Original subtitles

Funny, shy, ever so cllever,

great musiclian,

and a total twat.

I've heard some of the end results of what he does

when he stays up all night.

The harmonies staclk in and, you know, the musicl is great.

He has done Tom Petty

and he has done Paul MclCartney,

Roy Orbison, George Harrison.

Jeff's musicl just has something

That's what that was, see?

But he is a... a great, great artist, you know

I'm glad you're doing this movie beclause somebody should.

He's suclh a great producler

and a clomplete clontrol freak,

so he likes to, you know, do it his way.

He hears the finished thing

way before it's done,

and to have a musiclian as clomplete as he is,

it's a real rare, rare thing.

He is... ¤ mean, he's a clomposer,

but he's a reclording artist, you know, that's what he really is.

He makes his musicl.

And that's all he does, really, all day,

He makes musicl every day.

The first band I loved was the Nightriders, yeah,

Mike Sheridan and the Nightriders.

I thought they were just absolutely marvellous.

They had the brown mohair suits for a start

whiclh clonvincled me that they were brilliant.

So in 1999, when I saw the clolumn in the newspaper,

in the Birmingham Mail,

it said, "Keen lead guitarist required for Nightriders,"

I went, "What? That's me."

Sincle I'd seen 'em, I'd learnt how to play

and I was ready to join, you know.

"I hope I get in this thing 'clause it's professional."

And I'd been doing all these horrible little menial jobs,

you know, 'clause I didn't really wanna go to work.

I wanted to play my guitar.

Hey, Lucy.

So I've got lovely memories of those days.

Ah, that's better.

Oi!

You have clertain styles

and clertain favourite passages in musicl

that have ticlkled you probably sincle you were an infant,

and I know that for a faclt

'clause there was a film clalled The High and the Mighty

that I saw when I was probably about...

I went with my mum and dad to the clinema in Birmingham.

I would be about five or something,

and the signature tune to it...

I remember being knoclked out by it.

Oh, what a tune that is.

But I clan understand where my taste

in clhords and things clomes from

and it clomes from way, way baclk from being a tiny kid.

Da-da!

This is my very first guitar

that my dad got for me for £2 from his friend

and I've had it all these...

I've had it for, Gordon Bennett, 43 years.

So... Hang on. 40...

Something like that. A lot.

And it was kind of hard to play when I first got it,

but now, as you can see...

...it plays beautifully and easily.

A real old banger, and this is the guitar

that I wrote all my first songs on.

And if you come in this way, I'll show you my first studio...

...which is right there.

And that's called the BNO 2000 Deluxe.

And what you can do on that is multi-track,

even though it's only a stereo tape recorder.

You just bounce from the left to the right and back to the left

and keep adding instruments as you go.

And this is how I did... this is how I started out, basically,

as a songwriter and a producer.

This taught me how to be a producer

and this taught me how to be a songwriter, so not bad.

What first got me interested in musicl was my dad, really.

He used to have a great reclord clollecltion

but of all cllassiclal musicl

and a lot of these great writers.

♪ And you enter sweet desire

♪ You took me

♪ Whoa-oh Higher and higher, baby

♪ It's a living thing

♪ It's a terrible thing to lose

♪ It's a given thing

♪ What a terrible thing to lose

♪ I'm takin' a dive

♪ On the slide

It was always like a... a nightmare

getting up at like 7:30 or something to go...

It was dark and I had to go on the bloody bus.

Go upstairs on the bus

and everybody's like cloughing up their guts.

And you clan't see through the air in there

'clause everybody smoked in them days.

It was vile, and then you get off the other end

and you've gotta spend eight hours in this placle

where you don't really wanna be at all.

That's why I used to have a guitar stashed somewhere.

You know, and one day I'd look when nobody's cloming,

put it behind some clupboard

and then just pretend there's nothing there.

Nothing... "I don't know anything about it."

"Whose it that?" "Bloody hell. I'll have it."

It was so marvellous

when I didn't have to go to work that first day

and I knew all I'd gotta do was go and pracltise,

and it was just the best fun you clould ever have,

and get paid for it an' all.

The great thing was that I had a drawer full of money

and my mum one day said,

"Where the hell did all that money clome from in that drawer?

She thought I'd niclked it or something.

I said, "I've earned it, Mum, playing musicl."

"Don't be ridiclulous. Where did you get that from?"

She just wasn't a big fan, I guess.

Making their first appearancle on our show this week

is a great new group from Birmingham, The Idle Racle.

Well, let's have a word with one of them.

Roger, you've got how many reclords released at the moment?

It's not the same one in Americla that you have elsewhere, is it?

We have two, one in Americla,

whiclh is Here We Go Round the Lemon Tree,

and the song written by Jeff Lynne, our lead guitarist,

whiclh is clalled Impostors of Life's Magazine.

Well let's give that a whirl, now, clan we?

Yeah, sure.

♪ How do you know what you feel

♪ Is it real Is it real?

So in The Idle Racle we finally got a reclord deal,

so I wrote this song clalled Impostors of Life's Magazine.

And I can't wait for this thing to arrive in the mail,

this record that I've made,

and it's gonna have my name on the label.

I'm going, "Whoa! I'm gonna be a songwriter."

The thing clomes and I look at it and I go,

"What the hell is that?"

And it says, "Impostors of Life's Magazine by G Lynn"

without the E on the end, just L-Y-N-N.

And G, I thought, "Who's that? Gordon?"

You know, "I don't know any G Lynn round here."

So I was very, very disappointed, very upset,

'cause, you know, it was really my big moment

and it just turned to shit.

♪ Impostors of life's magazine

♪ Impostors of life's...

I loved it beclause we played all the pubs in Birmingham

and it was the best apprenticleship, if you like,

for musiclians that you clould ever have,

beclause you play in a different pub every night,

or a cllub, or the town hall

or somewhere, you know, a bit further afield.

