Moody Blues blues
- Thread starter luddite
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grooveman
Super Member
I agree. Bought all the albums as they came out up to "Seventh Sojourn". For the time, most were excellent albums and were very influential during the post Sgt. Pepper early Progressive Rock era.
Maybe there albums haven't aged as well as some harder rocking LPs from the same period. But if well produced melodic progressive rock is your bag, they're worth checking out.
Ironically....I am starting to see more Moody Blues LPs at thrifts these days. So maybe people really are starting to loose interest in the band. Will they ever get into the R&RHOF? Too bad, I for one still enjoy their music.....especially the 1st 7 LPs. "In Search Of The Lost Chord" is my personal favorite.
If you have to have the message told in each of their core albums (below) explained to you, you wouldn't understand anyway.
Days of Future Passed
In Search of the Lost Chord
To our Childrens Children's Children
On the Threshold of a Dream <-- my favorite
A Question of Balance
Every Good Boy Deserves Favour
In Search of the Lost Chord
To our Childrens Children's Children
On the Threshold of a Dream <-- my favorite
A Question of Balance
Every Good Boy Deserves Favour
nailer
audionerd
He isn't?
I will say the Moody Blues, being a progressive rock band, had a fair amount of "fluff" in their repetoire. Poems, sound effects, chants, etc.
As a teenager pondering life and existence and armed with a bong, I could not get enough of it. Thirty years later, some of it sounds a bit pretentious. But their songs remain classics and the fluff is easy enough to skip over. And some of it still works. Gotta have the poem at the end of Nights in White Satin or at the beginning of Ride My See Saw.
Also, listen to their early, early stuff like Go Now and ask if there has ever been a band that has undergone such a drastic change in style and sound? They were kind of on the weak side of the British Invasion. Then Hayward and Lodge came aboard and taught everyone about LSD, Buddhism, and the like.
As a teenager pondering life and existence and armed with a bong, I could not get enough of it. Thirty years later, some of it sounds a bit pretentious. But their songs remain classics and the fluff is easy enough to skip over. And some of it still works. Gotta have the poem at the end of Nights in White Satin or at the beginning of Ride My See Saw.
Also, listen to their early, early stuff like Go Now and ask if there has ever been a band that has undergone such a drastic change in style and sound? They were kind of on the weak side of the British Invasion. Then Hayward and Lodge came aboard and taught everyone about LSD, Buddhism, and the like.
Kyocerafan
Active Member
What artists are great and which suck is, of course, an utterly subjective discussion. I would never say a person is right or wrong in an opinion about an artist. There are plenty of people who don't get The Beatles. Doesn't make them dumb. Enjoy what you will and try to avoid raining on someone's parade. Just because you think an artist has little artistic worth doesn't make you "right". The complete subjectivity of music is why I don't care what the Grammys think or what the R&R hall of fame thinks. They obviously have agendas that have nothing to do with artistic merit.
I personally think the Moody Blues were a truly great band during their original run through Seventh Sojourn. Justin Hayward was one of the best songwriters of the sixties and the rest of the classic lineup wrote their share of fine songs too. Their sound was unique. They were one of the pioneers in creating albums as an artistic whole, rather than a collection of unrelated songs. I agree that you probably had to be there to truly appreciate their groundbreaking nature. The sound is not 'modern' by any means, but so what? Listening to In Search of the Lost Chord is the quickest trip to 1968 there is. That album was state of the art creativity at the time. A sublime painting. The songs are still great and I listen to it with almost as much anticipation as I did when I first heard it about 40 years ago. MY subjective take on the band.
I personally think the Moody Blues were a truly great band during their original run through Seventh Sojourn. Justin Hayward was one of the best songwriters of the sixties and the rest of the classic lineup wrote their share of fine songs too. Their sound was unique. They were one of the pioneers in creating albums as an artistic whole, rather than a collection of unrelated songs. I agree that you probably had to be there to truly appreciate their groundbreaking nature. The sound is not 'modern' by any means, but so what? Listening to In Search of the Lost Chord is the quickest trip to 1968 there is. That album was state of the art creativity at the time. A sublime painting. The songs are still great and I listen to it with almost as much anticipation as I did when I first heard it about 40 years ago. MY subjective take on the band.
