Song: “Don’t Bring Me Down”
A happy song before we reset our clocks and enter the winter dark
Jeff Lynne’s ELO is currently touring on the band’s farewell circuit, which will culminate next year in the UK. Having seen the show, a highlight among many is today’s song, “Don’t Bring Me Down,” which still inspires the crowd to trill the “r” in “groose,” which many pronounce as “Bruce.”
“Groose” was a placeholder lyric that Lynne intended to replace, but when the German engineer Reinhold Mack heard the demo, he asked Lynne how he knew “gruß” means “greetings” in German. Learning that, Lynne decided to leave it in.
Like many big hits, the song was written at the last minute as a filler track to complete an album, in this case ELO’s 1979 album Discovery. It was written by Lynne, who looped some drums from “On the Run,” added some keys and guitars, and then dashed off some quick lyrics.
It was the first ELO song to not use strings, and the string players were fired after the song was recorded. Apparently, the string players were strong union advocates, and would stop playing in the middle of a song if they were beyond their appointed hour. The band found them much more malleable when they explained how samplers and synthesizers worked.
In 2015, Lynne re-recorded the song for a compilation, Mr. Blue Sky: The Very Best of Electric Light Orchestra. Lynne made these recordings because he felt the songs could sound better with modern instrumentation and recording techniques.
The video is from a 2019 show, and the band appears to be largely the same one touring now.
Enjoy!