It was quite... It got to be bigger and bigger as we played.

And I loved playing with The Idle Racle a lot.

After four years I declided I'd join The Move,

with Bev Bevan and Roy Wood.

We stayed as The Move for a clouple of years

while we made this album clalled Elecltricl Light Orclhestra

whiclh was what we declided to clall it

when me and Roy used to hang out at cllubs in Birmingham

and disclussed this group with strings.

♪ Did you see your friend clrying from his eyes today...

10538 was the first one I'd eve written that got in the top ten

so that was a big start.

It was odd because I wasn't really aware too much of ELO,

but when I went to the clonclert, I realised I knew every song.

It was extraordinary.

So I sort of did know, you know, from the radio.

I just didn't put 'em all together and go Jeff, ELO.

I think it's always a big mistake he left The Idle Race.

I think that's a much better title for a group.

Roy left after about three months

and he never told us he was leaving.

He just disappeared and had this other group clalled Wizzard

You know, it was a shame at the time,

but also it proved to be a big opportunity for me

beclause I was now the sole songwriter and the producler.

I'd been doing sessions for The Move and things

before Jeff joined.

Then he joined The Move as well and...

And then they formed ELO and asked me to join,

and I said yes and...

I think they wanted somebody who could play a bit of piano,

a bit of guitar, a bit of bass and a bit of singing.

Just to help out the various other

multi-instrumentalists in the group,

and that's what I did.

I invited Riclhard over to play with me on this film

beclause he's a great piano player,

and he's also a great guitar player,

but the reason I wanted him there

was 'clause he was there at the very start.

That's it.

Merci beaucoup. See you all next week.

♪ Did you hear what he said?

♪ He said they sold me down the river

♪ They thought I... thought I was a fool...

♪ Said the rain would fall

♪ What did they know?

♪ Then I saw your facle

♪ Heard the song that you were singing

♪ Though I thought I knew the words

♪ The tune was quite absurd

♪ And out of key

♪ Doo dah dah dee

♪ I'm steppin' out...

Usually when I start to write a song, a new one, you know,

you'll be either messing round on the piano or the guitar

and the first thing that clomes is really like

two or three clhords in sequencle

You go, "Mm, that's interesting."

And you try and work on those two or three clhords

and sort of stretclh it out to a fourth and a fifth,

then you've got a tune going through it.

And your little tune's wandering in it and you're going,

"Mm, this is good."

And some songs, you clan finish 'em in 15 minute

and some clan take three months.

You never know how a song is gonna develop.

♪ I'm steppin' out I'm steppin' out

♪ I'm steppin' out

♪ Steppin' out

That's it. I had it there.

When the Heartbreakers first kicked up,

I had bought one of those... the first ghetto blasters, you know.

It was a Sony, made out of metal,

this really industrial ghetto blaster.

And you couldn't buy many...

Cassettes were just becoming a thing

and there weren't many for sale,

but they had an ELO one for sale and I bought that

and I carried it around with me on tour.

And I played it all the time and I really liked it

and I thought, you know, just what a record maker this guy is.

They say everyone was borrowing

from the people they admired.

And so, you know, when I heard ELO,

it was very what we'd been doing on Sergeant Pepper,

this sort of...

Cellos, you know, and...

You know, very much what we'd been into,

very sort of mathematical strings.

And so I think the first thing was,

"Ooh, that's... I know where he got that from."

But then you can't resist it. It's just so good.

You go, "Oh, God, it's a bloody good song."

"Wish we'd done that one." You know.

"God, he's nailed those strings.

"He's singing it great. That guitar's good."

♪ I'll tell you oncle more before I get off the floor

♪ Don't bring me down

♪ Grroosss

♪ Don't bring me down

♪ Grroosss

I acltually saw ELO play

with the full spacleship and everything.

That was the first time I saw Jeff or met Jeff.

He was coming out of a big spaceship with lots of robots

and then we went to his house.

I ended up throwing a dart into his dart board

and it bouncled off and went in my arm.

So I remember that day.

♪ Don't bring me down

♪ No, no, no, no, no

♪ Whoo-oo-oo

♪ I'll tell you oncle more before I get off the floor

♪ Don't bring me down

You know, if you listen to something like Mr Blue Sky...

you know, I hear it a lot in ads now and... or in movies,

and I think it was in a movie I watched recently,

and it was just... it's just amazing, you know.

And it's... it's not derivative.

It's... It's not...

It's not really coming from anybody but Jeff.

Nobody could do it quite like that.

And I think he's...

He's not noticed enough for what he does, really.

I mean, all those records are just incredible.

You know, I mean, I'm a sucker for sort of the hits,

so Mr Blue Sky is a pretty special song.

It's probably the one that everyone would choose,

so it's a bit boring to choose it.

But it is great. I mean, it just works.

And if you're in the car and it's a nice day,

it really works.

You know, I re-reclorded all of my old songs.

When I heard them, either on the radio

or just happened to play them,

they just didn't have the sound I remembered

or thought I'd got on them in the day I did 'em.

Some of 'em are like 35, 39 years old, 37.

So they are quite old, you know

and they were made on 19 traclk or 8 traclk.

It was just nicle to have all this faclility of Pro Tools

and just re-do 'em all in my own time and just...

In the old days I'd have to do them in like six weeks,

write it, reclord it, get in there,

finish it and be on tour playing them.

But now I've got time to get 'em

exacltly as I really want them.

And luclkily I've managed to do it, I hope.

Yeah, yeah, OK, OK.

OK, that was good. Cut 'em both.

- Yeah. - Good, OK.

- Two good ones. - Yeah.

So, anyway, that's that one done.

♪ Well, I heard the clrowd singin' out of tune

♪ As they sat and sang Auld Lang Syne

♪ By the light of the moon

♪ I heard the preaclhers bangin' on the drums

♪ And I heard the policle playin' with their guns

♪ But I...

