I never liked that overblown, lavish style of rock music, and I don't really care who gets into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (a place I like enough to have visited twice), but I just want to say that I remember when the first Moody Blues song came out, and it was simple and charming in that 60s pop-song way I'll always like:
Here's the news, from the L.A. Times:
The induction of veteran English art-rock band the Moody Blues will quell a raft of fans who have consistently, and loudly, made their voices heard each year when the group was overlooked previously. Although the Moodys became eligible in 1989 under the hall's requirement that 25 years elapse after an act's first recording, the group perhaps best known for its 1967 ambitious and heavily orchestrated concept album "Days of Future Passed," and the single it yielded, "Nights in White Satin," appeared on the nominees list for the first time this year....On the ballot for the first time, they're coming in along with 3 groups that I always think of in terms of MTV videos in the 1980s: Bon Jovi, Dire Straits, and The Cars. (Those 3 links go to videos I watched about a million times in the 80s.)
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51 comments:
About time!
The Moody Blues have more albums that still hold up than most of the other groups had hit songs.
I never bought any Moody Blues albums but they were the first live concert I ever attended (Duke U., Cameron Indoor Stadium, Fall of 1970) and that was a fantastic show!
Dion of "Runaround Sue", "The Wanderer", and "Abraham, Martin and John" was the warm up.
My dorm mates had all of the Moody Blues albums and played them constantly. I found them a bit overwrought, and overproduced, but tolerable.
Are you deleting my comments?
About time!
The Moody Blues have more albums that still hold up than most other bands have songs.
Bleh!
Like out blog hostess, I couldn't care less who's in the Rock HoF or not. I do believe the Moody Blues were excluded because the critics generally hated them as I recall, but the 420 crowd 40-50 years ago loved them.
"Are you deleting my comments?"
??
I'm not.
The jukebox at the bar: sometimes it plays music, sometimes it functions as a nostalgia machine. These overlap, of course: but sometimes music is played for the ear, and sometimes it is played for the memory.
Different ages play different nostalgia. Some of the younger kids will completely ignore the jukebox when some late fifties song comes on, maybe put on their headphones; others will shake their heads when Jim Morrison croons. Because Jim Morrison croons on the jukebox a lot: I have mentioned before the Jim Morrison fan who dreams of Père Lachaise but usually goes to Hawaii.
The Sixties is obvious Nostalgia; there is not as much love for The Forgotten Seventies, although Seals & Crofts' "Summer Breeze" does get played once in awhile. A hazy song for hazy memories, with those harmonies that change at the end to the new chords and become something that feels a little disquieting, a little foreboding. Something that feels a little disquieting, a little foreboding: this can play a big part in a relic from The Forgotten Seventies.
There is the Eighties nostalgia, of course, which is listened to the most ironically of the nostalgia selections. Madonna comes into this mix: Holiday, Like Virgin. And the Eighties One-Hit Wonders:
We can dance if we want to, we can leave your friends behind
Cause your friends don't dance and if they don't dance
Well they're are no friends of mine
In the Eighties a lot of people felt that way. People feel that way today, too, but again: ironically. The Hipster Thing. You can have a lot of friends on social media, but there will always be those that are no friends of mine.
Then the kids who have put up with the nostalgia machine go and play their songs. Which are alternative hits of the Nineties and rap from the early 2000s. Yes: their nostalgia, although they don't recognize it as such, yet. But these will be the songs they play twenty years from now, if they happen to find themselves in a bar with a jukebox.
The music of today? Well, the college girls like the Taylor Swift, among other selections. They don't know that this will eventually be their nostalgia. But it will. Taylor Swift will one day be as old as Madonna. And any college girl will tell you that Madonna is old.
- james james
Ann Althouse said...
"Are you deleting my comments?"
??
I'm not.
I'm made the first comment here, it appeared for a few minutes, then disappeared. Same thing happened on the "Trump absorbs Roy Moore loss" post. My comment appeared for a minute at 6:45, then disappeared. Did somebody else get ahold of the keys to your blog?
In a real good Robert DeNiro movie, "A Bronx Tale," there's a scene to "Knights in White Satin", where young Italian thugs are rumbling with black kids.
Bad link for Dire Straits. I only clicked to see if it was Money for Nothing or Walk of Life.
Knopfler's best albums came in the Aughts, though.
Fundamentally different Moody Blues line-ups between Go Now and the prog-rock hits. Denny Laine, later of Wings, sang "Go Now," but he left the band in '66. A transformation akin to what happened with Manfred Mann.
The 1963 original, sung by Bessie Banks, is a little slow but nice and bluesy. It's here.
I'm pleased to see The Cars got in.
My sister loved the Moody Blues. So I was exposed to them early.
Breathe deep, the Gathering Gloom...
I can still recite the whole thing from memory.
I'm a big Moody Blues fan but was never very fond of "Days of Future Passed". At no point during the "Go Now" piece did I recognize them as the Moody Blues.
