The Moody Blues "Timeless Flight" box set

[Jason]

Can't be too hard on him though, he gave Keith Moon a run for his money on "peak hour".


How much is this box rumored to cost?

Given that it's 17 discs, I'd say in the $200 range. The first photo of the physical contents was released recently.

http://www.moodybluestoday.com/moodyblues/CMS/Moody_Blues_3dpackshot.jpg

[SMiLE Brian]

Looks promising, I really want to buy this.

[Moon Dawg]

  I must be out of the Moody loop/When did Ray take his flute and leave the group?

[Jason]

 I must be out of the Moody loop/When did Ray take his flute and leave the group?

He left at the end of the 2002 tour.

[Paulos]

I need to listen to more of the Moody Blues, I've heard the debut and Days Of Future Passed which couldn't be more different from each other if they tried, what would you guys recommend next?

[SMiLE Brian]

All of the Core 7 (DOFP- Seven Sojourn) are essential. A highlight out of those is "To Our Children's Children's Children".

[Kurosawa]

Yeah, I'd listen to the core seven Moodies albums in sequence to start. My favorite is actually Lost Chord. It's a little dated I guess but I have always loved it.

[Jason]

Yeah, listen to the Classic Seven as well as the related singles/B-sides. Also listen to Caught Live +5 or Live at the Isle of Wight for a live album from the period. The 2-CD BBC Sessions set is required listening as well, especially for the EXCELLENT cover of Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood.

Not that The Magnificent Moodies is a bad album by any means, of course; it's actually among the best British Invasion records. The Mark I Laine/Pinder/Thomas/Warwick/Edge lineup were second only to the Rolling Stones and the Kinks when it came to playing R&B-based rock 'n roll music. But it's definitely a MUCH different band than the Mark II Hayward/Lodge/Pinder/Thomas/Edge era when they became huge.

[Paulos]

Thanks for the info guys, I'll get right on it!

[Summertime Blooz]

All of the Core 7 (DOFP- Seven Sojourn) are essential. A highlight out of those is "To Our Children's Children's Children".

I think that's an all-time top 10 album for me. Perfection!

[Pinder's Gone To Kokomo And Back Again]

Don't stop at the core 7! You can skip Octave if you want (and come back to it later) but please please please give Long Distance Voyager, The Present, and The Other Side Of Life a spin.... Those three make a great trilogy!

[SMiLE Brian]

The Moraz show!

[Jason]

Actually, the first two can be considered "the Moraz show". By the time of The Other Side of Life and Sur la Mer, Justin and John were programming the majority of the keyboards along with producer Tony Visconti.

[SMiLE Brian]

That is interesting, it almost was the "blue jays" under the Moodies name.


Mike Pinder T-shirt I won on ebay.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/200309977805?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1497.l2649

[Jason]

Well, on The Other Side of Life, Ray and Graeme are still there, although the flute is nonexistent. Sur la Mer doesn't even have Ray on it at all. It all goes back to Polydor's policy with regards to the Moody Blues at that time - Justin would write the singles which would also open both sides of the albums, and the two members who would get the most emphasis in their promotions would be "the commercial-looking ones", those being Justin and John. The policy made sense commercially, but it pretty much marginalized Ray, Graeme, and Patrick. There were television appearances going back to 1986 up until the end of Ray's tenure with the group that the band credited as "the Moody Blues" was just Justin and John.

Of course, Patrick basically ostracized himself because his contract with the Moodies stipulated that he would be paid per gig, essentially as a member of the backing band. By 1986 he was starting to no-show at gigs, leaving second keyboardist Bias Boshell to pick up the slack. By 1990 the band had had enough, and then it went downhill from there.

[SMiLE Brian]

Strange Times for the Moodies, you could start to see the start of the divide on Octave with Justin and John wearing modern clothes. While Mike, Graeme, and Ray looked like not "hip" anymore as middle aged adults.

Was there any consideration of letting Mike back into the group during the Moraz trouble or was the Octave fallout the true end of it for Mike?

[Jason]

Well, the issue with Mike is a bit more complicated than that. Mike basically left the sessions midway through Octave, leaving Justin and John to finish the keyboard tracks and thence the rest of the record. When the inevitable 1978 world tour came up, all five Moodies went to the contract signing but Mike couldn't bring himself to sign the contract. He claimed in 1981 when he sued the Moodies after Long Distance Voyager came out that the Moodies offered to have a deal with him where he would write and contribute to the records and he would be replaced in concert by a sideman in Patrick. The Moodies allegedly saw it differently, and the suit was settled in the Moodies' favor. Mike was never approached again about rejoining the band.

[Pinder's Gone To Kokomo And Back Again]

I think Moraz' work on Long Distance Voyager and The Present is absolutely fantastic. He really makes those records really sparkle.

[SMiLE Brian]

A shame, I watched a documentary from the 1980s that whitewashed Mike out of the group's history. I hope he does some promo work for the box set.

[Pinder's Gone To Kokomo And Back Again]

Did/doesn't the whole Mike saga basically boil down to him telling off Graham one time saying something like "What do you know? You're just a drummer"

[SMiLE Brian]

Thats part of the story, Mike was trying to work out a song and Graeme kept annoying Mike. Mike finally lost it and said that statement to Graeme to get him to back off. The octave sessions were a disaster to put it mildly.

[Pinder's Gone To Kokomo And Back Again]

Thats part of the story, Mike was trying to work out a song and Graeme kept annoying Mike. Mike finally lost it and said that statement to Graeme to get him to back off. The octave sessions were a disaster to put it mildly.

Sounds like these guys were steppin in a slide zone to me.....

[Jason]

I think by 1978 Mike was just tired. He had the most trouble of all of them when it came to dealing with the whole rock 'n roll/touring/excesses of the road issue. He was also the same guy trying to keep the band together in 1966 when their fortunes were at an all-time low. Combine those two together, and something had to give.

[SMiLE Brian]

I think he got out at the right time, he was too deep a person to deal with the hollow nature of the 1980s music scene. Plus Polydor would have probably thought him to be the most "uncommercial" of them all.

Its funny how Mike Love and Mike Pinder actually have a lot in common.

[Jason]

Dude, you have no idea the frustration I feel when I hear all these cougars with their dried up vaginas going on and on about how much they can't stand Mike's songs, like he was somehow playing second fiddle to Justin from the beginning. Nothing against Justin of course, but Mike's contributions to their songwriting legacy are not to be trifled with.