Chords for The Music Industry's War On The Moody Blues

_ All right, music fans, welcome back.
Harmless me here talking about real music in real time for real people
just like you and just like me.
One of the most focus-tested
bands right now in classic rock, the Moody Blues.
_ _ Just_
they are_
talk about a war on a band in
radio these days.
You're not gonna hear too much from the Moody Blues anymore.
You may hear like your wildest dreams
if you're lucky,
_ if you like the Moody Blues, and I know it's an acquired taste.
I had
discussions with some of the folks that are on my Patreon and they say, yeah, you know, I like Journey.
I don't like the Moody Blues and I got into the Moody Blues
thanks to an album called Long Distance Voyager
_ _ _ 1981 and
this thing was all over the radio.
Not only did it have _
singles that were on Top 40, but the rest of it was pretty much on
_ rock radio, like Talking Out of Turn,
_ Veteran Cosmic Rocker, but the two tunes that really got me into the Moody Blues were Gemini Dream and The Voice.
And this is a super talented group.
These are people who really know what they're doing.
Justin Hayward joined the band in
1967. _
He was brought in by his friend Mike Pinder, who was also
extremely important to the sound of this band during what's called their Core 7 period,
where there's seven albums with this lineup and _ _
really just very creative
music, stuff that used to get on rock stations. _
I'm Just a Singer in a Rock and Roll Band, for instance, Isn't Life Strange, The Story in Your Eyes.
And all of these records are like ear candy.
The way they were recorded, the _ instrumentation. _
Pinder was big on what's called a Mellotron, and a Mellotron is a really cool instrument.
And they figured out a way to really incorporate that into their sound. _ _ _
And really just a band that used to get played.
Question, there's another song with this acoustic guitar intro.
_ That's insane.
And again, they used a lot of orchestral sounds to _ sort of round out that sound.
If you were _ a Pink Floyd person or a Beatles person,
I mean, the Moody Blues was kind of an intersection of those two things to some degree.
And they were much more accessible than Pink Floyd.
Pink Floyd would go like 12 minutes on one theme.
All right.
The Moody Blues during that 12 minutes would shift gears and shift themes.
And, _ you know, their albums were all just perfectly suited for FM radio at the time.
The problem is there is no FM radio format like that anymore.
There's no sort of album rock, deep tracks format.
And I'm even just talking about all the music this band made
_ that was radio friendly at the time. _ _
And nobody can talk about the Moody Blues without mentioning Days of Future Past.
Days of Future Past _ is one of those records that just
_ it's a once in a lifetime album.
It incorporated like true classical music themes
in addition to just incredible poetry _ by mostly Justin Hayward.
But this was a team effort with Pinder and everybody in this group just hitting on all cylinders.
John Lodge, Graham Edge, Ray Thomas.
By the way, the Moody Blues do get into the Hall of Fame a few years ago.
And Ray Thomas had already passed away.
And I was just thinking to myself, you guys just waited too long.
Ray Thomas, who played flute _ _ and sang Timothy Leary's Dead.
And if you know that song, it's it's a trip.
These guys almost made fun of the era they were in,
even though they were producing music, probably that was the soundtrack
for those who are partaking in, shall we say, some extracurricular activities,
_ music enhancement experiences.
I'll go with that.
So the Moody Blues, their only airplay these days,
probably from their 80s works, Your Wildest Dreams.
I mentioned that song, very big song on MTV.
The Other Side of Life, which is one of my favorites.
I know you're out there somewhere.
Another ginormous MTV song. _ _
But then it would tail off.
They had Say It With Love, which is a great song from their album
Keys of the Kingdom.
That was 1991.
_ And you know what happens next.
The 90s hit and they're all done.
There's no need to try to promote the Moody Blues at [A] that point.
Justin Hayward, _ [C]
John Lodge, they continue to tour.
Even today, Justin Hayward constantly busy releasing music. _
_ His vocals are pretty much intact. _
You can listen to him now and hear very little difference,
even though he's well into his 70s.
Graham Edge complained during the Hall of Fame
that he was an old man and this was taking too long.
_ It was a classic little sort of,
[N] I don't know what we call it, put down of the Hall of Fame.
But I can feel his pain.
It's just this is a band that should have been inducted
like at least 10 years prior
to when they finally got put into the Hall of Fame.
_ _ There are lots of pop elements to what they do.
_ Hayward, at times for some people,
_ isn't their cup of tea.
I understand that.
But he is an amazing songwriter.
And one thing about Justin Hayward is he's an amazing guitar player.
He might be one of the most underrated guitar players
because he can I've seen him on stage and he can kind of do anything
he wants to with the guitar.
I'm not saying he's
_ _ technically, you know, inventive or whatever.
But what he does with the guitar when he's on stage and, you know,
on these records is is nothing short of brilliant.
And it's consistently brilliant.
_ And of course, you had John Lodge playing bass
and he was a monster bass player.
And back in the day, Graham Edge was just almost a perfect time
timekeeper style drummer.
And then you had Mike Pinder in the original.
And Pinder brings this whole other element.
You know, when you have Pinder and Hayward,
think Gilmore and Waters.
That's the kind of dynamic during those seven records.
And I think they missed Pinder going forward.
But John Lodge is a very creative guy.
And that's how they kept the Moody Blues going during the 1980s.
Certainly a band that has been focus tested off of radio
_ and a band that people should give a listen to
if they're not familiar with their music.
It's music you can chill out to at times.
It's music you can rock out to here and there.
But more importantly, it's really good art.
It's like they left behind all of these great artifacts.
_ And what's sad is radio has forgotten about most of them
and has done all the focus testing they can do.
_ If you were going to like devise a really cool FM radio station _
that played lots of album tracks,
I would have a whole bunch of Moody Blues tunes
_ from the late 60s, early 70s and into the 80s, for that matter,
on that playlist.
The Moody Blues is definitely a band that's losing the war
of what the music industry has become these days.
So in any event, that's my video on the Moody Blues.
Definitely a war on that band.
I'm hoping, you know, maybe somebody will put
a tune on TikTok or something.
But my guess is it's just too sophisticated for people today.
That's and I hate to be all snobby about it, but their music is just
too sophisticated for the audiences of the year 2021.
All right.
That's my video.
I'm done.
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