Mom's Music- The Moody Blues

As a teenager, I looked forward to the day I would have my moms record collection. I suppose this is the sin of coveting but I think it’s a very human emotion we all have felt. We have all surely given some thought to the stuff that was going to be passed on. Here we are 30 years later and we have arrived at the date and it doesn’t feel like I thought it would. The unexpected factor here was these records which invoked these dreams ended the last few years in a garage in what could have been an episode of Hoarders. As a fan and collector, I really had no concerns of trying to make money off them. I believe records are meant to be played not stored (though that is fine too). It’s just that surely there’s not much more depressing than them laying there bare to the elements My next few posts are about my mothers collection #momsrecords. Awhile back I did get some of my favorites from her. Knowing her, I imagine I had to pay something for them. I don’t picture her just giving them to me for free. I will probably get around to talking about them some day- but those records have been mine for awhile (Donovan, Dylan, Stones, Who). Outside of the Beatles, the artist my mother had the most records of was the Moody Blues. Her collection starts (as does the bands career) with 1965s “Go Now” (“The Magnificent Moodys” in the UK). There’s surely no bigger gap between albums than that standard R&B offering and 1967s prog concept album Days of Future Passed Times change and tastes change and the Moodys seem to be a bit forgotten. I doubt they were ever ‘that’ hip. But they were hugely popular. And even if they fell over the line of pretentiousness, they were incredibly talented Any discussion I have of the band these days, usually lands on the unlistenableness of Nights in White Satin and I always joke to those people that the Dickies did it right by making it less than three minutes There is a world of difference in the pretensions of Leonard Cohen and “David’s secret chord” and the Moodys looking for the lost chord. But I don’t mind it. Even if they come up more Spinal Tap than Pink Floyd. There are moments that it all comes together. “Question” the opener of 1970s Question of Balance is one of those, or a lesser known track like “A Simple Game” from 1968 which was appended to the This is the Moody Blues greatest hits compilation I actually like the band’s 80s singles that popped up on the radio while 60s bands like Manfred Mann, Pink Floyd, the Grateful Dead and Starship were having one last chart run. “In Your Wildest Dreams” (1986) and “I Know You’re Out There Somewhere” (1988) condense the arena rock of the 70s into an 80s three minute radio timeframe As an unlikely coda to their career, “Live at Red Rocks” became an iconic concert that became famous as a PBS (American Public Television) Fundraiser in the 90s My favorite song though without question is the impossibly dramatic and pulsating “I’m Just A Singer in a Rock and Roll Band”. Sure, nearly everyone has done a take on being the “Band on the Run”. It’s exciting, terrifying even. Surely the drummer, the late Graeme Edge, is one of the unheralded heroes of rock- overshadowed by the more charismatic contemporary Bonhams and Moons.