The Moody Blues Revisited

 

It looks like I covered this band – back in 2008.  At that time I’d only digested three of their albums, and none of the solo albums – nor had I seen them live.  As it is, the band has 16 studio albums, starting with The Magnificent Moodies (1965) and finishing up with December (2003), a Christmas album.  Of the individual band members, Justin Hayward (singer/guitarist) has 8 solo albums, John Lodge (singer/bassist) has 3, including the most recent release (2015) of any band member, 10,000 Light Years Ago, and two each by Graeme Edge (drummer), Mike Pinder (keyboardist), and Ray Thomas (flutist).  

The band started out as a mediocre rhythm & blues band, guitar & vocals handled by Denny Laine and bass played by Clint Warwick.  They had one album, The Magnificent Moodies, and one hit single, “Go Now”, which Ozzy Osbourne covered. 

Prog Phase. But this direction wasn’t feeling right.   They dumped Laine & Warwick, replaced them with Hayward and Lodge, and swerved into the prog rock direction with a concept album, Days of Future Passed (1967).  Like In the Court of the Crimson King with King Crimson, the first is arguably the best.  The album covers the hours of the day, from morning to night.  “White satin” refers to a gift of white satin bedsheets Hayward received and found impractical.  The Mellotron is heavily featured in the album along with classical orchestration.  The overall impact is epic.  I tend to combine it with In The Court of the Crimson King (1969) and Pink Floyd’s Atom Heart Mother (1970) for a prog rock trio listening experience. 

The following albums, In Search of the Lost Chord (1968), On The Threshold of a Dream (1969), To Our Children’s Children’s Children (1969) [I don’t think any band members have great-grandchildren yet], A Question of Balance (1970), Every Good Boy Deserves Favour (1971), and Seventh Sojourn (1972), continued the prog rock theme, with varying levels of competence and enthusiasm.  While not really psychedelic, the band did pay homage to Timothy Leary on “Legend of a Mind” on Lost Chord.  Of the original series of prog albums, I would put Days of Future Passed at #1, Seventh Sojourn a strong #2, On The Threshold of a Dream a distant third, and the rest are OK.  They are all on Spotify, but here’s something nice: with the exception of Lost Chord, they are all available as not merely digitally remastered, but the disc is dual layer, with CD players reading the CD audio layer, and a 5.1 Surround mix on the disc as well, which DVD players can read.  Moreover, Days, Lost Chord, and Children have a bonus disc – single mixes, out-takes, demos, and “live in the studio” kind of items.  This is material you’re likely to listen to far less often than the album itself.  Kudos to the band for making the 5.1 mix so easily accessible instead of part of a $100 boxed set. 

Hiatus & Solo Albums.  The band had a rather lengthy hiatus between Seventh Sojourn and Octave, during which time the various members set about doing solo albums.  Hayward and Lodge teamed up together with their first (Blue Jays), and then veered off separately.  After that the members alternated from MB to solo here and there.  I find the later solo albums to be as commercial as the contemporaneous MB albums.  None are absolute stinkers, but most will be interesting to listen to once or twice out of curiosity but not deserve the regular rotation that Days and Seventh Sojourn enjoy – at least for me.

Return and the Rest.  With Octave (1978), the band resumed its career, albeit moving away from a prog flavor and pushing heavily into a pop/commercial direction.  These were Long Distance Voyager (1981), The Present (1983), The Other Side of Life (1986), Sur La Mer (1988), Keys of the Kingdom (1991), Strange Times (1999), and the aforementioned December (2003).  Of these, I found The Present to be the strongest, with the rest being fairly snoozeworthy; not bad, but not particularly memorable.   

Isle of Wight 1970.  When Woodstock rolled around in August 1969, the Moody Blues were off in Europe touring – a decision they later regretted.  When the Isle of Wight Festival came round, they were determined to attend, and did.  I have the DVD of the performance.  Setlist:   Gypsy; Tuesday Afternoon; Never Comes The Day; Tortoise And The Hare; Question; The Sunset; Melancholy Man; Nights in White Satin; Legend of the Mind; Encore: Ride My See Saw.  Obviously I couldn’t make that show (just a baby at the time). 

