(Credits: Far Out / Alamy)
Wed 1 October 2025 13:00, UK
Nothing that Jeff Lynne ever played was supposed to be made off-the-cuff when he worked in ELO.
While there’s a certain magic that comes with hearing a live band, there are certain moments that need to be built in the studio that won’t have the same impact as seeing it in the flesh. Lynne always went back to The Beatles’ mentality of treating the studio like an instrument, but he knew when to get the hell out of the way when there was a true guitar master at work behind the board.
Then again, anyone like Lynne could have easily grown a massive ego in the years since becoming ELO’s frontman. This is someone who has made the best pop-rock tunes of the 1970s, been a member of the Traveling Wilburys, and has worked long and hard enough to be considered an honourary ‘Fifth Beatle’ thanks to his work on Anthology, and yet he carried himself like one of the most grateful rock and roll fans in the world.
Because as much as he loves to play music, he knew that his strong suit was working with the songs half the time he played. The biggest thrill for him would be working with someone like Tom Petty to create the perfect chord progression for a tune like ‘Yer So Bad’, and even when he did give suggestions to George Harrison when working on Cloud Nine, it was always in service to the song rather than trying to show up a Beatle.
But after his time with the Wilburys wrapped up, things went a bit quiet for Lynne as a producer. There would be a handful of tracks he would produce for Ringo Starr’s album, but up until the 2000s, he was firmly in ELO mode when working on albums like Time. Not all of them hit the mark like they should have, but in the interim years before reviving his old band, Lynne would have a few strange detours behind the desk working with people like Regina Spektor on her solo records.
It’s nice to hear someone like Lynne listening to what the new school of artists were doing, there’s hardly any reason to say no to working with Joe Walsh. Outside of being one of the single most entertaining presences in Eagles, Walsh was a virtual genius whenever he worked on his solo records, and even if there is a touch of humour to everything he played, Lynne knew he was dealing with an absolute legend when he heard ‘Analog Man’.
He was originally supposed to work on a few tracks, but when Lynne heard the guitar solo Walsh played, he was over the moon, saying, “Joe is a fantastic guitar player. He did this solo on ‘Analog Man’ that still makes my knees turn to jelly. It’s just like somebody on a high-wire who’s wobbling in the wind or something! It’s like, ‘Is he going to fall, or what?’ He fits these notes in perfectly.”
But that’s been half of Walsh’s art whenever he plays. The solo in ‘Hotel California’ didn’t happen by accident, and even when he was adding to the licks that Don Felder played, it was always about trying to get the right take by casually trying to one-up each other in the studio and make the other person swoon at whatever you just played.
Not all of it always makes the most sense, and it might take the rest of the world a little while to grasp, but Walsh was never going to apologise for making things that were slightly off. He knew that what made him different was what made his records so magical, and even if it was a touch eccentric, it was bound to leave many people falling to their knees the same way that Lynne wanted to.
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