Don't Bring Me Down

by

Electric Light Orchestra

Album: Discovery     Released: 1979

US Chart: 4      UK Chart: 3

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This was the first ELO song that did not use strings. After recording it, they fired their string section, leaving 4 members in the band.

This is the highest charting ELO hit in both the UK and US, although ELO's "Xanadu" collaboration with Olivia Newton-John did hit #1 UK. (thanks, Richard - Vancouver, BC)

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Comments:

In 1966 the British band The Animals released a completely different record titled "Don't Bring Me Down", it peaked at No. 12...
- Barry , Sauquoit, NY

GRUS,BRUCE...who cares it's a great song !
- preston , hartford, CT

what about "Strange Magic"...wasn't that ELO?
- Micky , Los Angeles, CA

Ok, having seen Jaws in 1974 and reading somewhere that the nickname for the mechanical shark they used while filming was "Bruce" this song made total sense to me when I first heard it in 1979. "Don't bring me down, Bruce" was a plea to the shark not to be eaten...brilliant!
- Tim , Gainesville, FL

Does anyone know what "grus" (sounds like Bruce) means in the lyrics?
- allie , evanston, IL

I fell in love with ELO thanks to this song. The lyrics are a bit awkward, but so what. Just don't understand that cosmic hot dog in the video.
- Mitch , Crown Point, IN

wow. I have no idea what those two guys are talking about when they say this isn't one of the better songs. I've been listening to this song since I was a toddler and I still love it and it never gets old.
- Caitlin , Southbury, CT

This was Number 2 in the Swiss-Charts in 1979.
- Marius , Zurich, Switzerland

I can't believe that there is such negativity towards this song. I only like two ELO songs (the other is Mr.Blue Sky) and there is supposedly better ELO songs?!?
- Dan2313g , Bay City, MI

Sam and Brian are to be ignored. This song is GREAT!
- Jeff , Parksville, KY

This song kicks ass!!!!!!!!!! I love that album too!
- Tony , Chicago, IL

Haha! I've always asumed it was 'Bruce!'. Anyway...I love this song.
- Louise , Newcastle, United Kingdom

I've been a big fan of ELO for thirty years, but unfortunately this is not one of my favorites, nor one I'd include on a list of their better tunes. I personally feel they began to slip when they tried their hand at dance-type tunes.
- Brian , Medway, OH

ELO recorded some great songs. Then they recorded this piece of crap, which along with Xanadu represents the low water mark of their career. One of the most godawful songs of all time.
- Sam , Lincoln, NE

great song from satrt to finish....takes one back to summer of 79....endless tune and quite enjoyable to music fans young and old!
- carl , baltimore, MD

It was funny....my parents wrote down that as a baby I could be calmed down by listening to ELO. This is probably my 2nd favorite song by them. I think this band as a whole is quite underrated.
- Christopher , Nashville, TN

I absolutely love this song....it's so amazing!!
- Judy , Enid, OK

ELO=masters of the rock/orchestra. awsome jam
- Max , Laconia, NH

I still sing "Bruce" even though I know it's not the true lyric. Just a habit I can't break...
- Ron , Auburndale, FL

Also, there are synthesised strings on just about every ELO album as well. (They used plenty of both). On their last album in the 80s, Balance of Power, I don't think there are any real strings at all. Generally you don't hear the bows scraping on the strings and you don't get that airy sound when it's synthesized, it just (1) adds a shimmering sound to the music (Roland String Machine, ARP String Machine), or (2) it sounds nasally and dark like on "I Am The Walrus" by the Beatles (Mellotron) or, (3) it sounds like something is playing 'backwards' (Prophet 5 synthesisers and Oberheims were good at those sounds).
- Liquid Len , Ottawa, Canada

Nonsense! Just read the album credits for Xanadu, Time, Secret Messages - ALL have real strings. Your EARS should be able to tell you that, as far as that goes. A string synthesiser does not sound identical to real strings, at least not yet. There are no strings on "Balance of Power", afaik.
- Liquid Len , Ottawa, Canada

Awesome song! I totally agree Jeff Lynne is severley underrated!
- Chris , Chicago, IL

i'd love to read songfacts about "telephone line" and "sweet talkin' woman". i've liked ELO since my teens. btw, i'm just quiet when they say grüss.:) just habit cos i didn't know what they were saying initially.
- Grace , conway, AR

They didn't fire their string section after recording this song. Beginning in 1975, they started using a full orchestra for recording. By 1976, it's all they used. So the 3 string players became concert-only performers, and weren't even playing on ELO albums by the time of Don't Bring Me Down. That's easily verified too: Lynne says this in the liner notes to their first Greatest Hits album from 1979 - the same year as Don't Bring Me Down. And after the Discovery tour, ELO only did one more tour - Time in 1981. For that album and tour, Lynne didn't want to use as much strings - so for the tour, it didn't make sense to use 3 string players. They went with keyboards only. Even after that, one of the 3 string players - Mik Kamanski - played on their next album, Secret Messages. So it's not like they were fired due to the success of this song - Lynne just didn't want to use strings all the time anymore.
- David , San Francisco, CA

personslly i love this song... i first heard it when driving down to florida with my family... my sisters and i didn't have the lyrics, so we just screamed "BRUCEE", and it was fun...
- Laura , Oshawa, Canada

The drums on "Don't Bring Me Down" are actually a slowed down and looped drum segment from another song on the album Discovery, On The Run.
- Damaramu , Houston, TX

The opening drum riffs on this song are identical to the opening drum riffs on the Beatles' "Sgt. Pepper's Reprise".
- Benn , Arcola, IL

Re: The Robert Johnson comment: this song is more similar to the Rolling Stones cover than the Robert Johnson original.
- Stefanie , Rock Hill, SC

Liquid Len: Those were actually synthesizers they used on later albums, not orchestras. In fact, their switch to synths is considered by many fans to be the point where ELO "jumped the shark".
- Joshua , Twin Cities, MN

I dont think this song is the same as the Robert Johnson one, but they do sound similar now that you mension it who knows. I would have to look at the lyrics of both.
- Stefanie , Rock Hill, SC

jeff lynne is so underrated
- Pepper , Virginia Beach, VA

Actually, the German expression is "Grüss dich", which means "Greetings to you".
- Thomas , Hamburg, Germany

This song reminds me of the old Robert Johnson blues tune "Stop Breaking Down," which was covered by the Stones on Exile on Main Street. Is it not the same song?
- York , Kyoto

Actually the word Jeff Lynne was referring to is German and is actually a phrase "Gross dich" which means Hello in German. -Jeremy,SD
- Jeremy , Winner, SD

I don't know about the firing their 'string section' bit. The full time members of the band that played strings are on subsequent albums. And they hired orchestras to play on tracks on subsequent albums as well.
- Liquid Len , Ottawa, Canada

In VH-1 Storytellers in 2001, Jeff Lynne told the story that he had origninally and unknowingly placed the word "grus"(?)which he learned means "greetings" in German and decided to leave it in the song. The story went on that at every concert, everyone would always sing, "Bruce!" and he ended up doing the same.
- Jack , Port St, Lucie, FL

Based on the liner notes of the vinyl album, and contrary to what virtually every lyric site shows, they do not say "don't bring me down BRUCE", it is "Don't bring me down, GROOOOOOSSSSS" pronounced to rhyme with Bruce.
- Shell , Kansas City, KS

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