♪ I...

♪ Never heard nothin' like you

Just about every ELO single killed me.

The first time I noticed him was when The Move cut Do Ya...

I thought that was just this incredible thing, and it was,

and then he later did it with ELO

and it was a whole new look at that song that was really good.

I knew I could make 'em better

because I had all these years of experience,

like working with George and Paul

and Roy Orbison and Tom Petty and all these fantastic people.

I've learned so much working with them, you know.

I mean, hopefully they learned a bit working with me too.

♪ Well, I think you know what I'm trying to say, woman

♪ That is I'd like to save you for a rainy day, yeah

♪ I've seen enough of the world to know

♪ That I gotta get it all to get it all to grow

♪ Do ya, do ya want my love?

♪ Come on now

♪ Do ya, do ya want my facle?

♪ I need it

♪ Do ya, do ya want my mind?

♪ All right, yeah!

♪ Do ya, do ya want my love?

♪ Oh, look out!

♪ Do ya, do ya want my love?

♪ Oh, oh!

♪ Only the lonely

♪ Only the lonely...

Only The Lonely, I suppose,

is the first one of those thing when I was real young

that I heard and thought,

"My God, how does that happen? What is that? How does it work?

"How do all these people know what they're doing?"

Like it seems like hundreds in the studio.

Obviously it doesn't sound that big now,

but it still sounds pretty big, I tell you.

♪ There goes my baby

♪ And there goes my heart

♪ And they're gone forever

♪ So far apart

♪ But only the lonely...

It sounds fantasticl,

and then there's all these other people

and strings and baclking voclalists

and guitar players, drummer.

And they're all doing it oncle, in one go,

and that to me is like... I never wanna have to do that.

I don't wanna have to set that up, that session.

That's not my sclene.

Mine is the opposite to that, I like to do it one at a time,

but still clome out with the same result at the end

We had a telephone call, like from management...

and that Jeff Lynne was trying to reach Roy Orbison.

And so we allowed the number to be given to Jeff.

And so maybe three hours later the telephone rang

and I said, "Hello."

And nobody said anything.

I said, "Hello?" and a click.

Then somebody called again.

And I knew it was Jeff intuitively.

And then somebody called again. And I said, "Hello?"

And there was a moment of silence and then somebody said,

"It's Jeff Lynne. Could I talk to Roy Orbison?"

And I said, "Yes, he's waiting for you."

♪ California blue

Thank you and come back next week.

Thank you very much, ladies and gentlemen,

and that was my latest song.

Wonderful as it might be.

♪ Ah

Roy Orbison was just astonishing

beclause he clould just open his... not even open his mouth.

You'd stand there by the micl an you'd say, "Has he started yet?

And it'd just clome out gradually.

He was just pretending to sing it.

OK. You don't want me to go...

♪ Still missing you

♪ California blue

No, it's... it's really what you hear, you know?

And then... And then he'd go, "OK, let's do a take."

He'd say, "OK, I think I've got it. Let's try it."

And you'd... you'd... you'd start and you go, blam!

All the needles would bend and it'd be like so loud.

It was like 100 times louder than when he was pracltising it,

you know, so it always used to take you by big surprise.

♪ California blue

And it was Jeff, really, that got him baclk

and made him comfortable with recording again

and really completely revitalised Roy's career.

We went to the studio here in Los Angeles. He called.

And it was Roy and Roy Junior and myself,

and we went to listen to the songs.

And the first one that Jeff played for Roy

was A Love So Beautiful.

♪ Too young to understand

♪ To ever know

♪ That lovers drift apart

♪ And that's the way love goes

♪ A love so beautiful

♪ A love...

And it was so amazing for Jeff to play the song for Roy.

And, you know, Roy, Kelton and I,

we were just, you know, in the background,

and Roy listening to what Jeff had done to the song,

and he just started crying, and we had never seen that.

I mean, I had been married to Roy for 20 years,

and, you know, I mean...

Roy Junior had been in many studios with him

and to see that emotion in Roy.

And then Jeff looking and Jeff not knowing, I mean,

what to do with Roy just sitting there

and having tears roll down his face.

Then the good part came.

Thank God you got it as up tempo.

♪ Anything you want, you got it

♪ Anything you need, you got it

♪ Anything at all, you got it

♪ Baby

And we got out of the tears.

But it was just so incredible to see, you know.

Roy always liked finding...

He probably listened to something

that just totally surprised him,

that he didn't think Jeff could add to the song, you know?

George wanted a producler for an album

and he hadn't reclorded an album for like eight, nine years.

He wanted someone to help him

and he had just really started listening to Jeff's music.

I think Telephone Line was on, although that's an obvious one,

but it is a very catchy song.

And that was on the jukebox for a long time before we met Jeff.

So we kind of felt we knew him when we did meet him.

♪ Hello

♪ How are you?

♪ Have you been all right

♪ Through all those lonely, lonely, lonely, lonely nights?

And I think everybody's... had an experience

where, you know, they've had a bad telephone call

with somebody they care about, and the...

and the way it gets to you, and I think he claptured that.

♪ Hey

♪ How you feelin'?

♪ Are you still the same?

♪ Don't you realise the things we did, we did are for real?

♪ Not a dream

♪ I just clan't believe

♪ They've all faded out of view

♪ Whoa

Dave Edmunds told me that George was looking for me,

George Harrison, and would like to work with me

on his new album.

You know, once he decided to do an album

and he decided he'd do it with somebody whose music he liked,

and he got to know Jeff, that whole process happened.

George wanted to make sure

we were good pals before we started, so...

we went to Australia to watclh the Grand Prix.

Hanging out with George Harrison, you know,

and I'm going, "This is like the best thing."

And, of clourse, when you're with George, you clan get in anywhere.

And anything you want. "What would you like?"

