I’ve gone back and listened to EGBDF again and I like it much more than I did in the past. One More Time to Live is just blowing me away. It’s a masterpiece.
Mike, That was a great interview. Thanks for sharing. I hope John finds that quad mix of Lost Chord for you!
Another note The theme of childhood and loss of innocence is reiterated with the sound of the child's piano in the second part of "one More Time to Live" and of course "nice to be here" is pure Peter Cottontail.
So we finally confirmed that the figures at the back cover of EGBDF are actually boys and not the parents of the boy at the front cover.
Yes. After poster willys post I think they are boys and his interpretation makes sense. (Had to dig out the vinyl for a close inspection and "curly haired mom holding a rose" looks a way bit too boyish.) Pop looks pretty young too. Both are boys. I stand corrected.
I'm listening to Every Good Boy Deserves Favour again tonight . Random thoughts: I like it better than when I listened to it the other night. I can take or leave "Procession "as a stand alone track but it's lead in/ segue into "The Story In Your Eyes " is fab. They were really great with weird album opening "songs" leading right into one of their rockier songs . Once again, John Lodge proves that although he gets absolutely no mention in great bass player polls, he could and still can hold his own with the best of them. The opening verses of "Emily's Song"and "One More Time To Live " sound unlike any of John's previous songs vocally (not instrumentally) . Very light vocals with harmonies a little different , or something that I notice . They almost remind me of some other band in the era I can't place, (until the song gets heavier in the case of "One More Time To Live") "Nice To Be Here" sounds like the little brother (or at least first cousin) to "Dr. Livingstone, I Presume" to me. Justin Hayward has such an amazingly high percentage of great songs, which continues through to today, IMO. Yet, he never gets mentioned in the Lennon-McCartney, Jagger- Richards , Ray Davies , Pete Townsend pantheon of great writers .
Sorry guys, I thought I was being helpful, there are those amongst who may not be aware of the mnemonic.
Well, I will admit that when it came out I was in my mid teens and while music oriented, I had never learned music so the gag went by me for a while. I think I got the joke a few weeks after it came out. To this day if you show me a note on a staff I would have no idea what it was. And I have played all over the country.
Thanks! I was never aware that the Moody Blues came up with a title out of the notes on the lines of the treble clef. That's clever! This is among my favourite album titles together with Days of Future Passed, In Search of the Lost Chord and On the Theshold of a Dream.
"Every good boy deserves favor" was a pretty common grade-school thing to help kids remember the notes. "Every good boy does fine" was a common variation too.
Well it's a common phrase (or some variant, I never learned it with the word "favour" or "favor" being American), they didnt make it up. They just used that phrase for their album.
Every Good Boy Deserves Favour A fine album, but this was the last of the "core seven" I originally purchased, and it took the longest to grow on me. The opener ("Procession") is perhaps a bit too ambitious, trying to compress the history of the world into ~5 minutes(!), but it makes for quite the dramatic extended intro to "The Story In Your Eyes" (this could almost be the band's signature song). The rest of the album seems to be permeated with an air of sadness ("You Can Never Go Home," "One More Time To Live," "My Song," etc.), occasionally livened up by Thomas' whimsical "Nice To Be Here" and Edge's rocking but still somewhat somber "After You Came" (this is the one song of his which appeared on the '84 comp Voices in the Sky). I agree with other posts that the cover art is particularly stunning in its textured presentation for the original vinyl release (I almost double dipped just for this but decided to stay with the excellent '86 CD instead). Not sure whether I'd recommend this album to a newbie, but I think if you started here, you'd get a fairly good sense of what the Moody Blues during their classic '67-'72 era were about. For additional commentary on this and all their other albums, I've found a lot of good reviews over on prog archives (I personally do think they qualify as such): THE MOODY BLUES
Thanks for that. You mentioned speaking to Pinder and Edge. Did you post interviews with them at the time? As for the missing quad mix of Lost Chord, Lodge must not pay too much attention to the status of the Moodies' archives — it's not exactly late-breaking news that the multi-track tapes couldn't be located.
Interesting interview with John and him saying both Mike and Graeme were up for a 'one off' reunion show (any future R & R Hall of Fame induction might serve as the catalyst maybe ?) however Ray's health is one big aspect and I suspect the biggest 'Question' is whether Justin Hayward would be happy about doing it...?? (with or without Ray if he's not up to performing anymore) Like it or not (and I have no problem about it as Justin was the most prolific writer and group figurehead) over time the touring Moodies have become very much 'Justin's band' (making his 'Don't ask me...I know nothing about anything' act during the Patrick Moraz court case all the more absurd - Justin really runs that band , and has done so since 1978) - a fans forum is full of female fans who adore 'their' Justin...and I have read that the attention being given more and more to Justin was actually beginning to slightly annoy the rest of the band as early as 1972 so if Justin would be agreeable to sharing the spotlight with his ex-bandmates...where many eyes would be on Mike and also Ray (if he's fit enough) is probably the key issue - Justin might be fine about it of course (hopefully - fingers crossed)... tho' in interviews he's forever 'bigging up' the 80's as being THE all important era for The Moodies as a band and for those era fans etc... (which is nonsense really re the albums isn't it ?) I'm NOT having any kind of dig at Justin here, but over time the group has evolved more and more into his band - which he has led of course - so if he'd be as 'up' for it as John and Graeme apparently are... .....is really the biggest 'Question' (never mind 'hate and death and war...')
As much as I like EGBDF and love The Story In Your Eyes, when I hear the piano bit at the end of song, I can't help but think of the theme to the '60's American TV sitcom "The Munsters".
Each were interviews for radio, conducted a few years before I also starting writing for The Maine Edge.
I think 'EGBDF' was the last of the classic Moodies LP's I bought, in 1987. I really liked the sleeve and suspected that I was really going to enjoy it when I finally managed to get a vinyl copy. It's a hugely opulent/dense sounding record, possibly done on 16 track? it sounds much more expensive than it's predecessors. Sadly though, IMHO, it's generally the weakest of the seven in terms of songwriting, again John Lodge's songs are pretty undistinguished ('Emily's Song' I find highly saccarine, and 'One More Time To Live' is an epic clunker IMHO). Much as though I love Mike Pinder's contributions, the concluding 'Our Song' (as was 'Melancholy Man' on the previous LP) is highly overblown. The standout song, and worth the price of admittance on it's own has to be 'You Can Never Go Home', outstanding. I have the SACD on at the moment, and the quad mix is interesting, but not one of the best either. Having managed to get a nice copy of the 1980's 'This Is The Moody Blues' 2CD this week, and having been utterly blown away by how good it sounds (it's worth it just for that few seconds of stratosphetic Hayward vocal at the end of 'The Actor', previously mixed down), I now suspect I'm going to have the buy the whole lot again on the old discs.
I was overjoyed when the song finally got into the concert lineup, it was a couple years ago when that happened, maybe a tad longer. From my concert experiences seeing these guys (and I have seen them a bunch), the last time they played it in concert was shortly after EGBDF was released in the Summer of 1971.
