Electric Light Orchestra ~ Turn To Stone 1977 Classic Rock Purrfection Version

"Turn To Stone" was the first single issued from 1977's "Out Of The Blue" and set the scene for the Electric Light Orchestra's new direction after the massive success of 1976's "A New World Record". It peaked at #13 on the Hot100. Jeff Lynne was holed up in the Swiss Alps trying to find inspiration to write new songs, but was greeted with grey, drizzly, stormy and cold weather. You know the feeling, that the sun will never come out again....until it did. He was immediately taken up the with beauty of the Alps and taking a deep breath wrote the first song "Mr Blue Sky". That opened the floodgates and Lynn wrote thirteen more songs in the following two weeks. The result was a resounding success and "Out Of The Blue" went on to sell ten million copies, spawning the hits "Sweet Talking Woman" and "Mr Blue Sky". It was a flawless creation, one of the last great double albums of the 70'S and was a critical and commercial success. "Turn To Stone" was written with a shuffle beat that Lynne is quite proud of, as he stated in an interview with Rolling Stone, "Turn to Stone" is one of my favorites I ever did. It's just so primary and simple, but yet very evocative. I love the shuffle beat. There's a part in the middle where I talk super fast. I just felt like it needed something simple in the middle of the song. I often used to put a funny little piece in a song just in case I get bored with it. I'd go, "Well, maybe this is going on too long. I'll think of something daff to put in there." "Disco was popular around this time, and I loved it. I loved the strictness of it. It really helped the group because I could really get a good punch going. There's a lot of goodness in disco. I like some punk too. Obviously they were doing it from a place where they meant well, though maybe they didn't quite know how to play properly yet. They were rough and ready, like I was when I started."