In the 1960s and early 70s, Wisconsin was dotted with a lot of Ma-and-Pa sized ski hills. Some of them were just a few hills, a rope tow and a J-bar. I worked the concession stand at one of them near Arena, Wisconsin. The owners blasted the Moody Blues over the loudspeakers that were strung on the trees around the slopes. Because of that, I used to ski to "Go Now".
The Moodys pretty much (along with a few other artists) invented prog rock. So it's well deserved.
I'm personally happiest about The Cars, though. One of the greatest pop bands of all time. When your first album sounds like a greatest hits collection and still feels modern 40 years later, you've accomplished something.
I'm 57 and I couldn't have recognized either version of them until recently. I kept hearing "Your Wildest Dreams" playing in retail stores, so I looked up the song and video. Then I saw the "Go Now" video AA posted and wondered who the singer was, as he didn't look like anyone from the 1986 version.
What I remember most is being in my USAF barracks room, in England, in 1981 or so. I kept hearing music from the room next door, where two guys were drinking heavily and kept going on about "They're fucking poets, man." The only thing missing was the smell of bong water, but we didn't do that in the Air Force then. We had to pee in a bottle.
No Link Wray again. I wouldn't expect the voting public to know who he was, but the industry people and critics should.
I loved the MBs and still listen to their music. I saw them in concert in Nebraska some time around 1981 and was kind of embarrassed at how old they were. If you had told me back then that the Rolling Stones would still be performing concerts 36 years later I would have been skeptical.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P6rGXs937aA
When I was in my late teens, they weren't in my Rock pantheon, but I had a couple of their albums that I liked to listen to high. Timothy Leary's Dead struck a chord with me.
I really liked the Moody Blues, and still do.
The Moodies had a good songwriter in Justin Hayward and his tracks still stand out. Unfortunately, the band was democratic and the songs contributed by the others were not as good. Don't get me started about Graham Edge's (spoken) doggerel which marred their overblown concept albums of the late 60's through the 70's. They seemed to keep trying to make big statement albums (like Sargent Pepper) during this period, but the lyrical content ranged from OK to banal to awful. Vintage crap, overall.
The RnRHoF is no longer about who is in it but rather who doesn't deserve to be in it?
It's to the point where any half way decent rock band is elected and even some not-so-half way- decent bands, the Cars, for instance.
Why are rap performers in it? And blues players? Disco??? Donna Summer's? Nonsense. Brenda Lee????
The Hall is a joke and being a member is nothing important.
Typo. No question mark but a '.'.
rightguy2 said...
"The Moodies had a good songwriter in Justin Hayward and his tracks still stand out. Unfortunately, the band was democratic and the songs contributed by the others were not as good."
Too true. I was a fan but lyrics like:
"I know you won't believe me
But I'm certain that I did see
A mouse playing daffodil
All the band was really jumping
With Jack Rabbit in there thumping
I found that I couldn't sit still..."
Justin Hayward also does a solo show with a couple of backup musicians. His voice and musicianship has held up well.
Until The Newbeats are in, the RRHF can go f**k itself!!!
I remember a few year back hearing that Green Day made it into the Rock and Roll Hall of fame. I realized right then that the Hall was pretty ridiculous, though I hadn't given it much thought up to that point.
Yeah, the MB's hold up thru time, unlike so many bands of my youth. Was on the stage crew in Jr. Hi and the class song was Nights in White Satin. Because of sound system prep and stuff, ended up hearing it too many times. Can just now enjoy it again. I've always wondered, what are watch-lights? Is is light from watches or perhaps lanterns that watchmen use? Thanks,
Etienne, No, they made it into the Hall. I had read about the nominations a couple of months ago.
I have a mental list of about 100 songs that I always stop to listen to when they come up on the radio while I am scanning for a station. Most (around 70 or so) are from the 1980s (when I was a teenager), fewer from the 1990s and later (about 20), but "Nights in White Satin" is one of a handful from the 1960's- it has been one of my favorites since the first time heard it sometime in the late 70s. I bought three of their albums when I was high school- Days of Future Past, Seventh Sojourn, and Long Distance Voyager.
Yancy, I guess I need to follow along better!
The RRHoF is garbage and will remain so until Blue Oyster Cult is in it.
Actually, it'll still be garbage, but at least it'll have remedied one glaring omission.
Cars and Dire Straits were well established before MTV.
"Go Now" is by far the best song the Moodies ever did. Most everything else was interchangeable -- furiously strummed acoustic guitars, glimmers of portent and well-orchestrated dead ends. Glad their fans got what they wanted, though.
Sister Rosetta Tharpe is also being inducted. An amazing contributor via gospel to rock 'n roll. From Rolling Stone, "Why Sister Rosetta Tharpe Belongs in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame." Watch the video!
