THE MOODY BLUES

[Pinder's Gone To Kokomo And Back Again]

I JUST got into these guys! Don't know why it took me so long (maybe my decades long all-consuming Beach Boys obsession has had something to do with it?) but these guys are really awesome and underrated

[Sheriff John Stone]

Some random thoughts....I like the Moody Blues. Once or twice a year, I'll pull out their greatest hits CD and enjoy it very much. I lived through most of their singles; they were and still are one of the best classic rock bands for FM radio. "Nights In White Satin" is a stone cold timeless classic. I also like "Tuesday Afternoon", "The Story In Your Eyes", "Isn't Life Strange", and their "later" hits, "In Your Wildest Dreams" and "I Know You're Out There Somewhere". I also made a psychedelic comp one time and put on "Timothy Leary"; a great period piece. There's also a song to seek out on their recent Christmas album, December, called "December Snow"; classic Moodies. Justin Hayward is an underrated singer and songwriter IMO; his voice is so identifyable. I also enjoy their concerts which occasionally pop up on PBS; I hope to catch them live before they hang it up; I thionk a member or two have retired. There is a haunting version of "Nights In White Satin" from this old VCR tape/concert I have, Live At The Isle Of Wight from 1970. I hear some Beach Boys/BW influence in the Moody Blues music. I think I read once that Justin and Brian were going to do something together but Justin had a heart problem or something and it fell through.

[Jason]

The Moody Blues are one of my top 3 favorite bands, along with The Beach Boys and Os Mutantes. They were my first music that I recall hearing of my own free will, when I borrowed my mother's old LPs and played them on a crappy single-speaker Fisher-Price player around age 4. I recall that I loved the cover to Every Good Boy Deserves Favour a lot.

They are indeed quite underrated by today's standards, as it's mostly their old-guard fans who stick around with them. They did have a reboot in the 1980s which brought them a whole new legion of fans that continue today. They survived the MTV Generation better than most other 60s groups, thanks to a willingness to change with the times and Justin Hayward's hook-laden songwriting.

I could go on forever. Long live The Moody Blues.

[Pinder's Gone To Kokomo And Back Again]

I actually got dragged by family members to one of the Red Rocks Colorado shows in 92. I wasn't into the Moodies then. I thought it was funny and kinda Cheap Trick-ish that you had two "hot" guys (Hayward and Lodge) and two other guys who looked like their Grandpas (Edge and Thomas) up on the same stage, and I was laughing at all the older super-fans! They really have some SERIOUS fans, which is awesome! But I remember being blown away by some of the songs! Nights In White Satin especially! But then I went home and forgot about them and went back to The Beach Boys 24/7

Now I feel like an idiot, but a very fortunate idiot at that!

I agree that Hayward is a VERY underrated singer. He really is up there with Carl, though he's in a league all his own due to his simply surreal and hyper-romantic style. He's also a VERY underrated guitarist (as Lodge is an underrated bassist).... Just check out the mere SOUND of his guitar on such songs as Lovely To See You, Ride My SeeSaw, The Story In Your Eyes. Very distinct and awesome.

Another awesome thing about the Moodies (and a very Beach Boy-like quality) is that ALL the Moodies wrote and sang! Hayward could have easily hogged the whole show with his voice and looks, but he seemed to honestly relish being part of a collective and I think such variety made his high points shine all that much brighter. Very smart on his part! Mike Pinder wrote some especially mindblowing songs too. When Your A Free Man Again is superbly epic and my personal fave.

Yes, long live The Moodies!!!

[Sheriff John Stone]

I forgot to mention another Moody Blues-related project...Justin Hayward and John Lodge did an album called Blue Jays, which I like very much. It has a song on there called "Who Are You Now" which is very emotional and Beach Boy-like.

[Pinder's Gone To Kokomo And Back Again]

That's funny! I picked that album up about 5 years ago and loved it, but STILL didn't make the leap over to The Moodies! What an idiot!!!!

[Jason]

Erik, I love you, man.

