The Moody Blues are a British
rock
band originally from Birmingham, England. Founding
members Michael Pinder and Ray
Thomas performed an initially rhythm
and blues-based sound in Birmingham in 1964 along with Graeme
Edge and others, and were later joined by John Lodge and Justin
Hayward as they inspired and evolved the progressive
rock style. Among their innovations was a fusion with classical music, most
notably in their seminal 1967 album Days
of Future Passed.
The band has had numerous hit albums in the UK, U.S., and
worldwide, and has seen several additional musicians come and go, and
they remain active even as of 2007, with a North American summer
tour scheduled.
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Contents
- 1 Founding
and early history
- 2 Deram
Records contract and founding of signature style
- 3 Hiatus,
solo work
- 4 Reunion,
1977–1990
- 5 1990s,
new millennium, and present
- 6 Discography
- 6.1 Studio
Albums
- 6.2 Singles
- 7 References
- 8 External
links
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Founding and early history
The Moody Blues formed on 4 May 1964 in Erdington, Birmingham,
Warwickshire,
England.
Ray Thomas, John Lodge, and Michael
Pinder had been members of El Riot & the Rebels, a
regionally-popular band. They disbanded when Lodge, the youngest
member, went to technical college and Pinder joined the army. Pinder
then rejoined Thomas to form the Krew Cats and enjoyed moderate success.
The pair recruited guitarist/vocalist Denny
Laine, band manager-turned drummer Graeme
Edge, and bassist Clint Warwick (born Albert
Eccles, 25
June 1940,
in Wilton Street, Aston,
Birmingham,
Warwickshire).
The five appeared as the Moody Blues for the first time in Birmingham
in 1964. The
name developed from a planned sponsorship from the M&B
Brewery and was also a subtle reference to the Duke
Ellington song, "Mood Indigo".
Soon, the band obtained a London-based management company,
'Ridgepride', formed by ex-Decca A&R man Alex Murray (Alex
Wharton), who helped them land a recording contract with Decca
Records in the spring of 1964. They released a single, "Steal Your
Heart Away" that year which made it onto the charts. But it was their
second single, "Go Now" (released later that year),
which really launched their career, being promoted on TV with one of
the first purpose-made promotional films in the pop era, produced and
directed by Wharton. The single became a huge hit in the United
Kingdom (where it remains their only Number 1 single to date) and in
the United
States where it reached #10.
Wharton left the management firm and the group released a
series of unsuccessful singles. In mid-1966 Warwick left the group. He
was briefly replaced by Rod Clarke but in November 1966 Laine and Clarke
had also departed the group. They were immediately replaced by Pinder
and Thomas' El Riot bandmate, John Lodge, and Justin Hayward, formerly
of The Wilde Three.
The band soon realised that their style of American blues covers and
novelty tunes was not working for them and decided to develop an
original style. Their new style, featuring the symphonic sounds of the mellotron
and Ray Thomas's flute,
was to be developed in a concept album revolving around a day in the
life of everyman.
Deram Records contract and
founding of signature style
The Moody Blues' contract with Decca
Records was set to expire and they owed the label several thousands of
pounds in advances. However, Deram Records (a London/Decca imprint)
chose the band to make a LP in order to promote Deramic Stereo and the group was to
be forgiven its debt to the label to make a rock
and roll version of Antonín Dvořák's New World Symphony.
The Moody Blues agreed but insisted that they be given artistic freedom
and be left without supervision. They then convinced Peter
Knight, who had been assigned to arrange and conduct the orchestral
interludes, to collaborate on a recording of their stage show instead.
Deram executives were initially skeptical about the hybrid style of the
resulting concept album, Days
of Future Passed (1967). However, it was to become one of the
most successful commercial releases of all time. Decca producer Tony
Clarke was chosen to produce the album and the Moodies carried on a
durable working relationship with Clarke who would end up producing all
of their albums and singles for the next eleven years. Engineer Derek
Varnals would also contribute heavily to the creation of the early
Moodies' studio sound.
