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owlbynite

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Come On
Suprised me that they had 4 albums out already in the sixties....door-opener for bands like Genesis and Yes....

Think the 60s were their heyday.

Maybe, but if you look at some of their greatest hits albums the songs are spread pretty evenly over the sixties, seventees and eightees.

"Lyin' awake in a cold, cold sweat. Am I overdrawn, am I going in debt?
It gets worse, the older that you get. No escape from the state of confusion I'm in.

Buying records in the early 70s, we didn`t think that they were made in the late 60s...

They were ahead of their time,

The authorized 2006 DVD documentary from the Classic Artists series is highly recommended. Get the 3-disc set if you can. Disc 2 has bonus interviews, some of which are featured below, and disc 3 is an audio disc featuring 9 tracks of recordings made by band members before they joined The Moody Blues and were in other bands.



From disc 2 of the bonus interviews, Justin plays a few minutes of acoustic guitar and then reveals that as he was joining the band in 1966 they were being managed by Beatles manager Brian Epstein. The Moodies gave each of the Beatles mellotrons, and by the end of the year they were incorporating the mellotron into their studio recordings beginning with Strawberry Fields Forever.





Interview with Mike Pinder from disc 2, in which he talks about childhood astral projection, growing up in postwar England, hanging around at Beatles sessions, and playing on John Lennon's Imagine album:





Interview with John Lodge from disc 2:





From disc 2, the full unedited interview clip from the main documentary on disc 1, where drummer Graeme Edge talks about what it was like to tour with The Beatles on their last UK tour, revealing that observing the confining nature of Beatles fame was the main reason why the Moodies played it low key later in their careers.





A section from the main documentary (disc 1) featuring Norda Mullen, who took over the role of flautist following Ray Thomas' departure in the early 2000s.







Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2013-07-30 04:23 by stonehearted.

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daytime
I like the Present alot from 83.

Small world. I just visited The hard rock Cafe in Baltimore this weekend. Justin Hayward's amp is on display there from the The Present sessions.


Love The Moody Blues

I have always really like The Story In Your Eyes, and their hits are songs I've liked. These guys can write a melody. I was only 10 or so in the 60's when an older step-brother turned me on to them, so I didn't understand much of the lyrics. As time went on, I realized that to some, they certainly could sound rather pretentious.

The lyrics and message, I guess it is, aren't for everyone, but listening to them it sure does bring you, or me really, back to my youth when I hear them. I find myself at 55 getting more melancholy at times, and Moodies music is a lot like that.

And not in the hall of fame. Terrible!

The Moodies were great. Go Now was always a favorite of mine. Search for the Lost Chord, Days of future passed all hold good memories as period albums that got lots of play.

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filstan
The Moodies were great. Go Now was always a favorite of mine. Search for the Lost Chord, Days of future passed all hold good memories as period albums that got lots of play.

Go now Is from a different Moody Blues. Only Greame Edge had played in that band. When Hayward and Lodge joined they said that they should of changed the name of the band. The great Moody Blues consider Days Of Future passed their first album. They have never played Go Now live ever with Hayward and Lodge.

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FrankM

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owlbynite

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Come On
Suprised me that they had 4 albums out already in the sixties....door-opener for bands like Genesis and Yes....

Think the 60s were their heyday.

Maybe, but if you look at some of their greatest hits albums the songs are spread pretty evenly over the sixties, seventees and eightees.

the early years ran together for me but I do remember they had some monster albums early 70s..

Similar bands?

Try Barclay James Harvest.

Some of Procol Harum's more orchestral/mellower stuff could be in the same genre as the Moody Blues.

Saw Moody Blues in the late 70s and was highly disappointed. Their sound did not translate to a live setting for the most part. Lousy harmonies. But now, thanks to autotune and click tracks, they sound much better (for worse).

They were huge then maybe quit at a good time. Though they sold a crap load of records in the 80s, I found them quite boring by then. Not ure if it was the songs that bored me, or the whole sound. But their first 3 to 4 records (clasic lineup, after Go Now) really were quite original, even for the 'psych era.

Timothy Leary's dead. No no he's outside looking iiiiinnnnnnnnnnnnn.

Classic.

great band. they just had some huge boxset come out

The core 7 albums. Days of Future Passed to Seventh Sojourn are 7 masterpieces in their own right. That should be enough to get them in the HOF.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2013-07-31 05:18 by More Hot Rocks.

One of My favorites

It might interest fans of the Mike Pinder era that Pinder had offered to join the band onstage in the 1990s during their Orchestral tour, just as a guest appearance. This was revealed in an interview from the mid-90s.

Q - Have I been hearing rumors of a Moody Blues reunion or is that just wishful thinking on someone's part?

A - Yes. The only tangible information I could give you about that was that about a year ago, when they were planning on doing the Orchestral Tour, I did offer to the guys in the band to do a one night sort of walk on stage. You know, do a poem, and a couple of tunes with them for the fans pleasure, so to speak. But, nothing transpired. But, it was never with the intention of ever reforming the band or whatever.

Full interview at: [www.classicbands.com]

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More Hot Rocks

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filstan
The Moodies were great. Go Now was always a favorite of mine. Search for the Lost Chord, Days of future passed all hold good memories as period albums that got lots of play.

