Electric Light Orchestra · 1975 · Behind the Songs
Evil Woman, from Electric Light Orchestra’s album Face the Music (1975), is a Jeff Lynne song about a relationship that has turned from attraction to warning. The narrator recognizes a partner whose charm has become manipulation, and the song’s title is his blunt summary of that recognition. It is not a gentle song. It is a song about seeing clearly, after having been fooled.
Musically, Evil Woman is built on piano, strings, and a driving rhythm. The strings do not soften the song. They sharpen it, giving the verses a sense of movement and the chorus a sense of insistence. Lynne’s vocal is cool and controlled, which makes the judgment in the title feel considered rather than shouted. Backing vocals and orchestral color fill out the arrangement, but the song never loses its rock pulse.
In ELO’s career, Evil Woman belongs to the period when the band’s fusion of pop and classical arrangements was becoming fully confident. Face the Music was a step toward the polished, string-led sound of the albums that followed, and this track showed that ELO could write a direct, rhythmic pop song without abandoning its orchestral identity.
Listening now, Evil Woman still feels modern because its subject is timeless. It is about the moment when admiration ends and understanding begins, and ELO gives that moment a melody that is both catchy and a little dangerous.