''Secret Messages'' is the tenth studio album by
Electric Light Orchestra
The Electric Light Orchestra (ELO) are an English rock band formed in Birmingham in 1970 by songwriters and multi-instrumentalists Jeff Lynne and Roy Wood with drummer Bev Bevan. Their music is characterised by a fusion of pop, classical a ...
(ELO), released in 1983 on
Jet Records. It was the last ELO album with bass guitarist
Kelly Groucutt, conductor
Louis Clark
Louis Clark (27 February 1947 – 13 February 2021) was an English music arranger and keyboard player.
He trained at Leeds College of Music. He is best known for his work with Electric Light Orchestra and '' Hooked on Classics''. Clark started ...
and a full orchestra, and the last ELO album to be released on the Jet label. It was also the final ELO studio album to become a worldwide top 40 hit upon release.
Original concept
''Secret Messages'', as its title suggests, is littered with hidden messages in the form of
backmasking
Backmasking is a recording technique in which a message is recorded backward onto a track that is meant to be played forward. It is a deliberate process, whereas a message found through phonetic reversal may be unintentional.
Artists have s ...
, some obvious and others less so. This was
Jeff Lynne
Jeffrey Lynne (born 30 December 1947) is an English musician, singer-songwriter, and record producer. He is best known as the co-founder of the rock music, rock band Electric Light Orchestra (ELO), which was formed in 1970. As a songwriter, h ...
's second tongue-in-cheek response to allegations of
hidden Satanic messages in earlier Electric Light Orchestra LPs by
Christian fundamentalists, which led to American congressional hearings in the early 1980s (a similar response had been made by Lynne on the ''
Face the Music'' album, during the intro to the "
Fire on High" track).
Louis Clark
Louis Clark (27 February 1947 – 13 February 2021) was an English music arranger and keyboard player.
He trained at Leeds College of Music. He is best known for his work with Electric Light Orchestra and '' Hooked on Classics''. Clark started ...
returned to conduct the strings once more and the violinist Mik Kaminski appeared on an ELO recording for the first time since ''
Out of the Blue'' in 1977, playing a violin solo on the track "
Rock 'n' Roll Is King". On completion of this album, Lynne dismissed bass guitarist Groucutt after he sued for alleged lost royalties and later received a settlement out of court.
Artwork
The cover was designed by
David Costa created by the photographer Hag and hand tinted by Kim Harris. It was the original from which Hag created "The Future's a Bit Fishy. We've Got a Hand in It."
The cover's foreground contains figures from various classical paintings. In the building on the right of the cover, the band is featured in the second story windows.
In Britain, the back cover of ''Secret Messages'' has the mock notice "Warning: Contains Secret Backward Messages". Word of the album's impending release in the United States caused enough of a furore to cause CBS Records to delete the cover blurb there.
The back cover of the record jacket (made to look like the back of a picture frame) also contains "Secret Messages" in the form of three aged and weathered stickers. One is the track listing and the other two contain mock names of the retailer and manufacturer of the frame. These names are anagrams of the 4 band members: T.D. Ryan (R. Tandy), F.Y.J. Fennel (Jeff Lynne), G.U. Ruttock (K. Groucutt) and E.V. Nabbe (Bev Bevan). The inner record sleeve also contains a "Secret Message". The front and back has a string of dots and dashes that is actually Morse Code and repeats "E L O": E (one dot), L (dot dash dot dot) and O (dash dash dash).
Release
The record was originally going to be a double album, but this plan was thwarted by Jet's distributor,
CBS Records, claiming that producing a double vinyl album would be too expensive; as a result, leader
Jeff Lynne
Jeffrey Lynne (born 30 December 1947) is an English musician, singer-songwriter, and record producer. He is best known as the co-founder of the rock music, rock band Electric Light Orchestra (ELO), which was formed in 1970. As a songwriter, h ...
would have to reduce it to a single album. This version of the album was digitally recorded and would have been ELO's first compact disc.
Three singles were released from the album in the UK: "Rock 'n' Roll Is King", the title track and "
Four Little Diamonds". In the US, "Rock 'n' Roll Is King", "Four Little Diamonds" and "
Stranger
A stranger is a person who is unknown to another person or group. Because of this unknown status, a stranger may be perceived as a threat until their identity and character can be ascertained. Different classes of strangers have been identified ...
" were issued. "Rock 'n' Roll Is King" became the band's last UK Top 20 hit. The song "Letter from Spain" was used as backing music in commercials for the
Games of the XXV Olympiad
The 1992 Summer Olympics ( es, Juegos Olímpicos de Verano de 1992, ca, Jocs Olímpics d'estiu de 1992), officially known as the Games of the XXV Olympiad ( es, Juegos de la XXV Olimpiada, ca, Jocs de la XXV Olimpíada) and commonly known as ...
, held in 1992 in
Barcelona
Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...
.
