Seventh Sojourn is very good but it's one of my least favourite LPs of the Core 7. I think the previous three are my favourite three while this one and the first three are the bottom four, in some order. Still pretty good stuff. I notice that we hit this one on the 45th anniversary of its release. Well done! The LP kicks off with its best track Lost in a Lost World, one of Mike Pinder's best songs. Only the title track to his mid-'70s solo LP The Promise ranks up with it IMHO, although I really like Simple Game, Have You Heard / The Voyage and some of his other compositions equally. Side 1 of Seventh Sojourn is impeccable but Side 2 is missing something IMHO. Only Land of Make Believe equals the quality on the first side. I'm Just a Singer in a Rock and Roll Band demonstrates yet again that Lodge was the rocker in the group; You and Me is a notch below After You Came; and if I had to make a list of my five least favourite tracks from the Core 7, When You're a Free Man would be on it. As I said, it's a very good LP and none of the tracks are bad or anything, but IMHO there was a dropoff from the previous three here. Still better than most LPs by most other artists.
I'm not sure about other places but here in southern Ontario, To Our Children's Children's Children came out the same week as the Apollo 13 near-disaster, namely the second weekend of April, 1970. However I heard two or three tracks on the radio sometime around December of 1969. Back then, there was a gap between radio availability and store availability. By Seventh Sojourn, that seemed to have disappeared, as the radio said it was in the stores the first time I heard tracks played.
I couldn't disagree more,this is one of my favorites, because not only are Justin'sTracks great like To our Children andLost Chord the others are too I can't say that Every good boy
Seventh Sojourn is probably my 6th favorite of the 7. I like it, but while it has one of my favorite Moodies songs in I'm Just a Singer..., as well as For My Lady (which I adore), the rest is all just solid or good.
The prime example of the album in their catalog that simply has improved significantly over time. One of their best albums. IMHO a vast improvement over what I would say the "rather sedate" EGBDF. 8 songs, no suites, poems, etc. Just right to point - 8 strong songs with all singing members making significant contributions. The production is clean and sharp. Drums and bass are up in the mix and drive each song with solid beat. In fact, in the opening track, (one of their best songs) after the grinding cellos, the album kicks off with a drum smash. The whole album sounds fresh and alive. It breathes space in every track. In hindsight it demonstrates that the group was ready to move onto the seventies unhindered and with a great revised sound, a rock attitude, and staying power. Of course, that was not to be.
My ranking of the 7: 1 & 2 tied with To Our Children's Children's Children Every Good Boy Deserves Favour 3: A Question Of Balance 4: In Search Of The Lost Chord 5: On The Threshold Of A Dream 6: Days Of Future Passed 7: Seventh Sojourn Well 3 to 7 are very close to each other too. Very very nice run of albums!
"Seventh Sojourn" was the first Moodies album I was aware of. I just turned 8 when it was released. Keep in mind that the re-released"Nights In White Satin" was recently (or concurrently- I'm not sure) a huge hit here in the US. Being an FM radio aficionado, I looked forward to and loved hearing the entire, unedited version of that song, especially hearing it at night! I had no idea it was recorded 5 years earlier (a lifetime in those days!), it sounded like an amazing contemporary recording to me. I was a little confused when I saw the new "Seventh Sojourn" LP at a record store, and "Nights..." wasn't on it! The clerk set me straight. The more hit-oriented local FM station, KLOS, played "Isn't Life Strange", "I'm Just A Singer", "For My Lady", and "You And Me" quite a lot in the following months. I mean, what a diverse and varied bunch of songs for just one band! I loved those songs, but for some reason, I didn't actually buy the album until 1978 or so. I'm partial to this album as my favorite, but I'm going to make a point in getting better acquainted with the other "core" LPs. I have them all, including "This Is...". I am just not well versed as I should be!
I'll take my ridicule like a man. My favorite Moodies album is The Present followed closely by In Search of the Lost Chord.
For a long while Seventh Sojourn was my favorite Moody Blues album. I think it was the first I heard in its entirety and got hooked on, together with Days of Future Passed. As Seventh Sojourn was not so orchestral-laden, it was more easier to listen to often and in casual situations (e.g. commutes and so on). I immediately took to it. The Chamberlin vs. the Mellotron; for my first many listens I didn't even notice it. The sound, atmospherically, is still intact, in my opinion. Lost in a Lost World is a first rate Pinder song with a gorgeous, smothering melody and the usual tranquil-seeking set of lyrics. New Horizons was for a long time one of my go-to songs when a radical change figured in my life. Again Hayward works wonders is situations like this. The Chamberlin to me always evoked the mist rising on the horizon on a winter's morning, the sky beamed up by pink and dark blue intertwined. For My Lady reminds me of being a kid, listening to traditional folk songs and sea songs in my grandpa's caravan where he'd often go to read and listen to tapes. Ray Thomas' voice has a worldly-wise quality about it, even if he was still a relatively young man at this time. Isn't Life Strange is a grandiose song, obviously one of their best and most well-known. I enjoy it but personally do not listen to it as often as so many of the other songs from this album. You and Me gets the pace going, should have been a single. Great vocals, great drive, lovely buzzing guitar sound. Land of Make-Believe is more mid-tempo and gentle, still enjoyable, but I most often listen to it when listening to this entire album. When You're a Free Man is another brooding Pinder song, with the lyrics being more down to earth than I originally thought. There is a sense of longing, expressed very nice in the swooning Chamberlin. I'm Just a Singer (In a Rock and Roll Band) closes the album, an absolutely smashing single, great message, great drive, great vibe. When I was a teenager this was the only song I knew by the group. I thought it was super cool. If only I had gotten into them earlier. So to recap: Seventh Sojourn holds a special place in my heart. Obviously also a crossroads for the group, artistically and physically. After producing so much quality material in such a short amount of time I am not surprised they took a long sabbatical after touring this album.