There's so much to love in the Moodies' music. Even their early pre-Days of Future Passed era when they had Denny Laine on vocals and guitar and Clint Warwick on bass is nothing to shake a stick at; they were one of the greatest and toughest R&B-based groups of the British Invasion, behind only the Rolling Stones and the Animals. Go Now is an acknowledged classic. From The Bottom Of My Heart is the true kicker from the Mark I lineup - this was when they were going in a very different direction (acoustic guitars, Thomas' flute) from the R&B sound they had beforehand.

The great thing about the Mark II 1966-78 lineup is that each member brought their own individual talents and individuality to the band as well as the band's songwriting. Hayward was the romantic, Lodge the rocker, Thomas the mystic, Pinder the spiritualist, Edge the poet. The ever-growing number of progressive rock detractors seem to love to bash the Moody Blues as an overblown, pretentious orchestral progressive rock group with utterly bullshit concepts and ideas, but, to me anyway, their concept albums are, from a conceptual standpoint, no more progressive rock than Pet Sounds is. A basic, loose theme. That's the only real "concept" on their classic albums. The idiots who took way too many drugs while listening to Moody Blues albums are the ones responsible for this idea that the Moody Blues wrote long-winded narratives about life, religion, occultism...total, total bullshit. The Moody Blues are a pop/rock band. Remove all the grandeur from the arrangements and you're left with that.

They survived the 1980s better than they probably should have, considering the anti-progressive rock fever at the time. But they were willing to adapt to new sounds and ideas and, in the process, brought in a whole new legion of young fans. They played along with the MTV Generation, and it worked. It worked so well that their fall from the grace of their second wind was inevitable. I won't say that they "sold out", because they were selling out stadiums long before the 1980s. However, the new wave of commercial success didn't last forever. Their two 1990s albums were virtually ignored by the public; only the Red Rocks PBS special and subsequent orchestra-backed tours really generated a lot of interest from the public.

They've pretty much coasted since 1992, with the occasional new record or song every so often. But their live show still draws a crowd, despite them being booked into much smaller venues.

Their albums are, on the whole, underrated; even their late 1980s-early 1990s artistic nadir had a few worthy songs. Their 1999 record, Strange Times, was easily the best record they had done since Seventh Sojourn almost 30 years beforehand; they managed to comfortably straddle between their melodic 1966-78 sound and their more poppy later sound, resulting in a very satisfying collection of songs and their leanest, loosest arrangements since the 1970s.

1978's Octave is a sort of albatross; in effect, they were never the same after it was finished. The album was recorded under extremely stressful conditions; by the end of 1971 they had toured (as both opener AND headliner, sometimes even on the same tour) and recorded at such a feverish pace that going into 1972 the five of them had virtually nothing to say to each other. All of the members recall the Seventh Sojourn album as a very unhappy period for them, and the beginning of the straw that broke Mike Pinder's back. Mike had trouble with his marriage at the time, he was spiritually confused, and the grind of the road had worn him dry. The band also collectively stated that they were more than a bit unnerved by the fans who were showing up for their shows, claiming that the Moodies were gods on Earth, people who had "the answer", people who would save us. John Lodge's I'm Just A Singer (In A Rock And Roll Band) was his reaction to that ideology on the part of their fans. The band spent the better part of 1972-73 on the road, and after a long Japanese and American tour in 1974 (which, by the band's plane almost crashing in the Pacific Ocean, nearly was a fatal tour), the band minus Justin Hayward were exhausted to the point that they decided to just break up. They still stayed in contact but diverted their energy to solo projects; all five members released solo albums and Justin and John did the Blue Jays album after Mike backed out of collaborating with Justin. By 1977 they decided they were ready to work again, but due to Mike marrying his American girlfriend Tara and moving to California, the band decided to bring all of their equipment from England to Los Angeles since Mike was unwilling to travel. Octave was very unhappy for the group at the time; Mike was totally not into being a rock 'n roller anymore and the others were forced to scramble and improvise. The resulting album sounded more like a collection of solo songs than a true group effort. The album was released to huge sales and a positive boost from the press, but by the time the band got to making arrangements to tour the album, Mike Pinder got as far as sitting in the Threshold offices to sign the contracts for the tour, and couldn't put pen to paper, effectively quitting the group. Patrick Moraz came in as a replacement.

