Moody Blues

19 December 2008

Conceptual geniuses or pretentious schmucks? This was actually a debate during the late '60s/early '70s. Truth is, after their debut LP--which had much more to do with the blues and less with moods--the Moody Blues were the kings of the "concept" LPs. Often it was almost like you wanted to scream in the middle of Moody Blues album: "What has Sgt. Pepper's wrought?"
The band had numerous songwriters in its ranks in the forms of Mike Pinder, Graeme Edge, John Lodge, Ray Thomas, and Justin Hayward--and while the group was responsible for the "progressive" rock sounds that followed by the likes of Yes, Emerson, Lake & Palmer, etc., they still had genuine rockin' moments in classic singles like "Story In Your Eyes" and "I'm Just A Singer In A Rock 'N' Roll Band."

The Moodies were one of the hippie-dippy units of the era; their concepts were tied into the idea of "mind expansion" and drugs (they even recorded a tribute song to Timothy Leary in 1968), and really went overboard with the Eastern mysticism stuff (going as far as releasing a track called "Om"). One of the biggest live draws of the time, the group disbanded in '73 before coming back in '78 (right at the height of punk?!?) to resume a career that's more or less seen them thrive as touring nostalgic unit.