The album plus two singles, "Nights
in White Satin" and "Tuesday Afternoon", became massively popular, as
was the 1968
follow-up LP, In Search of the Lost
Chord. Also included on this album is the song
"Legend of a Mind," a song written by Ray Thomas in tribute to LSD guru
Timothy
Leary which encompassed a masterful flute solo performed by Thomas.
Justin Hayward began playing sitar and incorporating it into Moody
Blues music, having been inspired by George
Harrison. Graeme Edge found a significant secondary role in
the band as a writer of poetry, and nearly all of their early albums
from the late 60's begin with Mike Pinder reciting poems by Edge that
were conceptually related to the lyrics of the songs that would follow.
The band's music continued to become more complex and symphonic,
resulting in 1969's
To Our
Children's Children's Children - a concept
album based around the band's celebration of the first moon landing.
The album reportedly even went to the moon on Apollo space missions.
(According to the booklet in the 4-disc anthology "Time Traveler")
The album closes with the fan-favorite 'Watching and Waiting', composed
by Ray Thomas and Justin Hayward.
Although the Moodies had by now defined a somewhat psychedelic
style and helped to define the progressive rock (then also known
as 'art rock') sound, the group decided for a while to record only
albums that could be played in concert, losing some of their full-blown
sound for their next album, A
Question of Balance (1970). This album, reaching #3 in the American
charts and #1 in the British charts, was indicative of the band's
growing success in America. Justin Hayward began an artful exploration
of guitar tone through the use of numerous effects pedals and
fuzz-boxes, and developed for himself a very melodic buzzing
guitar-solo sound. For their next two albums, Every Good
Boy Deserves Favour (1971) and Seventh
Sojourn (1972) (that reached #1 in both the UK and the
U.S.), the band returned to their signature orchestral sound which,
while difficult to reproduce in concert, had become their trademark.
Edge, the long standing drummer-poet, started writing lyrics intended
to be sung, rather than verses to be spoken.
In late 1972, a re-issue of the five-year-old "Nights In White
Satin" became the Moody Blues' biggest U.S. hit, soaring to number two
on the Billboard Hot 100 and becoming a
certified million-seller; the song had "bubbled under" the Hot 100
charts on its original release. The song also returned to the UK
charts, reaching #9, ten places higher than its original release in
1967.
The Moodies were also among the pioneers of the idea that a
successful rock band could promote itself through its own label,
following the Beatles'
creation of Apple Records. After their On the Threshold of a
Dream album (1969), they created Threshold
Records, prompted in part by disputes with
London/Deram over album design costs (their gatefold record jackets and
expensive cover art were not popular with company executives).
Threshold would produce new albums and deliver them to London/Decca who
acted as distributor. The group attempted to build Threshold into a
major label by developing new talent - most notably the UK hard rock
band Trapeze and the Portland,
Oregon classical-acoustic sextet Providence
- but these efforts proved unsuccessful and the Moodies eventually
returned to more traditional recording contracts. However, they did lay
the groundwork for other major acts to set up similar personal labels
and distribution deals including The Rolling Stones' own
label and Led Zeppelin's Swan
Song, and all of the Moodies' studio releases from 1969 to 1999 would
bear the Threshold logo on at least one of
their format versions.
Hiatus, solo work
In 1973, the group took an extended break — originally
announced as a permanent break-up - Justin Hayward being the only one
eager to go on; the other bandmembers feeling overshadowed. (This said
by Justin himself in the final issue of Higher & Higher
magazine 2006). Hayward wrote a song called "Island" with the intention
of including it on a potential follow-up album. The Moodies recorded
this song in 1973, and later embarked on a tour of Asia, but then went
their separate ways.
Hayward and Lodge released a duo album, the very successful Blue
Jays (1975), and the members each released solo
albums. Pinder said he hoped to get the band back together that year.
"Having moved to California in 1974, I returned to England for a visit
in summer 1975. I was trying to get the band to do an album, but the
response was so weak I returned to California with my two new MK5
Mellotrons and began work on my solo album The Promise.".
