![\"Jeff](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Jeff-Lynne-Electric-Light-Orchestra-1990-Far-Out-Magazine-1140x855.jpg\")
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(Credits: Far Out \/ Jeff Lynne)<\/p>\n
Sat 14 March 2026 17:30, UK <\/p>\n
Jeff Lynne<\/a> is nothing if not a student of all great pop songs. <\/p>\n The pop sphere might seem like one of the lighter genres of music when you break it down, but Lynne knows better than anyone that it\u2019s the hardest thing in the world to try to capture that lightning in a bottle whenever you sit down with an acoustic guitar, trying to think of a song. It involves capturing a little bit of magic every single time, but when writing lyrics, Lynne felt that some emotions hit a lot harder than others every single time.<\/p>\n But when Lynne first started, he initially had no interest in hearing some of the lyrics. He was in the business of making songs that had melody over anything else, and even when he listened to those early Beatles records that set his heart ablaze, there was a good chance that he was listening for the sounds of the words rather than the actual meaning of them or the poetry that they were trying to bring across.<\/p>\n That might sound insane considering this is the same person who would one day work with a lyricist as dense as George Harrison, but that was how Lynne saw it. If there was no melody, there was no chance that it was getting on the charts, and when you eventually got to the lyrics, it was open season on whatever warped idea got into people\u2019s heads. I mean, Lynne grew up in a time where we gave 32-year-old Ringo Starr permission to sing \u2018You\u2019re Sixteen\u2019, so it wasn\u2019t like too many things were off the table.<\/p>\n And when you look back at the best Beatles songs, there\u2019s usually one theme uniting every single one of them: love. The Red Hot Chili Peppers don\u2019t sing about California as much as the Fab Four sang about love, and even if that could get old really fast, it actually never did. Maybe it was because their sound was changing so much, but love is the kind of universal emotion that anyone with a pulse is going to be able to relate to, but Lynne was focused on the opposite side of the spectrum.<\/p>\n Not all of his songs were angry by any stretch, but when hearing some of his more heartfelt tunes, it\u2019s usually about coming from a more depressing place than most. That might sound like he\u2019s spending his entire career whining about his love life, but when you\u2019re dealing with someone who has studied under Roy Orbison, it means so much more than someone listing out their problems for a few minutes.<\/p>\n Orbison knew how to tug at people\u2019s heartstrings, and Lynne felt that he held the key to what great songwriting was supposed to be, saying<\/a>, \u201cI picked up that sad song thing from Del Shannon and Roy Orbison. I knew Del Shannon very well. He was my first favourite. And Roy Orbison was too, and his songs were mainly sad. I used to love those songs and be, \u2018Fuckin\u2019 \u2019ell.\u2019 Sometimes sadness is the greatest thing to listen to. Because you can hear; if you\u2019re feeling sad, it\u2019s like, \u2018I\u2019m happy now \u2019cos that\u2019s exactly how I feel.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n