The hoody blues

The history of the group can be divided into several stages.

1964-1966

The first stage was from 1964 to 1966/1967, when the group played a tight rhythm and blues . The group then included: Danny Lane (real name - Brian Hines, vocals, guitar, harmonica; later became famous for participating in the creation of the famous Band on the Run album by Paul McCartney and Wings ), Michael Pinder (keyboards), Ray Thomas (vocals, flute, harmonica), Clint Warwick (bass) and Graham Edge (drums). During this period, the group, which performed a lot in London clubs, achieved its first success after participating in the British television show “Ready Steady Go!”, Thanks to which it was able to conclude a profitable contract with the company “ Decca ”. ^[one]

Some time later, a single was released with a cover version of the song “ Go Now ” by American soul singer Bessie Banks , who took first place in the British hit parade and ended up in the American TOP-10. Then comes the debut album The Magnificent Moodies , combining rhythm and blues and "white blues", enthusiastically received by critics and listeners. In addition to the already mentioned cover version of “Go Now”, on the album, in addition to songs of his own composition, covers of the songs “ I'll Go Crazy ” by James Brown and “ Bye Bye Bird ” by Williamson and Dixon were presented. So the luminaries of The Animals and The Rolling Stones appeared worthy successor and competitor ^[2] .

1967-1974

The second, most significant stage in the history of the group began with the departure in 1966 of Lane and Warwick and the advent of Hayward (guitar, vocals) and Lodge (bass guitar, vocals) in their place. So the “classic” line-up of The Moody Blues was formed: Justin Hayward, John Lodge, Mike Pinder, Ray Thomas, Graham Edge. The producer of the group for many years was Tony Clark . This was followed by the transition of the group to Deram , a subsidiary of the Decca label. ^[3]

In November 1967, the new line-up released the single " Nights in White Satin ". At the end of 1967, the song took 19th place in the British charts , and in 1972 , being reissued in the original, orchestrated version, it rose to 2nd place in the Billboard Hot 100 ^[4] and 9th in Britain ^[5] . Following this, in December 1967, the group released the album Days of Future Passed , which immediately brought fame to the group and rose to # 27 on the UK Albums Chart in 1967 ^[6] and to # 3 on the Billboard 200 in 1972. The music of this album was radically different from the one that was at the debut work. Now the band performed psychedelic rock with elements of progressive rock . Some critics call Days of Future Passed one of the first progressive rock albums ^[7] . At the same time, the musicians began to get involved in hippie culture, transcendental meditation and hallucinogens , which was reflected on the band's next albums ^[8] .

The next album, In Search of the Lost Chord, was released in July 1968 and took rather high positions in the charts: in the UK the top five albums, and in Germany and the USA in the top thirty ^{[9] [10] [11]} . As a result of sales, the record received gold status in the United States, and platinum in Canada ^{[12] [13]} . On this recording, the group's signature sound was built around the mellotron . The album was written under the influence of oriental music, in particular, the music of Hindustani ^{[14] [15]} . The theme of the album’s songs touches upon such topics as the spiritual development of a person, his desire for searches and discoveries ^[16] . Since that time, the group began to gain fame as the discoverers of progressive rock, although at the same time, musicians actively and successfully experimented with psychedelics and art rock, trying to convey their complex musical structure to a simple listener.

The following year, 1969, the group released two albums at once: On the Threshold of a Dream and To Our Children's Children's Children , which musically continued the “psychedelic” line of the previous one and received positive reviews from critics. On the Threshold of a Dream - one of the most successful albums of all time the group has existed, it reached # 1 in the UK ^[17] and entered the “Top 20” in the USA, received many positive reviews and was included in various lists of the best albums progressive rock. In the same year, the group created its own label , called Threshold Records in honor of the album just released, and several subsequent albums were released on it ^[18] .

In 1970, The Moody Blues performed at the Isle of Wight Music Festival, bringing together more than 700,000 spectators. Released in the same year, A Question of Balance , in which the group tried to slightly change their sound, moving away from "psychedelics" towards harder rock, was also commercially successful. The next two years also turned out to be very successful - two new albums were released: Every Good Boy Deserves Favor (1971, positions # 1 and # 2 on the charts of Great Britain and the USA, respectively) and Seventh Sojourn (1972, positions # 5 and # 1 in UK and US charts, respectively). Recording the last album was rather difficult, and the band members felt exhausted. Therefore, in the spring of 1974, after the completion of a large world tour that ended in Asia, the group decided to take a break, which lasted until 1977. During this period, several collection albums and previously made concert recordings were published, some of the participants were engaged in solo activities (for example, in 1975 Hayward and Lodge released a rather successful album, Blue Jays ).

After 1977

The group met again in 1977, and in the summer of the following year released their ninth studio album, Octave , which music critic Bruce Eder described as “quite problematic” ^[19] . This was the last album to be played by keyboardist Mike Pinder. For family reasons, he left the group, replaced by Patrick Moraz from Yes , with whom several subsequent albums were recorded ^{[20] [21] [22]} .

For two decades (the 1980s and 1990s), The Moody Blues recorded six studio albums, the composition of the group remained almost unchanged, its backbone was four members of the "classical" period: Justin Hayward, John Lodge, Ray Thomas, Graham Edge The album “ The Other Side of Life” was the most successful of the works of this period. ^[23] . The last album of the last century (and the penultimate album of the group at present) is the Strange Times , released in August 1999.

In the new millennium, The Moody Blues reduced their touring schedule. At the end of 2002, Ray Thomas left the group and the group turned into a trio. In the fall of 2003, the band released their last studio album, December ^[24] . December was the first album of the group (not counting The Magnificent Moodies ), containing cover versions of songs by other authors. There are four such cover versions, including Irving Berlin 's White Christmas and the Happy Xmas (War Is Over) by John Lennon and Yoko Ono .

In 2018, the group was included in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Current squad

• Graham Edge - Percussion (1964 - present)
• Justin Hayward - vocals, guitar (1966 — present)
• John Lodge - bass, vocals (1966 — present)

Former members

• Ray Thomas - flute, percussion, harmonica, vocals (1964-2002; died in 2018)
• Mike Pinder - keyboards, vocals (1964-1978)
• Danny Lane - guitar, vocals (1964-1966)
• Clint Warwick - bass, vocals (1964-1966; died in 2002)
• Rodney Clark - bass, vocals (1966)
• Patrick Moraz - keyboards (1978-1990)

Timeline

Studio albums

• The Magnificent Moodies (1965)
• Days of Future Passed (1967)
• In Search of the Lost Chord (1968)
• On the Threshold of a Dream (1969)
• To Our Children's Children's Children (1969)
• A Question of Balance (1970)
• Every Good Boy Deserves Favor (1971)
• Seventh Sojourn (1972)
• Octave (1978)
• Long Distance Voyager (1981)
• The Present (1983)
• The Other Side of Life (1986)
• Sur la Mer (1988)
• Keys of the Kingdom (1991)
• Strange Times (1999)
• December (2003)

Concert albums and collections

• This Is The Moody Blues (2 LP, Compilation) (1974)
• Caught Live + 5 (1977)
• Prelude (compilation) (1987)
• Live at Montreux (1991)
• A Night at Red Rocks (1992) Live at Colorado
• Hall of Fame. Live at the Royal Albert Hall (2000)
• Lovely to See You Again (2CD concert) (2005)

• The Moody Blues Community Official Site
• Justin Hayward Official Website
• John Lodge Official Site
• Cultural Reviewer: The Moody Blues