is a song by the band Electric Light Orchestra, from their 1976 LP A New World Record.
It's not the best song on the album; in fact, it mostly pales in comparison to other tracks. Jeff Lynne, known Beatles fan (down to doing a John Lennon impression on most of his songs), decided to include the actual real lyrics in the song's main chorus:
My Shangri-La has gone away
Faded like The Beatles on "Hey Jude"
It sounds like a placeholder lyric he forgot to replace with something better, and always makes me cringe a little. Especially when, later on, you hear him shout in the back of the mix "JUDY BABY!" (although the Spotify lyrics claim it's actually "DO ME BABY" but I don't hear it). This doesn't ruin the song, but it knocks it down a couple pegs, especially when it's competing with the likes of Livin' Thing and Telephone Line, both of which come before.
But I still love this song, and have probably listened to it more than any of the other tracks, for one good reason.
Shangri-La is the final track on this album. Artists generally want to leave you with a good impression on the last track, since you'll be left in silence once it's over. Shangri-La may start off as a song that's just "okay," but it slowly transforms into a truly moving, haunting piece of music.
It's a song about a woman, or something. What do you expect, it's a pop rock song from last century, every song was about a woman. Though it's a touch more subtle than most - the singer talks about being dejected and depressed at how their "shangri-la" drifted away from them, and says they're "getting out of love." By not directly stating this is about a breakup (though it totally is), it's able to be a bit more universal in its emotions.
And then, as the song seems to be coming to a head, an additional lyric is added to the chorus, overlapping the main, Jeff crying out in a truly desperate tone, "Where is my Shangri-La?!" and it complements the chorus quite well. The song fades out, and you think "well, that was alright." The notes carry off into silence at around the 3:45 mark...
And then start to fade back in. A new melody, a twisted version of the original with a decidedly more tragic feel to it. A deep, humming male chorus that sounds like a funeral hymn joins in, followed by percussion and listing, climbing and falling strings.
The singer cries out from under all this noise, his voice echoing out just loud enough to hear, "I WILL RETURN..." The desperation from earlier is amped to the max, he doesn't even sound like he truly believes what he's saying. The soprano voice of Mary Thomas (probably, she was the female vocal on Rockaria! from earlier on the album and it sounds VERY similar) joins in with her own declaration that she will return...
He cries out again, "I WILL RETURN... TO SHANGRI-LA."
This overwhelming symphonic funeral dirge continues on to the end of the song, and it conveys the intended emotions of lost love far more effectively than any of the preceding three minutes and forty-five seconds. It feels like a bait-and-switch, like they tricked you into thinking they made a just sort of decent song, but actually they made the best song on the album and just stuck it onto the tail end of it.
Anyways, I highly recommend giving it a listen. Also, if you hate this entirely, please feel free to tell me in the comments what awful taste in music I have.