I managed to see them live, at DAR Constitution Hall in Washington, DC, on March 26, 2010 (after I wrote my prior blog).  Setlist: The Voice; The Day We Meet Again; Steppin’ in a Slide Zone; Gypsy; Tuesday Afternoon; Lean On Me (Tonight); Never Comes The Day; Peak Hour; I Know You’re Out There Somewhere; The Story In Your Eyes; Your Wildest Dreams; Isn’t Life Strange; The Other Side of Life; Driftwood; Higher and Higher; Are You Sitting Comfortably?; I’m Just A Singer (In A Rock’n’Roll Band); Late Lament; Nights in White Satin; Question; encore: Ride My See-Saw.    That’s 12 songs from Days through Seventh Sojourn (none from Magnificent Moodies), and 9 from Octave and later.  Ray Thomas and Mike Pinder were long gone.  Edge was there on the stage with a drum kit, but a second (younger) drummer was also on stage doing most of the heavy lifting.  Since the Moody Blues aren’t generally known for having two drummers, live or in the studio, I suspect the new guy was there to get the job done and Edge was permitted to pretend to be playing along – maybe his drums weren’t plugged in (!).  Hayward and Lodge were front and center getting most of the work done, confidently so. 

Genesis comparison.  By now we’re familiar with the Phil Collins era of highly commercial music.  Of course, you’ll hear plenty of advice to seek out the prior prog phase with Peter Gabriel.  Well, I listened to all of them – From Genesis To Revelation (1969) through The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway (1974) (the last of the Peter Gabriel albums), and even indulged in the next two, A Trick of the Tail and Wind & Wuthering, the last with (guitarist) Steve Hackett.   So far as I could tell, “Fifth of Firth” from Selling England By The Pound, was the strongest, heaviest song, on which Hackett can actually be heard playing.  The rest was …(disgusted face by either Dan Levy or Kirsten Wiig).  I recently had the pleasure of reading a heavy volume on Hawkwind, Days of The Underground, by Joe Banks.  In addition to reviewing the band’s albums from the self-titled debut through Levitation, there are interviews with band members, Doug Smith (manager), Stacia (dancer), and Michael Moorcock, the famous sci-fi author.  He’s asked why Hawkwind was the only band he had any substantial collaboration with, since prog bands are well known for having sci-fi/fantasy themes.   His response is that he found prog bands to be unbearably pretentious, and Hawkwind were notable for being not pretentious at all.  When it comes to being pretentious, I would put Genesis at the top of the list.  Moreover, bands like Pink Floyd at least give us some razor sharp guitar work from David Gilmour – or some nice psychedelia like Piper at the Gates of Dawn.  What Genesis gives us is 100% pretention and 0% any backbone. 

Where do the Moody Blues fit into this equation?  Well, I start from a core musical preference of hard rock.  My favorite two bands are AC/DC and Black Sabbath.  So my excursion into prog music is inevitably going to be judged on a standard of that nature, even if the two genres are far apart from each other.  The net result is that a prog band has to have some hint or element of heaviness in there somewhere.  King Crimson certainly does; and Pink Floyd get it done as well - as do Camel, of course.  The Moody Blues, thanks to some excellent guitar work from Justin Hayward – the heaviest songs being on Seventh Sojourn – manage to cross that threshold and keep my attention.  “Ride My See Saw” and “I’m Just A Singer (In A Rock’n’Roll Band)” serve the purpose of up-tempo rock songs.  Also, the band has a fair amount of humor injected into the equation and don’t take themselves nearly as seriously as you would expect from a prog band.  So I can count the Moody Blues as a prog band that I genuinely enjoy, even if I’m not inclined to listen to all of their material over and over again.  Your mileage may vary….

Pint Glasses

 

Sorry, no Friday the Thirteenth angle here.  When it comes to horror, my sole inclination is along the lines of H.P. Lovecraft: cosmic horror of the truly bizarre.  This business of a serial killer bores me (affected yawn).  “If it bleeds, we can kill it” (Pre-dater).  Anyhow.

I’ve noted that I collect various things:  concert t-shirts, guitars, CDs & vinyl, soccer jerseys, and pint glasses.  I suppose you could say I have a collection of collections – a collection collection.  However, I make it a point only to collect things with some intrinsic value.  You can listen to a CD or vinyl, wear a soccer jersey, or drink from a pint glass.  None of these are things you collect for the sake of collecting and maybe selling later.  I see these Funko Pop! dolls with the oversized heads at the comic book stores and wonder, “what practical purpose do these have?  What can you do with them?”  Put them on the shelf, I suppose.  Or keep them in the box they came in and collect them.  If you can’t take it out of the box for fear of destroying their value, that kind of defeats the purpose.  Now you’re simply collecting for the sake of collecting.  That strikes me as extravagant, but hey – it’s your money.  Spend it however you like. 

I like beer & cider.  I’m not an alcoholic, and never have been.  No one in my family is, so genetically I lucked out.  I can have a beer at dinner somewhere, stop there, enjoy my dinner, and by the time it’s time to get behind the wheel (or in the saddle) and go home, I’m fine.  I’ve never had a DUI and don’t intend to start.

