In defence of Jeff Lynne | Fab Forum | The Beatles Bible

I think that the Jeff Lynne criticisms are a bit over the top and he doesn’t get nearly enough credit for his positive contributions to post-Beatles lore.  I think that the knock on his production techniques are perhaps a bit fair when it comes to E.L.O.’s works, but I don’t see why he in particular gets singled out (likely because of his association with The Beatles) when much of the music in the Late 70’s-Early 80’s adopted the oversaturated vocals & overdramatized drum sounds that are prevalent on much of E.L.O.’s albums.  There were also some advances in recording technique during this era which prompted many to overdo the process, listen to the Disco records of the mid 70’s compared to later on in the decade and you’ll notice a distinct difference in the drum sounds.  The drum sounds on the ‘Saturday Night Fever’ Soundtrack (whether you like the album or not) are very crisp and sound like “real” drums, but by the late-70’s every part of the drum kit was being miked (sometimes even using stereo microphones!) where it wasn’t uncommon for a 32-Track Studio to employ up to 16 Tracks for just drums alone.  The result was that the Snare Drum would then sound, or become the size of the Bass Drum and extra unnecessary effects would be applied to each component of the kit so it’s no small wonder that it sounded like the big shitty mess that it is.

Jeff Lynne’s production “ears” developed during a time where this was in vogue, and although it definitely left a permanent earmark on his subsequent works through the 80’s & 90’s, he most certainly adapted for the most part and learned to tone it down considerably.  The Snare Drum still sounds a little too big for my liking on The Traveling Wilburys’ recordings, but it got better on The Beatles’ ‘Anthology’ & George’s ‘Brainwashed‘ albums, and atleast it sounded more like a real drum kit by then as opposed to something from Outer Space.  The ‘Threetles’ & George’s swansong recordings are amongst my All-Time favourites, and much of the credit has to go to Jeff Lynne for keeping it natural for the most part.  George got this one right when he first befriended Jeff and invited him into the fold for Jeff plays a key role in cementing The Beatles’ legacy, he seems like one that John would’ve hit it off nicely with as well.  Not sure how many of you are familiar with this E.L.O. classic, but it’s a song which The Beatles themselves also covered and is a good showcase on just how much the music scene evolved in just one decade:

He was obviously influenced by The Beatles big time, The Beatles spawned a lot of popular music made by other artists from 1965 to present, and not all of it is very pleasing to the human ear I’m afraid…:-)