I love all the actual songs on Days. Well, maybe not Peak Hour that much. Time To Get Away needs to be listened from the original mix!
Peak Hour has 1. Mellotron set to organ. Cool sound. 2. A cool surf guitar solo. And as an added bonus Church harmony. What's not to like? It's a cool, no, a better word for it.... Groovy song.
Love ❤️ listening to this album on headphones. A bit of mindbending time travel, red double decker bus, next stop Piccadilly Circus, neon lights ..groovy mannnn.
I first heard this album in the early 1980s, when my younger brother brought home three 8-track tapes that he found at a garage sale. Days, Every Good Boy... and Seventh Sojourn. And yes, at the time I had an 8-tack built into my stereo AND in my car. I played the heck out of those 8-tracks and eventually bought the albums. I also bought the DTS surround disk of 'Days' when it was first offered (late 1990's or early 2000's). And I loved the album all over, again. The surround version is still a favorite (although it isn't perfect). I tend to prefer Tuesday Afternoon over Nights, probably because of overplay, but maybe because I LOVE the long version of Tuesday Afternoon with Evening Time To Get Away. That whole sequence STILL give me shivers down my spine. I love Dawn is a Feeling and lately have really grown to appreciate Ray's two songs (Another Morning and Twilight Time).
Not only does the gong at the end of the album remind me of the final piano chord of the Beatles' "A Day In The Life", but "Tuesday Afternoon" itself has only recently made me think of that particular Beatles song as well. "Woke up, fell out of bed.."...." "I'm looking at myself reflections of my mind.." I know, I know, forgive me..
I like all of these songs. Wasn't "Please Think About It" from around this time as well? I like that song a lot and would love some info.. I see it's on Caught Live + 5 , which I've never heard..
As mentioned by Dylancat in post #50, Please Think About It (Pinder), and Long Summer Days (Hayward) were indeed recorded around that time. The exact recording dates are: 29/06/1967 for Please Think About It 30/05/1967 for Long Summer Days both tracks made it to the Caught Live + 5 album in 1977, and to the Prelude compilation in 1987 I'm not particularly fond of the former, but I absolutely love Long Summer Days. It obviously didn't fit the concept of Days of Future Passed, but it's sad it got disregarded. Both Long Summer Days and Please Think About It and also Fly Me High show a slightly different approach to layering the harmonies, with both John Lodge AND Ray Thomas using falsettos (later on Thomas was mostly featured in the lows alongside Pinder), it's perhaps best heard in the suspended chord at the end of the middle section of Long Summer Days, as I hear it on this pleeease it's Lodge's falsetto on top of Thomas' falsetto on top of Pinder's baritone, all of them possibly double-tracked. BTW on Peak Hour there is also a Haywardless three-part harmony throughout EDIT: I tried to use the acronym for Long Summer Days, but it proved dangerous. And I never noticed that before!
Of the newly-released Caught Live Plus 5 (and Prelude) tracks (some of which have been mentioned above), I think my favourite is Gimme a Little Something. Is it from 1968, in the In Search of the Lost Chord era?
Good work Glenn ...! (This thread.) Can't add too much to what's already been said; other than I favour my own 7-track (?) edit of Days (blasphemy!!), which fits on one CD-R along with In Search... for car listening. "Dawn Is A Feeling" "Another Morning" "Peak Hour" "Tuesday Afternoon"/"Evening Time To Get Away" "Sunset" "Twilight Time" "Nights In White Satin" (single version) ... see what I did there? No poetry! (Sorry, Graeme and Mike.) I may also do a CD-R of this version of Days... along with Prelude at some point. Prelude is like a "lost Moody Blues album". Days Of Future Passed, in the final analysis, is a classic bit of Anglophilic psychedelia -- holds up well with other classic albums of the period like Odessey & Oracle, Bee Gees' First, Piper At The Gates Of Dawn and Whiter Shade Of Pale.
