Moody Blues in Quad and 5.1

[SomethingAnything]

Until they release LONG DISTANCE VOYAGER in Surround this Stereo SHM SACD from UMG Japan [enclosed in one of their little cardboard boxes] sounds superb and decodes well in the Super DSP mode of my Meridian pre/pro!

Does it have any bonus songs, the way Japanese releases often manage to include?

 

[4-earredwonder]

Does it have any bonus songs, the way Japanese releases often manage to include?

No. Here is the discogs' listing

https://www.discogs.com/release/8017586-The-Moody-Blues-Long-Distance-Voyager

A better pic of the gorgeous box the Stereo SHM~SACD came in

 

[SomethingAnything]

No. Here is the discogs' listing

https://www.discogs.com/release/8017586-The-Moody-Blues-Long-Distance-Voyager

A better pic of the gorgeous box the Stereo SHM~SACD came in

Yes, lovely! I'd forgotten Moraz was on this one. It's a shame that didn't go so well. Bitterness is still there, I believe ... not sure if that would get in the way of box set/atmos remix prospects.

 

[stoopid]

Yes, lovely! I'd forgotten Moraz was on this one. It's a shame that didn't go so well. Bitterness is still there, I believe ... not sure if that would get in the way of box set/atmos remix prospects.

Moraz's fingerprints are all over those albums. On one hand, I really enjoy his playing but on the other it might have been too wide a turn for the band. It certainly went with the flow of the '80s synthesizer revolution. Even Rush got caught up in it.

 

[andyp]

Moraz's fingerprints are all over those albums. On one hand, I really enjoy his playing but on the other it might have been too wide a turn for the band. It certainly went with the flow of the '80s synthesizer revolution. Even Rush got caught up in it.

Seeing the Moody Blues live with Moraz was as annoying as seeing Jeff Beck live with Jan Hammer in Jeff's band. Moraz seemed to have the same sound on every song. I had already seen the Moody Blues live in 1972 and 1973 with Mike Pinder so Moraz playing with the Moodies was a real drag it you catch my drift...

 

[jimfisheye]

There was some weird stuff going on in the 80s. (Starts with c)
Who was that producer who was embarrassing some of the 70s bands trying to get into MTV music at the time? Remember that Heart album? I don't know if that happened with the Moody Blues but it sounded like they were trying to get into MTV music too.

Patrick should have worked a lot better in this band. LDV sounds pretty solid honestly. (Couple pop stinkers aside.) Hard change after this. Listen to his solo album The Story Of I or those Moraz/Bruford albums. Serious chops and not afraid to get weird and psychedelic. No, not quite Mike Pinder level of psychedelic though. But that 80s lame synth thing wasn't really Patrick's sound. Ray Thomas comes through with the showpiece track on LDV.

Agreed that the SACD copy sounds the cleanest.

 

[ar surround]

Couple pop stinkers aside.

One pop stinker is Gemini Dream, but it is still way better than most pop stinkers. What is the other one?

I really like 22,000 Days, especially when I do the calculation and realize that I've beaten those odds! So did Graeme, by the way. I just lost a cousin who got over 35,000 days, God bless him.

Ray Thomas comes through with the showpiece track on LDV.

I just listened to the full album yesterday and Ray's trilogy at the end is indeed top shelf stuff.

Patrick should have worked a lot better in this band. LDV sounds pretty solid honestly. (Couple pop stinkers aside.) Hard change after this. Listen to his solo album The Story Of I or those Moraz/Bruford albums. Serious chops and not afraid to get weird and psychedelic. No, not quite Mike Pinder level of psychedelic though. But that 80s lame synth thing wasn't really Patrick's sound.

A lot of fans did not like Moraz' style. At one concert a woman complained that "He's all over the place." Mike was special. I mean, he wrote some great 'suicide anthems' like Melancholy Man and Lost In A Lost World. He also wrote some really uplifting stuff like One Step Into The Light and So Deep Within You. Yes, LDV is a really good album, but Mike's contributions were sorely missed when he threw in the MB towel.

 

[stoopid]

No. Here is the discogs' listing

https://www.discogs.com/release/8017586-The-Moody-Blues-Long-Distance-Voyager

A better pic of the gorgeous box the Stereo SHM~SACD came in

This sounds great (do not ask how I got my hands on this so quickly). Sadly some of the songs haven't aged particularly well. Talking Out of Turn has always been one of my favorite moodies tracks, and now being an adult (in a relationship with someone for a long time) In My World hits different than when I was younger. I think it's arguably Hayward's(?) most beautiful song, and he's written a fair share of tear jerkers. Aside from that, the drop off after those two and The Voice is significant for me. I could listen to the first 4 tracks and call it a day, and not feel like I'm missing out on much thereafter.

