I've been listening to a lot of ELO lately. Whenever I need to recharge and get back in touch with the roots and stones of who I am, I find myself gravitating to the songs of my childhood. My medium of choice at the mo is the 'Flashback' collection, featuring all of ELO's hits and a vast majority of their other signature tunes.
One such tune is the title track from my favourite album of theirs entitled 'Eldorado'. From the moment I heard this song back in 1981, it said everything I could ever want to say about this world and the other, and I decided then that I wanted the song played at my funeral (ah the morbid thoughts of possibly the only Gothic ELO fan on Earth!).
'Eldorado' the album is a conceptual piece about a dreamer who wakes up in a dark reality and strives to return to his gentle reverie. It was released in 1974 and called a 'symphony by the Electric Light Orchestra'. It was the first time Jeff Lynne used a full symphony and choir on an ELO album and the results were astonishing and breathtaking. It features such wonders as 'Can't Get It out of My Head' and 'Mister Kingdom', not to mention the title track and culmination of the core concept. The dreamer is at last resigned to his lot in life in a reality he cannot bear, yet he clings to his dreams and knows that he carries that inner world with him...it's his sanctuary of sorts. It's almost as though this realisation gives him the rare ability to embrace whatever comes to him, even his own death. And, in a way, he's ready to die and possibly move on to a heaven that's more like his dreams than the life he is leading.
At least that's what I get from it...that and so much more. Either way, I think it's perfect 'goodbye world' song and I have once again been reminded that this is how I want to say goodbye to whomever may come to my funeral (that and I have a designated person to shoot birds at everybody, just to let them know that I'm still with them..heheheh).
So, here are the lyrics to 'Eldorado'.. a wonderful song everyone should hear at least once in their lives.
ELDORADO
Here it comes, another lonely day,
Playing the game, I'll sail away,
On a voyage of no return to see,
If eternal life is meant to be,
And if I find the key to the eternal dream.
The painted ladies of the Avalon,
Play in the sun, take to the road,
To the North there lies the chills of cold,
To the South there lies the tales untold, oh,
But in between there lies the place to close your eyes.
- CHORUS -
And I will sta-y, I'll not be back,
Eldorado.
I will be fre-e of the world,
Eldorado.
Say goodbye, the city's heroes sing
Bird on the wing,
Feel, feel so free.
Through the life upon the rooftop haze,
All the cheating and the broken days
So through it all I see,
There's nothing left for me.
- CHORUS -
So I will sta-y, I'll not be back,
Eldorado.
I will be fre-e of the world,
Eldorado.
Sitting here on top of everywhere,
What do I care,
Days never end.
I know the voyage's end will soon be here.
No eternal life is here for me, oh,
And now I found the key,
To the eternal dream.
- CHORUS -
Then I will sta-y, I'll not be back,
Eldorado.
I will be fre-e of the world,
Eldorado.
Then I will sta-y, I'll not be back,
Eldorado.
