Listening to The Moody Blues: In Search Of The Lost Chord, Part 1/3
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- čas přidán 12. 02. 2023
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Part One of In Search Of The Lost Chord by The Moody Blues
All rights and music: The Moody Blues, Decca Music Group
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The Moody Blues,one of the most underrated bands ever,though very successful they never got the recognition they deserved,particularly from the British music press,they were only recently entered into the rock& roll Hall of fame!
Hi John ,hof IS a commercial prize ,the moodies were musicians before all ! They didn't need a commercial prize to be admired like they 've been by so much people all OVER the planet .they did opened many Doors yo the so called progressive music ,ain't it ?
I forgot to say that each member had their own ‘thing’ that added to the whole. Pinder was the deep mystic, Hayward the Romantic, Lodge the Rocker, Thomas supplied the jaunty whimsy and Edge did the poems (🙄).
Absolutely true.
This is absolutely part of the soundtrack of my early years. My older siblings listened to The Beatles ,The Stones , Elton John, Led Zeppelin , Yes ,The Doors ,and The Moodies , more than anything else.
I was so lucky bring the youngest!
I think this album is even better than Days. I find this to be jam packed with great melodies. Never a dull moment.
Can't wait for you to discover On The Threshold Of A Dream.
My favorite Moodies album.
All 7 are great though.
Enjoy your journey!
✌️♥️
In Search of…is a very ‘of it’s era’ album because of the Psych bells and whistles. The songs are great but some of them, with all the ‘Ommmmm’ stuff seem faintly amusing now. From the next album, they streamlined the sound. Their stuff wasn’t Prog in the virtuoso sense. The accent was always on songwriting. But because the Mellotron and ‘mystical’ lyrics are everywhere, the songs certainly weren’t ‘Pop Songs’, which made it ok for ‘Hip’ University students to like them (and also more mature people…even my mum liked them). Sometimes the ambitious production and instrumentation took them into Prog territory, particularly on Mike Pinder’s contributions (especially Have You Heard on the next lp On the Threshold of a Dream). They were extremely influential though…easy to listen to, affable, beautiful and carefully Rockin’ when they wanted to be. A very important band. 👍
They basically became a completely different band when Hayward and Lodge joined up with them in late 66. Before that they were more or less an 'R & B' cover band. They recorded Days Of Future Past not long after those two joined the band, and created a whole new sound. MIke Pinder was a huge part of that when he started using the mellotron, no other band had used something like that as a 'central' instrument. And this was an incredible follow-up album to Days...
the magic of the Moodies! playing up to 33 instruments on an album. they dont write, compose, orchestrate or play instruments like this anymore. long before the internet came along, groups like the Moodies were selling millions of albums off of store shelves. how many can do that today?
The Moodies had very quickly found their feet after Days of Future Passed, Mike Pinder's prowess on melotron and his skill at arranging was very much the soul of the band
Glad to read you relayer !many of thé virtuosos on keys never fetched his mastering on this pretty difficult Key to play ...
It made me Sooo happy to see the smile on your face on hearing this for the first time. I was born just before this album came out, and my parents played it a lot.. This music is such a part of me that I can't listen to it very objectively. It's a great affirmation to me when I see others react so joyfully as you did.
I think that is the power of reaction video's, and I thank you, for I smiled the whole way through.. ❤🙂
Will look to see if you have done their album "To our Children's Children's Children" one of their strongest
Listened to this for the first time about 5 months ago and loved it.
Jim, you are spot on. This seminal album was a bridge for so many of us to cross from the psychedelic pop/rock of 1967 to the prog beginnings of 1969. Picture me if you will, a not so spotty faced 15 year old regarding that incredible album cover in 1968 and then reading those sleeve notes and being blown away with anticipation of the music to follow. 55 years on, I played the LP last Friday again (I must play it about 6 times a year which equals 330 plays, but maybe more if you account for the early years of rapture) and 'Legend Of A Mind' stills moved me as it always does. I was not a cool 15 year old, so I thought those photos looked great, and I always wanted my hair to look like Justin Hayward's. The music was a huge progression from Days Of Future Passed, with Mike Pinder's mellotron (he took the instrument to levels Rick W. and everyone else would dream of) completely eclipsing the orchestra of the previous album. As you can tell, this album is so important to me, and prepared me for King Crimson, Yes and the rest of the prog giants. I am so looking forward to enjoying your reactions to the rest of the Magnificent 7. And side 2 of this album is better than side 1. So enjoy!
