sounds

The Moody Blues are one of my favorite bands.   There I said it.  The seven albums they put out in the late 60's and early seventies constitute one of the most artistically consistent and focused runs in rock history.  Those albums are Days of Future Past '67, In Search of the Lost Chord '68, On the Threshold of a Dream '69, To our Children's Children '69, A Question of Balance '70, Every Good Boy Deserves a Favor '71 and Seventh Sojourn '72.  This could have been one giant album, they are very similar in sound and theme.  In fact I have a hard time keeping track of which songs are on which album. 

While I appreciate growth in artistic vision and sometimes get bored when bands can't break out of a rut, this is somehow different.  I don't think that this was planned but it is almost as if each album is a chapter of the same book.

The songs themselves sound sometimes like the quirky british pop of the era, like the tunes "Peak Hour" and "Another Morning" on Days.  Others are sonic beauties like "Nights in White Satin" from Days and "Out and In" from Children's Children.  And they can often rock as on "The Story in Your Eyes" from Every Good Boy and "I'm Just a Singer (in a Rock and Roll Band)" from Sojourn.

I do understand why they are not accessible to everyone.  They are very much an artifact of their time and if you don't have an ear for that period's music they might be hard to take.  Also their use of a symphony orchestra on Days and being a pioneer in the use of the mellotron, an early predecessor of the synthesizer that could itself sound like a string section or even chanting monks, could be other factors driving people away.  But it is these things about them that I love.

The Moody Blues of this era were very unique.  There is no other act in rock history that sounds quite like them.  They are still together but unfortunately are not putting out much, if any, new stuff (that I know of).  They did put out several albums after this creative explosion, the best of which, in my opinion, is the album Long Distance Voyager which at times sounds like it could have been right in there with these albums but is not nearly as consistent. 

They also had some music production before Days came out, most notably the hit single "Go Now."  This version of the Moodys featured Denny Laine who I believe moved on later to be part of Paul McCartney and Wings.  Denny Laine and I think another key player were replaced by Justin Howard and John Lodge and it was these two that helped drive the creative vision that fueled their amazing output.

It is hard to put out 7 studio albums of new material in 6 years.  Harder still to put out ones that are so consistent in their artistic vision and musicianship.  

They also looked cool.  Checking out their liner note photos is seeing the best of the fashions and hairstyles of swinging London.  Yeah baby... YEAH!

If you are interested I think that iTunes has most if not all of the albums I wrote about, I know I downloaded most of them there.  Start with any of the seven.  Days of Future Past is legendary and belongs in any music library so if nothing else get that!