Well as I've said here a few times already I don't care if something is seen as innovative or not. One reason is that something might be innovative only if looked at in a narrow context, and my other reason is that if I don't think it is good music I still won't like it anyway. I still adore Tuesday Afternoon and Nights in White Satin from that album. But the other music just doesn't fit that well anyway to me and could easily have been taken from a bland film soundtrack.

And as for formulas, well all music has formulas but what matters is what is done with the formula that is used (how creative someone is). And I wouldn't accept they were just looking to make money with later albums, indeed I think they put quite different sounding songs on the same album. For instance on Threshold you have the country sounding Send Me No Wine, a more rnb rocker To Share Our Love and a progressive ballad Have You Heard and Question has the folk-like Minstrel's Song. Some of their later albums can sound a bit too dependant on production effects for me, but I think there is good songwriting on those two.

^ Sorry, starrynight, I shouldn`t have been so dismissive about Threshold and Question; thinking about it, what Brian Wilson might have heard from his Dad really has no relevence at all to what the Moody Blues were doing.

^ In fact, this is how I usually feel about a piece of music, too. The important question is "Does this music sound good to me today?", not "Should I like this because it is historically significant ?"

Anyway, here are two Moody Blues tracks that always sound good to me. I wonder what your verdict is on them :-

i don't have an opinion in either direction strongly about them

i mean, they're just there

i put on their "classic" albums sometimes, but i don't find anything particularly great about any of them

now, Procol Harum, on the other hand, that was a terrif 60s proto-prog band

When Procul were good, they were good, but I always felt that for every song that hit the target, there were at least two that didn`t. Also, they never really broke out of the 3-min pop song format - or did they ?

there were some songs reaching five minutes on their "classic" albums

on their comeback album, The Prodigal Stranger, most songs are longer than 5 minutes

This, Procul Harum were far more interesting than the Moody Blues in general, but I've been meaning to listen to the classic Moody Blues albums again (haven't listened to them in years)

I can't say Procol Harum have ever done as much for me as The Moody Blues who wrote some classic melodies and had a sound all of their own, partly created by their use of the mellotron. Part of that sound was Justin Hayward's autumnal voice which can be heard on the two songs above (which of course I like).

One of the best ever Moody Blues tunes from In Search of the Lost Chord


The Moody Blues - Legend of a mind - YouTube

and equally as good.


The Moody Blues - House Of Four Doors - YouTube

House of Four Doors isn't one of their best melodies for me, the chorus doesn't grab me. They did plenty of good songs though.


One of the things I like about their music is that there is an archaic sound to them but instead of making it dated it makes it more timeless. I think it's because the basis of it is the feeling of the music and not superficial elements like using archaic instruments. It feels from some deep ancestral past but in a very undefined way and so can still connect to us.