LDV has never sounded bad to me, but this high res SACD mix is super detailed and the stereo field very wide/engulfing. Definitely kicks the enjoyment of the music up a notch.

 

[stoopid]

Patrick should have worked a lot better in this band. LDV sounds pretty solid honestly. (Couple pop stinkers aside.) Hard change after this. Listen to his solo album The Story Of I or those Moraz/Bruford albums. Serious chops and not afraid to get weird and psychedelic. No, not quite Mike Pinder level of psychedelic though. But that 80s lame synth thing wasn't really Patrick's sound. Ray Thomas comes through with the showpiece track on LDV.

Yeah he's super talented, maybe TOO talented for the style of music the moodies established as their bread and butter. And yet they still sold plenty of albums and had hits with Moraz doing his thing.

 

[stoopid]

Seeing the Moody Blues live with Moraz was as annoying as seeing Jeff Beck live with Jan Hammer in Jeff's band. Moraz seemed to have the same sound on every song. I had already seen the Moody Blues live in 1972 and 1973 with Mike Pinder so Moraz playing with the Moodies was a real drag it you catch my drift...

I remember Moraz using his portable keyboard and jamming with the band, I think near the end of the shows. He brought some vitality and personality to the instrument, which was relegated to supporting role in a lot of other popular established rock acts at the time. Can't imagine Tony Banks ever doing that.

Again, very much a love/hate thing for his years with the band. It can be argued he injected some fresh energy into what could have quickly devolved into a nostalgia act (which eventually was the case, and fairly soon after he departed).

 

[andyp]

It can be argued he injected some fresh energy into what could have quickly devolved into a nostalgia act (which eventually was the case, and fairly soon after he departed).

Did he leave or was he shown the door, as in house of four doors...

 

[Shermatz]

Did he leave or was he shown the door, as in house of four doors...

I believe Patrick did sue the Moodys for firing him, which probably went nowhere. I was a fan of Patrick, I actually saw him live doing a solo piano tour way back in the '90's, I'm thinking '94 or so. SUCH a virtuoso! "Story of I" was & remains a great favorite, and his first post-Yes album "Out in the Sun" is a career high point to my ears, and worth seeking out. The 1973 "Refugee" album, Patrick with ex-Nice guys Lee Jackson & Brian Davison is also a really impressive showcase for Moraz' keyboard & songwriting chops.

I give full credit to the Moodys for blazing the trail for Mellotron prog, and "Days of Future Past" is rightly acclaimed as an early bloom in the progressive/psychedelic garden. I must say, though, I'm just not feelin' it with most of their discography. One lost to memory critic captured my reservations nicely when he dismissed their albums as juvenalia, the sort of music that seemed profound when you were in junior high, but lost its luster quickly as new & better bands captured our attention & favor. Of course, as always, no one's WRONG for liking them now.

A local & lifetime prog/quad friend has been gathering the new & VERY lavish 5.1 mixes of the Moodies' prime era early '70's LP's as they emerge from the fog momentarily, and I definitely admire the archival effort to gather, remaster & offer such definitive editions for fans' enjoyment now, and for general posterity. But I wouldn't buy them for myself. As all us quad fans know, most of these '70's Threshold label albums did get released in quad 8-track, but NEVER on any quad LP format. I suspect the new 5.1 mixes are completely new & different from those original quad mixes.

My dream multichannel reissue would be any of Focus' knockout 1970's catalogue, GRT quad 8-tracks were made of "Moving Waves" & "Live at the Rainbow," but again, never any LP version. I'd be thrilled to get a new 5.1 or Atmos reworking of "Moving Waves," and "Hamburger Concerto" would also be an OUTSTANDING multi-channel reissue, or certainly "Focus 3", which never had any quad release.

 

[ar surround]

One lost to memory critic captured my reservations nicely when he dismissed their albums as juvenalia, the sort of music that seemed profound when you were in junior high, but lost its luster quickly as new & better bands captured our attention & favor. Of course, as always, no one's WRONG for liking them now.

That’s interesting because I was somewhat into Yes in junior high / high school but find their music to be cartoonish in my older years. I still like Yes and listen to them but in smaller doses.

