The British invasion of the mid-1960s is more than just a memory to the Moody Blues, among the oldest surviving acts from that fabled era.
The Moodies are credited with originating classical rock that used symphonic tones, as well as being pioneers in presynthesizer technology.
But now, citing hard-learned lessons from their decades of experience, they have chosen a simpler, stripped-down sound on their new album, ”Keys of the Kingdom.”
And with basically the same lineup since late 1966, they also are in the midst of a new tour, which will take them to Poplar Creek Music Theatre in Hoffman Estates on Saturday.
”We`ve had few personnel changes over the years,” says drummer Graeme Edge, who has been with the band since its inception 27 years ago. ”But if you want to really go back, John Lodge and Ray Thomas have been playing in bands together since they were 13.
”John was there at the first meeting that formed the band (in 1964), but had another 18 months of college.
”The rest of us were finished, so we moved down from Birmingham to London and got Clint Warwick to play bass.”
The original lineup also included Thomas on harmonica and vocals, Denny Laine on guitar and vocals, and Mike Pinder on keyboards.
The band was then known as El Riot and the Rebels, which soon became corrupted to El Root and the Rabbles.
”Would you believe Ray was El Riot?” asks Edge. ”He used to play in a Mexican outfit and was in (bell-bottoms) before any of us.” When rhythm and blues became the rage, the band became the M&B Five, after the Mitchell and Butler brewry, later changed to the Moody Blues.
Lodge returned to the band in 1966 and replaced Warwick. Laine, who later joined Wings, was replaced by Justin Hayward, who became the band`s most successful singer-songwriter.
Pinder retired in the mid-`70s and was replaced by Patrick Moraz, who stayed with the band for 14 years before leaving last year to move to Los Angeles to do film scores.
Credit the Fab Four
”When we started playing, success in England was to cover an American record,” Lodge notes. ”Not get a hit with it, mind you, simply cover it, and then you would hope for getting a job on a cruise ship somewhere.”
The success of the Beatles in America changed all that.
”They kicked the door in, and we all ran in and yelled, `Yipee!` ” Edge says. ”Those were glorious days. The British bands that came after us will never know what joy it was to be getting hits in America back then, because nobody expected it at first. That was such a joy.”
The Moodies gained further fame by touring with the Beatles in 1965.
”They affected our career radically,” says Edge, ”and we loved what they did, but it never really got into our collective musical soul. We were more into Simon and Garfunkel, and the Beach Boys.”
The Moodies have always been at the forefront of bringing new and unusual sounds into rock music, back to their legendary 1967 ”Days of Future Passed” album, usually cited as the first classical rock album because of its use of the London Symphony to accompany the band.
”It was all a wonderful accident,” says Hayward. ”Decca Records asked us to perform on a stereo demonstration record of Dvorak`s `New World`
Symphony. Stereo was still a novelty back then, and virtually unknown in rock music.
”The idea was that we`d play a bit of Dvorak rock `n` roll, then an orchestra would play it straight. We agreed to do it, as long as Decca promised to let us have the studio to ourselves for five days without any record executives coming in,” Hayward says.
”We then went in and recorded our stage show from that time, a mini-rock opera about a day in the life of one guy. Peter Knight, the orchestra conducter, was in on the conspiracy, too, and we mixed it on a Saturday, and delivered it to an executives` meeting the next Monday.
”They were furious that there was no Dvorak on there, but we explained to them that we had all concluded that Dvorak did it right, and that since we weren`t Dvorak, why should we do it wrong?”
Moody trademarks
That album, and its international hit ”Nights in White Satin,” are still Moody trademarks, and ”Nights” has remained Hayward`s most-requested song and the centerpiece of every tour.
”I never tire of singing it. It seems to mean so much to people,”
Hayward says. ”If I had known in advance the power that piece would have, I don`t think I could have picked up a pencil to write it.”
Orchestral timbres became associated with the Moodies, and they used presynthesizer technology to incorporate such sounds without live orchestra players, including pioneering the mellotron, a keyboard instrument that was attached to eight-second taped recordings of various instruments.
Ironically, even with the advent of digital sampling, a mellotron is still used in their present tour. ”The mellotron actually had a distinctive raw and squeaky sound of its own,” says Hayward, ”although we have sampled many of the older unusual sounds that we still like to use, in addition to keeping up with the latest digital technology.”
But the group`s new album is remarkably lacking in technology, favoring a simpler, straight-ahead approach.
”That was a conscious decision,” admits Edge, who falls short of saying it had anything to do with Moraz`s departure. ”It`s more because we missed Ray on the last album (`Sur la mer`). He`s got such a nice voice, but he`s very much of a baritone, which is not a very fashionable sound nowadays. So the vehicle for his voice had to go a bit back toward those older times.”
”We`ve learned, seemingly for about the third time in our careers, not to overrecord,” Hayward adds. ”We seem to always go through these phases where we pile up more and more sounds onto the records. This album is a much sharper picture than things we`ve done before, and a purer essence of Moody Blues music.”
Musical golden rule
Have advances in technology changed the band`s compositional approach over the years?
”I don`t think so,” Hayward says. ”Our golden rule is that if you can sit in front of the other guys by yourself and play a song on one guitar or one keyboard, it will work. A lot of music comes from the other way around:
people start by making an elaborate backing track and then stick a song on top of it. What matters to us is that a song can stand up on its own.
”We made a decision many years ago that we would only do music that we would want to hear, and sticking to that, whether we`ve been in or out of fashion, or whether or not we`re selling records, I feel, has been the basis for our survival and longevity.
”We`ve put out singles that sold 10 copies, and three of them were bought by my mom. At the end of the day that`s OK, as long as we`ve done our best. On the other hand, whether it`s `I Know You`re Out There Somewhere` or
`Nights in White Satin,` such successes cannot be calculated in advance.”
Edge agrees. ”If you try and write the hits, you`ll never do it,” he says. ”You can`t set out to write a hit; you set out to write a song, and then it becomes a hit, which is all lovely. But then everybody thinks that`s smashing, and there`s all these songs out there sounding a bit like it.”
”We`ve learned our limitations over the years,” says Hayward, ”and we know we`re not the greatest musicians in the world, but we do write some pretty good songs, and people enjoy them, and a good time is had by all.
”Since I`d be writing and playing one way or the other, there`s no question it`s nicer to have your efforts appreciated, especially when they reach across almost three generations, as they now do.”