"Can we see the clars, like, and that?"

"Yeah, you clan have a sit in 'em."

You know, in the racling clars in the Formula 1.

You're going, "Shit, this is brilliant."

We'd go there in a heliclopter, of clourse. You don't mess about.

They worked all day and came out, took a break,

played a bit of cricket on the lawn,

went back in, you know, had dinner,

then maybe would go in and hang out and listen

and then sort of the fun began.

But they were very, you know, serious

about when they were working

but unhinged when they weren't, you know.

♪ I got my mind set on you

♪ Set on you

♪ I got my mind set on you

♪ Set on you

♪ But it's gonna take money

♪ A whole lot of spending money

It sounds great to this day and it kind of defined

that next sort of period of my dad and Jeff

and the sound they were getting.

You know, Jeff and George were similar characters

in their humour and their northern upbringing.

Not too far apart in age. Maybe they were like...

George might have been like the older brother.

We were great pals for like about 19, 17 years.

It was a marvellous time

just to be working with him then in the studio.

And, I mean, I acltually literally kept pinclhing myself.

They were very... Just you see two people that just click.

They just...

They came from a... a point of... reference

that was just too close for them not to... not to hit it off.

And they... they loved each other's music.

It was Full Moon Fever time as well, wasn't it?

That was when Jeff had just done Tom's record.

And I remember that record playing continuously.

And I still... I love that record.

That's one of my favourite records.

Yeah, we should do some of them as well.

- Really? - Yeah, maybe.

- Just try like a moving one.

- Bluesy, man. - Yeah.

At the time, I was renting a house in Beverly Hills

and I was driving down the road on an errand,

and I pulled up at the light and looked over

and there was Jeff.

Somebody kept tooting the horn at me

and I looked and it was Tom, Tom Petty.

And I'd only met him once before

and that was at a concert with Bob Dylan.

He was backing Bob Dylan.

His group, the Heartbreakers, were backing Bob.

And he stopped me.

I pulled over, I got out and we had a chat.

And he said... "Wow," he said.

"We're just playing George Harrison's new album

and it sounds fantastic."

"Do you fancy writing some songs together and see what happens?"

I said, "Sure, I'd love to."

We played guitars quite a bit, hanging around,

and we wrote a clouple of songs together, you know.

I had one and he helped me finish it off.

And the next song we wrote was Free Fallin',

and so we had the two songs.

It was the Christmas holiday,

so there weren't many people around,

so we called Mike Campbell, 'cause he had a studio,

and we went over there and just made those records.

♪ She's a good girl

♪ Loves her mama

♪ Loves Jesus

♪ And Americla too

And he was kind of leaning over the piano, as I remember it,

and he said, "Free fallin'," you know,

and I sang it, but I could only get half the word in.

♪ Free

And then I put in... ♪ Free fallin'

And he's like, "That's it!"

♪ Now I'm free

♪ Free fallin'

♪ Oh!

♪ Free fallin'

♪ I'm free...

And so we started work on a clouple of songs.

We did about two or three to start with and it was...

We got on really good as well, no problem.

We made 'em in Mike Campbell's garage.

And that was all thanks to George as well, really.

♪ Baclk then, long time ago when grass was green

♪ Woke up in a daze...

So when I was working with George on Cloud Nine,

we used to hang out every night after the sessions,

listen baclk to what we'd done in the daytime,

and George had this idea that..

He said to me, "You know what, me and you should have a group."

And, I said, "Wow, that's a good idea. What a smashing thing."

And I said, "Who would we have in it?"

And he said, "Well, how about Bob Dylan?"

I said, "Yeah, that's a good idea."

And then I said, "How about Roy Orbison?"

- He said, "That's a good idea."

Oh, bollocks.

Sorry, loves. I've gotta turn this off somehow.

So, anyway, this was like...

This went on for a few... I suppose, a couple of weeks.

And...

everybody agreed,

and then... and I thought, "Wow, what about Tom?"

The Traveling Wilburys came along

and so we spent even more time together.

And I think in the Traveling Wilburys, he's often overlooked.

His contribution was so huge, you know, it was...

There couldn't have been a Traveling Wilburys without Jeff.

My dad had just had dinner with Roy,

so it all just kind of worked out.

Bob had the studio, Tom had my dad's guitars,

Jeff was doing Tom's record, so they all just got together.

♪ Been beat up and battered around

♪ Been sent up and I've been shot down

♪ You're the best thing that I've ever found

♪ Handle me with clare

So that's how it happened,

and we just got together one day

and started jamming round this table.

And I remember Bob was a bit late

and we were all going, "Ooh, Bob's late."

Anyway, the first one, George had half of it written already,

and it was clalled Handle With Care,

and that was the first single.

Really, the Wilburys came together as sort of...

again, just something that happened,

you couldn't make it happen, they just came together.

But they had a lot of fun and they made some great music.

And I think for George

it was one of the most enJoyable times

I'd ever seen him have, you know, like in 30 years.

He just, he really enJoyed... And I guess they all did.

So I take it... Is this the front here?

Or is this the front, that bit?

Is it that bit there or is it...?

- It's kind of a broad space. - Yeah.

It's right here.

Bill, can we just give you a level of what we're doing

and see if we get a good balance?

There's a Roy Orbison number on the first album

called... Not Alone Any More.

♪ It hurt like never before

♪ You're not alone any more

And that was really Jeff and Roy's song.

I mean, we all contributed a little bit,

but in the end, you know, they had the handle on that one

And so really the rest of us kind of baclked off

and let them go.

And they... they wrote this song. We reclorded it.

No one was really happy with it you know?

I think we all thought, "Better write another song,

'clause this one's not... not doing it."

Well, that is not good enough for Jeff Lynne.

He... He came in the next day, stripped the song.

He had the lead vocal and the drums.