Edge produced two, Kick Off Your
Muddy Boots (1975) and Paradise Ballroom
(1976);
Hayward elegantly composed Songwriter
(1977), and Night
Flight (1980), which would in later years be followed
up by Moving Mountains
(1985), The
View From The Hill (1996), and Live In San Juan
Capistrano (1998). Lodge released Natural Avenue
(1977);
Pinder produced The Promise
(1976); and
Thomas also two, From Mighty Oaks
(1975) and Hopes, Wishes and
Dreams (1976).
Reunion, 1977–1990
In 1977,
as the group made a decision to record together again, London
Records decided to release a somewhat poorly mixed then-eight year old
recording of the band performing at the Royal
Albert Hall, against their artistic wishes. London did this in an
attempt to redevelop a somewhat waning public interest in the Moody
Blues prior to their anticipated new album, but the crude sound of the
concert from 1969 titled "Caught Live +5" would clash sharply
with the lush and refined sound the modern Moodies were capable of
producing in the studio. By this time Pinder had married and started a
family in California, so for their reunion recording the band decamped
there with producer Clarke. By all accounts, the sessions had moments
of tension and difficulty, but by autumn 1978 Octave
was released. Pinder, citing his young family, excused himself from any
tour commitments. The prog-rock band Yes
had asked their keyboard player, Patrick Moraz, to leave. Moraz's
management had some contacts with the Moodies, and after a successful
audition with the band in England in 1978, he was hired as keyboard
player for the tour that would follow. In spite of these difficulties,
the album itself sold well and produced the hits "Steppin' In A Slide
Zone", written by Lodge and "Driftwood", written by Hayward. The music
video produced for "Driftwood" features Moraz, although Mike Pinder was
the one who played on the actual recording; the video for "Steppin' In
A Slide Zone" simply shows the other four members without Pinder.
The band toured in 1979 and by 1980 was ready to record again,
this time bringing in producer Pip Williams. Moraz was retained as the
band's permanent keyboardist, though Pinder had originally understood
that he would continue to record even if not tour with the band. Pinder
attempted legal measures to prevent the new Moody Blues album from
reaching the public without his contribution, but he was not
successful. Released in 1981,
Long Distance Voyager
was a colossal success, reaching #1 on Billboard and top 5 in the UK. The album
yielded two hits, "The Voice," written by Hayward, and "Gemini Dream,"
written by Hayward and Lodge. By now, the mellotron
had been set aside as their primary keyboard instrument and the band
embraced a more modern, less symphonic approach. The marketing formula
for the band demanded from this time forward that a Justin Hayward song
would be used to lead off their studio albums, as his material was the
most successful.
The Present (1983), again produced
by Williams, proved less successful than its predecessor, though it did
spawn a UK top 40 hit in "Blue World" (#62 in the U.S.) and a U.S. top
40 hit in "Sitting At the Wheel" (which failed to chart in the UK).
Videos were also produced for both singles. "The
Present" was released in conjunction with Talencora Ltd. Records
shortly before a major label shift for the band.
In 1986
they enjoyed renewed success with their album The Other Side of Life
and in particular with the track, "Your Wildest Dreams" - a U.S.
Top 10 hit (and #1 on Billboard's Adult Contemporary singles chart for
two weeks) which garnered a Billboard Video of the Year award
after being frequently featured on MTV. Newly-hired producer Tony
Visconti, and Barry Radman, a synth programmer formerly hired by Moraz,
delivered a modern sound the Moodies had been after in order to remain
competitive with their pop contemporaries. The album's title song also
charted in the U.S., at #58.
The Moody Blues performed live at the charity event concert
"Heartbeat '86" which raised money for the Birmingham Children's
Hospital. The band played four songs, and later provided backup with Electric Light Orchestra
for George Harrison.
The Moodies continued their early video-generation success
with Sur La Mer (1988)
and its video/single, "I Know You're Out
There Somewhere", a sequel to "Your Wildest Dreams". Their sound took
on an ever- increasingly synthetic and technical quality as Moraz and
Visconti began utilising modern sequencers, samplers, and drum
machines. During this time, Justin Hayward and John Lodge wrote and
sang on most of the songs as the band came under pressure from the new
record company, PolyGram Records, to promote those
it deemed to be the two more commercial looking and sounding members.
