Very cool, Rich! Did you have a pair of oversized gradient-lens sungoggles on too?
Jeff Lynne has written a ton of fantastic stuff. No top ten of mid-late 70's was complete without one of their epics. I had a lot of early exposure, as my brother was a massive fan when we were growing up...in fact, our lad loved the way P̶u̶c̶c̶i̶n̶i̶ they laid down a tune...and V̶e̶r̶d̶i̶ ELO were always creeping from his room
This is a great, reflective version...electric piano is super. Your excellent, heartfelt vocal adds a lot to the sentiment here. Drums are very cool...I could never understand his drum thing...he always seemed to love that Beatles-style drum/hi-hat sound. I remember listening to "Hold on Tight" feeling sad that their light seemed to have just about gone out...and thinking that Bev Bevan must have died...and they only had a couple of bars of drums recorded for the song...so they just looped that and chopped it abruptly at the end. Like when Ye Olde Soviet Presidents had croaked, but nobody wanted to admit it...so they'd just whack them in the freezer until Parade Day, at which point they'd wheel them out, stand them on the balcony with a hat-stand up the back of their overcoat and get someone to lift a gloved arm every couple of minutes as the ICBM's rolled through Red Square.
Excellent cover version...who's next?