I liked The Question, too. And Days of Future Past was an important concept album. I had forgotten that Go Now was theirs. Certainly a good range of material, anyway. I don't listen to them very often, but I am surprised they're not in yet. I'm listening to a Youtube catalog now. Legend of a Mind playing now.
I'm glad that progressive bands are finally getting their due. Rush and Yes have hopefully finally opened the floodgates for this genre. Jethro Tull and Emerson Lake and Palmer are long overdue for consideration.
As for BOC, I think the kiss of death for them was when Damone ate 34 pairs of tickets and refused to scalp their tickets for subsequent tours as a result. :)
Didn't they have one member who only played tambourine? What was up with that?
It's "Nights in White Satin", not "Knights". I thought it was "Knights" for a long time, and the song seems to have a sort of medieval feel to it. I thought maybe it was about something like an Arthurian quest.
Char Char Binks said...
"Didn't they have one member who only played tambourine? What was up with that?"
I believe that is Ray Thomas who wrote the "mouse playing daffoldil" lyrics I quoted above.
Finally saw the Moody Blues back in '96 at The Gorge with the Spokane Symphony Orchestra. I'd heard they could be hit or miss on some of their concerts.
They 'hit' that night. Good stuff, and timeless.
Glad the idiots at the R&R HOF are correcting another error.
“I'm made the first comment here, it appeared for a few minutes, then disappeared. Same thing happened on the "Trump absorbs Roy Moore loss" post. My comment appeared for a minute at 6:45, then disappeared. Did somebody else get ahold of the keys to your blog?”
A bunch of your posts had gone into spam automatically. I have no idea why. I released them and will start checking spam for this sort of thing.
Thanks for flagging this or I’d never have noticed.
Ray Thomas plays flute and a few other instruments. But Flutes are not in all their songs, so he picked up the tamborine so he could at least do something during most of the set list.
The Moodys are my dad's favorite group, and of his kids I'm the one that still plays them a lot. My kids like the Moody blues too, but I feel a bit guilty about inflicting it on them. Still, between the Moody Blues and Taylor Swift or Ariana Grande, it's a pretty clear choice.
Justin Hayword also did some stuff with Jeff Wayne's War of the Worlds album too (Forever Autumn).
--Vance
>> I thought it was "Knights" for a long time, and the song seems to have a sort of medieval feel to it. I thought maybe it was about something like an Arthurian quest.
So I wasn't the only one...
I don't think I ever saw the correct spelling of the title until a year ago or so.
I always liked that song and still do. I never realized it was Moody Blues. I love watching the kids trying to dance in 4/4 time to a song written in 3/4. That's why it look so awkward. I saw them perform in 1969. I sneaked in the back door to the venue with a group of kids. Actually we threw the door open and ran by the cop at the door so fast he didn't know what to do. Oh to be young again. Heh.
I knew that Denny Laine had gone from the Moody Blues to Wings but I never knew that Go Now was an MB song.
I only know it from Wings Over America.
As for the others that got in this time, I'm good with the Cars and Dire Straits. I grew up hearing the Cars catalog, and when I have listened to it while working, I'm amazed at how much stuff they did.
With Dire Straits, maybe it's more about Mark Knopfler than the band itself. I like that he played guitar on Steely Dan's Time Out Of Mind. He also played a piece on the Color Of Money soundtrack.
For the life of me, I can't understand how Bon Jovi got in. They sold a lot of albums, I know, but is that the reason to induct them? Who's next, Motley Crue?
Sister Rosetta Tharpe is also being inducted.
If there’s an earlier version of rock and roll than “Strange Things Happening Every Day,” recorded in 1944, I’d like to hear it. The arc of history is long but bends toward justice.
The new Jann Wenner biography says that he intentionally kept McCartney out of the Hall of Fame for years while granting entry to Lennon straightaway. Paul was not happy about this.
The book also quotes Wenner saying how much he loathes Bon Jovi and wanted to keep them out of the Hall, too.
Nice guy.
Saw the Moody Blues twice during the 70s. They came to the Rosemont Horizon a few years ago and we got $100 front row seats. They are very old now. I thought Ray was going to have a heart attack after a flute solo. He was gasping. They also had a girl singer in the background that picked up the high note lyrics to fill in what was missing. That said, the music was good just as expected. There was a lot of younger people there. There was also a 60 plus year old hippy chick in full deerskins dancing in the aisle. I'll never unsee that.
I'm glad they are in, tho' as Justin said many years ago 'It's an American thing'...yes, but your American fans love you and want you recognized!
That said, I don't think Denny Laine should be there to be inducted (so far, he's not mentioned in the inductees)....The MB then had a different sound of music, he was only with the band for 2 years, and left. They reformed with Justin and John. And according to Justin's recent interview with Rolling Stone, even Mike Pinder wanted the band to go in another direction...he was not pleased with the R&B sound of the initial group.
If Laine gets in, then Patrick Moraz does too....he was with them 11 years and revived them in the 80's.
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