Ray Thomas was playing a diminished role in the studio. There seemed to
be no room for his ethereal flute in these new songs which were awash
in high-tech 80s production. He provided some backing vocals for both The Other Side of Life and Sur La
Mer, but according to Visconti, his vocal tracks were never mixed into
the final version of the latter album.
1990s, new millennium, and
present
The Moody Blues in concert at the Chumash Casino Resort in Santa Ynez, California in
2005.
Thomas' high value remained on stage primarily from his
continued ability to boisterously sing out his 60's and 70's Moodies
classics, and also in dynamic flute and keyboard duets he composed with
Moraz which were only performed by the two during Moodies' concerts.
The band had begun to reinforce their concert sound in the later 1980s with the
addition of a second keyboardist, Bias Boshell, as well as female
backing singers. They also hired second drummer Gordon Marshall. As they
began work in 1990 for their new studio album, Patrick Moraz made some
comments in an article in Keyboard magazine that
suggested dissatisfaction with his role in the Moodies. He also was
spending long amounts of time planning a music concert to celebrate his
native Switzerland's 500 anniversary, instead of rehearsing with the
Moodies. He was dismissed before completing work on the album.
Additional back-up keyboardists Bias Boshell and Paul Bliss were
brought in to play keyboards on the remaining tracks.
Keys of the Kingdom
(1991) had
modest commercial success. It featured the new single "Say It With
Love" and its follow-up "Bless the Wings" as well as a new flute
masterpiece by Ray Thomas entitled "Celtic Sonant". John Lodge would
make a defining shift in his songwriting on this album, leaving his
trademark high-energy rock music, and instead gravitating towards slow
love ballads. This trend would continue on the two successive Moodies
albums. Instead it was Hayward who wrote the driving two-part piece
"Say What You Mean" which featured compelling chord and melody
structures as well as a spoken-word section. Tony Visconti produced
some of the tracks on "Keys", as did Christopher Neil and Alan Tarney.
For touring purposes, the band decided not to hire a permanent
replacement in the keyboard chair but instead to tour as a quartet with
extra hired musicians. However, keyboardist Paul Bliss has consistently
fulfilled keyboard duties with the band on-stage since 1991 -
successfully recreating the Mike Pinder and Patrick Moraz sound live
with the Moody Blues. Thomas and Bliss continued the tradition of a
flute/keyboard duet for many tours. The Moodies remained among the
highest-earning concert acts, and a series of video and audio versions
of their Night at Red Rocks
concert enjoyed great success, particularly as a fund-raiser for
American public television where it had
been first broadcast. Instead of beginning on a new studio project,
they would instead attempt to perfect the art of playing with an
orchestra during these years, working with several talented orchestral
ensembles and trying new arrangements for well-known pieces. The second
hiatus from recording ended in 1998.
Their first studio album in eight years, Strange Times
(1999), proved to be the first Moodies album in almost two decades to
be more than moderately received by UK critics; released by Universal
Music Group, it made the UK top 10. It was recorded in a studio in
Recco, Italy, at Hayward's suggestion, and was produced by the Moodies
themselves - attesting to their 3 decades of recording experience. This
album was the first to feature Danilo Madonia as an arranger and
electric organist. Madonia would go on to play keyboards on all future
Moodies studio tracks, including on the follow-up album, "December".
The CD opened with the unusual "English Sunset," an RPM techno song
written by Justin Hayward. "Strange
Times" was also the first album since 1970 to include a new poem by
Graeme Edge, in an effort to partially recreate their "concept" album
sound of the late 60s/early 70s. It became clear to fans that Thomas'
interest in the group was waning as he only provided one song for the
new CD that, while highly whimsical, was less than two-minutes in
length.
Also in 1999, The Moody Blues appeared in one episode of "The
Simpsons" called "Viva Ned Flanders".
