Just listened to the Electric Light Orchestra's album, "Time", for the first time since, frankly, it was released. Sadly I will always think of "Time" as the album that proved "Discovery" wasn't an aberration, but rather a logical step on the way down from the perfection of "A New World Record" to - let's just say it - "Xanadu".
"Time" is a Sci-Fi concept album. Due to circumstances I don't really understand, a bloke has been fast-forwarded in time from 1981 to 2095. Various vaguely-described adventures, and a fair amount of temporal whinging later, he fails to get back (I think) for other, equally poorly-described, reasons, and decides to hold on tight to his dreams.
We're about a third of the way to 2095 now. So how's Jeff Lynn's prophecy going?
Well, we still don't have a Satellite 2. We don't suffer from the risks of a meteor storm when we go for a walk. And we're still technically incapable of leaving our lives behind in a plastic bag.
But the sex robots are already just about available. (Don't worry - safe link to the BBC).
If you want to predict the future of technology, ask what lonely men will want next.
I stopped listening to rock in the mid-70s (thanks, Mr Lydon) so my knowledge of later-period Lynne is pretty-much non-existent other than those occasional brilliant singles (my favourite, Can't Get it Outta My Head).
ReplyDeleteBack in '73, though... ELO II, pure prog, perfect. "Let's build more cars and drive away before we choke...". Global Warming was just a twinkle in George Soros' eye back then.
They were a very different group in the early 70s. I remember (a few years later) finding Roll Over Beethoven in John Lewis in Milton Keynes. What a track. I mean. What a track.
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