To Our Children’s Children’s Children – Mike Pinder leaves a legacy of love and music…
http://patch.com/california/roseville-ca/fathers-day-our-childrens-childrens-children
Mike responds to an introduction by John Lodge in the middle of a Moody Blues concert in Santa Rosa CA. Lodge acknowledges Mike as “King of the Mellotron” to a standing ovation from loyal Moody Blues fans!
To Read some in-depth INTERVIEWS with Moody Blues members, Mike Pinder, Ray Thomas and Graeme Edge and for a review of the new Box Set Magnificent Moodies please click on the link below! ENJOY!
http://blog.musoscribe.com/?p=7701
When one thinks of British blues artists, many a name comes to mind…John Mayall & The Bluesbreakers, the original incarnation of Fleetwood Mac, and artists like Eric Clapton. To be sure, The Moody Blues belong in this group of musicians. Long before their string of 70s and 80s hits, the five-piece band had their first hit off of their first release, The Magnificent Moodies. The track was titled “Go Now,” and it started the band down the road to even greater success. The group consisted of Denny Laine (vocals, guitar, harmonica), Mike Pinder (piano, vocals), Ray Thomas (flute, tambourine, vocals), Clint Warwick (bass, vocals), and Graeme Edge on drums (before taking over the drums, he was once manager for the band).
Now, Esoteric Recordings have released a boxed set dedicated to the album. It is a must have for any collector or serious fan. Consisting of two discs, the material here is a gem. The first disc opens with the original album recordings from their first release. Included here is the hit single “Go Now” (in original form as well as a previously unreleased version), “Lose Your Money (But Not Your Mind),” and “Steal Your Heart Away,” as well as material from the later-released French EP, Boulevard De Madeleine.
The tracks here are presented in their original Mono format, with the exception of The 1966 Denny Cordell Sessions included at the end of the second disc. Even a Coca-Cola commercial from 1965 finds its way onto the set. The second disc of the set contains several unreleased tracks, including the controversial track “23rd Psalm.”
Also included in the package is a poster backed with newspaper clippings and photos, a 23-page booklet, and three photo post cards. Overall, this is a very nice set. With all the unreleased material, as well as the original album, a collector couldn’t ask for more. B+ | Marc Farr
http://www.thatdevilmusic.com/2015/04/cd-review-moody-blues-magnificent.html
An individual’s memory of the Moody Blues depends entirely on their age. Although the band was formed in 1964 as a sort of Merseybeat/British R&B hybrid, copping licks from the Beatles and the Animals, they would experience a long, almost continuous evolutionary arc from then until the present day. The Moodies were directly responsible for merging classical music with pop-rock with their classic 1967 album Days of Future Passed, and they continued to explore symphonic psychedelia with albums like 1968’s In Search of the Lost Chord and the following year’s On the Threshold of A Dream. The 1970s framed the Moodies as prog-rock pioneers, focusing their high-flying muse on collections like A Question of Balance and Seventh Sojourn that would be among the most commercially successful albums of the decade.
During the 1980s, the Moodies became more of a commercially-oriented pop band, cleverly incorporating classical nuances with a contemporary, synth-driven sound to score a number of hits in the MTV era. It’s the early Moodies that we’re concerned with here, however, the often overlooked and underrated R&B outfit that was formed by singer Ray Thomas and keyboardist Mike Pinder. Adding bassist Clint Warwick, drummer Graeme Edge, and guitarist Denny Laine (who would become better known in the 1970s as a member of Paul McCartney’s Wings), the band went in search of a signature sound. A number of singles were released, the Moodies finding the top of the U.K. charts with the hit “Go Now!,” which would subsequently lead to the full-length 1965 album, The Magnificent Moodies (released as Go Now – The Moody Blues #1 in the states)……
Click on the link above for the full REVIEW!!
http://www.musicstreetjournal.com/cdreviews_display.cfm?id=104840
For the fiftieth anniversary of the release of this album, it’s been reissued with a lot of bonus tracks. This disc has always been sort of forgotten in terms of the Moody Blues catalog. That’s because it doesn’t really fit that well. For one thing, it’s clearly not the progressive rock that one expects from the Moodies. We still include it under prog here at MSJ because the band are a prog band. The album has a much different lineup than the bulk of their catalog. For one thing, Denny Laine was part of the Moody Blues at this time. John Lodge and Justin Hayward were not. Graeme Edge, Ray Thomas and Mike Pinder were on board during this period, though. The fifth member on this album was Clint Warwick. The thing is, as odd as this is, there are plenty of things here that do show connections to the later Moody Blues sound. This is well worth having for the archival value, but it’s also fun to spin. Just don’t expect to hear the kind of symphonic prog one expects from the Moodies.
