Down Home Town

On the lyric sheet, there are two asterisked notes:

• The band on this track have since grown a third eyebrow. ** Wrong.

What does it mean to "grow a third eyebrow"? I have tried to come up with a reasonable explaination for it, I have looked at books of expressions and cliches, I have tried contacting Jeff Lynne, I have asked all of my friends. It's really bothering me. Is even a real figrue of speech, or something ELO came up with, If you could tell me what that means, I would greatly appreciate it.

hey grebulous. my guess? drugs. lots and lots of drugs.

The asterisked lyrics still puzzle me to this day. The ucedemwinnin/"you see them winning" is fairly straight-forward, I suppose. But the "third eyebrow" comment is really bizarre. I found one writer who heard something interesting which raised his eyebrow; then he heard something else, which caused him to raise another eyebrow. Eventually something even MORE interesting happened, to which he said he would have raised a third eyebrow (if he had one). As a figure of speech, that's makes sense. But growing a third eyebrow....? I dunno.

The "asterisk" business is just the band messing around and at the beginning, there is a backwards message in the song "face the mighty waterfall" ELO was famous for doing a technique called backwards masking when playing something forwards and listening to it backwards, another fooling around there too.

The "asterisk" business is just the band messing around and at the beginning, there is a backwards message in the song "face the mighty waterfall" ELO was famous for doing a technique called backwards masking when playing something forwards and listening to it backwards, another fooling around there too.

I think Jeff might've been inferring another jab about American back country folk; 3rd eyebrow might be what bridges the other 2 eyebrows into what's know as a 'unibrow'. Or what gpciie said.

I always figured that the "narrator" was some back-country xenophobic hick that would try and downplay their own ignorance by playing up their "positive" side. Such as saying that "But they ain't good enough to breathe/ This towns good air we make 'em leave." but then try and contrast it by saying that their music is good so it means that there's nothing wrong going on.

Like a racist grandma. Sure she says some ridiculously malicious things about anyone who isn't white, but god damn her pies are good. Except, instead of an old lady it's an entire town. Kinda reminds me of Lynard Skynard in a way.

It drives me crazy when some people think Kelly Groucutt is the lead singer on this. It's obviously Jeff Lynne with Kelly singing a few bit parts. There are also female singers involved in this as well, but it is definitely Jeff singing most of it.