Cool find on the Telecaster. Not sure about the oscillator being used but that is a good point and is pretty convincing argument. I read that a cello was used for Departure and was enhanced with studio enhancements. Listen to it again. Also the cello was used for the creaking doors on "House of 4 Doors". It was not a canned sound effect.
Yes. The entire track is a sonic puzzle. The opening of the track is a couple bass notes. The glissando sounds like piano and ??????
The 2cd edition includes a remix of "departure", an early flute solo on "Legend", a few more live tracks. Worth seeking out if can still find!
This is my favorite album of theirs, and is the one I would direct someone to if they were looking for a starting point to get into the Moodies. Seventh Sojourn may be a little stronger from a songs standpoint for me, but this is the best put together album, and their most colourful. The pressing my Dad had was an original (or one of the first) Canadian Deram issues with red & white labels. It was the first album I ever encountered that didn't have physical gaps/dividers between the songs. That makes perfect sense to me, as this is an album to be consumed a side at a time. "Departure" used to freak me out when I was a kid. First, the opening chord would startle me, and then Graeme's laughter would make my toes curl. My faves here are "Legend Of A Mind" and "The Actor". "The Best Way To Travel" is really under rated, and "Om" is an outstanding album closer. Both of those songs would have been great live stretched out for a few minutes longer, if the Moodies were that kind of band. Regarding the comments about Justin not being the focal point of the album, here's a video from that period where he's actually in the back row. Gotta love his guitar playing here, though.
Great album. It must have been my third Moodies purchase, after Threshold (on 2 Jan '70) and DoFP (on 7 Mar). Since I bought Children's Children on the weekend of the Apollo 13 drama, right when it came out (and also after seeing them perform Question on TV), this one must have been in between. My first impression was a little lower than my later opinion, since I found Voices in the Sky and Visions of Paradise too mellow. On the other hand, the House of Four Doors / Legend of a Mind trio was excellent and I also was very favourable to The Actor, The Best Way to Travel and Ride My See-Saw. The last I had heard on the radio when it was out (though not a lot), and the previous one on my list I also heard on the radio but on FM not long before I bought the LP. House of Four Doors remains my favourite track BUT Simple Game is my second-favourite Moodies track (and Story in Your Eyes might not be that untouchable), so I'm wondering why it wasn't put on the LP as a contrast to the mellower tracks, and left for me to discover only in the 1980s. It certainly would have become my favourite.
Having gotten into the Moodies through a friend's This Is The Moody Blues double CD way back when, In Search of the Lost Chord was the first studio album of theirs I bought on CD, and it remains one of my two favorites. It's wonderful from start to finish, featuring the talents of all four writers and singers, has a wide variety of songs, and is very progressive and experimental. What a record!!
This TV show, "Ce soir on danse", is almost legendary as it's the only evidence we have of the band's live act in the time between Days and Lost Chord (the recording date is a mystery, but is likely early 1968, around the time "Legend of a Mind" was recorded). They're still doing several Denny Laine-era tunes, and there's a long lost John Lodge song called "A Beautiful Dream" (I assume — it's pretty hard to make out any of the lyrics). It's on part 2 of the show: THE MOODY BLUES -PART 2 LIVE IN CONCERT 1968-FRENCH TV-
Hayward speaks "The Word". I have absolutely loved this album my whole life. Very fond memories of listening to it as a child with my late mother who played all those great Moodies records for me. Probably my favorite of the 'core 7' or at least neck-and-neck with EGBDF.
That's amazing! If you're right, this solves a decades-old mystery for me. Now, backing up to Days for moment for another sonic mystery — on "The Sunset", what's making that tabla-like variable pitch percussion sound that's tracking the bass throughout?
I was not aware of this album until the early 90's when I was searching for the album that has the hit song "Go Now." Before discovering this album, I thought "Days of Future Passed" was their debut.
yeah, we've got the Moody Blues equivalent of the aaaaaaaah controversy! only it's definitely Mike Pinder on The Word ____________ In Search of the Lost Chord is my third favourite MB album, after Children and Favour, but that's thanks to the latter ones being extremely satiated sonically, which I'm very fond of in a strange way. Lost Chord is for me the most adventurous of the Moody Blues albums composition-wise. It breathes deep with the open song structures and wild chord progressions. It also seems very sunny to me, obviously naive too, but in a charming way. Golden one-liner from this one: then in our hearts the light broke through - could be a good summery (pun intended) of the entire Moody Blues catalogue ___________ and a YT link from me too - Voices In the Sky, mimed but still adorable:
If you compare the opening voice from "In the Beginning" (the "I think, I think I am...' line) from On the Threshold of A Dream album (which IS Hayward speaking) to the voice on "The Word", it's the same voice. Pinder's voice is a tad deeper.