The Electric Light Orchestra song that Jeff Lynne says has a ‘double meaning’

A song with a double meaning came to Electric Light Orchestra frontman Jeff Lynne “quickly,” according to the songwriter.

During a track-by-track breakdown of From Out of Nowhere, ELO’s most recently released album, Lynne confirmed one song on the album had a double meaning. Though many of the songs from the album have yet to be performed live, there is a chance Lynne brings the tracks to the stage in the final five performances from the group. Lynne and ELO will bow out on the last date of the Over and Out tour, with a July 14 performance at Hyde Park marking the final performance of the band. It is not a full retirement for Lynne, though, who confirmed he will continue working in the studio.

Whether that means a new ELO album is yet to be seen, but their most recent album, From Out of Nowhere, features some of Lynne’s favourite songs. In an interview with Louder Sound, Lynne confirmed the guitar for one song did, as the album’s title would suggest, come “out of nowhere”. The title track was written quickly as Lynne says the chords came to him faster than most songs would.

He shared: “This song came to me from out of nowhere, and that’s why it’s called that. It really did! I was just sitting at my guitar like I normally would, and this chord sequence came to me, and I just went, ‘Oh, that’s good!’

“The title came to me because the chords came to me so quickly. I started singing the little melody, and it gradually grew, and I extended bits and made them bigger,  and then I started recording it in my home studio.

“And that’s how it happened! It really came to me quickly, and it was the first song of the album I did, so there’s really a double meaning: the album has the same title, because the song and the album all came to me really quickly.”

The double meaning pairs with another song on the album Lynne considers one of his favourites. Speaking of the track Songbird, Lynne shared how he managed to avoid a sad ending for the track.

Lynne said: “Songbird is actually a true story. These doves moved into an alcove above my window and had babies. They were all living in there, looking at us through the kitchen window.

“Often these songs have a sad ending, but I wanted to give it a good ending, and fortunately I could do it because they learnt to fly. Suddenly they could fly, like harriers, straight off the ground up into the air, up to the telephone wires.

“It was such a great moment, and in the end they all flew off together. So what I turned all this into was a song about them coming home. Because I believe that the babies come back to where they were born, to make their own nest. My songbird came home.”