{"id":3241,"date":"2024-07-05T22:05:55","date_gmt":"2024-07-05T22:05:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/?p=3241"},"modified":"2024-07-05T22:10:01","modified_gmt":"2024-07-05T22:10:01","slug":"ftv-the-moody-blues","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/?p=3241","title":{"rendered":"FTV: The Moody Blues"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The employee recreation building at the Huron Mountain Club wasn\u2019t extravagant by any imagination.\u00a0 A couch, a chair or two, a TV with no reception, a small stereo system of unknown age, a fireplace no one ever built a fire in, and a ping pong table.\u00a0 The turntable on the stereo was not going to see any of my own records, but Chuck the kitchen pot washer had a few LPs that he would spin endlessly.\u00a0 Thankfully, he also had good taste in music so hearing albums by Rare Earth (<\/span>Get Ready<\/span><\/i>), Johnny Winter <\/span>(Johnny Winter And Live<\/span><\/i>), and The Moody Blues (<\/span>Days of Future Past<\/span><\/i>) were fine by me.\u00a0 I still rate those three albums high on my \u2018listen to frequently\u2019 list fifty years later.\u00a0 I was especially captivated by <\/span>Days of Future Past<\/span><\/i> and never quite figured out why the Moodies weren\u2019t on the radio all the time.\u00a0 I was somewhat flummoxed when I realized my summer of 1971 introduction to the band came a full four years since <\/span>Days<\/span><\/i> was released and seven years since the band had formed.\u00a0 I also learned quite early that not everyone was a fan of their music.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0As the name suggests, their first iteration was based on a more traditional English beat \/ R&B\u00a0 sound.\u00a0 The original lineup came together in Birmingham, England in 1964 and included drummer Graeme Edge, guitarist\u00a0 Denny Laine, keyboardist Mike Pinder, multi-instrumentalist Ray Thomas, and bass player Clint Warwick (all but Edge shared vocal duties).\u00a0 They had a UK No. 1 and US Top 10 hit with Laine\u2019s <\/span>Go Now <\/span><\/i>in late 1964 \/ early 1965.\u00a0 On the heels of their <\/span>Magnificent Moodies <\/span><\/i>album success, they transplanted to swinging London where bands like The Beatles and The Beach Boys were transforming the music scene.\u00a0 In fact, soon after landing in London, they supported The Beatles on tour in front of thousands of screaming fans.\u00a0 A year later, they were on a different path.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0When their management company folded, their <\/span>Go Now <\/span><\/i>royalties disappeared with the label owners.\u00a0 The band owed their label (Decca) money and even a stint being managed by Brian Epstein could not pull them out of their downward slide.\u00a0 Laine and Warwick left soon after to be replaced by Justin Hayward and John Lodge on guitar and bass, respectively.\u00a0 Lodge had previously played in the earliest version of the Moodies before he left the band to finish his degree in engineering and car design.\u00a0 Ray Thomas called him 18 months after he quit and said, \u2018Rocker (Lodge\u2019s nickname), have you finished your studies?\u00a0 Denny left the band, could you come down and join us?\u201d\u00a0 He did, stating, \u201cI went down, re-met Graeme, who I\u00a0 knew from Gerry Levene and the Avengers, and that was the start of something new.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Hayward came on board from a different direction.\u00a0 He was playing with Marty and Joyce Wilde as The Wilde Three and also performing as a solo folk act managed by Lonnie Donegan (yes, the \u2018King of Skiffle\u2019 Lonnie Donegan).\u00a0 Justin was a 19 year old folkie with country leanings who came to the Moodies via a failed audition for Erik Burdon and the Animals.\u00a0 Ray Thomas had met up with Burdon at The Bag \u2018O Nails in Soho when the singer was looking for a guitarist.\u00a0 Eric gave Thomas a pile of applications he had already rejected.\u00a0 As Hayard recalled to Jo Kendall in <\/span>Prog Magazine, \u201c<\/span><\/i>I\u2019d fired off a demo and letter to Eric Burdon because I knew his secretary.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t expect to hear back, it was just on the off-chance.\u00a0 But then I was in a music shop in Swinton, Duck Son & Pinker\u2019s, and the guy behind the counter says, \u2018This bloke says he\u2019s from the Moody Blues and wants to talk to you.\u2019\u00a0 And it was Mike Pinder.\u00a0 I asked \u2018How did you find me?\u2019 and Pinder said, \u2018Your phone number was on the letter you sent to Eric.\u00a0 I called your house and your mum said you were down here.\u2019\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Hayward brought a seven inch single of his Pye Records release (a \u2018hyper folk-skiffle tune\u2019 called <\/span>London is Behind Me<\/span><\/i>) with him<\/span>.\u00a0 <\/span><\/i>The rest of the band liked what they heard.\u00a0 The guitarist also had a Vox AC30 amp which Thomas laughingly admitted. \u201cwas more than we had,\u201d so he was in.\u00a0 Hayward continues, \u201cWhen the five of us were together at last, I think the other three guys were happy that me and Lodgy were there.