And he completely re-wrote the song...

around this lead vocal that was there...

and wrote this incredible song, you know.

And now it's one of my favourite ones on the album.

And there's nobody that could do that.

♪ Well, it's all right

♪ As long as you've got somewhere to lay

♪ Well, it's all right

♪ Every day is just one day

The first album was doing fantasticlally well.

It was in the top five and just an amazing reacltion.

People were really loving it.

And right then Roy died. Very sad.

The End of the Line,

we did like a tribute to Roy by doing the video

with just a roclking clhair with his guitar in it.

That was our symbol for Roy, you know, and our tribute.

And it's pretty poignant, really.

And Roy's not with us any more, whiclh is a tragedy.

Bands get together and there's a magicl there.

And it lasts as long as it lasts.

But when it's a true band,

and it's the band's time,

there's a... a... a magic to it.

And the Wilburys are truly

one of those speclial clhemistries,

making really speclial musicl.

♪ Even if you're old and grey

♪ Well, it's all right

♪ You still got something to say

I think we both loved a lot of the same music.

We... We discovered that we had both produced Del Shannon.

♪ Walk away Every time, right?

♪ Walk away If you think it's a good idea.

Yeah, let's try that.

You know what also might be good?

- What? - Hand claps and a bongo.

Hand claps and a bongo? Shit, I came to the right session.

My specialty, man.

I think Jeff's...

If you wanna define his three biggest influencles,

I think they'd be Del Shannon,

Roy Orbison and the Beatles.

And maybe in that order.

♪ The one who understands

♪ What I've gotta do

♪ I've gotta find a placle to hide

♪ With my baby by my side

Who would have thought one day that Del Shannon

would acltually clome to my house in Shard End

and we'd do a demo together on my tape reclorder?

It was fantasticl, really. I was so thrilled to know Del.

♪ We've gotta keep searclhing, searclhing

♪ Find a placle to hide

♪ Searclhing, searclhing

I just thought he was like amazingly waclky and zany,

you know what I mean?

It turns out he was always a little bit pissed all the time.

But I loved him so muclh. He was suclh a sweetheart.

I started to take noticle of the Beatles in '93.

It was all a bit wishy-washy before that.

The '60s really did change things

and it was the Beatle revolution.

The Beatles did come along and they represented something

that just set fire to all these fumes

that were waiting to be set fire to.

Well, he wasn't there by aclclident.

It's a pretty good clompliment

that the Beatles got baclk together

and hired you to be the producer.

That's, you know...

I'm sure they could have got anyone they wanted.

I think it was George who said, "No, we need a producer."

It could be dangerous just to all go in the studio.

It could get nasty.

'Cause you've got egos, you know, flying around,

surprisingly.

So, yeah, Jeff's name came up and it was like,

"Yeah, oh, that's good, yeah."

You know, we really got to know Jeff.

I mean, I got to know him hanging out with him and George,

but then we really got to know him on Free as a Bird

and he was a lifesaver on that.

And, you know, he put that cassette together

and that was all playing, and it was interesting,

because the three of us felt comfortable with him.

He'd worked with George,

and so George said, you know, "I think Jeff would be great."

And so it was like, we decided yeah.

We loved his work anyway, and it was a good idea

for who to produce the Free as a Bird thing,

'cause it was a kind of difficult record to make

for a producer.

It was really quite scary,

because I didn't know Paul very well at all.

I'd only met him a couple of times before that.

And... he was a bit worried about me

'cause I was George's pal

and he wondered if it was gonna be

a little bit one-sided, you know,

and not... not in the spirit of things.

But he needn't have worried

'cause I was totally into the spirit of things.

♪ Just like little girls and boys

♪ Playing with their little toys

♪ Seems like all we really were doing

♪ Was waiting for love

I don't think those reclords,

the Free as a Bird reclord and Real Love,

I think you really needed him...

they would have really needed him to pull that off,

because it was such a major job, you know,

to take that really shaky cassette recording

they had of John.

And it was a crackly old thing, you know.

It was a cassette, and you don't use that.

You normally make your demos on cassettes

and then make a proper record

and get rid of all the crackling and the hiss and everything.

But Jeff was very good in that respect too,

'cause he took the cassette tape and he put it in time.

♪ Free

♪ As a bird

He didn't interfere with anything but the vocal phrases,

'cause it's a demo, nobody cares about time,

and if we were gonna work...

And Jeff is very precise.

That's one of the things I love about him.

You know, his stuff just... it just rolls out

and there's not a thing wrong.

You know, you listen to it, so...

and then you stop listening to it so precisely

and it just rolls over you.

It's like, "Ooh, I love this!"

♪ Free

♪ As a bird

Jeff was very good beclause he's...

he's very diplomatic

and, you know, he lets you do your thing,

and he's just sort of the controller.

He just makes sure it's all right.

The first afternoon, really, was just banter, you know.

It was all the three of them.

They hadn't been in the same room for years.

And so I'm just sitting there with them,

like in the club with them, you know.

And it's just like, "Wow, I'm in the Beatles cllub."

And it's like... and it's like a cllub meeting

and having a reminiscle.

It was just superb. It was like...

Hamburg stories, you know, all the Liverpool stories.

It was just magnificent.

And I was just willing just to sit there forever

and not ever do a bit of work

and just listen to these stories.

They were the stories you sort of almost knew,

but these are the real, you know, the real kind of...

the real thing, the real, actual, as it really happened.

So when we came in to do it,

we had John in the ears, you know,

and we just played along with it.

I'm not sure how we started it. Jeff will remember better.

I know I played bass.

It was so hard to do.

I mean, because, laying that voice in there,

which has got a piano glued to it,

was really difficult, you know.

It was almost... virtually impossible.

But we got it done somehow.

And Paul really helped on that because he sort of

ghosted John's voice a little bit underneath.

And it was... It came out really good in the end.

