Diagram from How to Use Corona: the Personal Writing Machine, 1920
I own several ELO records (probably more than is strictly necessary), so it was only a matter of time before ELO popped up on the ol' Jukebox. Not that there's anything new to be said about "Evil Woman" - it's a song that speaks for itself, mostly in the language of falsetto and cowbell. The song is an obvious "hit", so it's not a surprise that it was a Top 10 single, but it's also not really a surprise that Jeff Lynne claims to have written it in under a half hour. There's really not much to it beyond the indelible chorus hook.
That's not entirely true, though - there's a lot going on in "Evil Woman", but it's mostly flotsam. It has a corny, tacked-on intro. It has a slight faux-blues lyric. It even has an obligatory Beatles reference in the line, "There's a hole in my head where the rain comes in." What I notice, though, is that these are the things I associate with ELO, but they are not usually what is being cited when people say a new record is influenced by ELO. And this is a comparison that's being bandied about lately with new albums by the New Pornographers, Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti, and Apples in Stereo. ELO's influence is hard to pin down because ELO was pretty shamelessly derivative of what had come before. For the New Pornographers, it's something in the melodies and song structures. For the Apples in Stereo, it's in the arrangements and sound choices. For Ariel Pink, I think it's primarily in the production. Luckily, though, none of these bands is really making songs that sound like "Evil Woman", as song that is very much a product of its time.
"Evil Woman" by Electric Light Orchestra
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