"The Way Life's Meant to Be" is a song written by Jeff Lynne and performed by Electric Light Orchestra (ELO).

It starts with gentle violins, and continues with flamenco-like guitar playing, and castanets.

Continuing the theme of time travel, the lyrics deal with the protagonist's Future Shock at seeing his town over a hundred years later, and his disappointment at how the future is not nearly as utopian as the people of 1981, himself included, had predicted.

But uh, even though he's on the same bit of ground, everything that he knew is like, buried under this new shit, y'know, that's growing up on top of it, all these plastic ivory towers and stuff.

It was a bit Russian but we put castanets on it and it became Spanish.According to ELO drummer Bev Bevan, the castanets and acoustic guitars in layers were intended to give the song a Phil Spectorish wall of sound feel.