The songs "After All" and "Buildings Have Eyes" from the original intended double album concept were released as
b-sides to "Rock 'n' Roll Is King" and "Secret Messages" respectively. The song "Endless Lies" was later re-recorded with a different pre-chorus for the band’s subsequently-released ''
Balance of Power'' album. Three additional songs, "Hello My Old Friend", a string-laden eight-minute long tribute to the band's home town
Birmingham
Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West ...
, "Mandalay" and "No Way Out" (along with aforementioned "Buildings Have Eyes") appeared on the ''
Afterglow'' box set released in 1990.
In 2001 Secret Messages was remastered and reissued on CD with bonus tracks including the previously unreleased original 1983 version of "Endless Lies".
A 35th anniversary edition was released by
Legacy Recordings
Legacy Recordings is an American record label that is a division of Sony Music. Formed in 1990 after Sony's acquisition of CBS Records, Legacy originally handled the archives of Sony Music-owned labels Columbia Records and Epic Records. In 20 ...
on double LP and via streaming services on 3 August 2018. It closely matched the format and length originally conceived by Jeff Lynne for the 1983 release though one track remains unreleased ("
Beatles Forever").
Face The Music - HERE IS THE NEWS
/ref> Other alterations from the original 1983 release include the album's outro being moved from the end of " Rock 'n' Roll Is King" to "Hello My Old Friend" and an edit of "Rock 'n' Roll Is King" B-side "After All". Updated liner notes read:
Track listing
All songs written by Jeff Lynne
Jeffrey Lynne (born 30 December 1947) is an English musician, singer-songwriter, and record producer. He is best known as the co-founder of the rock music, rock band Electric Light Orchestra (ELO), which was formed in 1970. As a songwriter, h ...
; strings
String or strings may refer to:
*String (structure), a long flexible structure made from threads twisted together, which is used to tie, bind, or hang other objects
Arts, entertainment, and media Films
* ''Strings'' (1991 film), a Canadian anim ...
conducted by Louis Clark
Louis Clark (27 February 1947 – 13 February 2021) was an English music arranger and keyboard player.
He trained at Leeds College of Music. He is best known for his work with Electric Light Orchestra and '' Hooked on Classics''. Clark started ...
.
Original LP track listing
CD track listing
*A ^ "Time After Time" was originally included on cassette tape format and on CD. Available on the vinyl format on the " Rock 'n' Roll Is King" maxi single and the Japan Digital Master of the album.
2018 double album track listing
Personnel
ELO
*Jeff Lynne
Jeffrey Lynne (born 30 December 1947) is an English musician, singer-songwriter, and record producer. He is best known as the co-founder of the rock music, rock band Electric Light Orchestra (ELO), which was formed in 1970. As a songwriter, h ...
– Lead and backing vocals, guitars, synthesisers, bass guitar, piano, percussion, Oberheim DMX
The DMX is a programmable digital drum machine manufactured by Oberheim. It was introduced in 1980 at a list price of and remained in the company's product line until the mid-1980s.
The Oberheim DMX was the second digital drum machine ever to b ...
, producer
* Bev Bevan – Drums, percussion
*Richard Tandy
Richard Tandy (born 26 March 1948) is an English musician. He is best known as the keyboardist in the rock band Electric Light Orchestra ("ELO"). His palette of keyboards (including Minimoog, Clavinet, Mellotron, and piano) was an important in ...
– Synthesizers, grand piano
The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...
, electric piano
An electric piano is a musical instrument which produces sounds when a performer presses the keys of a piano-style musical keyboard. Pressing keys causes mechanical hammers to strike metal strings, metal reeds or wire tines, leading to vibrations ...
, harmonica, Oberheim DMX
* Kelly Groucutt – Bass guitar, backing vocals ("Train of Gold", "Rock 'n' Roll Is King", "No Way Out" and "Beatles Forever")
Additional personnel
* Mik Kaminski – electric violin ("Rock 'n' Roll Is King")
* Dave Morgan – additional backing vocals
* Bill Bottrell
William A. Bottrell (born October 27, 1952) is an American record producer and songwriter. He has collaborated with Michael Jackson, Madonna, Electric Light Orchestra and Sheryl Crow.
Biography
Between 1967 and 1970, Bottrell attended Cresc ...
– Engineer
Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who invent, design, analyze, build and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while considering the l ...
* Strings conducted by Louis Clark
Louis Clark (27 February 1947 – 13 February 2021) was an English music arranger and keyboard player.
He trained at Leeds College of Music. He is best known for his work with Electric Light Orchestra and '' Hooked on Classics''. Clark started ...
("Train Of Gold", "Danger Ahead", "Stranger", "Buildings Have Eyes", "Time After Time" and "Hello My Old Friend")
*Al Quaglieri – Reissue producer (2001)
Charts and certifications
Weekly charts
Year-end charts
Certifications
References
{{Authority control
Electric Light Orchestra albums
Albums produced by Jeff Lynne
1983 albums
Epic Records albums
Jet Records albums