The Moody Blues - Playlist Plus (2008)

With the release of 1967's Days of Future Passed, the Moody Blues left behind their R&B origins and emerged as pioneers of Britain's emerging art rock sound. A richly imagined concept album that fused classical music with rock, Days of Future Passed arrived less than six months after the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band to an audience already primed to embrace such a progressive work. What's more, it was a hit on both sides of the Atlantic thanks to its dreamy singles "Nights in White Satin" and "Tuesday Afternoon," establishing the Moodies as both a commercially viable and deeply creative unit. Over subsequent releases like 1968's In Search of the Lost Chord and 1969's On the Threshold of a Dream, they developed into a five-man orchestra of rock mystics, creating music that was challenging enough to please the psychedelic crowd, but still accessible to mainstream radio listeners. Their initial run lasted until 1972 and yielded hits like "Ride My See-Saw," "The Story in Your Eyes," and "Isn't Life Strange." While they were unable to maintain the success of their late-'60s dominance, the Moodies later reintroduced themselves to the MTV generation with synth-driven '80s hits like "Your Wildest Dreams" and "I Know You're Out There Somewhere." Over the subsequent decades they remained a popular touring act, putting a unique stamp on their legacy by joining local orchestras on the road and offering audiences the full extent of their dense arrangements. By the 21st century, the Moodies had more or less ceased recording new material and instead focused on touring and reissuing their ample back catalog. As the 2010s drew to a close, punctuated by their 2018 induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, most of the band's original members had either retired or passed away, leaving behind an impressive body of music.

The group was formed in early 1964 by Ray Thomas (harmonica, flute, vocals) and Mike Pinder (keyboards, vocals), who had previously played together in a couple of local Birmingham bands. They began recruiting members from rival groups including Denny Laine (vocals, guitar), Graeme Edge (drums), and Clint Warwick (bass, vocals). The Moody Blues, as they came to be known, made their debut in Birmingham in May of that year and quickly secured the services of manager Tony Secunda. A tour was booked and the band soon landed an engagement at the Marquee Club, which helped them earn a contract with London-based Decca Records less than six months after their formation. Released in September of 1964, their debut single, "Steal Your Heart Away," failed to chart, but their follow-up, a cover of the American singer Bessie Banks' R&B song "Go Now," fulfilled every expectation and more, reaching number one in England and earning them a berth in some of the nation's top performing venues. When it also made the Top Ten in the U.S., the Moodies were offered a support slot opening for the Beatles in America. Decca then greenlit the recording of the band's first LP, The Magnificent Moodies, which appeared in July 1965. A well-made set of R&B and Merseybeat cuts with vocals shared by Laine, Thomas, and Pinder, the album hit the New Musical Express chart, but failed to register elsewhere. Coming up with a suitable follow-up single to "Go Now" proved a difficult task and they eventually settled on "From the Bottom of My Heart," a subtly soulful and haunting original that, despite its quality, only reached number 22 in the U.K. and barely brushed the Top 100 in America. Ultimately, the grind of touring, coupled with the strains facing the group, became too much for Warwick, who exited in the spring of 1966. By August of that year, Laine had left as well, effectively ending the band's original iteration. Despite losing two primary members, the Moodies opted to soldier on, bringing newcomers Justin Hayward (vocals, guitar) and John Lodge (vocals, bass) into the group.

A transitional period ensued as the band began to move away from its R&B roots into a more psychedelic pop sound on singles like Hayward's "Fly Me High" and Pinder's "Really Haven't Got the Time," both produced by Decca staffer Tony Clarke. With their Decca contract nearing its expiration date and the Moodies owing the label a significant sum in unrecouped advances and session fees, a solution presented itself in the form of a new technology. To complete with the emerging stereo market, Decca had come up with its own "Deramic Stereo," a format which offered a wide swath of sound, coupled with superbly clean and rich recording. Hoping to entice both their classical and rock audiences, the label proposed the recording of a rock version of Dvorák's New World Symphony to serve as its own hi-fi marketing tool. The Moodies, who had yet to produce a second LP, were chosen for this unique showcase. Over the previous year, the band had made a strong enough impression with A&R man Hugh Mendl and producer Tony Clarke that they were able to negotiate an entirely different project altogether, albeit along the same lines. Instead of Dvorák's music, the band conceived an original song cycle depicting an archetypal day's events represented through rock songs and set within a classical framework. Produced by Clarke and featuring the orchestrations of conductor/arranger Peter Knight, Days of Future Passed was released in November 1967. After a slow start, the album climbed the U.K. charts thanks in part to the success of Hayward's songs "Nights in White Satin" and "Tuesday Afternoon." Cited as one of the first progressive rock albums, Days of Future Passed reintroduced the Moodies as a serious rock group stocked with multiple singer/songwriters and a unique vision that would carry them into their most successful period.

