Jeff Lynne - Armchair Theatre : The Forgotten Wilbury Album Link?

I think this is a great album and has some great guitar from George. It was released in 1990 and doesn't really sound like an ELO album which is Jeff's trademark sound and production style.

When I think of the Wilburys albums I also think of Tom's Full Moon Fever, Roy's Mystery Girl, George's Cloud 9 and Bob's Under The Red Sky (no matter how poor it is).

I think Armchair Theatre completes the set!

hey thanks Z...I have this...need to get it out again and listen..It is a good one :)

It's a great companion piece for TW Vol1 and Full Moon Fever.


Check out Lift Me Up. The guitarist is obvious as should be the drummer and the chorus could be off Cloud 9.


http://s47.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=2IORSSLZ9XV1S32MAIY4X9L1X7

Thanks for the link Zimmer. It's a Beautiful song, never heard it before. I wasn't able to find "Armchair Theatre", but after listening to this track I'll continue my search.

I think it's deleted I'm sad to say!

That would explain why I can't find it.
I've been only searching for it for the last couple of years, at the time of release I wasn't really interested.
Sad really that a good album like this isn't available. At least from the few songs I heard and the reviews I read, I think it's a good album.
And then they complain about people downloading stuff.

Still listening to the song, love it.

You can download it from....cough....Limewire!

Was thinking about it, but does the free version of cough Limewire contain spyware?

Dont know but I installed and uninstalled right after and I havent had any problems.

The same could be said of Del Shannon's posthumous ''Rock On !'', which came out arround the same time (1991).

Almost all the songs have Jeff and Tom playing and doing b/vocals on them and it all sounds VERY ''Wilbury'' at times...

... and, on drums, Phil Jones sounds incredibly like Jim Keltner !

Appart from Del, Jeff, Tom and Phil... the other musicians are from Tom Petty's Heartbreakers.... with Mike Campbell notably playing a very ''George'' sounding slide on ''When I had you''.

And, on ''Hot Love'' (a non-album track from those same sessions, which was used a B side for one of the album's singles), you have Tom, Jeff... AND George on b/vocals, and (probably) on guitars as well !

I'll have to check that album out too!!!

I cant stop listening to Jeff's album. I'm no fan of ELO but this is great!

I love this album.

It is hard for me to say if this is ELO, Wilbury, Jeff, I believe it is a mix of what Jeff Likes to do.

Every Little Thing
is a good example, it has so much different bits in it. It has what people like to describe as the ELO sound, then there is also a touch of Wilbury-ish in it and also Jeff looks back to the sixties with the bit of "Going To A Gogo" in it. It was a single and a good one and has George on acoustic guitar and doing backing vocals.

Lift Me Up
is one of the highlights of the album for me. Fantastic vocals including George who can easily be recognized, also playing slide guitar. Jeff plays a magnificant bass line.

Nobody Home
is a great Jeff song. Wow what a great beat this has, you can not sit still on this one.

September Song
is also a beauty, opening up with two slide guitars by....yes...he who wanted to be a Lumberjack. George must have loved playing on this one because it is a bit reminiscing to the 1930's even though Jeff did polish up the sound a bit far. He has a great vocal on this and the middle has two slide guitars from him again doing a fantastic melody. George also plays acoustic guitar

Now You're Gone
has a bit misterious sound, but I love it. A love song with mostly Indian musicians. It starts slow but then at 40 seconds the drums and percussion come in and many guitars and vocals turn it in to a real beauty.

Don't Say Goodbye
is mainly Jeff on all the instruments apart the drums. Just wonderful. The usual 4beats beat and great harmonies which make me believe he was thinking a bit of Roy here.

Stormy Weather
is another one which opens with the amazing slide guitar by the man from Henley-on-Thames and another one which they will have had much pleasure with recording it whereas it is another oldie.

Blown Away
is from the days he worked with Tom on the Del Shannon album. The lyrics are by Tom and Jeff and Jeff does background vocals with Del. Tom is not on the track. It is okay but does not impress me very much.

Save Me Now
is a beauty, also in lyrics. Jeff going acoustic with multitracked vocals, singing about the environmental issues of the earth, the warming up of the planet. Wonder where he got that from maybe from a nice discussion at Friar Park during a tea break. Oh when you play this track, don't think it is over when the music stops.

I like this album very much, it shows many different sides of Jeff and his musical talent is exposed in a great way.

Being a Wilbury and ELO fan, this album has been one of my favorites since it came out about the time of Cloud 9. Jeff has a fantastic vocal range and his style of writing and producing are excellent.

on 'Every Little Thing', there is a bit of the song that reminds of 'While My Guitar Gently Weeps'. Has anyone ever noticed that? Was it purposely put in there?
Also, on George's 'Devil's Radio'. there is a bit of the song that sounds like 'Nowhere Man'. has anyone ever heard that either? it's either a guitar riff or could be a bassline i was hearing on these two songs.

You can also get this from www.balt.cd

That is an excellent source of bootleg and obscure recordings.

Originally Posted by I am the Paulrus

on 'Every Little Thing', there is a bit of the song that reminds of 'While My Guitar Gently Weeps'. Has anyone ever noticed that? Was it purposely put in there?

This is interesting. I do recognize quite some 1960's sounds in this song, it seems like a compilation of all bits of one line songs which are based on 1960's music which Jeff put together in a song. I hear some of the Beach Boys, Del Shannon, Flower Power, Motown and other influences/references in it, but no "While My Guitar".

Where is exactly that bit of the song? I like to have a listen.

Originally Posted by FPSHOT

This is interesting. I do recognize quite some 1960's sounds in this song, it seems like a compilation of all bits of one line songs which are based on 1960's music which Jeff put together in a song. I hear some of the Beach Boys, Del Shannon, Flower Power, Motown and other influences/references in it, but no "While My Guitar".

Where is exactly that bit of the song? I like to have a listen.

ONE song on that album that does have a passage that very much sounds like "While my guitar gently weeps", is "Now you're gone" !

... the piano line (especially the begining of it) in the middle of "Now you're gone" sounds incredibly like the piano on the intro of "While my guitar gently weeps".

If you play that opening piano theme on "Now You're Gone" backwards you end up at "Because" because it is taken from the same original classical music theme.

Yes ABCKO I hear the piano, the striking of that one note

And if we keep using our imagination, on "Now You're Gone" you may hear a little reference to "Satisfaction" by Mick and his orange juice drinking non-smoking backing band.. also round the middle at 2.00min where he does "I said no...I said no..I said no....I said no no no "...

The more I play this album, the more I regret having not played it for a long time.

Oh there is also a bit of "You Got It" in "Every little wing"

I hear that! It's after he sings Every Little Thing and the boom part of the drum is similar to after Roy sings Everything you want...