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Tony Fisher 
Prog Reviewer
Joined: April 30 2005
Location: England
Status: Offline
Points: 967
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 Posted: February 15 2006 at 04:38 |
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"Poppish". Pop is short for popular, and popular means lots of people like it. So Close to the Edge is pop.
Agreed? I think not.
Too many on this site forget that musicians not only have to create great music, they have to sell it to survive. Hence it has to have some commercial appeal (or else the band will end up like The Enid - making great music and selling it mainly to a loyal hardcore of fans).
The Moodies are not a band I have ever really got into (I quite like what they do but not enough to buy their albums and play them regularly), but I consider them the first real purveyors of something akin to prog. Yes, it had a commercial approach, but that doesn't mean it was pop. Compare it with what was around at the time and it was very sophisticated and advanced for that era.
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Atkingani
Special Collaborator
Honorary Collaborator / Retired Admin
Joined: October 21 2005
Location: Terra Brasilis
Status: Offline
Points: 12288
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Posted: February 21 2006 at 22:15 |
Just remembering that MB released a real prog album in 1981 amidst disco, new age, new wave, punk and whatever. They deserved a Prog Medal for this deed - BTW, the 1981 album is excellent! 
IMO, the so-called 'core 7' and "Long Distance Voyager" are part of prog's Summa Teologica.
Edited by Atkingani
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Guigo
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DoubleD
Forum Newbie
Joined: December 02 2004
Status: Offline
Points: 12
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Posted: February 21 2006 at 22:51 |
Before I started visiting this site I never remotely thought that the Moody Blues were a prog band. I like Nights In White Satin, but if it's considered prog, then what is A Day In The Life or Strawberry Fields Forever or Within You Without You? All those songs, in my opinion, are much more progressive.
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valravennz
Forum Senior Member
VIP Member
Joined: March 20 2005
Location: New Zealand
Status: Offline
Points: 2546
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Posted: February 21 2006 at 23:47 |
An interesting thread. I always, in the back of my mind, felt that the Moody Blues were progressive enough to take the "first prog group" mantel away from King Crimson. "Days of Future Passed" is quite symphonic - with an orchestra not synthesizer. But it is also psychedelic and because of the hit single, "Nights In White Satin", a "Pop" album. It is the latter that keeps me from believing they were the first prog rock group per se. ITCOTCK did not have a "Pop" hit in the way that DOFP did.
I admire greatly the Moody Blues music. I have many of their albums. However, the question mark around them being progressive pioneers still remains. How many groups/individual musicians have said they were influenced entirely by the MB work?. Put that against the musicians and even whole movements of music that were influenced by KC and we get a better perspective of the MB's contribution to progressive rock music. Yes - they are Proto-prog but are one of many bands pre-1968-9 that added a small step on the ladder of "progressive music" that was ultimately defined by King Crimson who have had a far greater influence on a music trend than the Moody Blues.
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"Music is the Wine that fills the cup of Silence"
- Robert Fripp
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Chicapah
Prog Reviewer
Joined: February 14 2006
Location: United States
Status: Offline
Points: 8238
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Posted: February 22 2006 at 10:14 |
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My take on the Moodys is that they are proto prog because, while they definitely influenced the movement, they ceased to be progressive in the long run. They were psychedelic and their records were interesting and "cosmic" but they became very predictable and entered the world of Pop while groups like Yes, King Crimson, Genesis, etc. continued to challenge themselves and the listener with ever-expanding ideas of progressive musical thought and delivery. The Moodys found their niche and entrenched themselves in it and their music became stagnant although pleasant and very accessible to the average radio listener. When I found this forum I was surprised to see that they weren't considered true prog but after reading a lot of these opinions on the band I have to agree that they are categorized correctly.
