‘Don't Bring Me Down’ is the ninth and final track on the English rock band the Electric Light Orchestra's 1979 album Discovery. It is the band's second-highest-charting hit in the UK, where it peaked at number 3, and their biggest hit in the United States, peaking at number 4 on the Billboard Hot 100. It also charted well in Canada (number 1) and Australia (number 6). This was the first single by ELO not to include a string section. Engineer Reinhold Mack claims that this was his idea, after Lynne did not know what they should record next, and that he encouraged Lynne to "just boogie out for a night."
After developing the drum tape loop, Lynne composed the music on a piano and then developed the lyrics about a girl who thought herself better than her boyfriend. The instruments do not include strings. Lynne said "This was the first song I did without any strings. It was exciting to work with them when we started, but [after] six albums, I got fed up with them. There was also trouble with the unions. They’d stop playing before the end of the song if the end of the hour was approaching. Now they aren’t so rude since there are samplers and everything."
The song ends with the sound of a door slamming. According to producer Jeff Lynne, this was a metal fire door at Musicland Studios where the song was recorded. The song was dedicated to the NASA Skylab space station, which re-entered the Earth's atmosphere and burned up over the Indian Ocean and Western Australia on 11 July 1979. On 4 November 2007, Lynne was awarded a BMI (Broadcast Music, Inc) Million-Air certificate for ‘Don't Bring Me Down’ for the song having reached two million airplays.
A common mondegreen in the song is the perception that, following the title line, Lynne shouts "Bruce!" In the liner notes of the ELO compilation Flashback and elsewhere, Lynne has explained that he is singing a made-up word, "Groos", which some have suggested sounds like the German expression "Gruß", meaning "greeting." Lynne has explained that originally he did not realize the meaning of the syllable, and he just used it as a temporary placekeeper to fill a gap in the lyrics, but upon learning the German meaning he decided to leave it in. After the song's release, so many people had misinterpreted the word as "Bruce" that Lynne actually began to sing the word as "Bruce" for fun at live shows.
ELO engineer Reinhold Mack remembers the genesis of the term differently, stating that Lynne was actually singing "Bruce" as a joke in advance of an Australian tour "referring to how many Australian guys are called Bruce." Mack stated that this was a temporary line, as "[they] couldn't leave it like that, so eventually we replaced it with 'Gruss,' based on the Bavarian greeting 'Gruß Gott," - 'greet God.' Gruss, not Bruce is what you hear in the song immediately following the title line."
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. As a little joke, Lynne put a count-in at the beginning of the song, even though there was nobody he was counting in.
Label – Jet
Songwriter – Jeff Lynne
Producer – Jeff Lynne
SONG LYRICS
[Intro]One, two
One, two, three
[Verse 1]
You got me running, going out of my mind
You got me thinking that I'm wasting my time
[Chorus]
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
[Verse 2]
You wanna stay out with your fancy friends
I'm telling you, it's gotta be the end
[Chorus]
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
[Post-Chorus]
Don't bring me down, groos
Don't bring me down, groos
Don't bring me down, groos
Don't bring me down
[Verse 3]
What happened to the girl I used to know?
You let your mind out somewhere down the road
[Chorus]
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
[Verse 4]
You're always talking 'bout your crazy nights
One of these days, you're gonna get it right
[Chorus]
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
[Post-Chorus]
Don't bring me down, groos
Don't bring me down, groos
Don't bring me down, groos
Don't bring me down
[Verse 5]
You're looking good, just like a snake in the grass
One of these days, you're gonna break your glass
[Chorus]
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
[Verse 6]
You got me shaking, got me running away
You got me crawling up to you every day
[Chorus]
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
[Outro]
I'll tell you once more before I get off the floor
Don't bring me down