Moody Blues : C/D, S/D

a friend pointed out that "On the Threshold of a Dream" is their last one on Deram records before they moved to Threshold, and it clearly should have been called "On the Threshold of a Deram." sadly he probably pointed this out more than forty years ago and i still to this day can't think of those records without thinking of that.

The "Have You Heard" two-parter is such bliss. What a great band.

Threshold is my favourite of their albums. It's not Hayward's peak, but Pinder's songs are very consistent. With Have You Heard, it's amusing how closely they pattern the arrangement after A Day in the Life.

All of their albums from Days of Future Past to Every Good Boy are putatively concept records, although each successive record is less tied into the concept other than the cover, title and maybe two or three of the lyrics.

Huh, I never noticed that but it's definitely true. I don't think Seventh Sojourn has any concept at all. Maybe I'm just missing it.

current favorite is "You Can Never Go Home". there's this bent mellotron chord that just hits me in the gut.

Yeah, by 1972 they were so exhausted that just getting a record in stores was enough of a unifying idea.

Pinder’s compositions sort of snuck up on me. I originally sort of wrote them off but almost all of the deep cuts I fell for were either written by him (Out and In) or featured his voice (The Balance) or his next level Mellotron work (Beyond).

this is a good resource if you're wondering about what Mellotron sounds they were using:

https://www.planetmellotron.com/revmoodies.htm

my local shop has some of the post-7th Sojourn LPs for very cheap, still not sure if I want to check them out. of all the 60's psych/art rock bands I think they were the least able to adapt to the 70s, even the stuff they did do in the early 70's has a very 1968 vibe to it. either way I grabbed the Caught Live LP (for $2.99) and will probably be listening to it tonight

Surprised that "The Voice" hasn't popped up as a needle drop in something like "Stranger Things."

otm, I love Long Distance Voyager so much, love that they just went all in on synth-pop for the next decade and totally pulled it off, maybe the most graceful transition for a psych/prog band from the sixties into the eighties?

how many psych prog bands even tried? I guess Pink Floyd did. Genesis technically started in the 60s but I'm gonna say they don't count.

Long Distance Voyager is indeed a surprisingly good album but I think it's their only one post-7th which is worth listening to at all. not that I've heard many of them. I have Octave and pretty much never want to listen to it.

In the very long Classic Artists documentary (which is great) there was a 90s performance of a song with an absolutely gorgeous flute solo and I had no idea of that was early or late material, I haven't got past the 60s yet.

I had the Yes documentary (which oddly treats Relayer like it was no big deal) and I really need to see the Jethro Tull one because these are usually at least 4 hours long, I wish there was much more but I think they only did Yes, Jethro Tull, Moody Blues, Cream and Jimi Hendrix. A shame.

In the Moody Blues documentary it was shown that Ian Anderson was considering joining the band for a while but they got another flute player

I think this was in the 90s too

its so weird that the Moodies were still a fairly well known pop culture phenomenon even well into the late 80s. did those later singles like "I Know You're Out There Somewhere" and "Your Wildest Dreams" actually get a lot of airplay? or were all the classic tunes still popular? (I certainly remember hearing them quite a bit in the 90s) just wondering because even their good ones tend to be landfill LPs nowadays, they're one of the few prog/psych bands of that era which just didn't seem to get re-evaluated at all.

Those two songs were both pretty big Top 40 hits, got MTV airplay etc.

They were all over the radio, iirc ("Your Wildest Dreams" hit number 9). As was America's "Magic," Alan Parsons "Eye in the Sky," etc. All sorts of future lite rock staples of that era. I heard an Air Supply song on the radio the other day, and I turned to my teen and said: this is what pop music often used to sound like.

My kids listen politely to the old man's tales of how great mid-70s music was.

Days of Future Passed remains a classic.

America had MoodysFever: "Gemini Dream" and "The Voice" got into the Top 40 in '81, and Long Distance Voyager actually hit #1 on the album chart.

raise your hand if your intro to the moodies was their cameo on the simpsons.

🙋

Heard "Your Wildest Dreams" all the time on AC radio in the 90s

of all the 60's psych/art rock bands I think they were the least able to adapt to the 70s, even the stuff they did do in the early 70's has a very 1968 vibe to it.

To be fair, they had a number 1 hit in 1972 with a song originally released in 1967, so they probably felt they had a mandate to keep that sound and spirit alive.

even their good ones tend to be landfill LPs nowadays, they're one of the few prog/psych bands of that era which just didn't seem to get re-evaluated at all.

True, but they sold a lot more than all the other bands of that ilk except Pink Floyd, so there were just more LPs sitting around to fill up the bins.

Forgot about "Go Now" - they do a nice cover, and I'm pleasantly surprised to find that I'm enjoying Denny Laine singing lead vocals on something:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z98rcKVLN-Q

That was one of his feature numbers on Wings Over America. The other was “Richard Cory” iirc.

listening to Threshold right now. every time I put it on I remember there's one song on it I absolutely love but never remember the name of. well I finally took note of it, it's "To Share Our Love". I really dig when this band does their psych rock Beach Boys thing, like on "Peak Hour" and "Ride Me See-Saw" and not much else. oooh and I forgot how massive the chorus of "Never Comes the Day" is. what a fuckin tune.

and then you've got "So Deep Within You" which somehow manages to predict the exact sound of the gross mid-70s Zappa stuff. except it says "I wanna touch your fire" instead of "girl I'm gonna grease up your oinker" or some shit.

