Electric Light Orchestra will forever be defined by Out of the Blue. Jeff Lynne‘s seminal 1977 release has hits like Mr. Blue Sky, Turn to Stone, and Standin’ in the Rain included. But fans believe it’s the message that ties these songs and the rest of the album together that makes it such a special release.
A theory on what Out of the Blue is all about was shared by members of the Electric Light Orchestra fan community on Reddit. Listeners shared a working idea that the album was a rise and fall of depression which tapped into Lynne’s personal life. The fan wrote: “I interpret this album about the fall and rise of depression. I haven’t seen this take anywhere, and I just wondered if anyone else ever thought this.
“The title of the album helps. ‘Stepping out of the blue,’ if you will. The constant rain. The thunder and lightning that comes before the big blue sky! And ‘where have you been?!’ I imagine the album as a man talking about how his life turns around, and towards the end, he’s happy, even if ‘Mr. Night’ is keeping a hand on your shoulder. Just something to think about.”
Fans believe the theory holds water given how humble and melancholy Lynne has struck them in interviews given after the release of the album. One person wrote: “I find Jeff to be a fairly melancholy fellow quite often, and don’t think I’d have a leg to stand on in challenging your assertion.”
Lynne would write Out of the Blue during a creative burst in the Swiss Alps. Although the album may note darker themes than the albums preceding or following it, Lynne spoke of the success that immediately followed the release of Out of the Blue.
He said: “We were doing 70,000-seaters in some parts of America by then. But the shows were getting too big for me. The spaceship was Don Arden’s idea. We first tried it out at The Who’s studios in Shepperton. Pete Townshend came in, saw it and said, ‘I want one of them!’ The spaceship was amazing – the noise it made at the end of the show was incredible, like rocket engines.
“I used to dash out to the front and watch from the audience. It was Don who got Tony Curtis to introduce us on stage at Wembley that year, where we played to royalty [the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester]. But I was more impressed at the reception afterwards. They’d put all our gold discs up on the walls at the reception. I kept thinking, ‘This looks impressive. These are for songs I’ve written.’ That was the problem: I just wanted to be in the studio. Touring cramped my style.”
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