ELECTRIC LIGHT ORCHESTRA - SHOWDOWN

Released: September 14, 1973 (US) October 6, 1973 (UK)

Charted:  UK: #12  US: #53 

“Showdown” was written and produced by Jeff Lynne, serving as the last contemporary recording to be released on their label at the time, Harvest. The song was featured on their third album “On the Third Day” in the US, in the UK, however, the song was left off the album. In 2006, the remastered issue of “On the Third Day included the song on both the US and UK versions. The track has been described as having a funkier backbeat to their previous material, showing a change in style for the band - so it's no surprise that it was a personal favourite track of John Lennon's.

Jeff Lynne said: In the late 1960s, I was in a group called the Idle Race and this guy called Roy Wood that was in the Move, we used to meet up at the clubs in Birmingham and we got to be pals. We’d go to each other’s house and listen to each other’s music, and we thought it might be nice to have a group with strings in it. Back then, most groups didn’t have anything other than drums and guitar, organ and maybe saxophones and trumpets. I wanted to do something different than 15-minute guitar solos since I wasn’t that good at that anyway. The big problem with strings in those days is there was no pickups for them. It was a real pain in the ass trying to do shows. After about three months, Roy left me to do his own group. I carried on and became the sole producer and the sole writer.

I wrote “Showdown” in my mom and dad’s front room in Birmingham. I made the riff up and I was thrilled with it. I knew it was going to be a hit even after I had just done a few notes of it. When we cut it the engineer said, “This is a classic.” I was thrilled to bits. It’s one of my favorites, though the lyrics don’t mean anything, really. It’s just a story, a made-up scenario. A lot of people ask me what my songs mean and I have no idea. It means something different to me every time I sing it.

In 1974 Lennon said: "'Showdown' I thought was a great record and I was expecting it to be number one but I don't think UA [United Artists] got their fingers out and pushed it. And it's a nice group, I call them 'Son of Beatles', although they're doing things we never did, obviously. But I remember a statement they made when they first formed was to carry on from where the Beatles left off with 'Walrus' and they certainly did".

"Showdown" appears to be a song about a tumultuous and doomed romantic relationship. The lyrics depict a situation where the narrator encounters a woman who is heartbroken and expresses her concerns about a love affair that is bound to end. The line "Every dream in her heart was gone" suggests that she has lost hope and holds a pessimistic view of the future of their relationship. The song incorporates the metaphor of a showdown, symbolizing the impending confrontation or clash between the two individuals involved. The phrase "Looks like we're ridin' on the same train" implies that they are both heading towards a conflict, and it is anticipated that there will be more pain and suffering as a result. This sense of impending conflict is also reinforced by the repetition of the line "There's gonna be a showdown" throughout the song. The chorus, which emphasizes the rain "all over the world," suggests a metaphorical representation of the emotional turmoil and sadness surrounding the situation. The rain is a symbol of the hardships and difficulties that the characters are facing in their relationship. The phrase "the longest night" conveys a sense of despair and intensifies the feeling of emotional struggle that they are experiencing.