The Record Club Roadshow sees some of WA’s best musicians take on some of the best releases of all-time; hitting Live At The Orchard this weekend with Timothy Nelson covering Electric Light Orchestra’s greatest hits and The Murphy Brothers taking on the Beatles.
We had the local legends put together a playlist of their favourites to get you in the mood for this Saturday, 3 December.
A fairly simple tune, but for me, the lyrics really sum up ELO. The line, “Don’t want a job ‘cause it drives me crazy, just wanna sing ‘Do ya love me, baby’?” totally captures Jeff Lynne’s relationship with songwriting. ELO have never really been so much about the stories within the songs, as much as it a total, musical fantasy land for its band leader.
An absolute classic tune, the minute it kicks in you know exactly what it is and you can’t help but sing along. Even the string parts inspire you to hum your best “doodly doos”.
I love a good disco track, and the clav doubling the bass line in this is so infectious. It makes you want to dance but also, as with most ELO tracks, it doesn’t have a single bad melody. Everything in it is catchy.
Get Back is the coolest rock'n'roll track of all time. How Ringo came up with a military march drum pattern for a rock song, I'll never know! But it's SO perfect! Billy Preston's electric piano solo is one of the best keyboard parts on a Beatles song ever.
For me, I've Got A Feeling typifies where the Beatles were at that time, and it's a beautiful mix of John and Paul's songwriting and vocals.
I'm cheating because technically Don't Let Me Down is not on the album, but it was recorded at the time and it is in the movie and it should have been on the album. To me, Don't Let Me Down from the rooftop performance sums up their career so perfectly. In a slightly different, simpler form, it could have been on one of their first LPs.