The Electric Light Orchestra (ELO) are a British rock group from Birmingham, England. They were formed to accommodate Roy Wood's and Jeff Lynne's desire to create modern rock and pop songs with classical overtones. After Wood's departure following the band's debut record, Lynne wrote and arranged all of the group's original compositions and produced every album. In 2012, Lynne reformed the band under the moniker Jeff Lynne's ELO.
Despite early singles' success in the United Kingdom, the band was initially more successful in the United States, where they were billed as "The English guys with the big fiddles". From 1972 to 1986, ELO accumulated twenty Top 20 songs on the UK Singles Chart, and fifteen Top 20 songs on the US Billboard Hot 100. The band also holds the record for having the most Billboard Hot 100 Top 40 hits, 20, of any group in US chart history without having a number one single.
ELO collected 19 CRIA, 21 RIAA and 38 BPI awards, and sold over 50 million records worldwide during the group's original 13-year period of active recording and touring.
The Electric Light Orchestra is the debut studio album by English rock band Electric Light Orchestra (ELO), released in December 1971. In the US, the album was released in early 1972 as No Answer, after a misunderstood telephone message made by a United Artists Records executive asking about the album name. The caller, having failed to reach the ELO contact, wrote down "no answer" in his notes, and this was misconstrued to be the name of the album.
The album is focused on the core trio of Roy Wood, Jeff Lynne, and Bev Bevan who were the remaining members of rock group The Move. The Move were still releasing singles in the UK at the same time as this project was undertaken, but interest was soon to be abandoned in Wood's former band. The sound is unique on this recording in comparison to the more slickly produced ELO albums of the subsequent Lynne years, incorporating many wind instruments and replacing guitar parts with heavy, "sawing" cello riffs, giving this recording an experimental "Baroque-and-roll" feel; indeed, "The Battle of Marston Moor" is the most baroque-influenced track on the album. On this track, Roy Wood, in addition to playing virtually all the instruments, had to provide the percussion as well because Bev Bevan, normally the group's percussionist and drummer, refused to play on the track because of his low opinion of it. However, the overall musical connection to The Beatles (it had been stated by the bandmembers that ELO was formed to "pick up where The Beatles left off...") is quite apparent in this album.
So long boy you can take my place
Got my papers, I got my pay
Pack my bags and I'll be on my way
To yellow river
Put my gun down, the war is won
Fill my glass now, the time has come
Going back to the place that I love
To yellow river
Yellow river, yellow river
Is in my mind and in my eyes
Yellow river, yellow river
Is in my blood, it's the place that I love
Got no time for explanations
Got no time to lose
Tomorrow night you'll find me sleeping underneath the moon
At yellow river
Cannon fire lingers in my mind
I'm so glad I'm still alive
I've been gone for such a long time
From yellow river
I remember the nights were cool
And I can still see the water pool
And I remember the girl that I knew
In yellow river
Yellow river, yellow river
Is in my mind and in my eyes
Yellow river, yellow river
Is in my blood, it's the place that I love
Got no time for explanations
Got no time to lose
Tomorrow night you'll find me sleeping underneath the moon
At yellow river
Yellow river, yellow river
Is in my mind and in my eyes
Yellow river, yellow river
Is in my blood, it's the place that I love
Got no time for explanations
Got no time to lose
Tomorrow night you'll find me sleeping underneath the moon
At yellow river