However, hatred of prog bands of all shapes and colorations seems to be perpetually in vogue with the rock music critics.

 

[jimfisheye]

A local & lifetime prog/quad friend has been gathering the new & VERY lavish 5.1 mixes of the Moodies' prime era early '70's LP's as they emerge from the fog momentarily

What 5.1 remixes do you speak of? I've only seen the recent TOCCC remixed in 5.1 by SWT. And then that upmix attempt or whatever it was in 5.1 for ISOTLC that some of us are not giving the respect of acknowledging.

It's a simple formula for me. Their first 7 albums had all kind of bits of weird creative music that was just for the sake of those weird bits of music and sounds. Some good lyrics too but they never took over the songs. All the creative bits had equal weight. Especially albums 2-6!

Then the "lost the plot" thing happened with the shift to words with secondary music background. Maybe a few bits left in here and there but mostly that tired thing that happens when music finally grows up and loses it's creative spirit.

 

[Shermatz]

That’s interesting because I was somewhat into Yes in junior high / high school but find their music to be cartoonish in my older years. I still like Yes and listen to them but in smaller doses.

However, hatred of prog bands of all shapes and colorations seems to be perpetually in vogue with the rock music critics.

Man, "tru dat," with the unending critical invective from the mid-70's forward by the herd-following rock critics up to the 2000's, when most of them either died off or their magazines folded. Talk about "hippie punching"!!! This knee-jerk hostility obviously also hurt quad. I admit that by 1975 most of the first-wave prog giants had tapped out creatively, and albums like Yes "Tormato", ELP "Love Beach" or Genesis "Trick of the Tail" softened some of our enthusiasm. Ultimately "life happens" and the bands were fatigued, and rock music maybe wasn't so central to our lives as it was when we were teens. Fun fact: it was Steve Howe's aggressively R-L panned guitar breaks in "Yours is No Disgrace" from The Yes Album circa 1971 that made me understand what STEREO was, with quad close behind.

Despite its outsider status, prog never really went away, and I was reinvigorated when the English "neo-prog" bands started washing ashore here circa 1984 via Marillion & IQ. By the time their second LP's came out, I was firmly on board once again. Thankfully there's been a steady & active parade of new bands, current favorites are Frost, Karnataka, and even though many hot-eyed purists denounced them, Genesis never gave up on prog during their Phil Collins years, though of course it was different from the original band.

 

[Shermatz]

What 5.1 remixes do you speak of? I've only seen the recent TOCCC remixed in 5.1 by SWT. And then that upmix attempt or whatever it was in 5.1 for ISOTLC that some of us are not giving the respect of acknowledging.

It's a simple formula for me. Their first 7 albums had all kind of bits of weird creative music that was just for the sake of those weird bits of music and sounds. Some good lyrics too but they never took over the songs. All the creative bits had equal weight. Especially albums 2-6!

Then the "lost the plot" thing happened with the shift to words with secondary music background. Maybe a few bits left in here and there but mostly that tired thing that happens when music finally grows up and loses it's creative spirit.

I'll check re the Moodys 5.1 reissues if you like, I'm not enough of a fan to pursue it personally. As you know, you gotta have your radar constantly pinging to catch these multi-channel obscurities, I am thinking that at least one of these Moodys reissues might have been a Japan-only thing. Those are always EXPENSIVE & SCARCE, but also highest quality! Again, I re-emphasize that NO ONE has to apologize for liking the Moodys, they were just always soggy "adult contempory" to my ears. To each their own, AND I concede the Moody's stature & success over decades.

 

[jimfisheye]

I'd probably call Procession on EGBDF my favorite MB song. I might sometimes only listen to that track. Is that "adult contemporary"? Sounds more like my preferred "acid influenced avant-garde" to me! The stuff later on is what sounded like that "adult contemporary" thing where music grows old and dies.

 

[Perp]

What always attracted me to The Moody Blues is not only their sound but the emotion of their songs and all the songwriters in the band were good at this.

 

[andyp]

I believe Patrick did sue the Moodys for firing him, which probably went nowhere.

The outcome is documented. Moraz and the Moodies settled and they had to pay Moraz for firing him. I don't think it was anywhere near the original amount he was sueing for.

 

[andyp]

What always attracted me to The Moody Blues is not only their sound but the emotion of their songs and all the songwriters in the band were good at this.

The Moody Blues are their own genre for sure.