Man, I could go on forever. Great thread.

[Sheriff John Stone]

Richard Head, do have the Christmas album, December?

[Pinder's Gone To Kokomo And Back Again]

I love you too, Richard  

Ah, but Octave contains "Had To Fall In Love" ... a song which simply gives me chills everytime!

I must also confess I LOVE Long Distance Traveller! I think it's bad reputation is due to simply knowing that Patrick Moraz is playing keyboard, rather than his actual keyboards. Hell, I put it on and braced for all sorts of Moraz-spaz-ness, but his work on the album really is quite understated and beautiful. Btw, "Relayer" is my favorite Yes album, butr that's another discussion in and of itself for some other thread!

Side one of Long Distance Traveller is PERFECTION to my ears. "The Voice" is SO damn catchy that is seems to breeze by too quickly, yet somehow lodges it's melody into your very DNA. I still can't get the friggin' thing out of my head! Not that I'm complaining! "Talking Out Of Turn" is just as impressive. Lodge has never sounded so good vocally. He really nails the lyric and sings with much deep deep feeling. "In My World" destroys me! It's melody is so simple and unremarkable really, but something about how Justin's voice blends with, while slightly combating, the chords in the verses..... is pure Moodie magic. The guy could sing "Givin The Dog A Bone" by AC/DC and manage to turn it into "God Only Knows"!

I could go on forever too.....

[Jason]

Sheriff, I own all of the Moodies albums, and all of the solo albums. December is a good album, although, admittedly, I had a LOT of reservations about them doing a Christmas LP. I was pleasantly surprised by the album when I first heard it, and it's been a favorite during the holidays. It's kind of bittersweet hearing the flute passages on the album since Ray Thomas had retired less than a year before the album was recorded, though. Still, a fine album.

Had To Fall In Love is a great tune; it's very much likethe stuff Justin did on his 1977 Songwriter LP, which is just as essential as the classic LPs and the Blue Jays record.

Long Distance Voyager is a pretty good record. Probably the best they did with Patrick in the lineup. It was evident as far back as the 1978 live shows, but on Long Distance Voyager most people realized just how much of a shot in the arm Patrick was to the group. He didn't so much replace Mike Pinder (who could?!?) as he added to the band's legacy. Only problem with Patrick was, of course, his ego. The Moodies have since disowned him as a member of the group as far back as 1991, when he was quietly let go from the group. The rift between Patrick and the other Moodies was that Patrick insisted on being paid per gig as opposed to a lump sum for an entire tour. In effect, Patrick may have been credited as a member on their 1981-88 LPs (and I consider him one), but his insistence on being paid as pretty much a glorified sideman seems to have swayed the other Moodies into considering him merely a sideman. He was also notorious for his incredibly bad temper on and off the stage, and poor reviews of their 1980s shows almost unanimously agreed that Patrick was a major distraction. For the slower songs, he stood at a selection of synthesizers and other sampling keyboards, but when they would go into a faster song, like The Story In Your Eyes, Ride My See-Saw, or Veteran Cosmic Rocker, he would go to the front of the stage with the band with a keytar and proceed to play the living hell out of it. He was the originator of the little saunter the band does during the "jam" in The Story In Your Eyes, where they walk across the stage and play for the folks in the front row. By 1987, he was becoming notorious for lackluster performances, and the Moodies hired second keyboardist Bias Boshell as a backup. When Patrick decided to take a night off, which became increasingly common after 1987, Bias had to step in and play all of the parts. He eventually stopped coming to recording sessions for the most part, contributing a few bits here and there, even co-writing a tune with Graeme, The Spirit, on 1986's The Other Side Of Life LP, but his participation on studio sessions was very slim by 1991. Even Ray Thomas and Graeme Edge found themselves little-needed in the studio as the band's producer insisted on programmed drums, and Justin and John decided they could just program all of the keyboard parts themselves. Ray Thomas was especially missed between 1986 and 1991 - on The Other Side Of Life, he's barely audible in the backing vocals, and on 1988's Sur La Mer, his backing vocals were mixed out by producer Tony Visconti. Patrick contributed some keyboards to 1991's Keys Of The Kingdom LP, but the sessions were halted in mid-1990 when Patrick was given his walking papers. He tried to sue for unpaid royalties and other damages totalling over $3 million in 1992, and the trial, which was broadcast in portions on Court TV (required viewing), was virtually a circus, with Patrick making a total ass out of himself. The jury knew that Patrick had a legitimate case but Patrick's constant belittling of the judge, jury, and the other Moodies resulted in him being awarded around $250,000 out of spite. Patrick made the famous comment years later - "Justin Hayward...that guy would cut his own mother's throat if he knew he would get ahead in life."

