4.0 out of 5 stars
Accurate TABs, Strange Selection, 27 Dec 2011
By Danno - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Electric Light Orchestra: Guitar Collection: Guitar Tab (Guitar Recorded Versions) (Sheet music)
Here are the songs:
Can't Get It Out of My Head
Don't Bring Me Down
Evil Woman
Four Little Diamonds
Hold on Tight
Livin' Thing
Mr. Blue Sky
Rock n'Roll Is King
Shine a Little Love
Strange Magic
Sweet Talkin' Woman
Turn to Stone
Xanadu
I bought this book mainly because most ELO sheet music I've seen are piano arrangements that always seem to leave out the memorable signature parts such as the solo violin section of "Livin Thing." Well, that song is here and the TABbed transcription for guitar is great! Many of the strings have elsewhere been TABbed for electric guitar (such as the solo from "Evil Woman"), and it's a lot of fun to be able to play these accurately at last. The lovely guitars from Strange Magic are here, too, and these arrangements are very inviting for a group of friends to master together.
Considering that this is a book intended for guitarists, however, many of the song choices are very strange. ELO recorded a lot of strong rock material such as "Ma-Ma-Belle", "Rockaria", "Showdown", and "Fire On High" - and none of those songs are here. As much as I love "Can't Get It Out of My Head," this isn't a song that necessarily needs a special guitar transcription and yet it's here along with several of the latter-day tunes from Xanadu and Secret Messages. I can't fault the quality of the songs because I love ELO, but I do think many of the more guitar-centric tunes were over overlooked.
I rated this 4-stars because the songs that are included are treated to Hal Leonard's usual high standards for their Guitar Recorded Versions series, and because I'd like to see more Guitar Recorded volumes devoted to ELO in the future. I love the band. It's a pleasure to have arrangements that go beyond the typical treble clef and bass that you usually find in typical songbooks. But you ought to know that the collection of songs doesn't necessarily reflect what you'd imagine when you think of ELO and guitar music.