Seventh Sojurn is one of my favorites, with some of my favorite deep cuts. The closest thing I have to a complaint is that "Isn't Life Strange" - which I love - sounds a bit clunky compared to the Red Rocks version. Nevertheless, a very consistent album from start to finish.
Seventh Sojourn: I haven't got much to add, except that this is far and way my favorite Moodies album (and I also consider it their best). The pervasive background element of a melancholy feel (despair perhaps) makes all 8 of these songs achingly beautiful. I love the sound of this album as well. Plus, the cover is one of their best (if not their best), and one of my favorites ever!
When You're a Free Man isn’t quite so low on my list of Moodies clunkers, but you make a good point. In the line “Someday I know I’ll see you smi-ling”, the melody and chord change (augmented fifth) on the word “smiling” sound inappropriately old-fashioned, as if from a type of music that never made it into rock. I’m reminded of The Dave Clark Five (!), who released two singles titled Everybody Knows, the first in 1964, the second in 1967. The 1967 version, which made it to number two in the UK, but didn’t even scratch the US top 40, does much the same thing (on the word “knows”) as When You’re a Free Man. Sorry, Mike...
Don't have much to add to the accumulated group wisdom on Seventh, apart from observing that the album largely reflects what the band were experiencing at the time -- a feeling of exhaustion. With a couple of exceptions, it's all slow- to mid-tempo tracks, with lyrics often betraying some disillusion. Even the record cover seems to reflect the band's sombre mood: a monochrome, bleak landscape, not a living thing in sight. Still, the proceedings are not without their charms, despite the personal dislocations the group were feeeling. "For My Lady" brightens the mood a bit (as Ray's tunes often did -- ref. "Nice To Be Here" on EGBDF); "You And Me" briefly resurrects the optimistic feel of their late-'60s LPs. The rest of the songs are almost universally strong, Mike's in particular. And throughout, the band is playing rather well, the five years of touring under their belts paying off in instrumental mastery. Everything is in its right place in the arrangements. If they'd stopped here, their top place in rock 'n' roll critical history would be much more assured IMHO.
"When Your A Freeman" is very English. Does have vestiges of English music hall tradition. Just listen to those backing vocals at the end. Very English. As is "For My Lady" which is virtually an English sea chanty.
Yes, the mood of this album is somber and I appreciate it for the honest reflection of their own exhaustion. If Island is any indicator, this somber mood continued into 1973.
Prelude is required listening for lovers of the classic 7. When I ripped Prelude to my computer I substituted Island for the redundant Late Lament. Obviously Island is technically post-7, but artistically it fits right into that material.
I just listened to this album (To Our Childrens...) last night on my way home from work and finished it this morning. While I've always loved Watching and Waiting, I heard it from a little different perspective this time. Not only does it sound like it's sung from the perspective of a child (W&W for a friend to play with), it also harkens back to the long, lonely journey through space (Why have I been alone so long?) <assuming that my theory about space travel is correct>. As far as celebrating or lamenting space travel, I think it's doing some of both. It seems there was more excitement at the beginning and as it goes on it laments. There's definitely a time element at work here too. "I never thought I've live to be a hundred/million". "A Gypsy of a strange and distant time, travelling in panic all direction blind". "Something there outside says we're only, in the hands of time falling slowly". Lyrically, there's a thread that runs though many of these songs - read the lyrics for Higher and Higher, then the lyrics for Watching and Waiting. Same with Gypsy and Eternity Road. The lyrics almost borrow from one another. There are themes about traveling, about a better world, loneliness and time that seem to tie everything together.
I know where one is: Justin Hayward: "My favourite Moody Blues cover is ‘A Question Of Balance’. I have the Phil Travers original painting, which is about the size of a door. Instead of working across in a ‘letterbox’ shape, Phil painted it down (keyhole?). That choice led to a hilarious realization when we finally held it in our hands after the first production run. What hadn’t dawned on us was that if you opened it up vertically to see the full picture, the 12″ vinyl dropped straight through the inside of the sleeve on to the floor. It was too late to change it at that stage, so there it is – anyone who has the original open gate-fold – try it ! "
Oh, another factoid about Seventh: no poetry. Anyone else love that little bit of Renaissance-sounding music linking "When You're A Free Man" and "Singer In A Rock 'n' Roll Band"? ...
