Moody Blues.

So, everyone's been telling me that they are one of the bands that defined british prog and the use of mellotron in general... Yet noone ever talks about them here extensively.

I was wondering, which of their albums should I get for a good start?

My favourite is Seventh Sojourn, the last of their classic period in 1972. It
contains a lot of their darkest material, including Hayward's beautiful
"New Horizons", written for his father who had passed on, and Mike
Pinder's two darkest compositions.

If you want hippie optimism, In Search of the Lost Chord is full of Sgt
Pepperesque sitary bits, and To Our Children's Children's Children is an
enthusiastic concept album about space travel, featuring some of the
bands' most beautiful songs.

A Question of Balance is most concise record, with some of their most
popular songs.

Here are my ratings for the classic Moodies albums:

Days of Future Passed: 3.5: groundbreaking, with full symphony orchestra
In Search of the Lost Chord: 3.5: A little dated, but if you like psychedelia,
get it.
To Our Children's Children's Children: 4: Some really beautiful ballads,
and a lush symphonic mellotron sound.
On the Threshold of a Dream: 3: More poppy, less memorable to me.
A Question of Balance: 3.5: The band starts to rock a little more and
strips down the arrangments. A great collection of tunes.
Every Good Boy Deserves Favour: 3: Similar to the last, but not as strong
Seventh Sojourn: 4.5: Hayward's and Pinder's finest hour, and some
amazing Mellotron/Chamberlain sounds. Finds the band in a very
reflective mood, and it works.

All of the albums are laced with mellotron, you can't go wrong there.

Prog or not? I don't care at all. Perhaps proto-prog. They favoured
shorter songs.




Edited by Heptade

I've been a Moodies fan officially for 19 years.  They are probably my favourite band.  THE albums by them to get are the "first seven":  Days through Seventh Sojourn.  If you want a good comp to start out with, THIS IS THE MOODY BLUES (if you can find it) is a two-disc best of that was arranged by Tony Clarke-- all the stuff on it seagues into everything else, just like on one of their original albums, it's just that it's a comp.  And it's got Mike's "Simple Game" on it (which you won't find anywhere else that I know of).

       For those of you who are already Moodies fans, send me a message and I'll tell you about the time that I unexpectedly talked to Mike Pinder on the phone (how I came to do it isn't really something I'm proud of, though, but...)

Start With:

Days of Future Passed (1967)

The Birth of Symphonic Prog Rock

Keke wrote: So, everyone's been telling me that they are one of the bands that defined british prog and the use of mellotron in general... Yet noone ever talks about them here extensively.

I've been wondering the same thing.  You almost never hear them referred to in reviews of newer bands.  When did you last read, "they sound like the Moody Blues...?"  And they are never referred to as one of the big bands of the '70's.  It's always Yes, Genesis, KC, etc.

So what's wrong with this picture?  I don't understand.  They were a great band, and as NetsNJFan posted, they gave birth to symphonic prog????????????

There are a lot of Moody Blues songs that I love and just as many that I just can't stand!  A real mixt rating for them from me....."Question" ranks real high in my all time favorite songs list....

NetsNJFan wrote: I agree, some of their stuff is bad, but you have to put it into historical context.  They were very much of the mid-'60s pop scene.  The fact that they made "Days of Future Passed", which still stands as one of the landmarks of Prog is amazing, considering it was 1967, a full 2 years before the advent of King Crimson.  That album was way ahead of its time and they should be credited for that. But i agree, after that their albums are too poppy mixed in with the good prog.  If they had continued in that highly pompous orhestrated vein I'd have been delighted.

NetsNJFan wrote: I agree, some of their stuff is bad, but you have to put it into historical context.  They were very much of the mid-'60s pop scene.  The fact that they made "Days of Future Passed", which still stands as one of the landmarks of Prog is amazing, considering it was 1967, a full 2 years before the advent of King Crimson.  That album was way ahead of its time and they should be credited for that. But i agree, after that their albums are too poppy mixed in with the good prog.  If they had continued in that highly pompous orhestrated vein I'd have been delighted.

 I was there, trying to flog that record when it was first released in the UK  - few people bought it. The Moody Blues had been a washed-up 1 hit wonder pop with Go Now (Denny Lane as the lead vocalist), still under contract to the mighty Decca Records label - the one that turned down the Beatles. During that period in the Uk the record companies were making the push to promote stereophonic records over monoaural. However, stereophonic reproduction gear was expensive and sold predominantly to the middle aged who weren't in rock'n'roll or pop, while the kids could just about afford a cheap mono player. I was one of the first teens locally  to a get a stereo player(probably a Dansette)  and that was the first cheap one offered on the UK market. Another problem, while classical and popular music got released both on stereo and mono (i.e. to the wealthy middle aged), there were many occasions when you couldn't get a stereo version for months after the mono LP was released - e.g. there was over a year's gap between the mono and stereo version of Mayall's 'Beano' Bluesbreaker album with Clapton, 8 weeks  between mono and stereo version of the Stones Aftermath (both Decca releases). Hence Days of Future was seen at the time as Decca  trying to break their Phase Four  stereo speciality label into the youth market but without frightening away the established  middle aged market, by using one of their popular studio orchestras (didn't they double up playing film scores at Pinewood Studios???) to accompany the group.
The album did not  initially sell in big numbers in the UK because it was first advertised to the typical Phase Four record buyer's market before the young music  fans - but our store got it in on sale or return deal. Most of us pop fans dismissed the album as a bad compromise and having few stand up songs. Nights In White Satin was the big hit but then as now clearly a tune with strong psychedelic overtones, and wasn't an edited version of Tuesday Afternoon a big hit in the USA (but not in their home country) - again supplying the summer of love with another anthem. The UK lost the Moodies for over a year, when they disappeared to the US to capitalise (successfully) on Tuesday Afternoon being a hit. And note when Yes were pressed by a producer to try strings and things on their second album Time & A Word, that got some strong negative reactions as well. While  orchestras seemed to work as accompaniment for folk singers (Simon and Garfunkel, David McWilliams, Al Stewart and so on), orchestras and pop/rock groups were not readily accepted -in that period. Exceptions were Nice and Deep Purple, but then specifically used for classical covers and the bands  own concertos.  I have problems thinking of any other (prog) bands from 1967 to 1975 that employed full orchestras - instead electronic keyboards were coming onto the marketplace enabling a few bands to sound like an orchestra (and of course  the mellotron  could provide the strings and flute effects, with increasingly unimaginative use of that instrument) but most bands would use electronic to sound very unlike an orchestra. And while the Moody Blues were away, they were temporarily forgotten (likewise that album) by most people and real ear-catching prog came in in the form of Krimson and Renaissance - both from a label respected by the youth record buying, public Island Records. As I've written before, ITCOTCK was sometimes said here in the UK during the late 60's to be the album the Moody Blues should have made but they lacked something to do it.

So  promoting of Days Of Future Past as being the first prog rock album, is much more to do with hindsight than what was thought when the record was first released. Precursor probably, fully fashioned progressive rock, no chance.

Very good, very in-depth - but it still doesn't explain how the Moodies were such a popular band during their run between 'Days' and 'Seventh Sojourn' and have since seemed to drop out of progdom while the other big bands of the day didn't.

And, I have to admit, I don't listen to them any more either!  I played them incessantly back then and now they just don't stir any interest in my prog brain.  Maybe I'm answering my own quesiton here  between these lines............

A question: Wasn't the great Denny Lane (later in "Wings") a member of Moody Blues before they went prog??? Am I wrong??? He wrote the great ballad "Go Now".

Also: http://rateyourmusic.com/view_albums/artist_id_is_1645