🎶 Timothy Leeeeeary🎶........😁
One day in the ninth grade, a friend invited me to his neighborhood, and to a friend's house, who had this album as well as a funny smelling cigarette. Nothing would ever be the same again, and for the better. I still remember staring at the mandala and digging the groovy sounds. A few years later, Dr. Leary came to town to speak at the local university, and just before he spoke, "Timothy Leary's dead..." played as he looked in from behind the curtain. Years later we would meet again where he signed my copy of his "Jail Notes" and spoke a bit about his book. He was a spry 90ish.
Ray Thomas was a bit older, in age and sentiment, it seemed to me. Mike was old but more progressive, like Justin and/or Bieber. Mike tended to end the albums with a longer, more thoughtful, Merlin-like masterpiece. Excited to share this most familiar journey. I know by heart the magnificent seven, even with my mind tied behind my butt.
I was never academically minded in my school days, though I could read and play music.
Looking back, I now think that, during the latter half of the 60s and the first half of the 70s music was my education.
What a time to grow up, with all these amazing experiences and inspiring sounds……….just blessed.
Hope you enjoy this journey Jim.
I love that you're playing the record.
The subtle pops and clicks take me back to my high school days in the late 70s when I'd get home to "veg-out" before I had to do my homework...I'd listen to these great records on headphones and let my mind roam for 45 minutes or so...sometimes a couple of hours... ;^)
I've subscribed to your channel...
PS
I've always loved that The Moodies' songs hardly had that silence between tracks. One faded out as the next faded in.
Ride my See-Saw got most of the airplay from this album but always preferred side two, mainly because it featured more of Justin Haywards great voice.
It's soooooooo British! Got to love it!
I lament at the youtube al Gore rhythm that always shows me these videos a year after they were posted.
I hope you truly enjoyed this lp. Their best overall album imo.
Shalom and Ommm!😊
Timothy Leery was another late nite DJ favorite in N.Y.C
You and your late night Radio DJs!
@@JimNewstead I spent 2 years of my life as a young boy stocking shelves at a supermarket on the "nightcrew".
Literally stocking shelves the night Lennon was shot. I was a ferry ride away...😓
czcams.com/users/sgaming/emoji/7ff574f2/emoji_u1f625.png
@@JimNewstead If you can spare 10 minutes this is one of my DJ hero's.czcams.com/video/VLYhH20PFz8/video.html&ab_channel=SeanMeredith
Ok... yet another of my favourite bands.
And fav album for me is "Question of balance" from 1970.
Favourite song is "Melancholy Man"
You'll be there soon, Jim. Not melancholy... i ment the album.
The magnificent seven is quite magn.. magni. .. GREAT !!!
In case you were not aware, this is the Moodies final song to finish their concerts.
This is a great album, especially side 2 where Justin Hayward shines! To Our Children’s Childrens Children is even better. Great Job! Always look forward to your videos!
ISotLC and DoFP are my favorite Moody Blues albums, their masterpieces. Great review Jim!
Hi everyone ,they were great friends of the beatles ,Mike & Ray did played on two of their songs ....
Ah, Jim! One of the first albums my older sister bought in the 70s that the whole family enjoyed. We played this a ton. Great memories. Glad to see you enjoying it as well.
This is the 60s at its best!
Just starting the video. Regarding the comedy skit you mention, I don't know the show, but I wouldn't be surprised if "In Search of The Lost Note" was a nudge-nudge wink-wink nod to this album.
Maybe.... I'll post a link to it in the community page later! It was called Howard's Note.
big part of my getting into LSD..when i was 16..felt really spirital to me ...
crossed legged on the floor with my kaftan and my flares..
