So Fine (Electric Light Orchestra song)
Encyclopedia
So Fine is the title of the fifth track from A New World Record
A New World Record
A New World Record is the sixth studio album by Electric Light Orchestra, released in 1976.-Overview:The second album to be recorded at Musicland Studios in Munich, the LP proved to be the band's long awaited breakthrough in the UK: after seeing their previous three studio recordings fail to chart...

 by Electric Light Orchestra
Electric Light Orchestra
Electric Light Orchestra were a British rock group from Birmingham who released eleven studio albums between 1971 and 1986 and another album in 2001. ELO were formed to accommodate Roy Wood and Jeff Lynne's desire to create modern rock and pop songs with classical overtones...

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Recorded in 1976 at Musicland, Munich, this track is peppy and upbeat, contrasting with Mission (A World Record), the previous track. The part in the middle contains African drums and electronic percussion created by an (at the time) state of the art Moog processor, and continues on with rising intensity. More and more instruments join in, until the vocal again takes over. As it fades out, it segues into the middle-eastern inspired violin of Livin' Thing
Livin' Thing
"Livin' Thing" is a song written by Jeff Lynne and performed by Electric Light Orchestra. It appears on ELO's 1976 platinum-selling album, A New World Record...

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Production and Composition

According to ELO drummer Bev Bevan (regarding the Moog processor):
Uh, yeah, I used it on one track on the album, So Fine. It really - It's quite a new item, really. It's made by the Moog people. It's an electronic - It's a drum itself and it's electronic. You plug it through the keyboard setup into the Moog itself. And according to what setting you put on the Moog, you can get a sound accordingly on the drum. And, uh, it's very new. Very innovative."
Bev Bevan (1976 - Rock Around The World radio show interview)http://jefflynnesongs.com/jlworks7.php


Composer Jeff Lynne described writing the song in a 1990 radio interview with Roger Scott:
"So Fine's a bouncy little (number). I really don't know much about it. It's just that I wrote it and sang the thing. And um- I suppose it was along the lines of a - like an American, trying to sound like an American style. Maybe like the Doobie Brothers or something, y'know, trying to sound a bit like an American group with harmonies. I wasn't trying to copy 'em, but it was... it was sort of bouncy American style with a wobbly bit on the top." Jeff Lynne (August 21, 1990 - Classic Albums radio interview by Roger Scott) http://jefflynnesongs.com/jlworks7.php


Regarding the dropping end of So Fine to segue into the next song on the LP, Livin' Thing:
"(It) was getting the two track and - and just basically switching it off, y'know, the motors off. So that it went '(SQUEAL)' and when it got to the - to the key that, uh, Livin' Thing was in, we cut it there and just but it straight on. So as it reached C, what Livin' Thing was in. So it went down from like - maybe F sharp all the way down to C, y'know, the tape went. Somewhere like that. I can't remember the exact keys. I know it was quite a long drop."
Jeff Lynne (August 21, 1990 - Classic Albums radio interview by Roger Scott)http://jefflynnesongs.com/jlworks7.php


In their definitive book about ELO, Unexpected Messages, the authors expounded:

"The end of the song So Fine fades into Livin' Thing. This was created by unplugging the tape machine and when it got to the key 'A' (which starts off Livin' Thing) Jeff cut it."
Patrik Guttenbacher, Marc Haines, & Alexander von Petersdorff (1996 Unexpected Messages)
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