Approximate, but recorded prior to the album sessions in June 1968. "Gimme" was recorded March 1968. Two other songs on Prelude were recorded early 1968 "What Am I Doing Here" January, "King and Queen" February. None of these made it on the "Lost Chord" and remained in the vaults. "Legend of a Mind" recorded in January was included in the album. "Gimme Little Something" had single quality written over it, but for whatever reason was shelved. Complete with all the qualities of the group, with a great Justin Hayward vocal and flute, it's a fine example of classic Moody Blues. "What Am I Doing Here" actually made it to live shows, but it too was consigned to storage. Another fine, quality example.
Love this band! Days of Future Passed is the start of the "core seven." It's not my favorite of the bunch. In fact, it might be least or 2nd least favorite of the bunch, but it's still a damn fine record. The two big hits are great of course, and I have always had great affection for Twilight Time and Time to Get Away.
I grew up playing Days Of Future Passed for...days. Bored me for a while because it took years until I heard Threshold/Dream. And that blew my mind from a 8 track player.
DOFP is an excellent album. Several good songs and two masterpieces: Nights in white satin and Tuesday afternoon. These two songs are probably two of the three best from the Moodies ever: beautiful melodies and arrangements, passionate vocals, production, the flute solo in Nights. I heard these right after they were released and still find them amazing today. This is not my favorite Moodies album however. Soon to come...
One aspect of the DTS mix I love: the Mellotron gets its own channel much of the time. I haven't heard it for awhile, but that's my recall.
That means a lot! Like the flute solo in California dreamin', instantly recognizable, unforgettable. Ray is a very melodic man and the flute arrangement shows it. Coming back to Ian, his flute work is legendary and thwre are many songs in which he excels. My favorite is probably Living in the past.
Still their best song. And when your older, good to reminisce. Dave Brubeck time signature I always thought.
Special mention to Tony Clarke. His production made the music more special with shimmering guitars, haunting vocals, ohs&ahs, and Mike Pinder's swirling mellotron predominant in the mix.
When I was finally told the name of the song (Nights in White Satin) in my late teens I knew I had to discover the Moody Blues in earnest. The melody, the haunting backing vocals and the general melody was something I'd heard played on the radio every now and then, anxiously waiting for the announcer to name the song. But they never did! I still believe it is one of the best songs ever written. Finally bought the core seven albums all at once at the same time I got into progressive rock, seven years ago this fall. The Days of Future Passed album was the one I took to first; it's simply one of the most well thought out, brilliantly executed albums of all time, I believe... Pop songwriting, lush string scores, a nice sixties beat/psychedelic instrumentation and pitch perfect vocals. The Mellotron is king and key to all things good about the Moody Blues; it's dusty, archaic sound sits well with the lyrics and the artwork; it's all storytelling. The early singles with Hayward and Lodge I also enjoy. Love and Beauty is a nice little pop song, but Fly Me High is a bit more enjoyable. Their R&B chops (and Pinder's Piano chops especially) also really shine on I Really Haven't Got the Time. King and Queen and Long Summer Days are also quite nice. But as I got into Days of Future Passed, one of my favorites was the B-side Cities. Psychedelic tango almost? Have not listened that close to the Denny Laine era, but what I have heard has been great. Certainly a top rate R&B band for the period. A pretty respectable cover of the James Brown classic I'll Go Crazy... It's very tough to cover Brown without it sounding too stiff and mannered, but I think the Moodies got away with it pretty OK on that one. The Moody Blues is one of my favorite groups of all time. To me they are both a time capsule and a portal into the future; the earlier albums' themes of love, spirituality and the beyond still ring true and to me are timeless questions and statements.
Quite a Moody Blues fan. I have four of their albums on SACD, Days of Future Past, On the Threshold of Dream, A Question of Balance and Seventh Sojourn. Love their harmonies. Too many great songs to list here.
Interesting to go back to 1965 and the mark 1 Moodies Laine-Pinder song; 'From The Bottom of My Heart (I Love You)' which charted as a Decca single in the UK note the gradually building up 'wailing banshee' style harmony vocals that really surge in towards the conclusion, intertwined with Ray's haunting flute that anticipates the 'classic' mark 2 Moodies surging choral harmonies later - notably on 'Nights in White Satin' two years later