Another Fav album of mine Jim👍
I'm so glad you're enjoying Jim, and appreciate the concept as well as the sound of this album. Yes, the music is very "innocent" sounding; in my opinion the lyrics and concept is much deeper.
I was very young when this came out, eight years old in '68, so I don't think I first heard it until the early to mid '70s. Of course, I have my own detailed interpretation of the journey we're taken on in this album.
Departure:
The basic outline of the concept; that there's something inside all of us yearning for a mystical "more."
Ride My See-Saw:
We're beginning our search to fulfill that yearning. Education and career have satisfied the material and mundane. Now it's time to see what more there is to our existence.
Dr. Livingston, I Presume:
Even with traveling the world and seeing many varied and wondrous sites, that yearning is still not assuaged. The Search continues.
House of Four Doors:
The Search takes us to meditation of Sight and Sound. In some methods of meditation, the practitioner sits calmly with eyes closed and in silence. It is believed both visions and sounds will come to them during that time, which will gradually lead them to enlightenment.
1. The first door describes the realization that we have this yearning within us.
2. The second door describes the wonder (beauty) the acolyte may experience when they discover a path that initially speaks to their own spiritual growth.
3. The third door describes the sounds one may hear when sitting in silent meditation, supposedly elevating their spirit closer to Nirvana.
4. The saying above the fourth door is confirmation that the seeker is on the right path, but that their journey is not yet finished.
Legend of a Mind:
As a teen in the '70s, Timothy Leary and his experiments with LSD were fairly well known. I think this song acknowledges the mind expansion properties of psychedelics, yet is also saying that chemically enhanced mind expansion is not what the inner yearning is about. I also feel the placement of this song before going through the fourth door shows the seeker experimenting with other routes to enlightenment, but returning to meditation to continue the inner journey.
House of Four Doors (part 2):
The seeker finds himself outside with nothing around him. But then, similar to being shown the path of meditation in the first part of House of Four Doors, a light breaks through the seekers heart, clearly showing the way to spiritual enlightenment for them.
Again, this is my very personal interpretation of side 1 of In Search of The Lost Chord. I'm not saying it is correct, or is what the Moody Blues fully intended. But, it works for me.
Every piece of art: sculpture, painting, music, poetry, prose.... is personal and open to interpretation. Its what makes it art! Thats a great takeaway from this record :)
One more of my all time favorites in addition to Days of the Future Passed albums which you should cover too! ❤
I already did, last June 👍🏼
A brilliant album! I think I have all of the classic early albums.
This album was my introduction to the Moody Blues. I have about a half dozen of them plus a couple of the Lodge & Haywood efforts.
My fav Moody''s lp (DaysOfFuturePast is my 2nd), enjoyed during innumerable acid trips -- thanx TimLeary! -- back in the late 60s in my mid-teens. And, yes, those were the very innocent counterculture daze...
As I take in your vid now, I'm enjoying my daily "medication" while looking out a wide window on HumboldtBay, and the Pacific!
Thanx for the memories and current bliss Jim.
Haha! You're very welcome :)
VERY...... that's the word. It is so VERY!!!!!! From the music gods above!!! ha ha 🎶🎶
Ahhhh.... very!
Hi Jim,
I only know their hit singles. I heard Nights in white satin for the first time when I was in the last year of primary school because my parents liked it. I seriously began listening to music a few years later and the Moody blues where not in my view so to say. Pink Floyd and Deep Purple where though. I still never bothered to listen to their music.
I know the first song, probably from the top 1000 in my country or other radio. It’s a good song. Very sixties indeed.
Second or is it third song: There are a few Beatles songs that sound similar.
Doors song: no thanks, not for me. Funeral song.
Legend song: again, no thanks. Muddy sound, dreary. The second part speeds up but I still don’t like it.
Doors song part two: mwah 🥴
This is a ‘how to become depressed ‘ music for me.
Great band,the melatron has a lot to do with the fullness of the music,much perfected by Mike Pinder!.
