141. Mondegreen

141. "Don't Bring Me Down" by the Electric Light Orchestra

Three songs are inseparably connected in my head with 9th grade: (a) Another One Bites the Dust, (b) Another Brick in the Wall, and (c) Don't Bring Me Down. In the case of Don't Bring Me Down, it was a watershed moment in the way I felt about the group. I had liked them well enough before 1979's Discovery album hit the stores. I had enjoyed other ELO songs that had charted before then, including Evil Woman, Strange Magic, Do Ya, Livin' Thing, Telephone Line, Sweet Talkin' Woman, and Turn to Stone. However, until that point, ELO had always been that band that Joe just couldn't get enough of. But after I heard Don't Bring Me Down, I made up my mind that I couldn't get enough of ELO either. I became a fan.

Some say this song was the beginning of ELO not using any orchestra instruments in their songs. To those people I say, "Shut the hell up, Gregg! When was the last time you saw an orchestra without drums? Or without cymbals? Or without afros!"



The reduction in orchestral backing in this song doesn't bother me at all. But there is one thing that bugged me about this song as a 9th grader that still bugs me today--my uncertainty as to what word he's singing after "Don't bring me down." For many years, I thought he was singing "Don't bring me down. Gross!" However, I read somewhere that the lyric was "Don't bring me down. Bruce!" Other's on the interwebs agreed.

While it sounded plausible enough, this still didn't seem right to me, so I went straight to the authority on all things ELO. No, not Jeff Lynne. I went to Joe.

The explanation I got from him was that Lynn was singing "Don't bring me down. Groos!"--which is kind of a made up word. The lyrics on Google Play agrees with Joe, and since the oo in Google sounds like the oo in Groos, I would be inclined to say the issue has been put to rest.

But dammit! Some semi-reputable internet sources have claimed that Lynne sings it both Groos and Bruce, depending on if it's live or not!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don%27t_Bring_Me_Down#Lyrics

http://www.jefflynnesongs.com/dontbringmedown/




No! No! No! No! No! Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

Everytime I find a video of the live version, the cameras cut away from the closeup of Lynne singing so I can't read his lips!

Because of my uncertainty as to what the lyric really is, whenever I sing along to this on the radio, there's this frustrating moment of hesitation in my mind during which I think, "Do I sing Gross like I did in Jr. High, or Groos like Joe told me to, or Bruce like they would in Australia?!"

Confusion! I don't know what I should do!  I'll leave it all up to you.

Gross!