Go now Is from a different Moody Blues. Only Greame Edge had played in that band. When Hayward and Lodge joined they said that they should of changed the name of the band. The great Moody Blues consider Days Of Future passed their first album. They have never played Go Now live ever with Hayward and Lodge.

not true mike pinder and ray thomas also played on the very first moody blues album before hayward and lodge joined. so 3/5 o the well known moody blues lineup plays on the song "go now"

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keefriffhard4life

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More Hot Rocks

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filstan
The Moodies were great. Go Now was always a favorite of mine. Search for the Lost Chord, Days of future passed all hold good memories as period albums that got lots of play.

Go now Is from a different Moody Blues. Only Greame Edge had played in that band. When Hayward and Lodge joined they said that they should of changed the name of the band. The great Moody Blues consider Days Of Future passed their first album. They have never played Go Now live ever with Hayward and Lodge.

not true mike pinder and ray thomas also played on the very first moody blues album before hayward and lodge joined. so 3/5 o the well known moody blues lineup plays on the song "go now"

John Lodge, having been in a band with Ray Thomas in the early 60s, was actually invited to join the first version of the Moodies, but declined because he wanted to complete his college education, so Mike Pinder recruited Clint Warwick (Albert Eccles), who he knew and who lived just 5 miles from where he did. When Warwick finally left, because he had a family to support and the rigors of constant gigging became too much, then John Lodge was asked again, in 1966, and this time he agreed to join. So Lodge was actually a part of the band/club circuit that Pinder, Edge, and Thomas all came from.

Also, Lodge and Hayward never suggested changing the name from the Moody Blues when they joined, and in the beginning the Lodge and Hayward version of the band, in 1966, actually did play Go Now and the other Denny Laine material, having taken over the same touring circuit from Moody Blues Mach I complete with the same stage uniforms. Sometimes Hayward would sing Go Now, other times Ray Thomas.

It was only after getting a bad review one night after a club gig (some guy came into their dressing room and said "You guys are f-in crap!") that they decided to chuck the stage uniforms and the same old R&B set list. A fan from Belgium rung them up and offered to put them up, and it was through this offer that the Moodies wrote and worked up their new stage show, Days Of Future Past.

Also, the Go Now version of the band was already displaying elements of the later band. Listen to From The Bottom Of My Heart, written by Pinder and Laine, listen to those haunting backing vocals--you can already hear Nights In White Satin even then, in 1965.





Also, listen to this 1967 studio recording with Mike Pinder on lead vocal--here, they still sound very much like the "Go Now" Moodies.





Basically, what we have is not a different band, but a band that evolved--and had it not been for the recruitment of new and like-minded members early on in their evolution, they might have been only a half-forgotten footnote from the mid-60s UK pop scene.

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keefriffhard4life

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More Hot Rocks

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filstan
The Moodies were great. Go Now was always a favorite of mine. Search for the Lost Chord, Days of future passed all hold good memories as period albums that got lots of play.

Go now Is from a different Moody Blues. Only Greame Edge had played in that band. When Hayward and Lodge joined they said that they should of changed the name of the band. The great Moody Blues consider Days Of Future passed their first album. They have never played Go Now live ever with Hayward and Lodge.

not true mike pinder and ray thomas also played on the very first moody blues album before hayward and lodge joined. so 3/5 o the well known moody blues lineup plays on the song "go now"

Yes, that is true. But when i think of The Moody Blues I think of the 2nd version.

everyone know Justin Hayward just put out a new album? probably the closest thing we will get to a new moody blues album

Looks like this solo album has been out since February. His voice sounds great but the songs still sound light-weight and soft-rock-ish. I just hate that kind of production, and it is so sad to hear one of my favorite voices in rock and roll drenched in it.

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Tate
Looks like this solo album has been out since February. His voice sounds great but the songs still sound light-weight and soft-rock-ish. I just hate that kind of production, and it is so sad to hear one of my favorite voices in rock and roll drenched in it.

lol well i just noticed it was out and picked it up today. sounds pretty much like what i expect a 2013 moody blues album to sound like

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Tate
Looks like this solo album has been out since February. His voice sounds great but the songs still sound light-weight and soft-rock-ish. I just hate that kind of production, and it is so sad to hear one of my favorite voices in rock and roll drenched in it.

I also thought it was a little light the first time I listened. Then I saw him live on his recent tour and now enjoy them for the beautifully crafted songs that they are. Liked it so much I ended up going two nights in a row. Both recordings are available on Dime.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2013-08-24 06:14 by Lostbrook.

I just saw Justin Hayward in Albany for a solo show. Just him, The Moodies keyboard player a backup singer and another guitarist called Mike Dawes. It was great. What a great talent.

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More Hot Rocks
I just saw Justin Hayward in Albany for a solo show. Just him, The Moodies keyboard player a backup singer and another guitarist called Mike Dawes. It was great. What a great talent.

sounds amazing

Gary Brooker, like Steve Winwood, has a great blue-eyed soul voice.

Hayward and Lodge don't have a similar voice to Brooker, but they do have excellent songs.

i still think the best moody blues album is the first one with the classic lineup DAYS OF FUTURE PASSED

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keefriffhard4life
i still think the best moody blues album is the first one with the classic lineup DAYS OF FUTURE PASSED

Ok then here's one for you. Hayward from a few weeks ago.

One of my favorite Moody Blues songs. Hayward solo again

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More Hot Rocks

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keefriffhard4life
i still think the best moody blues album is the first one with the classic lineup DAYS OF FUTURE PASSED

Ok then here's one for you. Hayward from a few weeks ago.

he still sounds great. DAYS OF FUTURE PASSED and the next 5 or 6 are classics they need to be heard front to back