Absolutely...plus he ran that Mellotron through a Marshall amp live...What power that combination created!
Very cool album. Glad to see you're listening to it : )
Great review Jim. Been looking forward to this for a long time. You're absolutely right with regard to the vibe of the album, hope, peacefulness, optimism, love etc. You'll see a definite change in the albums to come. Looking forward to Side 2, as it features my own personal favourite track, Visions of Paradise. Thanks again.
Listening to this illustrates how far off the mark the SOUNDS journalist was when he described Barclay James Harvest as 'The Poor Mans Moody Blues'. BJH were understandably annoyed, not least because they were around before John Lodge and Justin Hayward joined the Moodies and gave them their distinctive sound. if anything, the Moodies are closer to Gong, in terms of the message in the music, although Gong are spacier and jazzier (and have a sense of humour).
Far out< Man! In the early eighties, The Moody Blues played the college festival circuit. I remember seeing them in a large meadow at Zilker Park in Austin Texas. The crowd was a strange combination of college kids and middle aged hippies in tie dye. A good time was had by all.
I know all the hits but I only owned Gemini Dreams and Live at Red Rock (Colorado). My parents had Days of Future Passed.
Ps, Timothy Leary was very much alive and well (in spirit at least) at that wonderful Austin summer night.
Yeah! Tie dye tee shirts and care free days... sigh!
Nice, Jim! This and To Our Children's Children's Children are the Moodies' best albums (IMO). Side 2 is a bit stronger, but the whole thing sounds great for 1968. I consider this proto-prog. It ties the British psych rock of 1967 to the ambitious art rock of the 70's. You can hear the influence this had on bands like Yes, Alan Parsons Project and Barclay James Harvest. One of the interesting thing about the Moodies is that they really encouraged everyone to contribute material, even drummer Graeme Edge, and each band member emerged with their own songwriting personality: Justin was the romantic troubadour, John was the rocker, Mike was the mystic, Ray was the whimsical showman, and Graeme was the poet. It *did* turn into a bit of a formula by the 4th or 5th album, but IMO it served them well in that it spread the burden of the writing around. And they were obviously spending a lot of time in the studio with producer Tony Clarke, figuring out all the cool things you could do with this new fangled Mellotron thing (that Mike Pinder helped to develop.) They obviously discovered the pitch knob!
Oh, and speaking of prog fashion, the poor Moodies -- or Ray Thomas specifically -- came under Bill Bailey's merciless gaze in his prog series for the BBC: czcams.com/video/8-pdtXcI0Ag/video.html
I’m guessing you will eventually get to all of the magnificent seven, in my humble opinion To our children’s children is their best, but they are all great.
Jim! Was not The Mighty Boosh ... about 25 years ago? A mad programme!
Well, the music. Gentle ditties from somewhere between 1964 and '67; I hear toned-down Monkees, Beach Boys and early Floyd. Pleasant music as if heard from an early book-sized transistor radio, with a speaker which is much too small (the PP3 battery never lasts long).
15 years ago... maybe 18 at a push?
YES, Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, The Moody Blues and Deep Purple, my top 5 favorite bands of all time. Lots more of them to listen to as well Jim!🤩
No problem!
@@JimNewstead Hey Jim, a quick question. Have you ever been to Grimsby, NE Lincolnshire? My paternal grandfather was born there and came to the U.S. in 1913 as a small child not long after the Titanic sunk in 1912. I thought that was interesting.
@@TigerMtnKing I haven’t been to Grimsby, but plenty of other places nearby. Hull on the north of the Humber, Boston and Lincoln. It’s a fishing town, quite deprived these days I think, but a proud history and well known and famous.
@@JimNewstead From what I understand it was a Viking invasion point back in the 9th century. Pretty fascinating stuff to learn about Jim.
A formative album that really has not aged very well for me. IMO they didn't really hit their straps until 'A Question of Balance' (1970)
Hum..... Wonder what they were promoting?
Yackity Yack....see yas
Please don't compare The Moody Blues to The Beach Boys! Geez dude..WTF!
That "last door" is a doozy....
It's definately a "trip"...