\u00a0 We looked quite nice, a couple of pretty boys and some serious blokes.\u00a0 It was fun and funny.\u00a0 We had a lot of laughs.\u201d\u00a0 The classic MB line up was now together, but they still had a long way to go.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Hayward went on to mention how pivotal Pinder\u2019s role was to the band:\u00a0 \u201cMike was the most important musically, and he wanted to move it forward.\u00a0 I really liked him and he really liked me,\u201d\u00a0 Another major contribution Pinder would make beyond the band\u2019s chemistry was his association with a new fangled contraption called the Mellotron.\u00a0 It was a piano-style musical computer that utilized pre-recorded tape loops that were activated by each key.\u00a0 According to Jo Kendall, \u201c[Mellotrons] were being used in social clubs and cabarets across the UK to give any venue access to a pantheon of lead instrument sounds (on the right side of the board) and backing, rhythm tracks (on the left) – effectively, the one-man band idea turned up to 1,000 and the birth of sampler keyboards.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0My previous knowledge of Mellotrons stemmed from press releases about the <\/span>Days of Future Past<\/span><\/i> album<\/span>.\u00a0 <\/span><\/i>Photos that showed Moody band members apparently playing traditional orchestral instruments like cellos hinted they were trying to subvert some music union rule about not replacing \u2018real players\u2019 with Mellotron samples. This is just speculation on my part as there is clear evidence that moves to ban its use didn\u2019t happen until the 1970s and 1980s.\u00a0 Attempts were made to ban the use of such synthesized devices from recording and live concerts, but none of these efforts passed.\u00a0 With that said, David Paich from Toto has smentioned in interviews that he would hide his Mellotron if the Union man was around.\u00a0 Never-the-less, Pinder happened to be in on the ground floor of this movement and it would have a profound effect on their music.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Mellotrons were manufactured in the band\u2019s hometown of Birmingham.\u00a0 Pinder worked as a tester in the factory for 18 months and had inside knowledge of the device before the Moodies ever had one.\u00a0 Pinder had a standard Hammond B-3 organ but when he saw pioneering blues organist Graham Bond add a Mellotron to his collection of keyboards, Mike really wanted to own one.\u00a0 In a 2018 interview with <\/span>Rolling Stone, <\/span><\/i>Pinder told them, \u201cI grew up listening to the music of Mantovani and the layers of rich and melodious string arrangements that were his trademark.\u00a0 The Mellotron enabled me to create my own variations of string movements.\u00a0 I could play any instrument that I wanted to hear in the music.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0When a Mark II unit came up for sale from the Dunlop Factory Social Club in Birmingham, he snapped it up in time for their fall 1966 tour of northern clubs.\u00a0 Why the club at the Dunlop Tire factory had a unit is a bit of a mystery.\u00a0 Lodge said the Moodies had previously tried every type of keyboard known until Pinder mentioned the Mellotron.\u00a0 The Dunlop unit had never been played and they got it at a bargain price of 350 pounds instead of the standard 3000 a new unit would normally cost.\u00a0 The instrument was finicky but Mike was able to use his past history as a tester to keep it in playing condition, sometimes on the fly during gigs.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The Moody Blues were still a band in transition at the time.\u00a0 They would open with a 45 minute set of typical R&B songs and toss in <\/span>Go Now!<\/span><\/i>\u00a0 The second set was all new music that let Ray Thomas\u2019s flute-playing shine.\u00a0 Lodge said, \u201c[Ray] played from the heart, and it was beautiful.\u201d\u00a0 Some club patrons may have thought differently.\u00a0 Although girls in the West Country really liked the band, other areas were not so keen.\u00a0 Their asking price for gigs dropped and they resorted to throwing in a few jokes and adding a bit of cabaret flair to the show.\u00a0 It didn\u2019t work.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Lodge described the low point to Kendall:\u00a0 \u201cOne night, after our set at the Fiesta Club in Stockton, one of the crowd came and knocked on our dressing room door.\u00a0 We thought, \u2018Here we go – photos, handshakes,\u2019 but it was a man who said, \u2018I\u2019ve brought my wife for a night out and you\u2019re the worst band I\u2019ve seen in my life.\u00a0 You\u2019re crap\u2019.\u201d\u00a0 During the ride home, the stunned silence was broken by drummer Graeme Edge when he said, \u201cThat bloke\u2019s right, we are crap.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The next day, they ditched the matching blue suits and committed themselves to forging a sartorial image that would go with their new music.\u00a0 A call from a Belgian promotor landed them on his club circuit in the North Country near the French border.