The Moody Blues

[Jason]

Alright, let's have at it for my "other" favorite band. I imagine this thread will get a very mixed reception, a lot of people seem to hate the Moodies, especially the prog heads. By The Moody Blues, I also mean the Denny Laine/Clint Warwick/Mike Pinder/Ray Thomas/Graeme Edge incarnation of "Go Now!" and "From The Bottom Of My Heart". There was a band before there were Justin Hayward and John Lodge.

[donald]

I was addicted for a time to Threshold and Childrens Children.  That combination of acid and melotron very nearly left me in orbit a number of times.  But the Moodies always left me with a soft pillow of music to crash on.

nuff said

[Jason]

You should hear the Caught Live + 5 album. The mellotron sounds positively demonic on there.

[Old Rake]

Are we allowed to talk about the Justin Hayward era of the band? Cause 'In Search of the Lost Chord" is one of the best albums of the psych era bar none -- certainly one of the top ten most listenable and accessible! A solid, solid album.

[Jason]

We're talking all eras of the Moodies here, Jon.

[I. Spaceman]

I should love them, maybe I will someday.

[GP1138]

Breathe deep, the gathering gloom
watchlights fade from every room
bedsitter people look back and lament
another day's useless energy spent

[I. Spaceman]

Breathe deep, the gathering gloom
watchlights fade from every room
bedsitter people look back and lament
another day's useless energy spent

That verse is the exact reason I can't stand The Moody Blues.

[GP1138]

Breathe deep, the gathering gloom
watchlights fade from every room
bedsitter people look back and lament
another day's useless energy spent

That verse is the exact reason I can't stand The Moody Blues.

ROFL. I love that song. I tried to listen to the rest of "Days of Future Passed", and just couldn't get into it. That song, though, is beautiful to me alone.

[Ken.W]

'In Search of the Lost Chord" is one of the best albums of the psych era bar none -- certainly one of the top ten most listenable and accessible! A solid, solid album.

.. and the first album I ever bought! That album got me hooked on music totally .. 'Legend Of A Mind' .. 'House Of 4 Doors' .. 'The Best Way To Travel' ..

It certainly opened my 14 year old mind at the time

[Old Rake]

That verse is the exact reason I can't stand The Moody Blues.

Ahhh, its pretentious and fogey but its really quite lovely, all told! You must embrace it! Emmmbraaaaace it!

As a kid, "Days" was one of my first entrants into psych music in general.

[Lester Zombie]

I liked the original Denny Laine era band, but after he left they seemed to me to take a head-first leap into overblown pomposity. As a bunch of white English guys trying to be a soul band they seemed more real to me than as "hey-look-us-be-fancy" proggers.

[Jason]

I was playing Days of Future Passed on my little Fisher-Price record player when I was 6 years old. My mother had all of the 1967-72 albums, all of which I wore out by the time I was 10.

[I. Spaceman]

There you go! They're psych for kiddies!

[Jason]

They're very light as far as the psychedelia was concerned, I thought they had more in common with bands like Procol Harum as far as the psychedelia was concerned. They're not as bad as most of the progressive bands are (I'm thinking of ELP, Yes, and Rush as some examples of true suckage).

[I. Spaceman]

They're very light as far as the psychedelia was concerned, I thought they had more in common with bands like Procol Harum as far as the psychedelia was concerned. They're not as bad as most of the progressive bands are (I'm thinking of ELP, Yes, and Rush as some examples of true suckage).

You're a man after my own heart, Jason.

[Matinee Idyll]

I love "Magnificent Moodies"...

Must get "Days of Future Past", "Nights in White Satin" is one of me favourite songs...

So haunting.

[Jason]

You're a man after my own heart, Jason.

Ian, I always thought the prog movement was incredibly overrated. There are only two so-called prog bands that I like, Pink Floyd and the Moodies. If I wanted 25 minute solos, I'd listen to Coltrane, not Keith Emerson. Emerson's soloing has no SOUL, man!

[Matinee Idyll]

Genesis!  King Crimson!  SPLIT ENZ!

[I. Spaceman]

You're a man after my own heart, Jason.

Ian, I always thought the prog movement was incredibly overrated. There are only two so-called prog bands that I like, Pink Floyd and the Moodies. If I wanted 25 minute solos, I'd listen to Coltrane, not Keith Emerson. Emerson's soloing has no SOUL, man!

You need to check out King Crimson and Genesis with Gabriel on vox.
Otherwise, Prog ain't nothing but a city in Czechoslovakia.

[I. Spaceman]

Haha, you beat me to it, Idyll!

[Jason]

I've listened to both Crimson and Genesis. I like them, but they're nowhere near being favorites of mine. They're just THERE to me. Not denying the talent of either band.

Does Kraftwerk count as a prog band? I think they do, since the Krautrock movement was all formed on the basis of the American and British prog movements.

[Matinee Idyll]

Jethro Tull!

[Jason]

Boooooooooo! Booooooooooo!

[Matinee Idyll]

My God!

...Go listen to that