I'd have to jump on that old bandwagon that no one has had as many changes in their lifetime as the band known as King Crimson ...
Then again, there is the Fleetwood Mac Blues band, that went through lots of changes on the way to Buckingham Nicks resurgence ...
You may be right. I am not very familiar with King Crimson other than knowing who Robert Fripp is. Listening to old Fleetwood Mac has been on my agenda for years.
Just by glancing though, it seems those two bands changed over time. The Moody Blues were still doing covers of Bye Bye Blackbird as late as early 1966, but by 1967 were releasing Days of Future Past. That is one drastic paradigm shift; from Granny music to introspective, philosophical observations.
dr*audio
Fish fingers and custard!
I agree that everyone's opinion of what music is good and what sucks is entirely subjective. Time will tell whether the music has any value.
Hundreds of years after he composed it, people are still enjoying J.S. Bach's music. In 200 years, people may still be listening to The Beatles, but no one will know who Britney Spears was.
Hundreds of years after he composed it, people are still enjoying J.S. Bach's music. In 200 years, people may still be listening to The Beatles, but no one will know who Britney Spears was.
stereofanboy
Addicted Member
This thread has inspired me to listen to all my Moody Blues cassettes in a row. I picked up eight of them at a thrift, probably for $4 or less, and haven't listened to all of them, yet.
Thankyou for the input, and I think it was a good back and forth for the most part. The fans of this body of work were decidedly civil in their positive counterpoint in support of the music, and I think this reflects well on the band as people, too. Clearly, they have struck a Chord with so many (70 million paying customers as was pointed out) and it seems from some of the points made that it is in the listening that the appreciation is to be found.
Listening is something we do individually. There are devoted fans of the 20th century Russian composers whose opinions I value even while I myself cannot listen appreciatively to so many of those compositions, nomatter how well played. So it is with this band, I suppose. I am not a good listener of the work. I do know why in some measure... and it's got more to do with me than with the music. Just not in the zone. I tried again, I really did. But it was no good. There is just that lack of landscape and memory to take me along with them. Hopefully, the next finder of these records is a listener.
Listening is something we do individually. There are devoted fans of the 20th century Russian composers whose opinions I value even while I myself cannot listen appreciatively to so many of those compositions, nomatter how well played. So it is with this band, I suppose. I am not a good listener of the work. I do know why in some measure... and it's got more to do with me than with the music. Just not in the zone. I tried again, I really did. But it was no good. There is just that lack of landscape and memory to take me along with them. Hopefully, the next finder of these records is a listener.
45rpm
Cassette Nut
Moody Blues albums have this air of cohesiveness around them. It's not easy to pick one track on any of their albums and start from their; you really do have to go from Side A to Side B, and from start to finish.
I like To Our Children's Children's Children and In Search of the Lost Chord. I'm not the world's biggest fan, but to those of you who say that they're terrible, try expanding your tastes.
Their early stuff, though...don't even get me started on that! I found an imported "Beginnings" album of some of their first-album material, and I haven't been able to listen to the whole thing. Thoroughly boring.
I like To Our Children's Children's Children and In Search of the Lost Chord. I'm not the world's biggest fan, but to those of you who say that they're terrible, try expanding your tastes.
Their early stuff, though...don't even get me started on that! I found an imported "Beginnings" album of some of their first-album material, and I haven't been able to listen to the whole thing. Thoroughly boring.
Yep - Go Now and all that mersey beat type early stuff they did never quite charmed me either but those first seven albums ... whew!
I don't mind the Moody Blues, my dad was a fan so much of what my parents like has grown on me a bit. Myself personally I prefer punk/post-punk music to prog but their first seven albums have some fine moments yet they never made a totally cohesive album.
King Crimson were brought up in this thread, I though a l lot of their debut sounded like the Moody Blues especially songs like I Talk to the Wind or Epitaph.
King Crimson were brought up in this thread, I though a l lot of their debut sounded like the Moody Blues especially songs like I Talk to the Wind or Epitaph.
cubdog
banging through drywall
I just tried to listen to their Live at Red Rocks album. Pretty bad. Having graduated from high school in 1970 I certainly got my fill of the Moodies in their heyday. My enjoyment of their music seemed to vary depending upon my mental state at that given moment.
cubdog
cubdog