Accordingly, my tolerance for alcohol doesn’t seem to have changed since college, which is that 4 year drinking program interrupted by classes and exams.  1-2 beers gets me buzzed, 4-6 will get me drunk.  I’ve never passed out.  It seems I get full before I get that far.

I don’t like drinking from bottles or cans.  I prefer to pour the drink into a pint glass and drink it that way.  If I’m at a restaurant or bar, I request a pint glass if I’m not already drinking a draft.  And that extends to home.

The prior weekend I visited CD Cellar in Falls Church, not with the express intention of buying anything, but just out of boredom and curiosity: to see what was there.  You never know what you might find if you keep your eyes and mind open.  They had a Pink Floyd Wish You Were Here pint glass for $10.  Nice! 

When it came time to wash it, I realized that putting it in the dishwasher might be a bad idea.  I’ve had several pint glasses with printed designs wear off, presumably due to that treatment.   So I’ll wash it by hand and let it dry.  We’ll see.

Lately I’ve noticed a new trend in pint glass designs.  I have a few TOOL glasses, a University of Maryland Terps glass, and a DOWN (Corrosion of Conformity/Pantera/Crowbar crossover group) glass.  What they all have in common is that the design is not painted on, but etched.  Very clever!  No way, no how, is any amount of cleaning going to remove that etching from the glass – it’s permanent.  Yet it’s also very easy to see and recognize.  Granted, that puts colors out of the equation, but I’d say that’s a fair compromise. 

Mind you, you don’t have to drink alcoholic beverages from a pint glass.  Water, soda, green tea etc. all work perfectly well.  Of course, none of those will get you drunk.

Notables:  TOOL (Fear Inoculum, 10,000 Days, Lateralus, AENima), King Crimson (Discipline, Larks Tongues in Aspic, Red), Clutch (x2), Tun Tavern (USMC Museum), Rutgers, NYU, West Point, University of Maryland, Coors (from the brewery itself), Narragansett.  The Filling Station in Chelsea Market in Manhattan sells their mason jar variants when you buy a beer.  Dead & Company sell variants of their Dave’s Pick’s.  As the picture shows, I keep them chilled in my freezer.  My diet of frozen food is mostly chicken and taquitos, taking up a minority of space, leaving the majority free for my collection of beer & cider receptacles. 

If there’s one downside to a pint glass, it’s that you can definitely drink much faster than out of a can or bottle.  A good thing or a bad thing?  I’m not quite sure.   Let me have another drink and think about it…

Twisted & Biblical

 

For Christmas I received several books – which were on my Amazon wishlist.   Two of these I’ve finished:  Twisted Business and Biblical.

Twisted Business:  Lessons From My Live In Rock’n’Roll, by Jay Jay French and Steve Farber.  JJF was the rhythm guitarist for heavy metal band Twisted Sister.   He actually formed it in the early 1970s (March 20, 1973 was their first show), but due to a tragically comic array of circumstances, the band didn’t get its first record,  Under The Blade, out until September 1, 1982.  Then its heyday of albums, tours, and notoriety lasted until its fifth album, Love Is For Suckers, released August 13, 1987.and their last show before breaking up, October 10, 1987, at the Orpheum Theater in Minneapolis, Minnesota.  Stay Hungry is by far their most popular album, the one which catapulted them to fame, and contains their best known hits, “I Want A Rock” and “We’re Not Gonna Take It”.   We managed to see them in Paris (4/28/86 at the Casino, the only show we saw at that fairly modest venue), and in Washington, DC at the Warner Theater (9/30/87).  A series of massive miscalculations (more clearly articulated in the book) explain how the band crashed and burned at that time.   JJF had to declare bankruptcy and find some other work to do – which eventually resulted in him producing and managing Sevendust. 

Dee Snider.  From Long Island, New York.  As not only the singer, but also extremely outspoken, Snider served as the de facto “mouth” of the band for much of their peak period, though he was not the original singer; he joined sometime in 1976.  According to JJF, the band members didn’t get along with each other very well, but years after the breakup, somehow managed to patch things up between them.  French himself made certain at an early point in the band’s career to secure the sole rights to the band name.

Drugs.  JJF is quite open about his initial history as not merely a drug user, but dealer.  This contrasts with Twisted Sister, an in-your-face heavy metal band not known for drugs or psychedelia, specifically because JJF abruptly went cold turkey AND insisted on a no drugs or alcohol policy in the band, as his own experiences with drugs, and the impact they had on bands, told him to avoid that.  And of course the band’s demise had nothing to do with drugs.

That being the case, he does have a remarkable array of war stories to tell about his experiences, especially with LSD.  These were interesting in and of themselves.  He found the Grateful Dead to be intolerable as a live band once he quit doing drugs, which is not hard to imagine.  Albums like American Beauty, with short and simple songs, are easy enough to enjoy sober, but a 3+ hour Dead show with extended jams pushes into territory where some form of herbal or chemical enhancement may be necessary to endure, much less enjoy and appreciate. 

Business.  At some point JJF realized that for the band to succeed, someone needed to exercise some form of control and common sense about money.  Although bands have managers for this reason, if all the band members (cough cough, Black Sabbath) are clueless about money, it’s too easy for the manager to either ruin everything or steal their money.  So teaching himself business and taking an active role in managing the band fell into his lap by default and necessity, and he discovered a natural aptitude for it.  In fact, he recognized it as a skill set which applies outside the rock business, and which he reduced to several principles conveniently in the form of T W I S T E D.

Tenacity.   Don’t give up simply because things get tough.

Wisdom.    Don’t be stupid.

Inspiration.  Use your imagination.

Stability.   Keep your act together.

Trust.  You have to be able to trust your business associates (band members).  And above all, you have to earn and keep their trust – it’s a two-way street, which many people don’t seem to realize.

Excellence.   You have to know what you’re doing.  Hone the basic skills which are the substance of your business.  For musicians, this usually means practicing your instrument constantly.

Discipline.  This means keeping yourself and your comrades behaving properly and keeping your eyes on the prize. 

As you can see, these are more philosophical principles than business ideals.  However, they’re pertinent and sensible, a good set for anyone to follow in their daily lives. 

Overall very intriguing, but the gist of it is 25% war stories and behind the scenes backstory on what was going on with Twisted Sister (and why they crashed and burned), and 75% articulation of these principles which he learned the hard way and considers valuable and applicable to people in their daily lives.  Since I only had a vague knowledge about the band outside its peak era, the history part was illuminating in its own right and very much a fun read (especially the acid stories).  Actually I found the music element to be far more interesting than the business element.

***

Biblical: Heavy Metal Scriptures, by Rob Halford.  Halford, of course, is the singer for Judas Priest, one of the more popular and famous heavy metal bands, originally from Birmingham, England (though drummer Scott Travis is from Norfolk, Virginia).  His prior book, Confess, was his autobiography, with lots and lots of details about his homosexuality.  Technically he only “came out” after leaving Judas Priest in 1992, but for many fans he was already “out”, and his official acknowledgement was more confirming what everyone – with any discernable “gaydar” – already knew.  Remaining officially in the closet, however, he had to remain discreet about his lifestyle, so all the tricks of remaining in the closet and “cruising” (this business where repressed homosexuals give each other subtle clues to alert that they’re up for slap and tickle) were likewise articulated at length in Confess.   All that was TMI for me.

Having gotten all that out in the open, now his goal is to wax poetic about literally every aspect of heavy metal:  album covers, songs, setlists, managers, producers, tours, tour buses, groupies, merchandise, etc.  It’s set up in a quasi-biblical fashion but 100% down to earth and non-spiritual.  70% of this is common knowledge which any Judas Priest fan who has been to a few shows is very much aware of; to the extent he had any deep secrets to reveal, they were in Confess.   In fact, so much of this is straightforward, it’s almost like he’s writing this for a 14 year old kid just learning about Judas Priest and music.  For my part, I found the circumstances behind each album’s creation and studio time were the areas of most interest because they were least obvious or well known.   So despite this business of telling me what I already knew, the reading experience was worthwhile all the same, and most likely of value to any Judas Priest fan of any age and experience. 

Oh, one element which is fairly substantial, and which I did not know, is that Rob Halford hates Spotify with a fierce passion.   As we may know, Spotify pays the artists a tiny percentage of a cent - not even a full cent - each time a song is played.   The result is that the artist can effectively discount Spotify as a direct source of income.  Moreover, many fans seem to use streaming sources as their exclusive means of listening to music, forgoing even downloads.  To that extent, Spotify is severely restricting the ability of musicians to make music.   Halford acknowledges that Judas Priest fans are more likely to use Spotify in addition to, not instead of, traditional formats such as vinyl and CD, but newer bands might not have the same fortune.  I'm one of those old school dinosaurs who still buys CDs; I only use Spotify to listen when I'm in a car without a CD player or on the cardio machine at the gym.  I can say I "feel your pain"/"see your point" without fully agreeing with him, as I do use Spotify myself AND still buy the music, AND see the band in concert.  If I listen to a band on Spotify I'm not familiar with already and like it, I'll tend to buy the CD and see the show.