Same way as a little flourish or something. Y'know, the chord sequences start suggesting little phrases and stuff, y'know. And, once the tune's laid down, and I am cornered waiting to do the words, the tune suggests what words then. And so I wrote the beginning bit and the tune just sort of flowed out of that, y'know, I just sort of got the idea for the 'duh, du-dum, da-dum, da-dum.' Sort of a rock and roll thing, like a real contrast to the intro. So that somebody'd go, 'oh, must be something happening on there.' Y'know, like this big, loud, sort of extravaganza type effort.

Like a big string sort of fanfare thing, y'know. of having like this big sort of introduction. ' Tightrope, y'see I'd gotten into this thing on the previous album of having. The song ends on an unmistakable positive note ('somebody had thrown me down a line, stopped me drowning'), with a lovely electric piano outro strongly reminiscent of its immediate ancestor, Nightrider.'Īndrew Whiteside (1989 - Face The Music fanzine #6) This not to the band's early 'progressive' days aside, the track quickly turns its attention to the more important business of becoming a classic big production number, based around a rock solid rhythm section overlaid with lush vocals, and propped up by a drum sound Bonham would have killed for. 'Strange, that Tightrope, the jump start for the new age, with its crashing synths, gongs (á la Bohemian Rhapsody), the lengthy neo-classical introduction, should recall nothing so much as On The Third Day. 'The opening track, Tightrope, has a chorus lifted almost note for note from Sonny James' Young Love, another golden oldie.'

Mike Taylor (NovemThe Michigan Daily review of A New World Record) Interestingly enough, Lynne concludes that at times people can be very nice to each other.' 'The relationship of one stranger to another is explored in Tightrope. An early working title for Tightrope was Beach Boy Boogie, as revealed by early release information for the 2006 A New World Record remaster CD. The Flashback set incorrectly attaches the orchestral intro for the next song, Evil Woman, at the end of Tightrope.

Electric light orchestra tightrope