\u00a0 The thriving club scene became for them what Hamburg had been for The Beatles – a new audience to test drive the new Moody Blues music and image.\u00a0 They also found time to blow off a little steam and the recreational opportunities between gigs and rehearsals helped them form an even tighter bond.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0With their new sound coming together, Decca records paired them up with producer Tony Clarke to produce a single of <\/span>Fly Me High<\/span><\/i> backed with <\/span>Really Haven\u2019t Got The Time.\u00a0 <\/span><\/i>Clarke saw potential with the band and his lasting influence gained him a reputation as \u2018the sixth Moody\u2019.\u00a0 The popularity of the Mellotron reached a larger audience when The Beatles used one for the flute sound on <\/span>Strawberry Fields Forever.<\/span><\/i>\u00a0 Pinder often said his band had been inspired by their former tour mates and as such, he felt it his duty to educate The Beatles about the Mellotron.\u00a0 Pinder said, \u201cI had to tell them about it.\u00a0 The Beatles were the ultimate explorers [of sounds].\u00a0 The Mellotron allowed musicians to explore musical landscapes – and who better to do that – than The Beatles.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Indeed, the music scene in London was changing and bands like the Moody Blues were set to take advantage of the new atmosphere.\u00a0 They were gelling as a group.\u00a0 They encouraged each other during group songwriting sessions while they worked to forge their own version of the pop-psychedelic-orchestral sound.\u00a0 Typical was the birth of what would become a massive hit several times over the years.\u00a0 Guitarist Hayward had a bad break-up with his former squeeze.\u00a0 His new girlfriend had gifted him a set of white satin sheets prompting him to show up at a rehearsal with a song the band thought was \u2018alright\u2019.\u00a0 Pinder told him to play it again and added the \u2018da da da-da-da-daaaa\u2019 Mellotron figure that everyone now recognizes as a main motif in <\/span>Nights in White Satin. <\/span><\/i>\u00a0The song would propel the <\/span>Days <\/span><\/i>album up the charts after each re-release of the song, right into the new millennium.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0It took a bit of skullduggery for <\/span>Days<\/span><\/i> to happen.\u00a0 Decca wanted to record a demonstration disk of pop and orchestral music to use to sell record buyers on their new \u2018Deramic Sound\u2019 (which later became known as \u2018Deram\u2019).\u00a0 At the time, only orchestras were recorded in true stereo sound and pop group albums were recorded in mono and \u2018transferred\u2019 to stereo.\u00a0 Decca wanted the Blues to record rock standards with orchestral music tracks inserted in between.\u00a0 Thinking it would, as a whole, \u201cSound like crap,\u201d the band took the gig only after consulting with Clarke.\u00a0 They were already working on a concert version of <\/span>Days of Future Past<\/span><\/i>, so why not incorporate the orchestra with their original music?\u00a0 The trick was to do it without tipping off the label.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0In concert (pun intended) with Clarke, engineer Derek Varnals, executive producer Huge Mendl, and arranger Peter Knight, they hatched a plan to record their own music instead.\u00a0 It was Knight who said, \u201cJusty, I don\u2019t think you\u2019re gonna get the two musics to merge together, but I really like your songs.\u00a0 How about we approach Hugh Mendl and suggest that we do it the other way round?\u201d\u00a0 Edge later said he was a little surprised Mendl agreed and let them have artistic control:\u00a0 \u201cHe had something to lose, we had bugger all.\u201d\u00a0 Even with artistic control, they listened to the \u2018lab-coated technicians\u2019 who were helping Clarke and Varnals capture the sound.\u00a0 Lodge said, \u201cThe technicians told us, \u2018Make sure everything is exactly right, musically, lyrically.\u00a0 You have to stand by it.\u00a0 In 20 years time, if it\u2019s not right it\u2019ll come back to haunt you.\u2019\u201d\u00a0 I would say it has stood the test of time for 57 years and certainly not in the negative \u2018haunting way\u2019 they warned about.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The recording was all Moody Blues at first.\u00a0 Edge\u2019s opening poem, <\/span>Morning Glory<\/span><\/i>, was recorded by Pinder who was lying on his back in the dark (to help him get in the mood) which segued into his song <\/span>Dawn is a Feeling.<\/span><\/i>\u00a0 The rest of the songs were tracked and stacked right through to Edge\u2019s closing poem, again narrated by Pinder:\u00a0 <\/span>Cold-hearted orb that rules the night \/\u00a0 Removes the colors from our sight \/ Red is gray and yellow white \u2018 But we decide which is right \/\u00a0 And which is an illusion.\u00a0 <\/span><\/i>Now it was Knight\u2019s turn to \u2018extract melodies and themes to link each track across the album fusing elements from Gershwin, Rachmaninov, Mendelssohn, Holst, and Martin\u2019.\u00a0 Clarke pretty much invented cross-fading of tracks on the fly at the recording desk giving what Kendall calls, \u201cA near-seamless mix of the two worlds, and it became integral to the Moodies\u2019 sound thereafter.