{"id":562400,"date":"2026-05-02T12:44:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-02T12:44:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/562400\/"},"modified":"2026-05-02T12:44:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-02T12:44:09","slug":"the-1975-elo-song-jeff-lynne-wrote-in-a-matter-of-minutes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/562400\/","title":{"rendered":"The 1975 ELO song Jeff Lynne wrote in “a matter of minutes”"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Electric<\/p>\n

Credit: Far Out \/ Electric Light Orchestra<\/p>\n

Birmingham has a great deal to be proud of, from its impressive canal system to Ozzy Osbourne and his formative metal group Black Sabbath. Undoubtedly challenging these two assets for the Brummie throne is Jeff Lynne<\/a>, the robust frontman of Electric Light Orchestra \u2013 or ELO, to save our breath. <\/p>\n

Lynne began his musical career in 1963, aged just 16. His early bands, The Andicaps and The Chads, played classic rock \u2018n\u2019 roll music and were heavily inspired by the British Invasion and its biggest proponents, The Beatles. <\/p>\n

Little did Lynne know then, but his subsequent musical journey would find him sharing stage and studio with not only George Harrison but Tom Petty, Bob Dylan and Roy Orbison as a member of Traveling Wilburys<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Following a mildly successful run fronting The Idle Race through the late \u201960s, Lynne accepted an offer from Roy Wood to join The Move. After contributing to the popular psych-pop band\u2019s final two albums, Lynne began to focus on ELO, his new side project with Wood, which eventually took centre stage.<\/p>\n

Starting with 1971\u2019s eponymous debut, ELO set out to bring a more progressive yet accessible edge to rock music, a mission that was well and truly accomplished by the end of the decade. With eight successful studio albums over this period, ELO ravaged the charts with groovy hits like \u2018Livin\u2019 Thing, \u2018Sweet Talkin\u2019 Woman\u2019, \u2018Turn to Stone\u2019 and \u2018Mr. Blue Sky\u2019. <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Credit: Alamy<\/p>\n

In the middle of the decade, Lynne and his band treated fans to Face the Music, their fifth studio album and home to the hit singles, \u2018Strange Magic\u2019 and \u2018Evil Woman\u2019. The latter became the band\u2019s first worldwide hit, penetrating the top 40 across a handful of countries. Despite being regarded as one of ELO\u2019s finest creations, Lynne admitted to a very brief and relatively effortless writing process.\u00a0 <\/p>\n

That spontaneity became part of what made \u2018Evil Woman\u2019 so effective. Rather than being overworked or meticulously refined, the track carried a natural immediacy, with Lynne trusting his instincts in a way that allowed the melody and structure to fall into place almost effortlessly. It stood in contrast to the more layered and time-intensive approach that often defined ELO\u2019s sound.<\/p>\n

In hindsight, that quick burst of creativity delivered exactly what the album needed. While much of Face the Music leaned into experimentation and atmosphere, \u2018Evil Woman\u2019 provided a direct, accessible centrepiece, proving that sometimes the simplest ideas, executed with confidence, can have the most lasting impact.<\/p>\n

Pinching a little inspiration from The Beatles\u2019 1967 song \u2018Fixing a Hole\u2019<\/a> for the line, \u201cThere\u2019s a hole in my head where the rain comes in,\u201d Lynne claims to have crafted the words and lyrics in no more than half an hour. <\/p>\n

\u201cI wrote this in a matter of minutes,\u201d the Birmingham rocker told Rolling Stone in 2016. \u201cThe rest of the album [Face the Music] was done. I listened to it and thought, \u2018There\u2019s not a good single.\u2019 So I sent the band out to a game of football and made up \u2018Evil Woman\u2019 on the spot. The first three chords came right to me. It was the quickest thing I\u2019d ever done. We kept it slick and cool, kind of like an R&B song. It was kind of a posh one for me, with all the big piano solos and the string arrangement. It was inspired by a certain woman, but I can\u2019t say who. She\u2019s appeared a few times in my songs.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cPlaying concerts in those days wasn\u2019t fun,\u201d he added. \u201cThe sound was always bad, and we were still playing theatres and town halls, the occasional dance hall. After \u2018Evil Woman\u2019, we got more gigs, but it didn\u2019t change my life all that much. You can\u2019t buy a palace or anything after just one hit.\u201d<\/p>\n

Listen to ELO\u2019s \u2018Evil Woman\u2019 below. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n

ADD AS A PREFERRED SOURCE ON GOOGLE \"\"\/ <\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Credit: Far Out \/ Electric Light Orchestra Birmingham has a great deal to be proud of, from its…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":562401,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[24308,96,596,24310,128,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-562400","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-electric-light-orchestra","tag-entertainment","tag-homepage","tag-jeff-lynne","tag-music","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/562400","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=562400"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/562400\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/562401"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=562400"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=562400"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=562400"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}