[Pinder's Gone To Kokomo And Back Again]

Ok, digging for some Court TV footage as we speak!

I was living in San Pedro CA around 1995 when Patrick Moraz moved there and decided to play this little (but quite hip) coffee house down on 6th street! He'd pretty much wallpapered the entire front window area with posters of his new solo album and flyers for his upcoming show. It was rediculous..... I was sitting out front one night with some friends while an employee of the coffee house was busy pulling off a bunch of Patrick's posters/flyers and trying to get the industrial strength tape he used off the window glass, when, who comes sauntering up, Patrick Moraz, wearing a HUGE ground length fur coat and about 15 scarves/ascots, and flanked by a small army of odd looking young guys all in black.

I see him and blurt out "Patrick Moraz"? He stops in front of me and nods and loudly proclaims "YES" as if it's only natural that I recognize him and wish to lavish him with compliments or something. I go "Hey, if I bring you a copy of Relayer will you sign it"? He shakes his head and blares "NO!!!! Buy my new album Windows Of Time"!!!! and promptly walks into the coffee house!

We went and saw him play and it was amazing. He had about 40 keyboards/synths, as well as a grand piano up on the very small stage and proceeded to go apeshit for the next hour or so! It was great in some parts but dragged on and on. But he did do a lot of talking about different songs with different groups (Moodies/Yes/solo) and told some pretty funny and intriguing stories. He was very gracious with the audience too. Did a lot of chatting and was very aimiable and good humored.

Some prog obsessive friends I knew in the area, actually went to his house afterward, and apprently he'd rented some huge house up in the Palos Verdes hills nearby, and the place was almost empty aside from too many keyboards/synths to ever count that were laying around everywhere, some in various state of repair/dismantled-ness. According to these guys, Patrick kept trying to sell them signed keyboards all night!

Quite the character, Mr. Moraz!

[Sheriff John Stone]

Great stories, Richard Head and Erik H! I'm gettin' out my Moody Blues Greatest Hits CD right now!

[Pinder's Gone To Kokomo And Back Again]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAkvF_mHcXk&feature=related

 

[Jason]

Great stuff.

I have recordings of Justin (1986) and Graeme (1988) on Howard Stern. Graeme's very British sense of humor was an equal match for Howard's obscenity, and Justin was a bit hesitant early on but relaxed much later. These were great fun to hear.

[A Million Units In Jan!]

They are pretty damn good. When I was a kid just getting into using the turntable and digging out my Parents' albums, Every Good Boy Deserves Favor was one I listened to. The cover (like Richard Head said) stuck out, and the first track on the album was like the history of music, starting out with natives chanting and ending with an orchestral swell.
Their music sort of freaked me out, too. Just listen to the beginning of Threshold Of A Dream and hear that computer voice-as a 5 year old kid that blew my mind! Their music always had bits of a 'futuristic' feel to it.

[donald]

Introduced to the Moodys (post Go Now) via Threshold, In Search of the Lost Chord, and Children's Children, whilst feasting on the lysergic some 40 plus years ago.  Listening now almost brings flashbacks.  A most comforting and entertaining soundtrack in those days.