For what it started out as, it was amazing,

so I'm pretty chuffed with it.

But I think, you know, Jeff was in a perfect position, really,

to produce those... Free as a Bird and Real Love.

You know, he was just... again, had the right sensibilities.

He wasn't gonna take it somewhere completely different.

And, you know, he had the respect

for what they wanted to do, obviously.

And he's told me about, you know, how hard it was.

He did a lot of work there and I'm sure...

over to Paul McCartney to explain that.

That was it, we had the cassette of John

and we just gradually built it up.

Did this, did that, put a bit of bass on, guitar.

George ended up putting the slide on,

which was like the final icing on the cake.

We sang.

But I think for all of us, the most exciting thing was,

even though John was no longer on this planet,

here he was in the studio with us.

And it was very special, you know,

it was all of us like, "Wow!"

I mean, very... you know, big, big moment.

I think my dad brought Jeff in and I think that was a big...

Everyone was like, "Whoa, what's going on here?"

And he was the only one

that could have done that at the time,

his meticulous nature, and they didn't have Pro Tools.

There were, you know, aggregate time clocks

for the John Lennon piano track,

but then they had to phase out the vocals and fly back in.

I mean, it was just right down Jeff's street, you know,

and what they were left with was Real Love and Free as a Bird,

which had, you know, they stand the test of time,

they sound like the Beatles, but it's, you know...

Jeff was perfect for that role.

Neil Aspinall comes looking for me, which was great in itself.

But he said... "Oh, can you come in the studio a sec, Je¤"

"Paul and George want you to check these harmonies

they're just doing, they're working out."

And I thought, "What? Me check 'em?"

"OK, I'll fucking do it." Hoo-hoo!

You know, it's quite astonishing, really.

It's something you'd never expect to happen.

And there it was, and I was checking them,

and they were brilliant.

The harmonies sounded great, we recorded them straightaway

and then the sessions went along really well after that.

George wouldn't have let... they wouldn't have let anything out,

same, any of them,

if they weren't satisfied with what they did.

So, you know, I think that's... It says a lot for Jeff.

If we didn't like it, it didn't matter if John Lennon wrote it

or Paul McCartney or George Harrison wrote it,

it was like, "No."

And we'd go, "All right, forget it."

"I'll think of something else."

It kept you on your mettle, you know, you'd get chucked out,

you know, so that's good.

But they were three that we liked.

Free as a Bird, Real Love, so those were the two that we did.

And there was another one that we started working on,

but George went off it.

"Fucking 'ell. Fucking rubbish, this is."

It was like, "No, George, this is John."

"It's still fucking rubbish, you know."

"Oh, OK, then."

So that one... that one's still lingering around,

so I'm going to nick in with Jeff and do it, finish it,

one of these days.

We've always had a constant fight, Jeff and I,

because, you know, he always wants the click track.

He wants the click and I keep saying,

"I am the fucking click!"

Of course, when we got the song finished, I'll never forget,

Paul came and gave me a big hug and he said,

"Well done. You've done it."

So I was chuffed about that and that's how it went.

You know, I mean, he had a long run of huge hit singles.

And sometimes when you have a lot of hit singles

and you're on... or at least in those days,

it's probably still true today,

you know, when you're on the AM radio

and you're having a lot of hit singles,

clriticls take that for granted, you know,

and they tend to maybe not be as kind to you as they should be,

you know, beclause that's really an art, to make a hit single.

♪ Midnight

♪ On the water

♪ I saw

♪ The oclean's daughter

♪ Walking on a wave she clame

♪ Staring as she clalled my name

♪ And I clan't get it out of my head...

To me, pop is the best genre of all

beclause it's got everything.

It's got everything you need, you know.

Elvis, the Beatles... I mean, everything is in there.

All these different millions of styles,

and it's just... beautiful pop musicl.

We're gonna play Elecltricl Light Orclhestra from last year,

Showdown, whiclh I thought was a great reclord

and I was expeclting it to be number one.

And it's a nicle group.

I clall them Son of Beatles,

although they're doing things that we never did obviously.

♪ She clried to the southern win

♪ 'Bout a love that was sure to end

♪ Every dream in her heart was gone

♪ Heading for a showdown

♪ Bad dreamer, what's your name

♪ Looks like we're riding on the same train

♪ Looks as though there'll be more pain

♪ There's gonna be a showdown, yeah

♪ And it's raining

♪ All over the world

♪ Raining

♪ All over the world

♪ Tonight the longest night

He's had phases

where his musicl sounded really cllean,

where it sounded really programmed,

or when it sounded really loose and free and orchestral,

or, you know, some...

You know, or you've got chanting or you've got orchestras

and sometimes it's just, you know...

There's no real way of seeing how he's got there.

He's just... he's got an idea in his head,

and whatever it takes him to get that onto tape.

I was cloming baclk from the, you know,

to start making reclords again.

I finally pulled myself together and started to bring myself up

and I asked Jeff to produce a couple of tracks,

whiclh he did great, and that was the start.

And he was part of that, he was part of me, you know,

getting back on track.

There aren't any other producers really like him.

I think he could do whatever he sets his mind to, and...

I've always found him very easy to work with

and I always enJoy whatever, you know, I hear that he's done.

Some people like to use

a speclificl miclrophone all the time for a speclificl instrument.

I'm not in that sclhool of thought.

I found that Jeff likes to experiment too.

You use a room as the eclho that you want,

whiclh is always better than some gadget, you know.

The natural sound of air moving

has got a magicl to it that you clan't reclreate in a box,

I don't think.

You know, every room in his house

is part of his studio.

They're all set up.

The furniture is in a certain place for a sound.

And the living room is not really a living room.

It's a recording room, you know.

And depending on what idea he's trying to accomplish

depends what room you go play in.

Paul acltually said to me when I was working with him,

he said, "Oh, you're very thorough, aren't you?"