In 2000, the band released "Hall of Fame," a new live concert
from Royal Albert Hall on the Ark 21 label.
In 2001, an IMAX film was released, entitled "Journey into
Amazing Caves", which featured two new songs written and performed by
the Moody Blues. The soundtrack also featured Justin Hayward performing
vocals and playing guitar throughout. One of these songs, entitled
"Water," is the Moody Blues' first instrumental studio recording since
their 1983 "Hole in the World" from The Present LP.
Hayward and Lodge live in 2007
The new millennium saw the Moody Blues reducing their touring
schedule. In 2002,
founding member Ray Thomas retired from the group, reducing The Moody
Blues to a trio (with Edge as the only remaining original member).
Flutist Norda Mullen has
been a versatile player on-stage and in the studio in Thomas' stead. In
2003, they
released, with the absence of Thomas, a Christmas-themed album entitled
December.
The songs included originals and covers such as John
Lennon's "Happy Xmas (War Is Over)".
Original bassist Clint Warwick, who had left the group in 1966
to become a carpenter and raise a family, returned to the music scene
in 2002 and released a solo CD. He died of liver disease on May 15,
2004.
On October 23, 2005, Hayward, Lodge, and Edge joined Tennessee
musicians David Harvey, Tim
O'Brien, John
Cowan, and others for a concert of "Moody Bluegrass" at the Ryman
Auditorium in Nashville; the Moodies had been impressed by the group's
CD of the same name featuring well-known MB songs interpreted in bluegrass
style.
November 2005, Hayward, Lodge, and Edge - accompanied by Norda Mullen, Gordon Marshall, Paul Bliss and second keyboard player Bernie Barlow released a live-DVD,
entitled Lovely To See You LIVE,
recorded at The Greek Theatre,
Los Angeles.
The remaining Moody Blues trio continues to tour. Moody Blues
toured the UK, U.S. and Europe (Amsterdam, Berlin, Copenhagen and Helsinki)
throughout late 2006.
They toured the U.S this past winter and will undertaking a tour of the
U.S and Canada during the summer of 2007.
In addition, Hayward took part in the first UK tour of Jeff
Wayne's Musical Version of The War of the Worlds in April 2006 with a proposed
DVD release of the show in November 2006 and a second tour in November 2007.
In March of 2006,
the first five of the band's 'Core 7' albums (the seven albums from Days
of Future Passed to Seventh Sojourn,
inclusive) were re-released in Super Audio CD format with Deluxe
Editions, featuring bonus songs and some rare previously unreleased
tracks by the group. In April 2007, the last two of these classic
albums were re-released by Universal/Threshold. Digital remastering for
these Deluxe Editions was done by Justin Hayward himself.
Bassist John Lodge has said in an interview on the radio show
"Acoustic Storm" on January 30, 2007 that a new Moody Blues album is
"not far away."
Since Pink Floyd's induction to the Rock and Roll Hall of
Fame, the Moody Blues (along with King
Crimson and Yes) are at the head of the
list of progressive rock groups which have not yet been inducted and
consistently top opinion polls of acts whom the public feel should be
inducted.
Discography
Studio Albums
- 1965:The Magnificent Moodies
- 1967:Days of Future Passed
- 1968:In Search of the Lost
Chord
- 1969:On the Threshold of a
Dream
- 1969:To Our
Children's Children's Children
- 1970:A Question of Balance
- 1971:Every Good
Boy Deserves Favour
- 1972:Seventh Sojourn
- 1978:Octave
- 1981:Long Distance Voyager
- 1983:The Present
- 1986The Other Side of Life
- 1988:Sur La Mer
- 1991:Keys of the Kingdom
- 1999:Strange Times
- 2001:Journey Into Amazing Caves (IMAX
movie soundtrack) (Ark 21) (2001)
- 2003:December
(Universal TV 15630 -- 2003)
Singles
Original lineup (Denny Laine, Clint Warwick, Mike
Pinder, Ray Thomas, & Graeme Edge)
- 1964 August - "Lose Your Money"
- 1964 November - "Go Now!" (Famously used many
years later on an episode of Spitting Image when pressure grew on Margaret
Thatcher to resign as Prime Minister.)
