As I sit and type this blog I am listening to the first, second and fifth cuts on the MOODY BLUES’ ninth ‘Theme’ album LONG DISTANCE VOYAGER (Their tenth if you want to count “THE MAGNIFICENT MOODIES debut album) HERE!!! have a listen so you know what I am experiencing. HIT ESCAPE if music is already playing on the main blog page …. then (RIGHT CLICK) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nCYC5DXnGMA and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-eDDmPCv6Cw and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-umqM9R8cnI
The strange thing is I have re-listened to nearly every tune from EVERY album the Moody blues recorded between 1967 and 1992 in the last three days. I have reviewed in my mind how each song fit into my personal sojourn thru those years. (I think I must be being influenced by the title of album seven—The SEVENTH SOJOURN)… I have just been SO CURIOUS… wanting to…, No…NEEDING to remind myself exactly why I so love the Moody Blues…. Is it Mike Pinders “mellotron”, or his keyboard/flute duets with Ray Thomas…Is it Justin Haywards fabulous lead vocals or John Lodge’s rock and roll influences?…Who has not sat spell bound at Graehm Edge’s poetry? I found myself singing, reciting, reliving their music from my morning shower…to falling asleep on the floor with my worn vinyl Moodies albums scattered about me on the carpet in front of a vintage turn table at 1 am…..
WHAT was it that brought on this THIRST to relearn…review…RE-LIVE,…and just comprehend more deeply this marvelous Classical Rock and Roll band? After all, I have grown up listening to their music, enjoying their evolution, and basking in their emotion. What is it??? I ask, that evokes in us this profound desire to expand our sense of understanding about ANYTHING we encounter–exponentially? What is it that INSPIRES us to first think of…then casually enjoy…then take a deeper interest, before we immerse ourselves completely with abandon into a topic…even until we reach a state where our senses are overwhelmed…then completely satiated and our mind fulfilled by a feeling of DEEP understanding and nearly ADDICTIVE enjoyment?
I recall once asking how many could name the BEACH BOYS in a blog… (right click) http://thotman.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!90B6042A632BD161!6371.entry …realizing that nearly everyone can name each of the BEATLES, I began to wonder who had loved the Beach Boys even enough to KNOW THEIR NAMES….What followed in that blog was probably a pseudo professorial lecture about Brian, Carl, & Dennis Wilson, Mike Love and Al Jardine…a few lamentations about the sadness-es in their history and a celebration of some of the greatest creativity since the beginning of time. So When a long ago classmate mentioned that her mother’s life would be celebrated with music by the Moody Blues, I started first, to just pick a few tunes out that might suggest why her mother had liked them….but as I began to listen, I realized that a few tunes couldn’t really explain it any better than reading a recipe can convey the flavor of pasta alla carbonara…or the texture of broiled lamb with a Cabernet sauce.
So the next thing I know I am getting out the mixing bowls, recipe books and have decided that the only way I could really FEEL the MOODY MAGIC, let alone share it with anyone else would to cook up a batch of their finest recordings and turn up the speakers so the whole world could listen along and taste my excitement…WHY?…well, I have found that hearing music alone is just NOT like when you are sharing it with a crowd…Probably the only time I have ever liked the idea that Two or THREE is a ‘crowd’…. Anyway…as I began to listen I just got caught up in this whole WANTING TO KNOW paradigm…and I ended up reading everything I could find about the MOODY BLUES, reviewing interviews, reading question and answer pages to find out WHERE the various band members are NOW, who they married and what their individual histories are…… Discovering how each of them contributed to the various songs I was rolling over in my mind like medium rare lamb on the tongue. It has been a WONDERFUL few days of melodic joy…watching my MOODIES at RED RED ROCKS DVD…playing their BEST OF CDs in my truck…spinning the old LPs…finding the best “you tube” videos…and reading online lyrics as I sing along… even writing a BLOG…sheesh, I really gotta get out more…
You see…I guess I just fell victim to the need to tell someone how alive it makes me feel to get as deep into a topic as my shallow mind will allow… and be so excited about it that just maybe someone else will CARE when I start into a rant a bit about how wonderful “ON the THRESHOLD OF A DREAM” really is…or mention that EVERY GOOD BOY DESERVES FAVOUR only has THREE songs that I really Like… MAYBE they won’t roll their eyes when I tell them that ‘Highway’ and ‘This is the moment’ weren’t on any album. They may say….No I didn’t…, when I ask if they knew that ‘No more Lies” comes from SUR LA MER http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KX5-9w1cx60
Everyone has heard of DAYS OF FUTURE PASSED…Some have heard of IN SEARCH of the LOST CHORD and THRESHOLD…..or….. A QUESTION of BALANCE… .. The SEVENTH SOJOURN….or OCTAVE ..Maybe they’ve heard something from THE OTHER SIDE OF LIFE… or THE PRESENT or SUR LA MER or KEYS OF THE KINGDOM ….SOME however will tell OUR CHILDREN’S CHILDREN’S CHILDREN about a discovery they made during their life…when they discovered a few English musicians who got together and created MAGIC for the soul which they TOO can experience, just by hearing …no….savoring some of the finest combinations of ideas and melody to ever be called music.
OH,…. I do love the Moody Blues… I think that the more I KNOW of them and the more complete my understanding of their music becomes…the MORE I delite in their human complexity…and their magnificent simplicity….
At the end of EVERY show, their LAST encore is always THIS classic…
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