Review Summary: With one foot in its crunchy ELO 2 past and the other in its Beatlesque suite rock/ hit maker future, ELO's third album is a disjointed, somewhat underwhelming transition record
Give
On the Third Day a casual listen, and it initially sounds like a logical extension of the album that preceded it, with its somewhat abrasive strings and various incursions into progressive rock territory (but without the chops to take them all the way.) But listen a bit more closely to ELO's third release, and it becomes evident that changes are afoot.
Most notable is "Showdown," a funk-inspired number that appeared on the US edition of the album. (The song was initially released only as a single in the UK.) Clocking in at the ready-for-radio four-minute mark, "Showdown" would come close to breaking into the US top 50 and earn the praise of John Lennon, who christened ELO as "Son of Beatles" and compared the song favorably to Marvin Gaye's "Heard It Through the Grapevine." It's difficult to share the ex-Beatle's level of enthusiasm -- there were many other acts who offered far better interpretations of R&B than this. But it would probably pass the Dick Clark test of having a good beat that you can dance to, which is not something that could have been said of anything on
ELO 2.
The other outlier here is "Ma-Ma-Ma Belle," which adopts the same sort of semi-hard-rock-with-fiddles posture that would later find its way onto
A New World Record in the form of "Do Ya." Like "Showdown," this is another straight-ahead almost-radio-friendly ditty that is only tangentially related to the rest of the album, complete with a boy-lusts-for-girl theme that is as far from the prog rock repertoire as one could possibly get. (When performed live, it becomes more obvious that this one is meant to be more Jagger/Richards than Lennon/McCartney.) This tune provides a not-so-subtle hint of guitarist/vocalist/songwriter/producer Jeff Lynne's growing discontent with the long song (low sales) format and his plans for bigger things. But with schoolboy-quality lyrics that would have been more at home on a Foghat album, this may not have been the best way for a band with ELO's sensibilities to seek fame and fortune on the hit parade.
The remainder of
On the Third Day is a continuation of the ELO that we got to know and kinda sorta like on the second album. The first half features an extended sixteen minute suite that appropriates heavily from The Beatles'
White Album, with "Oh No Not Susan" owing more than a small debt of gratitude to "Dear Prudence." Unlike the extended pieces of
ELO 2, this one actually works from beginning to end: the lyrics avoid overreach and the four-song cycle flows together nicely before resolving in a well-crafted reprise. Not quite the "Golden Slumbers" suite of
Abbey Road, but not bad at all. (Fans are advised to seek out the "Live: The Early Years" DVD, which includes a fine performance of "Ocean Breakup/ King of the Universe" recorded live at Brunel University in 1973.)
The latter half of
Third Day (i.e. what your parents would have called "Side Two") is less impressive, bookended by some disposable instrumentals: The Jeff Lynne original Minimoog workout "Daybreaker" and a gratuitous cover of Grieg's "In the Hall of the Mountain King" both have the distinct sound of album filler, although the former became a minor US hit. But hidden amongst those and the aforementioned "Ma-Ma-Ma Belle" is yet another clue about ELO's future: the often-overlooked "Dreaming of 4000," which itself is not particularly noteworthy but includes bits that bear an uncanny resemblance to some of the kinds of musical ideas that would later surface on albums such as
Face the Music. Jeff Lynne was beginning to find his legs, and he was about to use them to leap into ELO's next effort, the outstanding symphonic rock
Eldorado.
Recommended tracks: Tracks 1-4 ("Ocean Breakup/King of the Universe", etc.)
Author's note/ shameless plug: This is one part of my ongoing series of reviews of most of ELO's original studio releases, with albums reviewed in chronological order. If you found this commentary to be somewhat informative, interesting, intriguing, intelligent, indefensible, insufferable, infuriating, incoherent, inane, incomprehensible or insulting, or if you just want to take pity on a guy who is masochistic enough to write these things, then please take a look at the other reviews and add your own thoughts. Thanks.
