‹ Heroes Renewed for a Second Season •
Through the magic of YouTube I bring you new-skool pop mavens The Decemberists performing a cover of old-skool pop mavens ELO’s “Mr Blue Sky” live at a concert:
“Mr Blue Sky” (or Señor Cielo Azul in Spanish) was originally released in 1977 as the closing track of the “Concerto For A Rainy Day” side of Out of the Blue (it served as the sun coming out at the end of the rainy day). The Beatles’ influence is apparent throughout, including musical references to “I Am the Walrus”, “Hello Goodbye”, and most directly, “A Day in the Life”. It’s five minutes of pure pop fantasticness. The song got a bit of a resurgence in late 2002 when VW featured it in a popular ad for the new Beetle. It served as a backdrop for the story of a office worker leading a menial life, but finding inspiration in his first glimpse of the Beetle. It resurfaced again a couple of years later on the soundtrack to Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.
Here’s the VW Beetle commercial that kind of brought the song back:
