ON THE THIRD DAY

The Electric Light Orchestra, cool name and very cool band for the times, who had the audacity of taking the George Martin/Beatles orchestrations into a highly compact and mobile unit both in the studio and live and then setting standards that have rarely been improved on to this day. "On the Third Day" remains my favorite ELO record mainly because I still have my original vinyl copy from 1973, zillions of scratches applauding my continued fascination (no not the Bowie song!) for that HUGE drum bash manifesto, Bev Bevan being the closest to John "Zep" Bonham in terms of "thud" power, Rick Tandy's eclectic keyboard playing, Jeff Lynne's Lennonesque vocals and the hardest guitar sound this side of early BeBop Deluxe! The hit single was and still is a classy affair, "Showdown" being a rollicking fat cello mammoth tune that still explodes, stings and sizzles to this day. But these boys could seriously blitz as well, witness the speedy insanity of "Ma-Ma-Belle" and the turbo-charged "Dreaming of 4000", a truly masterful piece of hyper-hard guitar prog that still sounds fresh today. Toss in some overt Fab Four -infused concoctions like "Bluebird is Dead" and "Oh No Not Susan", plus a few more orchestrated pieces such as Edvard Grieg's famous "In the Hall of The Mountain King", the slithering majesty of "Daybreaker". While some find this 3 star material, I have very strong emotional ties to this disc, snuggling up to my first babe, mouthing "There's gonna be a showdown, tonight, the longest night!" and waiting for the explosion of passion. If you need to get an ELO record, get this one. 4.5 phosphorescent cellos