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| “10538 Overture” | |||||
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| Single by Electric Light Orchestra from the album The Electric Light Orchestra (No Answer) |
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| B-side | "First Movement (Jumping Biz)" | ||||
| Released | July 1972 | ||||
| Format | 7" | ||||
| Recorded | 1970-1971 Phillips Studios | ||||
| Genre | Classic rock, Prog Rock | ||||
| Length | 5:32 4:04 (Single edit) |
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| Label | Harvest Records | ||||
| Writer(s) | Jeff Lynne | ||||
| Producer | Roy Wood, Jeff Lynne | ||||
| Electric Light Orchestra singles chronology | |||||
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| Flashback track listing | |||||
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"10538 Overture", released in 1972 (see 1972 in music), was the first song to be recorded by Electric Light Orchestra.
Song history
The song, written by Jeff Lynne, was intended to be a B-side on one of The Move's singles. Rick Price of the Move played bass on the track originally but was never credited, apparently with all the overdubs and layers that were added to the track the bass line 'got lost' in the mix and Roy Wood laid down a new bass line. Roy Wood and Jeff Lynne shared vocal duties on the song much like their previous single California Man, (as The Move). The song is about a condemned prisoner but Jeff Lynne wanted to give the character in the song a number as opposed to a name when he chanced upon the number 1053 on the mixing desk. Roy Wood suggested adding number eight to fit the melody better. The song was still to be a new song by The Move, until Wood added some cello riffs and after many cello layers were added using overdubbing, the 'Overture' and the Electric Light Orchestra were born. It was during the singles chart run that Roy Wood dramatically exited the ELO line up and returned later in the year with yet another new band called Wizzard.
The song was covered by Bobby Sutcliff and Mitch Easter in 2001, by Parthenon Huxley in 2005 and by Def Leppard in 2006.
In March 2007 the song was used in the closing credits of an episode of Life on Mars.
An almost identical opening riff can be heard in the song "The Changingman" by Paul Weller, which also seems to recreate the beginning of "In Old England Town (instrumental) from the b side of the single Showdown in the UK.
Quotes
"10538 Overture was an idea that Jeff (Lynne) brought along to the studio which was originally to be a Move track. After recording the basic backing track, the other guys went home, leaving Jeff and myself to run riot with the overdubs. At the time, I was very keen on collecting instruments, and had just acquired a cheap Chinese cello. After we had finished overdubbing the guitars, I sat in the control room trying out this cello and sort of messing around with Jimi Hendrix type riffs. Jeff said, 'That sounds great, why don't we throw it on the track.' I ended up recording around fifteen of these, and as the instrumentation built up, it was beginning to sound like some monster heavy metal orchestra. In fact, it sounded just Bloody Marvellous."
– Roy Wood , March 28, 2006 - No Answer Remaster
I had this guitar track, like a real big riff on a guitar. I laid it down in the studio and Roy Wood got his cello, his Chinese cello, and he overdubbed about fifteen cello riffs, just double tracking all the time-- and it sounded fantastic. We thought, it was like 'Wow!' and we just sat round playing it for days.
– Jeff Lynne , July 31 2006 - The Harvest Years 1970-1973 liner notes
Charts
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