They were one of the first bands to use orchestra. Often cited as being of the first symphonic rock bands. One of the most important progressive rockbands.

 

The Moodies have had a long career, starting as an R&B band, then using orchestra on Days of Future Passed and even created a string of psychedelic concept albums.

Eventually incorporating mellotron in their music and being pioneers in mellotron-based rockmusic.

They stopped in 1972, released several solo-albums and eventually pickin upin 1978 with the mediocre Octave, then surprised friend and fiend with the very high standard Long Distance Voyager, and then ventured into synthpop/muzak, and eventually disappeared from view.

 

Bandmembers, John Lodge, Justin Hayward, Ray Thomas, Mike Pinder, Patrick Moraz and even Graeme Edge all released several soloalbums, where Blue jays (Lodge and Lees) is the closest to The Moody Blues-sound.

Here we can discuss their music, their solo-albums and guest appearances on several projects/albums.

Glad to be of service. :D

 

It has a more rock-feel to it and features some lengthy songs.
My favorite rock-song is The Story in Your Eyes, wich is on Every Good Boy Deserves Favour.

But Seventh Sojourn has the Lodge-rocker Singer in a Rock n Roll Band, wich really rocks aswell.

But the lengthy songs New Horizons, Land of Make Believe and When You're a Free Man are amongst the best songs the band ever did.

 

It features long songs and lost of bombastic arrangments. Long Distance Voyager and The Present were the last true symphonic rock albums.

I still like Sur La Mer, The Other Side of Life and Keys to the Kingdom, but that's because I like soft middle-of-the-road popmusic aswell.

 

Yeah, the artwork of The Moodies was great. Also the solowork is done by the same artist over and over again: Phil Travers ( https://nl.pinterest.com/tomshieh/phil-travers-album-covers/" rel="nofollow - https://nl.pinterest.com/tomshieh/phil-travers-album-covers/  )

someone mentioned Blue World, which is from "The Present", which was not a commercial album at all, except maybe the song Sitting at the Wheel.  I also really love the song "The Other Side of Life".  It's like nothing else they ever did and its got a great synth hook and short concise Hayward guitar solo.  But yeah, the quality dropped a lot 

that's a great one, and somewhat underrated.  The local French language FM station used to play the entire first side, and what a side!  Edge's song is incredible.

Truth be told, the first album is rather bland R&B and nowhere the symphonic/psychedelic pop/rock the band became known for.

its like torture........................... granted, I can listen to some of the earlier stuff but ............... I have no choice..... help

Why does a lot of Genesis sounds the same too? Formulas work.

think you've got it - on a good think eh!

Yep, sound the same= same instrumentation, same production, same sound!

Just like all Jazz sounds the same and all heavy metal sounds the same 

In the first album they were a R&B band. Totally different sound and approach (different vocalists aswell)

On the 'seven' albums they sound more or less the same. Heavy orchestrated, romantic psychedelic pop/rock, with either use of orchestra or mellotron. These 'seven' albums are all produced by Tony Clarke (you might say, he was the sixth Moodie) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony_Clarke_(record_producer)

On the transitional album Octave they sound bland and dull. Standard keyboard sounds, no mellotron, no lush arrangments. Kinda middle-of-the road pop. Although it's also produced by Clarke, it has a different sound.

On the two major 80's albums (Long Distance Voyager and Present) they sound more like Barclay James Harvest and ELO. Because of Pip Williams (producer) and Patrick Moraz (synthesizer).

On the following albums they sound more like the Bee Gees. Drumcomputers, bass-sequencers, no more flute, danceable compositions, etc.

I don't know wich albums you have listened. But you're kind of right, that the Moodies stuck to a particular sound in their career. Although they changed 'sounds' over the years.

Of course there are the voices of Hayward and Lodge that has always played a major role in the sound of the band.

I like fusion stuff and weird stuff and experimental music. Also hugely enthousiastic about thrash- and deathmetal.

But I also love sentimental, nostalgic music like Al Stewart, Moody Blues and Neil Diamond.

To return the favor: I tried, and I tried and I tried, but there isn't a single Zappa album I can really, fully enjoy.

Yeah, Hayward always my favorite, and the more romantic/nostalgic Ray Thomas.

Moody Blues were always the sum of the parts. Because the songs Lodge wrote for the band, weren't always bad. Although I prefer the Hayward-songs. 

As long as you tried, thats all cool.

Wife doesn't like Zappa at all. We have a house rules I don't play Zappa - where she can hear it and she does not play Celine Dion................ The arch Enemy of all good music lovers 

And yet here you are on a Moodys appreciation thread with nothing important to say.

