Don't Bring Me Down

“Don't Bring Me Down”
Single by Electric Light Orchestra from the album Discovery
B-side	"Dreaming Of 4000"
Released	August 1979
Format	7"
Recorded	1979 Musicland Studios , Munich
Genre	Hard rock, Disco
Length	4:08
Label	Jet Records
Producer	Jeff Lynne
Electric Light Orchestra singles chronology
"The Diary Of Horace Wimp" (1979) "Don't Bring Me Down" (1979) "Confusion" "Last Train To London"
Discovery track listing
"Wishing" (8) "Don't Bring Me Down" (9)
Strange Magic: The Best of Electric Light Orchestra track listing
"Shine A Little Love" (5) (CD II) "Don't Bring Me Down" (6) (CD II) "Confusion" (7) (CD II)
Flashback track listing
"Tears in Your Life" (16) (CD II) "Don't Bring Me Down" (1) (CD III) "The Diary of Horace Wimp" (2)

"Don't Bring Me Down" is a song by the Electric Light Orchestra, the last track from their 1979 album Discovery. This was the first song by ELO not to include a string section. It was also the band's biggest hit in the United States, peaking at #4 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Song meaning

The song is dedicated to the NASA Skylab space station, which reentered the Earth's atmosphere over the Indian Ocean and Western Australia on July 11, 1979.

A common mondegreen in the song is the perception that, following the title line, Jeff Lynne shouts "Bruce!" However, according to liner notes, he is actually saying a made-up word "Grroosss". This is similar to a German word for "greeting", Gruß possibly referring to the Bavarian greeting Grüß Gott the group would have heard while recording the album in Munich. However, after the song's release, so many people had misinterpreted the word as Bruce that Jeff Lynne actually began to sing the word as Bruce at live shows.^[1]

Music video

A music video for the song was produced, which showed video of the band performing the song interspersed with various animations relating to the song's subject matter.

In popular culture

• The song was featured in Love & Monsters, ^[2] an episode of the British science-fiction series Doctor Who.
• "Don't Bring Me Down" was covered by Canadian power pop, The New Pornographers.
• "Don't Bring Me Down" was also covered by punk band J Church.
• The song has been covered by Status Quo on their album Riffs.
• The song was featured in the movie Donnie Brasco.
• Cincinnati Reds outfielder Jay Bruce sometimes uses this music when he comes to the plate.

References

1. ^ Wild, David. "The Story of a Rock and Roll Band and the Pop Genius Who Dared to Go Baroque." Flashback.
2. ^ "Love & Monsters". Writer Russell T. Davies, Director Dan Zeff, Producer Phil Collinson. Doctor Who. BBC. BBC One, Cardiff. 2006-06-17.

External links

• In-depth Song Analysis at the Jeff Lynne Song Database (jefflynnesongs.com)

This 1970s song-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.