Can it be ? There has never been an album by album thread for the Moody Blues ? A search didn't bring one up, so here's one. I'll add the extra songs not on the albums as we go along. THE MAGNIFICENT MOODIES Per Wiki: British version All lead vocals by Denny Laine except where noted Side one 1. "I'll Go Crazy" James Brown 2:13 2. "Something You Got" Chris Kenner 2:49 3. "Go Now" Larry Banks, Milton Bennett 3:14 4. "Can't Nobody Love You" James Mitchell 4:06 5. "I Don't Mind (lead: Mike Pinder)" James Brown 3:26 6. "I've Got a Dream (lead: Denny Laine, Clint Warwick)" Jeff Barry, Ellie Greenwich 2:50 Side two 1. "Let Me Go" Denny Laine, Mike Pinder 3:14 2. "Stop" Laine, Pinder 2:05 3. "Thank You Baby" Laine, Pinder 2:30 4. "It Ain't Necessarily So (lead: Ray Thomas)" George Gershwin, Ira Gershwin 3:21 5. "True Story" Laine, Pinder 1:46 6. "Bye Bye Bird" Sonny Boy Williamson II, Willie Dixon 2:49 North American version GO NOW: THE MOODY BLUES #1 Studio album by The Moody Blues Released 28 July 1965 Recorded October 1964 – March 1965 Length 34:03 Label London Producer Denny Cordell Alex Murray Side one 1. "I'll Go Crazy" James Brown 2:08 2. "And My Baby's Gone" Laine, Pinder 2:15 3. "Go Now" Banks, Bennett 3:10 4. "It's Easy Child" Kay Bennett, Sue Sandler, Gene Redd 3:10 5. "Can't Nobody Love You" Mitchell 4:00 6. "I've Got a Dream" Barry, Greenwich 2:50 Side two 1. "Let Me Go" Laine, Pinder 3:08 2. "I Don't Want to Go On Without You" Bert Berns, Jerry Wexler 2:45 3. "True Story" Laine, Pinder 1:40 4. "It Ain't Necessarily So" G Gershwin, I Gershwin 2:47 5. "Bye Bye Bird" Williamson, Dixon 2:50 6. "From the Bottom of My Heart" Laine, Pinder 3:20 Total length: 34:03 Personnel The Moody Blues Denny Laine – guitars, harmonica, vocals Mike Pinder – piano, organ, vocals Clint Warwick – bass guitar, vocals Ray Thomas – percussion, flutes, harmonica, vocals Graeme Edge – drums, percussion, vocals Additional personnel Elaine Caswell – percussion
Obviously, "Go Now" was the big number for the pre John Lodge- Justin Hayward version of the band. Here's the original version they covered and had a hit with: It's pretty interesting how the band morphed from your basic English R&B covers band into the psych/ proto prog/whatever band they became. I listened to my American version of the album last night to refresh my memory. My impression is that they were competent, Denny sang well. but there wasn't much there to carry them further if they had stuck with this format.
I've always loved "The Magnificent Moodies", great album and very unique for the time. There's already a slightly "haunting" quality in this music that stands out - maybe a Brummie thing? Check out the background harmonies on "I Don't Mind" and "It Ain't Necessarily So" - spooky and, yes, moody. The 2 disc Esoteric box set of this album is fantastic - finally you get to hear what a "proper" second Moody Blues LP would have been. I've got an original UK mono as well as a nice copy of their 1965 EP - Much as I enjoy their subsequent output, I feel there's something special about the original lineup that got lost in the psychedelic phase.
I saw them in late 65 as part of the murray the k Christmas show if my memory serves. didn't see them again until the 80's.
…and a great way to get (most of) the non LP tracks in LP quality (including the early Hayward & Lodge stuff) is on this fantastic compilation released in the UK and France in 1967 -
I'm only a so-so fan of the pre Hayward/Lodge version of the band so I haven't picked up the Esoteric release you have mentioned. Feel free to fill me/us in on whichever bonus tracks on the set you think are special. Besides "Go Now" I think "Can't Nobody Like You" was one of the better tracks on my US version of their first album. "Bye Bye Bird" sort of sounds like an early era Yardbirds rave up to my ears. I'm not sure the world needed cover versions of James Brown songs by an English band, but that was the era when everybody covered everybody to fill out albums short on original songs.
I like the strangeness that is "From The Bottom Of My Heart". Denny's wailing at the end really got me the first time I heard it.
