From their album ELO 2 (1973).
This is ELO’s prog masterpiece, and one of the few ELO songs that can properly be counted as prog. It’s not clear to what extent they had the resources to continue in this direction, since they succumbed to pop-rock early on and never became a proper prog group. Some of Roy Wood’s contributions were prog, but hardly masterpieces. This song by Jeff Lynne, however, is truly on the highest level of the genre. A unique, mature prog style entirely their own is already fully in evidence, and the worthy anti-war theme has the requisite level of seriosity. If they had been able to continue like this, they would have been up there with the four or five best in prog.
There are some compositional flaws. The end is weaker than the beginning. The truly sublime section beginning att 3.00 (“No more silver rain will hit your ground”) should have been repeated at the end, after the verse ending with “True blue, you saw it through”, and with lyrics perhaps reflecting on the meaning of the confession for Kuia in her post-war life. It’s surprising that Lynne didn’t hear this. If the song were remade into a non-prog song, this section would be the chorus. It should have been more of a chorus in the existing song too, in order for it to achieve the coherence that prog too needs.
Absurdly, there is a recorded live version where they even leave out this section, the best thing they ever made, and among the best of any prog band, for the sake of prolonging Wilf Gibson’s violin section. Needless to say, the latter is also an essential part of the song, but as extended like that, it further distorts a compositional whole that was already imperfect due to the non-repetition of the “chorus”. In another live version, Lynne sings it carelessly.
At 4.56, there is the same buildup as before the “chorus”, but there, it takes a little too long for something adequate to follow it. Just a little. There’s nothing wrong with the buildup not leading to the “chorus” in this place. Indeed, this time it ends in a way that signals, in an established manner, that it won’t lead to this, that something else, a prog development of the song in the form of a quiet “solo” or instrumental section (I think there really are, or at least should be, no proper solos in prog), will follow. The problem is only that this doesn’t happen until 5.23. It certainly should’t follow immediately, but 5.23 is a little too late. 5.10 would have been right. A similar minor flaw is that the transitions at 0.19, 1.48 and 4.30 are a little too sharp, in that they are marked by almost a second of total silence.
The original, studio version, above, shows that Lynne had very impressive prog intelligence. It can be heard also in ‘Mister Kingdom’ on the Eldorado album, and perhaps there is even a streamlined echo as late as ‘Big Wheels’ on Out of the Blue. But either it was, after all, as in the case of many semi-prog or partially prog bands, comparatively limited, or his musical talent was simply squandered on commercial pop-rock.
Olle Bengtsson 
To me, the section you refer to as the should-have-been “chorus” is no chorus at all. It’s the bridge. And lyrically, it functions in the way bridges often do, too: it shifts perspective, offers a transition to what is to come after.
Prior to this, the narrator’s been reassuring and comforting Kuiama…but in somewhat vague, general terms. In the bridge, he becomes much more forthright and specific, naming (if figuratively) the instruments of war he’s saying will never trouble her again.
The music shifts, too: the progression before has been rather static, with a pedal on the tonic, and occasional shifts to ii and IV (aside from the proggy tritone thing in the intro and between verses). But here, he moves to the relative minor, and the chords change in each measure. (This chord sequence is also the basis for the extended violin solo.)
And all of THAT sets up the revelation, the heartbreaking confession of the final two verses. Which cannot be arrived at quickly, or easily…we have to feel how hard it is for the narrator to make this confession. If it had just shown up in due course as the next set of verses after a standard bridge (or after a chorus), it would feel offhand, etc.
To my mind, after that, you cannot go BACK to material that existed before that moment. Instead, we have an instrumental restatement of the harmonized scale thing over a pedal that we heard earlier, and then some static, abstract, kind of frightening stuff leading us out.
To me, returning to a reassuring chorus after all that would be a hopeless attempt to diminish the horror of those last two verses.
But to each their own!
Thanks for your thoughtful comment. I think you’re simply right and I’m wrong. Your analysis is far better, taking more factors into account and drawing better conclusions. I should probably rewrite the post, with reference to what you say.
But please note that I don’t say the “No more silver rain” section is a chorus. It certainly is a bridge. What I say is just that “If the song were remade into a non-prog song, this section would be the chorus” (this is too strong; I should have said merely that it could then have been the chorus, could have been made into the chorus). But of course I very definitely want the song to remain a prog song. I merely suggest that the section “should have been more of a chorus in the existing song” too, “in order for it to achieve the coherence that prog too needs”; that it should have been repeated towards the end within the current prog structure, with different lyrics – which implies: not as a real chorus.
Thanks. I get it, now.
Something like “this song – if it had different lyrics – could have worked like later ELO pop songs work, if it had a chorus…and the ‘silver rain’ section might have worked in that way.”
I think, then, you’re imagining more of a hypothetical totally different approach?
If so—yeah, I can see that.
It’s interesting to see Lynne’s talents and voice develop. I suppose not everyone is happy with the more pop direction he took…but then, there are some pretty bizarre, non-pop things well into the catalog, even up through ‘Out of the Blue’.
I think he’s a fascinating and underrated figure. (as evidenced by the fact there’s very little written online along the lines of your blog! I mean, if I were looking to read about Yes, there’d by thousands of choices!)
Apologies for being slow to publish and respond to this.
Yes, hypothetical, just to illustrate the nature of the section, but not desirable.
I’m certainly among those who are not happy with the pop direction he took, given the prog potential evidenced by this early song. The capacity of the music industry’s pop regime to ruin prog bands, especially from the late 70s but in some cases even by the mid-70s, is a highly significant tragedy in cultural and political history. You’re right that there are interesting things well into the ELO catalogue, but frankly, right now I can remember only the two I mention in the last paragraph (of which one is indeed from as late as Out of the Blue, which you mention, and the other from Eldorado).
It seems to me, therefore, that there are good reasons for so much more being written online about Yes; I mean, I too have written much more about them.
There are probably some passable things on On the Third Day too.
I am probably more of a pop fan than you—shorthand, let’s just define that as “Beatles and after.”
Which is why, for me, On the Third Day and Eldorado are, in different ways, peak ELO. O3D refines and condenses the prog tendencies of ELO2 in the context of pop songs…but still keeps quite a lot of progginess around the edges.
At first, I did not like Eldorado. I felt that burying the small string section amidst a full orchestra and chorus was…well, an all-too-typical (bad version of) prog gesture…and anti-Beatle as well (except for “A Day in the Life” and “Goodnight” (for very different reasons!), the Beatles’ orchestrations were always small-scale (and creative) ensembles. (Not counting Phil Spector’s stuff on Let it Be either.)
But I’ve come to recognize that, first, it’s a really strong set of songs…and that, grumble grumble, the orchestra and chorus are well-used and suit the material.
After that, while I like their stuff, it’s almost as if they’re a different band: much more streamlined and straightforward, with fewer wildcards in play.