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"Literature is well enough, as a time-passer, and for the improvement and general elevation and purification of mankind, but it has no practical value" - Mark Twain
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akin
Forum Senior Member
Joined: February 06 2004
Location: Brazil
Status: Offline
Points: 976
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Posted: February 24 2006 at 12:13 |
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I disagree with the definition of proto-prog. The Nice, Procol Harum
and The Moody Blues made the progressive rock from 67 and 68 (along
with the Beatles, for example, the White Album, Deep Purple first two
albuns and so on). Their progressive rock isn't like King Crimson, Yes,
but it is progressive rock, because they used new recording techniques,
new instruments unusual to rock, folk, jazz and classical influences,
signature changes, experimentation, some of them conceptual albuns and
so on. Ok, Nights in white satin is a beautiful ballad, but it is a
long song, with loads of mellotron, an instrumental section with flute,
the orchestra and it is progressive, mainly looking at the concept of
the whole album. In the Court of Crimson King has two Jazz
avantgarde experimentations (21th century schizoid man and Moonchild)
and three "ballads ŕ la Moody Blues" (I talk to the Wind, Epitaph and
In the Court of Crimson King). There is any doubt these songs are
progressive? Not at all.
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ken4musiq
Forum Senior Member
Joined: January 14 2006
Location: United States
Status: Offline
Points: 446
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Posted: February 24 2006 at 12:22 |
 akin wrote:
I disagree with the definition of proto-prog. The Nice, Procol Harum and The Moody Blues made the progressive rock from 67 and 68 (along with the Beatles, for example, the White Album, Deep Purple first two albuns and so on). Their progressive rock isn't like King Crimson, Yes, but it is progressive rock, because they used new recording techniques, new instruments unusual to rock, folk, jazz and classical influences, signature changes, experimentation, some of them conceptual albums and so on. Ok, Nights in white satin is a beautiful ballad, but it is a long song, with loads of mellotron, an instrumental section with flute, the orchestra and it is progressive, mainly looking at the concept of the whole album. In the Court of Crimson King has two Jazz avantgarde experimentations (21th century schizoid man and Moonchild) and three "ballads ŕ la Moody Blues" (I talk to the Wind, Epitaph and In the Court of Crimson King). There is any doubt these songs are progressive? Not at all. |
It's nice to hear you say this. The Moody Blues give prog one of its meta-narratives, the quest for the holy grail, the lost chord. Genesis, Gentle Giant and Yes all pick up on this. The Court would not have been the same without the Moodies. Although like you stated there is 21st SCM, which is jazz and the improv of Moonchild, the majority of the album is romantic schmaltz a la the Moodies. I am passionate about this, like yourself, becasue I often read authors who say things like the moodies were important but nobody listens to them any more. I went to see them a couple of years back at Radio City, a pretty big hall. People are listening. I actually started a thread like this two weeks ago and gave my defense of Days as the first truly prog album.
cheers
Edited by ken4musiq
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Possessed
Forum Senior Member
Joined: July 10 2004
Location: United States
Status: Offline
Points: 430
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Posted: March 01 2006 at 19:29 |
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Possessed
Forum Senior Member
Joined: July 10 2004
Location: United States
Status: Offline
Points: 430
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Posted: March 01 2006 at 19:30 |
I forgot to list that I heard the first King Crimson album before ELP or Yes
Edited by Possessed
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Sean Trane
Special Collaborator
Prog Folk
Joined: April 29 2004
Location: Heart of Europe
Status: Offline
Points: 20239
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Posted: March 02 2006 at 03:53 |
While I agree with you that no band singlehandeldly created prog, I ' d like to suggest a few English records that definitely did launch the movement
Moody's DOFuture Past
Procol Harum's debut and Shine On Brightly
The Nice's Thoughts Of Emerlist Davjack
Traffic's Dear Mr. Fantasy
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let's just stay above the moral melee
prefer the sink to the gutter
keep our sand-castle virtues
content to be a doer
as well as a thinker,
prefer lifting our pen
rather than un-sheath our sword
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Ivan_Melgar_M
Special Collaborator
Honorary Collaborator
Joined: April 27 2004
Location: Peru
Status: Offline
Points: 19535
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Posted: March 15 2006 at 00:53 |
I agree with Atkingani, I always believed and said that if The Moody Blues were ever Progressive as when Patrick Moraz joined them instead of Pinder and relased the incredible "Long Distance Voyager".
This album is an oasis of quality in the middle of infamous Disco, mediocre Punk, boring New Age, ans tedious New Wave.
IMO the one of the best if not the best album of the 80's
Iván
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Moody Blues(#1 Prog)
Im a big Moodys fan, and as far as im concerned, they laid the ground work for progressive rock bands. Dont get me wrong, there are a lot of great prog bands out there,during that time frame, but i think that the Moodys opened the door.....