Well, for a start you get 9 songs from the 1966 Denny Cordell sessions that were intended for a followup album - add the later Laine-era singles and you've got enough for a whole LP. I really like the direction they were going in that year (starting with "From The Bottom Of My Heart") and I think they would have held their own in the pop world had they continued. Hell, The Beatles were fans! You also get outtakes from the Magnificent sessions as well as all of their "Saturday Club" sessions. It does a nice job of rounding up all of the singles tracks (as well as that exclusive French EP one). This band was so much more than they are given credit for, I think. They wanted to play R & B but ended up adding another dimension by way of their "moodiness" and skillful original material - they really wrote some great stuff. Give their post-Magnificent recordings a chance (if you haven't already) and discover a GREAT band capable of creating several "moods"!
Before I got to hear these gems I had thought that the song Boulevard de la Madeleine made the best transition between Mark I Moody Blues and Mark II Moody Blues, but here we have Jago & Jilly and We're Broken... It's strange of me to say that of songs which spent 50 years virtually unknown in the vaults, but they seem to me quite essential frankly in the whole picture of the band's development. Especially We're Broken sounds like another lost "Plus Five" track. I also absolutely adore some of the latter day singles written by Laine/Pinder (or the other way round, this time I guess the order of the authorship mattered, because it was changing with every new song). This Is My House, with all its chord sequence, is remarkable and so is Life's Not Life. They are both weird enough not to have charted, but definitely worth (re)discovering. Anyway, I don't agree with Graeme Edge who stated in some documentary that he considered the first line-up to be "almost another band". And I don't like the fact that some Moody Blues fans refer to the first line-up as Denny Laine's Moody Blues, despite the obvious differences. There was a double compilation LP called A Dream, which mixed the 1965/66 tracks with the pre-Days Hayward tracks, from which I got to know all these tracks in the first place, and such transitions like Thank You Baby to Cities felt perfectly OK to me.
I couldn't agree with you more. Those 1966 tracks are a very natural transition to what came later in some weird way. I was so excited to hear the "lost" second album tracks, and they didn't disappoint in the slightest. Unique chord structures and elaborate harmony arrangements that are right in step (and sometimes ahead of) the UK pop world of the time. It's fun to stick the String Band stuff Denny did alongside the early Mark II stuff and create an album out of it. And again a TERRIFIC 1966 LP can be compiled too!
As for the original Magnificent Moodies LP, obviously it has many merits outside of forshadowing the future glories, but I can't help mentioning one of the moments where the unique style of the band is born. It's the beginning of the third verse of Something You Got - the guitar disappears and after a moment of silence, I guess it's Mike Pinder who adds the lower harmony to Denny's lead, backed only with the suddenly soft rhythm section AND there comes the flute. I can hear a glimpse of The House of Four Doors and some other songs in that bit great moment!
Growing up on the Moody Blues, but with no idea about their pre-DOFP output, I excitedly bought Collection on CD in about 1989. (I would have been 17 at the time.) Go Now was alright, but I didn't care much for the rest of it. It was a completely different sound, and very direct with little discover on repeated listens. Consquently, I didn't listen to it much, and after the bulk of my CD collection was stolen in 1997, I've never re-acquired a physical or digital copy of their output from this period. My rationale, I guess, is that if I'm going to listen to the Moodies, it definitely isn't going to be this stuff.
The original band was very good, and shouldn't be overlooked. Besides the rave ups (shades of Yardbirds), the band in late 1965, and 1966 drew more and more on original material. "From the Bottom of My Heart" is a precursor to "Nights". "Life's not Life", "He Can Win", "This is My House", "Boulevard de la Madeline " all show a growing sophistication in writing and arrangement. And are all real good songs. "Boulevard" has some pretty innovative stuff on it. It sounds like a pedal is used on the guitar to emulate a French horn, and additional French accordion sound is achieved via harmonica and flute. And Denny Laine was a heckuva vocalist.
This is far from a representative set. The Esoteric is much better set for the earlier material and had better, more thorough selection of tracks.
DAYS OF FUTURE PASSED Tracklist The Day Begins 5:45 Dawn: Dawn Is A Feeling 3:50 The Morning: Another Morning 3:40 Lunch Break: Peak Hour 5:21 The Afternoon: Forever Afternoon (Tuesday?) 8:25 Evening: The Sun Set: Twilight Time 6:39 The Night: Nights In White Satin Musicians The Moody Blues: Mike Pinder - mellotron, piano, tambura, vocals (including spoken) Ray Thomas - flutes, percussion, piano, vocals Justin Hayward - acoustic & electric guitars, piano, sitar, vocals John Lodge - bass, vocals Graeme Edge - drums, percussion, vocals Production Peter Knight – conducting, arrangements The London Festival Orchestra Released 10 November 1967 Recorded October – November 1967 Studio Decca Studios, London
What a great album! It pretty much created the base of the styles of much of the music I listen to. The mix of orchestra and spoken word and beat group is magical really. Something I play a lot and it never grows tiring. "Tuesday Afternoon" and, of course, "Nights In White Satin" are classics. 5/5.