- UK #1 / U.S. #10
- 1965 February - "I Don't Want To Go On Without You" - UK #33
- 1965 May - "From The Bottom Of My Heart" - UK #22 / U.S. #93
- 1965 October - "Ev'ry Day" - UK #44
- 1966 March - "Stop!" - U.S. #98
- 1966 July - "This Is My House (But Nobody Calls)" - U.S.
#119
- 1966 October - "Boulevard de la Madeleine"
- 1967 January - "Life's Not Life"
Laine & Warwick replaced by Justin Hayward
& John Lodge
- 1967 May - "Fly Me High"
- 1967 August - "Love And Beauty"
- 1967 November - "Nights In White Satin" (3:06
edit)/"Cities" - UK #19 / U.S. #2
- 1968 - "Tuesday Afternoon" (2:16 edit)/"Another Morning" -
U.S. #24
- 1968 - "Voices in the Sky" - UK #27
- 1968 - "Ride My See-Saw" - UK #42 / U.S. #61
- 1969 - "Never Comes the Day" - U.S. #91
- 1970 - "Question" - UK #2 / U.S. #21
- 1971 - "The Story in Your Eyes" - U.S. #23 (UK release of
the single was cancelled, at the band's request)
- 1972 - "Isn't Life Strange" - UK #13 / U.S. #29
- 1972 - "Nights In White Satin" (4:26 edit)/"Cities"
(reissued) - UK #9 / U.S. #2
- 1973 - "I'm Just a Singer (In a Rock 'n' Roll Band)" - UK
#36 / U.S. #12
- 1975 - "Blue Guitar" (Justin Hayward & John Lodge)
- UK #8 / U.S. #94
- 1978 - "Steppin' In a Slide Zone" (3:29 edit) - U.S. #38
- 1978 - "Driftwood" - U.S. #59
Mike Pinder replaced by Patrick Moraz
- 1981 - "Gemini Dream" - U.S. #12
- 1981 - "The Voice" - U.S. #15 (#1 Album Rock hit)
- 1981 - "Talking Out of Turn" - U.S. #65
- 1983 - "Blue World" - UK #35 / U.S. #62
- 1983 - "Sitting At the Wheel" - U.S. #27
- 1983 - "Running Water"
- 1986 - "Your Wildest Dreams" - U.S. #9 (#1 Adult Contemporary hit)
- 1986 - "The Other Side Of Life" (4:49 edit) - U.S. #58
- 1988 - "I Know You're Out There Somewhere" - UK #52 / U.S.
#30
- 1988 - "No More Lies"
Band becomes a quartet with Moraz's departure
- 1991 - "Say It With Love"/"Lean on Me (Tonight)"
- 1991 - "Bless the Wings"
- 1999 - "English Sunset"
References
-
History
of the Mellotron
-
http://www.acousticstorm.com/feature.php?id=23
External links
| v • d • e The
Moody Blues |
Justin
Hayward | John Lodge
| Graeme Edge
Former members: Ray Thomas | Mike
Pinder | Patrick Moraz | Denny
Laine | Clint Warwick |
| Discography |
| Studio Albums:
The Magnificent Moodies
| Days of Future Passed
| In Search of the Lost
Chord | On the Threshold of a
Dream | To Our
Children's Children's Children | A
Question of Balance | Every Good
Boy Deserves Favour | Seventh
Sojourn | Octave
| Long Distance Voyager
| The Present | The Other Side of Life
| Sur
La Mer | Keys
of the Kingdom | Strange Times
| December |
| Live:
Caught Live + 5
| A
Night at Red Rocks with the Colorado Symphony Orchestra
| Hall
of Fame: Live at the Royal Albert Hall | Lovely to See
You |
| Compilations:
This Is The Moody Blues
| Greatest Hits
| Prelude | Time
Traveler | An Introduction
to The Moody Blues |
