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From the Vault...
10/04/1998
#597 |
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info
Moody Blues
"The Magnificent Moodies"
© London Records
Year of Release: 1965
Rating:
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track listing
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I'll Go Crazy
Something You Got
Go Now!
Can't Nobody Love You
I Don't Mind
I've Got A Dream
Let Me Go
Stop
Thank You Baby
It Ain't Necessarily So
True Story
Bye Bye Burd
Steal Your Heart Away
Lose Your Money (ButDon't Lose Your Mind)
It's Easy Child
I Don't Want To Go OnWithout You
Time Is On My Side
From The Bottom OfMy Heart (I Love You)
And My Baby's Gone
Everyday
You Don't (All The Time)
This Is My House(But Nobody Calls)
Life's Not Life
He Can Win
Boulevard De La Madelaine
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Moody Blues
"The Magnificent Moodies"
The Moody Blues is most famous for mixing classical music with pop music.
Such famous songs as Nights in White Satin and Tuesday Afternoon
from their classic Days of Future Passed, likewise albums like In
Search of the Lost Chord and Seventh Sojourn features
orchestra-inspired music that everyone recognizes the band's name as The Moody
Blues.
But every band has their humble beginnings. The Magnificient Moodies,
an album released in the very early days of the Moodies' career (1966), captures
the band recording songs like their fellow British counterparts, like The Beatles,
The Rolling Stones, and The Yardbirds. The liner notes in this albums states:
This package turns the clock back to the very early dawn, collecting together
the complete recorded output of The Moody Blues Mk. 1: the tracks which formed
the first LP, and a balance of thirteen titles unleased as single 'A's' and
'B's'. Nothing was cut way-back-when which did not see the light of day, so
nothing is omitted.
Of the 25 songs on this album, the only songs that can easily be compared
to overall style of The Moody Blues later albums can be found at the tailend of
the album. With songs like Life's Not Life, He Can Win and
Boulevard De La Madelaine, it was a sound that was yet-to-come that
would become a staple common sound for The Moody Blues--using orchestrated
instruments like flutes and violins. The first 22 songs on this album
captures the sound of practically every group that was emerging from The
British Invasion of the Sixties. The Moody Blues focused on R&B than any
source of music, with songs like Something You Got, True Story, Bye Bye
Burd, Steal Your Heart Away, Lose Your Money (But Don't Lose Your Mind),
resembles the rock/blues style of The Rolling Stones and The Yardbirds.
They even recorded Time Is On My Side, a song that The Stones also
recorded in their early years.
The pop-sounding songs like Can't Nobody Love You, I've Got A Dream,
Thank You Baby, And My Baby's Gone can be compared to Gerry and the
Pacemakers, Billy J. Kramer and the Dakotas, or even America's Dave Clark Five.
It's Easy Child and I Don't Want To Go On Without You both have
the early Beatles sound, where the Fab Four could of recorded these songs
themselves on their early albums. Another American artist's music is featured
here--I'll Go Crazy and I Don't Mind were written by James Brown.
There are 13 originals written by two members of the band, Denny Laine
(who would later join Paul McCartney's Wings) and Mike Pinder. In listening
to these songs, you can see the direction the band would lead to their future
albums. The last three songs mentioned earlier were written by Laine & Pinder.
Surprisingly, I Don't Want To Go On Without You, Thank You Baby, True Story,
Lose Your Money (But Don't Lose Your Mind), And My Baby's Gone (songs
mentioned earlier in this review) were all written by Laine & Pinder. Not
only were they writing songs related to the common rock/R&B sounds, they also
experimented in songs with a pop-classical sound that would become their
signature in style. Read on...
From the pens of Denny Laine and Mike Pinder:
From The Bottom Of My Heart (I Love You) has an early Beatles
sound, but yet it has a sound that would be the focus of their future album,
In Search of the Lost Chord. Everyday has a more British pop
sound, and so does You Don't (All The Time) and This Is My House
(But Nobody Calls). And oh, yes, their most famous earliest song, Go
Now is on this album, but it wasn't written by Laine & Pinder. It was
actually a R&B cover song that wasn't well-known at the time.
If you're expecting The Magnificient Moodies to sound like
Days of Future Passed, In Search of the Lost Chord, On The Threshold of
a Dream, To Our Children's Children's Children, A Question of Balance, Every
Good Boy Deserves Favour and Seventh Sojourn (as a whole), you're
wrong. This album has the definitive early British Invasion sound of pop and
R&B. There are some comparisions to the later songs on the album to the
future Moody Blues albums, but that only relates to the last three songs.
But discovering a well-known popular band's beginnings is always an
adventure. This is compared to how The Beatles sounded before they recorded
albums like Rubber Soul, and especially Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts
Club Band. The Moody Blues was, and still is, a great band. Like many
other bands after them, they would experiment in classical and pop music:
Emerson, Lake & Palmer, Electric Light Orchestra, and the solo works of
former Yes keyboardist Rick Wakeman.
Listening to the R&B/rock blues numbers found on this album has you keep
repeating the question: "This is The Moody Blues?" as the final result
is overwhelming. This album is good; it captures the British sound in its early
stages, as there were many groups from England, with their own individual sound.
The Moody Blues' sound does have its similarities to their British peers, but
they recorded songs in their own representation and individuality. And it would
lead to a new sound that would make The Moody Blues one of the many, many great
bands to ever surface from what we call Rock & Roll.
© WSVNRadio.net. All rights reserved.
Review or any portion may not be reproduced
without written permission. Cover art is the
intellectual property of
London Records
and is used for reference purposes only.
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