My first taste of The Moody Blues was via DAYS OF FUTURE PASSED. In 1967 though, I totally missed the album and knew nothing of the group - or I may have heard the name in passing. No, I didn't gravitate to this album until "Nights In White Satin" had gotten its second life as a hit single when I heard it on the radio. Asking a buddy about it, he informed me that he had an extra copy of the LP that I could have, and that was my first ownership of a Moody Blues album. Sometime later, that buddy and I were at an exhibit in some science-type place - not quite a museum, but an exhibit. For this audio visual presentation, I thought the music was really neat. The song was "Floating" and I was informed that it was The Moody Blues from TO OUR CHILDREN'S CHILDREN'S CHILDREN. Right then and there I knew I needed to explore more Moodys.
excited to hear everyone's comments. I am a odd fan in that I came to them more based on their 80s stuff because I am a Patrick Moraz fan. I have moved on to enjoying most of their other albums though, and enjoyed seeing them live for my first time on the last tour and seeing this entire album played live.
Goldmine mag. had a cover and good overview re: the band several years back. Uncut, Mojo..forgettaboutit.
My introduction to the band was through This Is The Moody Blues compilation, and I got to know Days relatively late. It was quite difficult to buy Moody Blues in my country in the late 80's, and it so happened that I first discovered the live versions of Peak Hour and The Sunset from Caught Live + Five, so when I finally lay my ears on Days, I was delighted to hear the much more tense original take on The Sunset and was quite underwhelmed by the studio version of Peak Hour, actually . On Caught Live + 5, John's poor vocals notwithstanding, this track got to almost prog-rock proportions, and it seemed to breathe better with the changes of pace and the repeated middle section. Also to this day I cringe upon the orchestral intro to the studio version of this very track. I'm overall underwhelmed by the famous orchestra/rock combo interactions (which aren't organic anyway), but Peak Hour in particular could do much better without it, IMHO. I was very lucky to be introduced to the vinyl mix first. I never collected vinyl records, but actually it was my friend Martin who bought me this album secondhand as a present in the Netherlands. That's why I had a pleasure to hear the now missing vocal harmonies on Evening Time to Get Away first time round, and the CD mix never sounded right to me. The twice repeated flute theme towards the end of Another Morning doesn't make sense to me, though the band did play it exactly like that live, as evidenced on the BBC version. It's not my favourite Moody Blues album, but it seems to have some winning quality, which is missing from the other albums. Very many of my friends have - almost reluctantly - accepted the merits of Days, perhaps because of this symphonic touches that I seem to question. My favourite track is Dawn Is a Feeling, possibly because of the overfamiliarity of the two Hayward-penned songs. But whenever I hear the couplet this day will last a thousand years/if you want it to, I seem to get taken to another dimension, not a very easy thing to do for a song at the age of 41
Re: Days Note that "Sunset" actually has cellos on that cut. The other cuts on the LP (sans Nights) are orchestra free. Also the CD version varies from the LP quite a bit. It's not faithful to the original. This has been covered in other threads.
Love this album, and only discovered it a few years ago. Incredible combination of musicianship and intriguing lyrics. My 1st copy was the 24;96 download which was bassy and loud. I love my MFSL version. Much more dynamic range.
Born in '72, I grew up on the Moody Blues. They were my Dad's favorite band and he had 6 of the Classic 7 (all but AQOB). As a toddler, I'd say "ecord... moo blue", and he'd put them on then I'd dance around like crazy, or so I've been told. "Nights In White Satin" is one of the first songs I can really remember, and it was definitely a big fave of my Dad's... he played it reasonably regularly. I like most of the album, though it's the bottom half of the Classic 7 for me. The orchestration at the begging of Lunch Break and Evening are a little too cheesy for me. I'd love to hear the songs on their own with all the linking orchestration removed. Some of my favorites here are the ones rarely heard... "Dawn Is A Feeling", "(Evening) Time To Get Away", and "The Sunset". I hated the latter when I was a kid, but now love it... that probably has a lot with how highly I rate Mike Pinder's output. My dad passed away in a freak accident in 2012. This is probably getting to be TMI here, but he was on life support in a coma for a couple days after the accident, and the immediate family got to visit him and say our goodbyes. One of the biggest gifts my Dad gave me was the gift of music... I would not be nearly as big a music fan without his influence. So before saying goodbye I played him a few songs, and the last one was "Nights In White Satin / Late Lament". At the funeral, each of the family members placed a couple of keepsakes in a little gift compartment in the casket. Along with a photo of him and I on my wedding day, I placed my MoFi CD of DOFP. I'm guessing some of you are thinking, "How touching", and some are thinking, "Why didn't you just buy a standard issue for the casket and keep the MoFi for yourself!"
