The common complaint from Baker’s Dozen’s many participants is that of the struggle of narrowing down a list of life-long favourite long-players into a relatively compact list of just 13 albums. Not so for Jeff Lynne. Quite the opposite in fact.
“I have had a hard time whittling them up to 13!” he laughs.
Jeff Lynne, singer, songwriter and producer is still best known for his work with ELO, the Beatles-influenced pop monster that gained the approval of the Fab Four. But as Lynne is keen to point out with his choice of albums, there’s so much more to him than the band that truly made his name.
“I’m sorry they’re all by me!” says Lynne by way of apology as he meets the Quietus in the genteel surroundings of a Belgravia hotel.
“Craig, my manager, asked for the list in the car on the way to this hotel and I’m thinking, ‘I don’t know what my favourite albums are off the top of my head right now’ because this is the first time I’ve ever been asked this question,” he says as he explains both his predicament and the rationale behind his final choices.
“I’m going, ‘do you think they’ll mind if I include some of the ones that I’ve produced?’ because I do like those albums and he goes, ‘No, go ahead and do them.’ So I’m sorry about that! But at least I’ve got some stories about them!”
Let the tales commence…
Jeff Lynne’s new album Longwave and Mr. Blue Sky – The Very Best Of Electric Light Orchestra are both out now via Frontiers Records
Click on the photo below to begin scrolling through Jeff’s favourite albums.
