The Moody Blues Every Good Boy Deserves Favour (Vinyl, Threshold Records, 1971) ****
The Moody Blues Seventh Sojourn (Vinyl and CD, Threshold Records, 1972) *****
The Moody Blues Octave (Vinyl, Decca Records, 1978) ***
They loom large in his legend (The Album Collection playlists): Part 1; Part 2; Part 3; Part 4; Part 5; Part 6; Part 7
Active compensatory factors: The seventies started with the beginning of a move away from the lush arrangements of the sixties. Instead the band wanted to produce more straightforward songs that they could perform live. The first album with this intention was 1970's A Question of Balance. It still has some of the sixties characteristics but it is more stripped back overall.
A Question of Balance is again themed though - with the first side raising questions and the second looking for balance. It kicks off with the mighty Question - easily the best song on the album, although John Lodge's Tortoise and the Hare and Ray Thomas' And the Tide Rushes In are awesome as well.
The album highlights all of the band's strengths: the mellotron sound, Justin's guitar, the inventive drumming from Graeme Edge, the melodic bass from John Lodge, catchy songs, strong vocal harmonies, the variety of voices and approaches by all five members - a gifted bunch of songwriters.
Genre: Prog rock, pop
Places I remember: Real Groovy Records
Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: The Story in Your Eyes (Every Good Boy...)
Gear costume: Question (A Question of Balance), I'm Just a Singer (in a Rock and Roll Band) (Seventh Sojourn)
Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: The Story in Your Eyes (Every Good Boy...)
Gear costume: Question (A Question of Balance), I'm Just a Singer (in a Rock and Roll Band) (Seventh Sojourn)
Active compensatory factors: The seventies started with the beginning of a move away from the lush arrangements of the sixties. Instead the band wanted to produce more straightforward songs that they could perform live. The first album with this intention was 1970's A Question of Balance. It still has some of the sixties characteristics but it is more stripped back overall.
Every Good Boy Deserves Favour carries on the idea that the band's songs reflected the need to be easily transferable to a live setting. The Story in Your Eyes is a superb example - a real rocker from Justin Hayward. This time there was no unifying theme.
Seventh Sojourn was their eighth album overall, but seventh if you don't count The Magnificent Moodies album - the one pre Hayward/Lodge. It was actually the first album I bought by The Moody Blues while on a family holiday in Sydney, Australia. I've written about it before here, so I won't add this to the tally).
The band fell apart after Seventh Sojourn but regrouped with Octave, ironically in 1978, amidst the disco and punk wars. Steppin' in a Slide Zone was a reasonable song and a minor hit. Mike Pinder has a minimal presence on Octave, and he would quit the band during its recording. He brought a lot to the band - his distinctive vocals, keyboards (organ, piano and mellotron certainly, not the synths though) and songs and he would be missed!
Octave doesn't hit the heights of the previous two albums, but it still sounds like The Moodies and has some spirited tracks, plus the gorgeous Driftwood.
Where do they all belong? The eighties are next...deep breath.
Where do they all belong? The eighties are next...deep breath.
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