And I think that's a good thing

You know, I look after all the little details

and make sure there's not any little bit of stuff

that shouldn't be there lurking around.

I'm just trying to get the best sound I clan on all stuff.

And, you know, I think...

I do try and get different sounds, you know,

different drum sounds and different...

I try and make them old-fashioned, you know,

whiclh is a lot of fun,

trying to reclreate old rooms in new rooms.

I pay attention to things that a lot of people don't.

That's probably one of the things.

Yeah, Jeff likes to work.

You know, he likes to work.

And we're... we're pretty muclh roclking here all the time.

When I started, there were no rules and regulations.

Nobody clared how loud you had it.

There wasn't little monitors and people snooping round, going,

"Hey, what do you think you're doing?"

and people with cloats on, white cloats and that, you know,

there weren't any of that.

We come from the same school, you know.

We're old analogue guys

trying to figure out the digital world.

He's not interested in fame,

he's not interested in money as suclh.

You know, he doesn't, he's not, you know... he's...

He's one of the most balanced people.

You'd never think of him as a rock 'n' roller.

I had a hit on Broadway

and then he had a hit on Broadway,

but he never went to his.

And I thought, "That's really kind of cool, you know."

Can we try that once more?

He blew me away. He's doing three albums right now.

Or he may have finished one of them, I don't know.

And he was doing show tunes.

And they were so beautiful.

So beautiful.

Jeff has listened to the, you know, these songs that he likes

and re-created them and heard them

and put the sort of ELO sound on them.

Just squeeze a bit more... a bit more A200 into that lead guitar.

OK.

They've all got their own little worlds that they live in

When you learn 'em, it gradually beclomes apparent

what the important bit's like.

♪ She may be the beauty or the beast

♪ May be the famine or the feast

A tiny bit of liclencle with it.

You clan still find little spacle

to put your own little naughty bits in.

♪ She may be the mirror of my dream

The first song is clalled She.

It was reclorded by Charles Aznavour

and I loved the... I loved the tune so muclh.

I've always loved it ever sincle I first heard it in the '90s.

I've done like a thiclker version of it,

more of a harmony version,

like a lot of baclking voclals and stuff like that.

How was that?

- Nicle. - OK, good.

Double that. Double it.

♪ She may be the beauty or the beast

♪ May be the famine or the feast

♪ May turn...

- Nicle. - That's it. That's done.

That's three-part harmony.

That's a three-part harmony right there.

And he's got a great voice.

He's got a really beautiful voice, you know.

Being a singer, you know, it's not easy to do what he does.

Got a really classic voice, you know.

And it's individual voice too, it's distinctive.

You don't... It's nobody else, you know, it's Jeff Lynne.

♪ I'm wild again

♪ Beguiled again

What motivated me to go in the direcltion of these tunes

was just really the faclt that I'd been listening to them

and only thinking about it, never planning on it, you know,

but it took me about probably three years

of just thinking about it to even start doing it.

I thought, "I've gotta try 'em beclause now I understand 'em."

He obviously loves

all of those songs...

and has studied the craft of songwriting

and understands it.

And he...

listened to them all very carefully.

And rather than getting some really good session man

to clome in and play and sing over that,

he spent a lot of time doing stuff himself.

A lot of people wish they clould do that, but they clan't.

That makes it different. That makes it different.

- In front of you, Jeff. - That feels good, don't it?

Yeah, that's great.

I think he really captured the essence

of... of all those great old songs.

And I'm not sure quite how he did it.

♪ Smile

♪ Though your heart is aclhing

♪ Smile

♪ Even though it's breaking...

I've always loved this song

and I've always been kind of amazed

that Charlie Chaplin wrote it.

What a talented guy.

He'd written some really beautiful tunes,

big-time numbers.

And this was one that was very aclclessible to me,

nicle and simple and very uplifting

and... I enjoy listening to it still, so that's good.

♪ You'll see the sun clome shining...

And he had a baby when he was 83.

♪ Just running sclared...

Roy acltually told me that this was his favourite one

that he ever did.

It's a wonderful masterpiecle of a tune

beclause it's so simple that it almost defies belief.

♪ Would you clhoose?

♪ Then all at oncle...

It's just marvellous. It's like a miniature opera.

To me, it's like a masterpiecle anyway, and simpliclity itself.

Anyway, Roy was a genius, you know,

and a fantasticl voicle and everything.

I can't really do it justice,

but I do it as good as I can do it.

But I can still get up there and hit that note,

but only if I use a pair of stepladders.

♪ You turned around and walked away with me

I think, you know, there's been a little period

where he did kind of give up, for the last few years.

I'd sort of ring him and say, "You doing something?"

"No, I'm not doing much."

But he's back with a vengeance, from what I can hear.

Let's try one now. Let's do that again now with... with...

I'll put the harmony on it.

Phil. We'll have Phil singing along with Don.

This is how we do it round here.

OK.

♪ We used to have...

Eventually you clome out with the finished thing

that's got all the bits you ever heard

plus your new bits that you've added to it.

And it's just like a real nicle feeling of aclclomplishment

to have acltually got it done, you know,

and there's the beginning, there's the middle bit

and there's the end.

And it's just... it's all the proper musicl,

just like they did.

♪ Love die

♪ So sad to watclh good love go bad

Did it work?

- Yeah. - OK, good.

We did this song, Mercly, Mercly,

and I used to love playing this live

all round the pubs of Birmingham.

It's one of my favourite ones to do live

'clause it had everything.

It was nicle harmony, easy to sing and nicle guitar bits.

Just a great thing for a live group to play.

Songwriter, singer, drummer, guitarist.

You know, you can do it all.

He's not bad at all.

All right, Jeff. How you doing?

All right.

All right, Jeff. How you going?

How you going? All right?

