light Orchestra. In early 1969 he offered Jeff a place in the band which he accepted and contributed many songs to their last two albums. His friend Roy Wood was having success with his band The Move and by 1968, despite having a number two with Fire Brigade and a number one with Blackberry Way, Roy was looking for a new challenge. The following year he joined a band which became the Idle Race, a name his grandmother, who was anti pop music, came up with.
In 1965 he bought himself a Bang & Olufsen reel-to-reel tape recorder that had the facility to multi track between its left and right channel and, as Jeff commented, “It was a great machine and it taught me how to be a producer.” His first group was with some school friends which was mainly guitar based and they called themselves The Rockin’ Hellcats, then The Handicaps which then evolved into The Andicaps. Jeff was born in Birmingham in 1947 and got his first guitar as a kid which his dad bought for him for just £2 and he still has to this day. It was just a song about nothing more than lost love….the words just rhymed, that all.” Some, who didn’t think so deep, thought it was about sex and particularly about losing one’s virginity with the lyrics screaming ‘It’s a terrible thing to lose.’ Is it? The band’s lead singer and prominent songwriter, Jeff Lynne said, “I was even asked once if it was about a whale, Christ knows where that came from. But when Livin’ Thing by the Electric Light Orchestra came out it baffled people and many speculated that it was an anti-abortion statement. In some cases it’s probably quite justified for example Frankie Goes To Hollywood’s Relax and The Shamen’s Ebeneezer Goode which were seemingly about oral sex and drugs respectively and both denied by the respective acts at the time.
I'm taking a dive, dive, dive, dive, dive off the slide, slide, slide, slide, slide oh yah, yah, yah, yah, yah off the slide, slide, slide.It’s amazing that when people can’t work out what a song is about they speculate usually in a negative way.
Takin' a dive 'cos you can't halt the slideĪh so let her go don't start spoiling the show Oh moving in line when you look back in timeĪnd you and your sweet desire, don't you do it, don't you do it Making believe this is what you've conceived You took me, ohhh higher and higher baby,