Their debt wiped out and their music now in demand, the group went to work on a follow-up record and in short order delivered 1968's In Search of the Lost Chord, which was configured somewhat differently from its predecessor. Though Decca was pleased with Days of Future Passed's success, they were unwilling to finance full-blown orchestral sessions as a regular occurrence for the group. In order to simulate the symphonic sound of its predecessor, In Search of the Lost Chord saw the Moodies lean into their own multi-instrumentalism with a particular focus on the Mellotron. An organ-like keyboard instrument that utilized tape loops of orchestral instruments, the Mellotron was already a staple of Pinder's arsenal and through multitracking, he was able to simulate a pseudo-symphonic sound with an eerie psychedelic bent, particularly on standouts like Thomas' Timothy Leary tribute "Legend of a Mind" and his own "Best Way to Travel." 1969's On the Threshold of a Dream was a similarly creative achievement, with a mixture of psychedelic rock, chamber orchestrations, poetry reading, and songs that bled seamlessly into one another. Released later that same year, To Our Children's Children's Children inaugurated the Moodies' own imprint, Threshold Records, and yielded the rock-oriented "Gypsy," one of the album's only songs to translate well on-stage. The heavily layered sound they were able to achieve in the studio had, by this point, become increasingly difficult to replicate in concert as a five-piece group, and their concerts accordingly focused on the songs with more stripped-down arrangements.

Beginning with 1970's A Question of Balance, the Moodies put a greater emphasis on recording arrangements that they could play on-stage, stripping down their sound a bit by reducing their reliance on overdubbing and, in the process, toughening up their sound. After On the Threshold of a Dream, it was the second of their albums to top the British charts. Every Good Boy Deserves Favour followed in 1971 with similar results, giving them yet another chart-topper. As work commenced on their next album, the strain of touring and recording steadily for five years had begun to take its toll. Sessions were often fraught, though the resulting album was one of their best. Led by the Lodge singles "Isn't Life Strange" and "I'm Just a Singer (In a Rock and Roll Band)," Seventh Sojourn was released in October 1972 to strong reviews and a number one chart placement in the U.S. In a strange twist of fate, Decca chose this time to reissue the Moodies' 1967 single "Nights in White Satin," which became an even bigger hit the second time around and outperformed their new songs on the charts.

Despite their increasing fatigue, the band endured a massive world tour that ended in early 1974. It was mutually decided that the Moodies would take a hiatus, leaving members to alternately recuperate or explore their own endeavors. Later that year a successful double-disc compilation, This Is the Moody Blues, helped fill the gap and was followed in 1975 by the Hayward and Lodge duo record Blue Jays, along with Edge's solo debut. Pinder and Thomas offered up their own solo outings in 1976. In 1977, five years after Seventh Sojourn, the Moodies reunited to record their ninth album together. Although all five members participated in the sessions for Octave, there were numerous stressors during its recording, and Pinder decided to leave midway through. Former Yes keyboardist Patrick Moraz replaced him on tour and the album was ultimately a success, though it marked a turning point in the band's overall sound.

With Pinder and longtime producer Tony Clarke no longer involved, 1981's Long Distance Voyager ushered the Moodies into the next decade with an appropriately synthesizer-led sound. Recorded at their own Threshold Studios, it performed better than its predecessor, topping the U.S. charts and reaching number seven in the U.K. behind the hits "Gemini Dream" and "The Voice." Two years later, The Present yielded just one Top 40 track in Hayward's "Blue World" but was otherwise a commercial disappointment. The Moodies more than made up for it in 1986 when the sublime "Your Wildest Dreams" returned them to chart success and mainstream relevance. An uptempo synth pop song with a glowing melody, "Your Wildest Dreams" thematically recalled "Nights in White Satin" in its evocation of romance, passion, and nostalgia. The single -- along with its accompanying Tony Visconti-produced album The Other Side of Life -- was a Top Ten hit in the U.S. Its follow-up, "I Know You're Out There Somewhere," from 1988's Sur la Mer was a lesser but still impressive commercial success, with an even better secondary melodic theme. The two combined gave the Moodies an essential and memorable pair of mid-decade hits, boosting their concert attendance and shoring up their contemporary repertoire.

By the start of the '90s, however, their star had again begun to fade. With Moraz gone, the core group was reduced to a quartet, with salaried keyboard players augmenting their work. While 1991's Keys of the Kingdom failed to make much of an impact, the Moodies' reputation as a live act preceded them and they underwent a series of very successful tours in which they performed on-stage -- for the first time -- with regional orchestras, allowing them to perform even their most ambitious material. 1993's A Night at Red Rocks with the Colorado Symphony Orchestra captured this new surge in their live career. 1994's Time Traveller, a career-spanning four-disc boxed set, also helped bolster their legacy, as did a spate of greatest-hits collections. They ended the '90s with Strange Times, a relatively lightweight studio effort which would be Thomas' last with the band. After 2000's Hall of Fame live album, Thomas retired from the group, leaving Hayward, Lodge, and Edge to run the ship.

They managed just one more studio album, 2003's Christmas-themed December, and continued to tour regularly well into the 2010s. They even made their Glastonbury Festival debut in 2015. Ray Thomas died on January 4, 2018, and the Moodies were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame just a few months later, giving what would end up being their final performance. Drummer Graeme Edge, who had the longest tenure in the group, died on November 11, 2021, at the age of 80. ~ Timothy Monger & Bruce Eder