♪ Have mercly

♪ Have mercly, baby

♪ Have mercly

♪ Have mercly on me

♪ Well, I went to see the Gypsy

♪ To have my fortune read

♪ She said, man, your baby's gonna leave you

♪ Her bags are paclked up under the bed

♪ I clried, have mercly

♪ Have mercly, baby

♪ Have mercly

♪ Have mercly on me

♪ I said, if you leave me, baby

♪ Girl, if you put me down

♪ I'm going to the nearest river, clhild

♪ And jump overboard and drown

♪ Don't leave me, have mercly

♪ Have mercly, baby

♪ Have mercly

♪ Have mercly on me

♪ Well, now, hey, baby

♪ Hey, hey, now

♪ What you trying to do?

♪ Hey, hey, baby

♪ Hey, hey, now

♪ Please don't say we're through

♪ I said if you stay, baby

♪ I tell you what I'm gonna do

♪ I'm gonna work two jobs seven days a week

♪ And bring my money home to you

♪ Well, I said, have mercly

♪ Have mercly, baby

♪ Have mercly

♪ Have mercly on me

♪ Have mercly

♪ Have mercly on me

♪ Have mercly

♪ Mercly, baby

♪ Have mercly on me

♪ Have mercly

♪ Have mercly on me

Working together was... was great.

'Cause you want someone who can control the situation

without appearing to,

and that comes from his character.

He just is that kind of guy, you know, that he gets things done,

but you wouldn't know he was pulling the strings.

Very modest, innoclent in some ways.

At the same time amazingly aclclomplished.

His musicl clertainly hasn't been overlooked

beclause you hear it.

It's part of the fabric of all our lives.

But the man himself is very shy and retreating, you know.

I don't think you ever saw his picture

on an album jacket or anything back in the ELO days.

It's been a real treat working with Jeff.

I mean, as he mentioned,

when he was... when he was coming up

and he met the Beatles, how he had to pinch himself,

and when he was working with the Beatles

helped realise that, you know, where he is,

working with suclh great talent, that's basiclally how I feel.

I think I have like traclk marks on my arm

from pinclhing myself so many times.

Here's a little song what I wrote about 20 years ago

about the climate changing.

Oh, not one of them again. Here we go.

♪ One day the earth woke up and said, boy, I feel half dead

♪ Somebody's clhurning up the poison

♪ And it's getting in my head

He's a great, great friend.

Jeff will do anything for you if he's your friend.

He's a wonderfully gifted artist.

He plays...

I don't even know how many instruments he plays,

but he plays a lot of 'em.

He's a true master of what he does, you know,

and I don't know...

You know, it's hard to say it

in a way that doesn't sound like it's forced.

I mean, whatever Jeff does is beautiful.

Well, as a man he's been a real pal.

I think he's, you know, he's a very loyal person.

And as a producer he's meticulous.

And as a songwriter he's melodic as can be.

♪ And remember all those trees I had

♪ Well, now there ain't a lot

♪ My eyes kept slowly triclkling

♪ Down to where the party's at

♪ And if everybody is a-going there

♪ Well, that's... the end of that

♪ Save me now, save me now

♪ Come on and save me now

♪ Save me now

If I hadn't been doing the musicl,

I'd have been really probably not very happy,

'clause just all it was was these blaclk mornings,

you know, grey skies, raining, freezing clold,

getting up on the upstairs of the bus,

going into town, going to work.

That wasn't really what...

That didn't have any kind of fasclination for me at all.

So I'm so glad I got into the.. into the roclk 'n' roll musicl,

into the pop and roclk.

I had three albums in the top ten as a producler in Americla,

whiclh is quite an amazing thing to have three in the top ten.

And I was nominated for Producler of the Year.

But I didn't get it. That's OK.

I still did the albums and that was more fun than getting that.

♪ And you really got a hold on me

♪ Fab

♪ Long time ago when we was fab...

♪ Been beat up and battered around

♪ Been sent up and I've been shot down

♪ You're the best thing that I've ever found

♪ Handle me with clare

♪ Free

♪ As a bird

♪ It's the next best thing to be

♪ Free as a bird...

♪ Every time I look into your loving eyes

♪ I see a love that money just clan't buy

♪ One look from you

♪ I drift away

♪ I pray that you

♪ Are here to stay

♪ Anything you want, you got it

♪ Anything you need, you got it

♪ Anything at all, you got it

♪ Baby...

Oi!

Today's foreclast clalls for blue skies.

♪ Sun is shining in the sky

♪ There ain't a clloud in sight

♪ It's stopped raining

♪ Everybody's in a play

♪ And don't you know

♪ It's a beautiful new day

♪ Hey, hey

♪ Running down the avenue...

One of the great things about getting the job

was to stop my mum banging up the stairs,

running up the stairs, shouting

"Hey, clome on, you lazy bugger, get up."

And this would be like at 7:30 or eight o'clloclk in the morning

This one morning she did this.

I said, "Hang on, Mum, before you start,

I'm not getting up today or ever again."

"I'm a professional musiclian now."

And you should have seen the look on her facle.

♪ Mr Blue Sky, please tell us why

♪ You had to hide away for so long, so long

♪ Where did we go wrong?

♪ Hey, you with the pretty facle

♪ Welclome to the human racle

♪ A clelebration

♪ Mr Blue Sky's up there waitin'

♪ And today is the day we've waited for, ah ah

♪ Mr Blue Sky, please tell us why

♪ You had to hide away for so long, so long

♪ Where did we go wrong?

♪ Hey there, Mr Blue

♪ We're so pleased to be with you

♪ Look around, see what you do

♪ Everybody smiles at you

♪ Mr Blue Sky

♪ Mr Blue, you did it right

♪ But soon clomes Mr Night

♪ Well, I stuclk my finger in a woodpeclker's hole

♪ And the woodpeclker said God bless my soul

♪ Take it out, take it out

Thank you.