"So Deep Within You" also recorded by the Four Tops! Though 70s Zappa would surely not cover everything in reverb to that extent, he loved dry close-miking.

Amazing album

and then you've got "So Deep Within You" which somehow manages to predict the exact sound of the gross mid-70s Zappa stuff. except it says "I wanna touch your fire" instead of "girl I'm gonna grease up your oinker" or some shit.

"So Deep Within You" also recorded by the Four Tops! Though 70s Zappa would surely not cover everything in reverb to that extent, he loved dry close-miking.

surprised that Every Good Boy Deserves Favour is the lowest rated on RYM of their classic albums. it's def as good as anything else they did if you ask me. it's way better than Question of Balance. though I admit maybe Question felt a bit more modern and clean while this goes back to their Lost Chord head-in-the-clouds psychedelia. can't imagine too many bands were still making music like this in 1971. also I can respect them going really out there on the first and last track - "My Song" is like a mini prog epic, albeit one from a band without a whole lot of techinical skill.

Fun fact, from Glenn Kenny’s book on Goodfellas: “Question” was considered for the soundtrack. I don’t know which scene, or if it was left off due to licensing, or if Scorsese just changed his mind or what. I can almost see it working as part of the May 11, 1980 sequence.

(He did use “Nights In White Satin” in Casino, and it worked perfectly.)

I don't really like any of the songs on EGBDF, it seems really tired and low-energy even by their standards (and not in a self-conscious, let's-write-songs-about-disillusionment way like the Pinder songs on Seventh Sojourn). Even "Story in Your Eyes" is a second-rate retread of the uptempo Hayward songs from the previous few records.

I agree it doesn't really have a strong single but there's a lot of really pretty moments on it, especially in the second half. mostly I'm just surprised people like Question of Balance more, if not for the title track I don't think I'd ever want to listen to that album.

personally I like it better than Days of Future Passed too. that album takes forever to get going and I really don't like most of the orchestration. mostly cuz it just reminds me of the really boring "retro" films my Dad would always watch.

Yes, the orchestrated segments of Days are a big mark against it. My pick of the big 7 is Threshold; though in honesty, any Moody Blues compilation (of that era) will have more good songs than any of their proper albums.

oh that's definitely true, the first CD I bought was a comp and it was really great but not in a way that made me wonder what the albums actually sounded like. then I saw them live and still recognized nearly every song they played so I figured maybe they just didn't have a lot of good deep cuts. hearing DoFP (which I'd always heard was the classic one) didn't really change my mind but Lost Chord kinda did. TOCCC was the one that really turned me around, it doesn't necessarily have my favorite material but for me track-for-track it's totally their best

My dad always had a cassette of Days Of Future Past and Seventh Sojourn in the car, but the first album I bought with my own money was the double This Is The Moody Blues comp. I still prefer its sequencing to the actual albums
https://www.discogs.com/release/2129159-The-Moody-Blues-This-Is-The-Moody-Blues

Yes, several of the records wheee around my house but that’s the one I latched on to. It felt like a very complete sixties epic, like White Album or Tommy more than a greatest hits.

some pretty crazy stories here. is the "brown note" thing really true? I thought that was an urban legend that just became an episode of South Park

https://www.loudersound.com/features/moody-blues-weird-fans-1960s

cracking article.
really enjoyed that and learnt loads that i had no idea about.
especially the whole thing re timothy leary.
i thought the song was because they personally knew him.
i love the moodies, but weirdly i know very little about them.
and, being honest, i kind of like it that way.

same, I thought it was some well-known lore that they used to hang out a bunch. surprising to me that the song was actually made during the Days of Future Past sessions, it would not have fit on that album at all. if I had to guess which track was from those sessions I'd say "Voices in the Sky".

still think In Search Of the Lost Chord is a total classic, one of those albums where I don't think it's their best but it's my personal favorite. idk if it's held up well exactly but it totally does feel like the sort of album a lot of teenagers got stoned to for the first time and I can respect that.

Moodies trivia: their 90s-era touring keyboardist was a founder member of hipster-adjacent folk-rock act Trees. Bonus trivia: he also wrote Kiki Dee's signature hit.

Bias Boshell is a heck of a rock and roll name

The long ass documentary is worth a watch. No great revelations but fun and I think it got me to buy their albums

Far too many ugly men with moustaches (who looked about 42 in 1967 so God knows what they look like now) in this band for my liking.

Four guys who look like West Bromwich Albion legend, Tony Brown, fronted by Tim Brooke Taylor is how I would characterize this band's look.

I'm not seeing this look as a problem myself

https://artist1.cdn107.com/08f/08fe9d2f776ad8199fc4ed945320db97_xl.jpg

I still hear Your Wildest Dreams while out and about at least twice a year.

Four guys who look like West Bromwich Albion legend, Tony Brown

I had always assumed that the falsetto backing vocals in "Nights in White Satin" were provided by session singers, and was vaguely amused to eventually discover that they were performed by these stolid-looking blokes.

xpost - That's because it's a jam. It came on my all-time faves playlist this morning on my way into work.

The long ass documentary is worth a watch. No great revelations but fun and I think it got me to buy their albums