Don't Bring Me Down

Album

Discovery

Label

Jet Records

Genre

Pop rock

Duration

2:00

Composer(s)

Jeff Lynne

Entered Chart

Aug 4, 1979

Peak Date

Sep 8, 1979

Released

24 August 1979 (UK)

Recorded

Unknown

Catalog #

Jet 5060

B-Side

Dreaming Of 4000

This was the first ELO song that did not use strings. After recording it, they fired their string section, leaving four 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. >> ELO leader Jeff Lynne wrote this song late in the sessions for the Discovery album. He came up with the track by looping the drums from a song he recorded earlier in the session, then coming up with more music on the piano. The words came last, as Lynne put together some lyrics about a girl who thinks she's too good for the guy she's with. As a little joke, Lynne put a count-in at the beginning of the song, even though there was nobody he was counting in. This turned out to be a good theme song for astronauts enjoying their time in space. The song was played to astronauts on the Space Shuttle Columbia as their wake up call on July 6, 1996 - they were in flight longer than expected because of bad weather on the ground. ELO's record company also tried to tie in the song with the Skylab space station, which crashed to Earth on July 11, 1979 after six years in space. They placed ads in trade magazines promoting the new single "Don't Bring Me Down" by dedicating it to Skylab. Wondering why Jeff Lynne repeatedly sings the word "groose" after the song's title line? Apparently it was a made-up place-keeper word to fill a gap in the vocals when he was improvising the lyrics. When the German engineer Reinhold Mack heard the ELO frontman's demo he asked Lynne how he knew "Gruss" means "greetings" in his country's language. Upon learning the German meaning, Lynne decided to leave it in. Many fans misinterpreted "groose" as "Bruce." In fact, so many people misheard the lyric that Lynne actually began to sing the word as "Bruce" for fun at live shows. This appears in the 2006 Doctor Who episode "Love & Monsters," and in the 2012 Family Guy episode "Jesus, Mary and Joseph!" It has also been used in these films: I Can Only Imagine (2018) Super 8 (2011) College Road Trip (2008) The In-Laws (2003) Donnie Brasco (1997) In 2020, this was used in a Peloton commercial where a dad tries to stay motivated using the fitness bike. It was also used in the trailer for the 2017 film The Emoji Movie. In one of his earliest gigs, Brad Garrett, star of long-running TV comedy Everybody Loves Raymond, can be seen in Arabian garb on the inner sleeve of the Discovery album.

You got me runnin', goin' out of my mind
You got me thinkin' that I'm wastin' my time

Don't bring me down
No, no, no, no, no
Ooh-ooh-hoo
I'll tell you once more before I get off the floor
Don't bring me down

You wanna stay out with your fancy friends
I'm tellin' you, it's got to be the end

Don't bring me down
No, no, no, no, no
Ooh-ooh-hoo
I'll tell you once more before I get off the floor
Don't bring me down

Don't bring me down, groos
Don't bring me down, groos
Don't bring me down, groos
Don't bring me down

What happened to the girl I used to know?
You let your mind out somewhere down the road

Don't bring me down
No, no, no, no, no
Ooh-ooh-hoo
I'll tell you once more before I get off the floor
Don't bring me down

You're always talkin' 'bout your crazy nights
One of these days, you're gonna get it right

Don't bring me down
No, no, no, no, no
Ooh-ooh-hoo
I'll tell you once more before I get off the floor
Don't bring me down

Don't bring me down, groos
Don't bring me down, groos
Don't bring me down, groos
Don't bring me down

You're lookin' good, just like a snake in the grass
One of these days, you're gonna break your glass

Don't bring me down
No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no
Ooh-ooh-hoo
I'll tell you once more before I get off the floor
Don't bring me down

You got me shakin', got me runnin' away
You got me crawlin' up to you everyday

Don't bring me down
No, no, no, no, no
Ooh-ooh-hoo
I'll tell you once more before I get off the floor
Don't bring me down, down, down, down, down, down

I'll tell you once more before I get off the floor
Don't bring me down