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The next few Moody Blues albums would use a similar template but the orchestration would be left to Pinder and his Mellotron and Ray\u2019s flute.\u00a0 Some albums would follow a theme like <\/span>In Search of the Lost Chord <\/span><\/i>(1968), <\/span>On the Threshold of a Dream <\/span><\/i>(1969), <\/span>A Question of Balance <\/span><\/i>(1970), and <\/span>Every Good Boy Deserves Favor <\/span><\/i>(1971).\u00a0 The last was a favorite of mine because I was just learning guitar and the songs were fun to figure out.\u00a0 I admit to driving my roommates nuts with the guitar riff for <\/span>Story In Your Eyes <\/span><\/i>from <\/span>Every Good Boy. \u00a0 <\/span><\/i>Later albums like <\/span>Seventh Sojourn <\/span><\/i>(1973), <\/span>Voices in the Sky <\/span><\/i>(1984), and <\/span>The Other Side of Life <\/span><\/i>(1986) were more pop oriented, but the Blue\u2019s output was truly staggering.\u00a0 If you want a primer of the early works, I would suggest the album <\/span>Caught Live + 5 <\/span><\/i>(1977).\u00a0 It really shows they could bring the goods, even without a full orchestra.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Pinder was the first to leave the band in 1978 and over the years his keyboard parts have been covered by former Yes keysman Patrick Moraz.\u00a0 Depending on the source, Moraz may have been fired later in the band\u2019s career as he was not happy with his role.\u00a0 Both sides tell a slightly different story about these events.\u00a0 Sadly, Mike Pinder passed away at his home in California as this piece was being outlined.\u00a0 Ray Thomas retired from the group in 2002 and left this mortal coil in 2018, followed by drummer Graeme Edge in 2021.\u00a0 Hayward, Lodge, (and Patrick Moraz) are still with us but they officially disbanded the Moody Blues in 2018.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The band slowed their touring schedule after Thomas retired in 2002 and last performed live at the 2015 Glastonbury Festival.\u00a0 Bassist John Lodge is touring the east coast in the summer of 2024 performing <\/span>Days of Future Past <\/span><\/i>live with his own band.\u00a0 Lodge says he is in contact with Hayward from time to time on business matters but they do not have plans to perform together.\u00a0 Both, however, no doubt do justice to the Moodie\u2019s catalog in their solo shows.\u00a0 Hayward\u2019s schedule shows him also playing a string of dates up and down the East Coast of the United States from April through July of 2024.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0I have learned over time that the Moody Blues are an acquired taste.\u00a0 I played a gig as a hired gun drummer at a frat party in 1976.\u00a0 The group members assembled for that one job would toss out song titles, pick the key it was in, and off we would go.\u00a0 When the keyboard player did <\/span>Nights in White Satin, <\/span><\/i>he looked surprised at the cymbal wash I played as the chorus swelled.\u00a0 My old guitar player Barry and I added the high background vocal parts.\u00a0 When we finished, he said, \u201cMan, you have played that before!\u201d\u00a0 I said, \u201cNope, first time ever.\u00a0 I learned the song by just plunking along on an organ by myself.\u00a0 I am just a big fan!\u201d\u00a0 \u201cYeah, me too!\u201d he replied.\u00a0 A few years later I pulled out the same bag of tricks with Dave Morehouse and Bruce Rundman at another \u2018hey, we need a drummer tonight\u2019 gig.\u00a0 It won\u2019t surprise anyone that I still am a fan of the Moody Blues.\u00a0 It is always fun to play with other musicians who feel the same way and having compositions of such high quality to perform makes those gigs a win – win.<\/span><\/p>\n

Top Piece Video:\u00a0 One of my top Moody Blues tunes, but my former roommates got tired of me practicing the guitar rift!\u00a0 This version is from\u00a0Live at the Red Rocks\u00a0<\/em>with the band expanded with a second drummer and background vocalists.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The employee recreation building at the Huron Mountain Club wasn\u2019t extravagant by any imagination.\u00a0 A couch, a chair or two, a TV with no reception, a small stereo system of unknown age, a fireplace no one ever built a fire in, and a ping pong table.\u00a0 The turntable on the stereo was not going to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,11,8,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3241","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bands-musicians","category-education","category-from-the-vaults","category-woas"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3241","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3241"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3241\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3244,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3241\/revisions\/3244"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3241"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3241"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3241"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}