Got any good LSD!

Still nothing important to say

When someone spouts inconsequential nonsense, it's best to ignore them. Or insult the hell out of them. Either or.

In any case, here's an interesting bit of trivia: On the Threshold of a Dream was the first Moody Blues album to go to #1 in the UK, but the single "Never Comes the Day" was a sales flop. Which begs the question, what marketing genius decided that "Never Comes the Day" would be a better single than "Lovely to See You Again", which got a hell of a lot of airplay in the U.S. even though it wasn't a single?

If you read the post's you will see it was a legitimate debate which was contributed to by other posters and was exploring the stages of Moody's music for better or worse.......... and my Wifes liking of them!

Actually, no, I don't see any relevance in your continued participation in this appreciation thread. We got that you don't like them. Prattling on about how you prefer Zappa or Crimson, and that your wife is the only one with any common sense in your family does not make for interesting conversation.

Nasty Nasty Nasty. 

Well actually they did- heard it enough times to know the bloody lyrics go (seeing you said No)-

You can  Prattle all you like with your responses, water of a #ucks back...... and you don't even know Moody's lyrics shame on you!

The main difference with the albums after DOFP is that none of them used the orchestra.  They went all mellotron crazy, and somehow I think their impact is greater, less precious.  "In Search of the Lost Chord" removed any doubts as to whether they could do make it without the orchestra, and I would recommend picking it up next.  In fact, moving chronologically thru them makes the most sense.  "To Our Children's Children's Children" is also brilliant, with the first side made up of multiple mostly short songs.

They tended to start albums with long spoken parts, but dispensed with that with the final 3, "Question fo Balance", "Every Good Boy Deserves Favour", and "Seventh Sojourn", which bareky have a duff track between the three of them.  Stiil very psychedelic and ballad heavy at that stage, they really had a way with melody.  While they were groundbreaking, some prog fans tend to dismiss them due to their general adherence to conventional song structures and minimal instrumental flourishes.  Pop fans thought they were too serious for hit singles.  Yet they were one of the bigger selling bands of their time.

When you type, do you actually consider the words that you peck out? Or is it more akin to simply closing your eyes and letting spell check aid you with words beyond monosyllables?

While I appreciate your post, I think you do a disservice to On the Threshold of a Dream. If one considers the sequence of Are You Sitting Comfortably/The Dream/Have You Heard (Part I)/The Voyage/Have You Heard (Part II) as an 11 minute-long suite (and after about a thousand listens, I find that sequence to be indivisible), you have, in January, 1969, a true prog composition (not proto-prog, mind you) complete with extensive mellotron predating ItCotCK by 10 months.

 uh der D'oh stand Bow tie da dy

What I mean to say, is that the songs are more suitable to play live on stage, less instruments used, etc.

The 'rockiest' songs they recorded are on those three albums (Every Good Boy Deserves Favour, Question of Balance and my favorite The Seventh Sojourn).

When you listen closely to the Moodies, you notice a lot of tempo- and stylistic chances within songs. If that isn't progressive, I wouldn't know what is.

True, they have the tendency for piano- and acoustic guitar balladry, but hey; they are just a bunch of melancholy men.

But The Moodies have one of the best compilation albums ever made.

The even managed to let songs flow into eachother wich are from totally different albums.

Wich makes this compilation an entity of its own. I can't even imagine no-one like this album.
Enjoy it here:

 

I had that one on LP back in the day.  It was remarkable how well songs from unrelated albums were juxtaposed together.  It even has one of Pinders' best songs, "A Simple Game", which was never released on an original LP.  However,to me a not insignificant flaw is that EGBDF is only represented by one song, "Story in your eyes".  For several years I steered clear of that album as a result, even though I think it's great now

A more vocal-based prog. Beautiful melodies, that were almost never used in prog since.

The only bands that used such beautiful melodies were Queen, Abba, etc. and other pop bands.

 

Also the use of mellotron, classical and eastern instruments makes them kind of psychedelic, wich is a prog-sub genre. But I agree that the three bands I named were more of a influence to progmusic than full blown prog.
But apparently I'm not all that into progrock, because most bands I like are protoprog, crossover prog or prog-related, except for Camel and Gentle Giant.

 

Wrong thread, brother...

Tom Ozric wrote: ^ Yeah, thanks man. That's what Vodka does to you mid-week..... You know I love Can and Moodies since my teen-years.............

Me Too!!!!!!!!!!!