Music / Eldorado

"And I will stay. I'll not be back, Eldorado."

"The dreamer, the unwoken fool,
In dreams, no pain will kiss a brow.
The love of ages fills the head.
The days that linger there in prey of emptiness,
In burned out dreams.
The minutes calling through the years.
The universal dreamer rises, now upon his earthly burden.
Journeys to the dead of night.
High on a hill in Eldorado..."

— "Eldorado Overture"

Eldorado: A Symphony by the Electric Light Orchestra is the band's fourth studio album, and was released on 28 September 1974 through Warner (Bros.) Records in the UK and United Artists Records in North America. It follows the theme of a man journeying through dreams to escape the tedious aspects of his mundane life. Its song "Can't Get it Out of My Head" then got released as a single, where it reached the #9 position in the United States, the first ELO single to reach the Top Ten.

Tracklist:

Side One

1. "Eldorado Overture" (2:12)
2. "Can't Get It Out of My Head" (4:21)
3. "Boy Blue" (5:18)
4. "Laredo Tornado" (5:29)
5. "Poor Boy (The Greenwood)" (2:57)

Side Two

1. "Mister Kingdom" (5:50)
2. "Nobody's Child" (3:40)
3. "Illusions in G Major" (2:36)
4. "Eldorado" (5:20)
5. "Eldorado Finale" (1:20)

---

Principal Members:

• Mike de Albuquerque^note departed during recording, but still credited: bass, backing vocals
• Bev Bevan: drums, percussion
• Mike Edwards: cello
• Mik Kaminski: violin
• Jeff Lynne: Vocals, guitars, bass, keyboards, production
• Hugh McDowell: cello
• Richard Tandy: keyboards, guitars, backing vocals

---

Walking on a wave she came, troping as she called my name, and I can't get it out of my head:

• Book Ends: Started and ended in the poem narrated by Peter Forbes Robinson.
• Concept Album: About a man dreaming to escape the tedium of life, where in the penultimate track the man wakes up and tries to return.
• Driven to Suicide: A likely fate of the disillusioned dreamer by the final verse of "Eldorado", where it's implied he's jumping off a building:
  Sitting here on top of everywhere,
  What do I care? Days never end
  Though the voyage's end will soon be here
  No eternal life is here for me,
  Oh, but now I found the key
  To the eternal dream.
• Epic Rocking: While none of the tracks are any longer than six minutes, "Mr. Kingdom" came close, and the seamless transitions made the individual tracks seem like parts of a suite.
• Fake-Out Fade-Out: "Boy Blue" has done this on three occasions.
• Gratuitous Spanish: The chorus of "Laredo Tornado" incorporates the phrase "Adios, amigos!"
• Shell-Shocked Veteran: A medieval variant in "Boy Blue", where a Crusader had returned to his cheering village. From the Crusader's point of view, he had seen the hell of war, and vowed to never again take up arms for any king.
• Shout-Out: The album cover is the scene from The Wizard of Oz where the Wicked Witch of the West tried and failed to steal Dorothy's ruby slippers.

---

"The dreamer, the unwoken fool,
High on a hill in Eldorado..."

—"Eldorado Finale"