Electric Light Orchestra is the most under-rated band of the 1970s. Agree or disagree?

Answer 1

I would not say under-rated during the 70s. From Evil Woman from the album Face the Music. Through Don't Bring Me Down from Discovery. ELO received a lot of air-play. 1976-1979. They had some good music before 1976 that was hardly played.
Lets fast forward to now. They have become a band that for some reason a lot of rock or oldies stations only play a handful of their songs (I think this is where the under-rating applies) . When there is much much more great music from the band that were hits and album cuts waiting to be played.
When you listen to classic rock now, you hear a lot of album cuts from Led Zepplin, Pink Floyd, Rush that are played as regular songs (as if they were singles). Jeff Lynne wrote many catchy tunes that just are not played much at all.

But boy do I enjoy playing their cd's.

Answer 2

In 2016 I would defiantly agree that ELO is underrated. I think they should be up there with Pink Floyd, The Eagles, and other great classic rock bands; however, the fact that they don't have a top tier album (Pink Floyd's dark side of the Moon, and the Eagle's Hotel California) really hurts and puts ELO at a disadvantage. All of ELO's great songs are spread out from different albums, and in these multiple albums there is a lot of average material. ELO has great songs but they are too spread out that they didn't turn out to be a top tier classic rock band.
My ELO top 10:
1. Mr. Blue Sky
2. Telephone Line
3. Rockaria
4. Livin Thing
5. Don't Bring Me Down
6. Turn to Stone
7. Wild West Hero
8. Evil Women
9. All Over the World
10. Strange Magic

Answer 3

They are sure one of the most underrated of the 70's that's for sure. Jeff Lynne and ELO took The Beatles & Moody Blues & Deep Purple's Symphonic Rock experiments and pretty much turned it into a genre. Thanks for asking an ELO question by the way, in seven months here this will be My first opportunity to post an ELO list. Pretty sweet!
My Top 10 of ELO
1 Evil Woman
2 Can't Get It Out Of My Head
3 Calling America
4 All Over The World
5 Do Ya
6 Boy Blue
7 Rock And Roll Is King
8 10538 Overture
9 Twilight
10 Turn To Stone

Answer 4

Hm. I would say they have some of the most under-rated songs of the 70s, because when they are great, they are AMAZING. However, once getting into their discography, you will realize some of their songs are ultra-forgettable filler. But all the filler in the world doesn't take away from "Mr. Blue Sky", "Showdown", and "Turn to Stone". Those songs are great, as well as a few more, but its the massive amount of mediocre material they put out that doomed them from the history books. You may disagree, but that is the primary reason they are listed among the great bands. This filler kept them from the achieving one great album that is a masterpiece all the way through (Although "Out of the Blue" comes remarkably close), which is what magazines like Rolling Stone tend to require in order to list a band as a great.

Answer 5

Chalk up another one under the AGREE column for me. I'm a huge fan of ELO. They are ONE OF the most underrated bands of the 70's. Whenever I hear the band, the first thing that always comes to my mind is the ring tone in the beginning of their song "telephone line." They are a group of very talented musicians and they rank high on my list.

I do have to agree with Geoge G though where he said that Nazareth was an underrated band of the 70's. They definitely were very underrated. Probably even a bit more then ELO I would have to say. Nazareth's guitar riffs are out of this world. They are one of my favorite bands and I do have to pay my full respects to them. Either way though, both bands are underrated for sure.

Answer 6

Of course Jeff Lynn and his jewfro was the most underated band of the 70's. There about the only one that doesn't get played over and over until you sick of hearing them, which is a good thing. And he was in the Traveling Wilbury's with Tom Petty, Bob Dylan and Roy Orbison. Obviously, other musicians didn't overlook the talent behing ELO

Answer 7

Agreed. Though they do get decent airplay on classic rock stations, you never hear the kinda praise for them that say, Queen gets.
But their legacy is showing in some new bands. Listen to a song called 'Same Old Drag" by Apples in Stereo. You'll hear keyboards & vocal arrangements that would make Jeff Lynne proud!

Answer 8

What was the name of that group? Was it Abba, ?

I think they hit big in the US just before ELO.

ELO was and is a great band, but there timing was off.

Meaning they had to work thru the disco years and with Abba and the Dancing queen thing hitting big at the same time, it was a no-win for them.

Anybody remember the old chewing gum that we would call **** gum* back in the day?

Answer 9

Totally disagree. They were played constantly on FM in their heyday & still have heavy rotation (ie. "Evil Woman", "Strange Magic") on the classic rock stations.

If you want an underrated 70's band, how about Armageddon, Gentle Giant or Nazareth?

Answer 10

Uh...disagree. I haven't heard much from them, but seeing as how my dad has one of their albums, I don't think they were too underrated. I'm sure they experienced at least moderate popularity and rated fairly accurately by critics and listeners alike. That'ts just my opinion though. They're one of those bands that was mildly popular back in their time, but basically forgotten nowadays.