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Subject: Re: [newmellotrongroup] Re: Second thoughts

From: MAinPsych@aol.com
Date: 2008-01-07

I find myself in agreement with this assessment of the Moodies overall and a large part of their appeal for me was their use of the Mellotron (the introduction to The Mellotron Book goes into this a bit more).  It's difficult for me to listen to their earlier post-"Go Now" tracks and/or outtakes sans Mellotron.  It gave them a sound that no one else was even trying to emulate, albeit bands like King Crimson put their own indelible stamp on music with their 'different' use of the Mellotron.  As someone else alluded to in another post, part of it was the era that enhanced the appeal of their music.  The only other band to overshadow them and influence my teenage musical mind at that time was, of course, The Beatles.  The addition of Moraz post-Classic-7 did infuse a little of the Yes influence as far as more daring keyboard use, but they never were going to be Yes or prog in any way, shape, or form, besides the songwriting taking a sharp nose-dive.  Pinder's arrangements were largely responsible for their success, along with Hayward's writing, but even Mike himself said on the Classic Artists DVD that there were songs circa Octave that even Mellotron Violins couldn't save.  The Moodies insistence that they carry on makes it apparent they never heard or heeded Neil Young's line, "It's better to burn out than to fade away."  ...but would that have meant that we would have to suffer through...excuse me...endure a present day Moodies reunion tour a la Genesis, The Police, Van Halen and Led Zeppelin?
 
Frank Samagaio
 
In a message dated 1/6/2008 4:17:53 P.M. Pacific Standard Time, astroboy@cinci.rr.com writes:

Jason, I've encountered this a number of times in recent years and never
cease to be surprised by it, but there seems to be this tendency to try
and classify the Moodies as prog and lump them into a comparison with
Crimson and Yes. I don't remember anyone doing this when all this stuff
was contemporary back in the early '70s. Yes and Crimson were
considered much heavier and meatier bands by just about everyone I knew
and the Moodies were sort of a folky pop group that had evolved into
something slightly more.

I've never thought of the Moodies as anything other than a very melodic
pop outfit that I happen to like. They've done some beautiful things
and some absolute dreck - all on those core seven albums. I happen to
think that Tuesday Afternoon and Watching A Waiting are two of the most
beautiful songs ever recorded, and that a large percentage of Question
of Balance and EGBDF are absolute crap. I happen to think that Hayward
has a beautiful singing voice and that Pinder was the creative soul of
the band, and that his Mellotron playing put them where they were. By
the same token, if you want to hear some absolutely dreadful
songwriting, just listen to the stuff that Denny Lane and Mike Pinder
were writing in the band's original incarnation.

At the end of the day, I find early Crimson as being much closer to the
Moodies (musically Crimson were far superior, but melodically closer)
than to much of the material that Yes was putting out. Just my opinion
and your mileage may vary.
best
johnb

Jason Locke wrote:
> The instrumentation doesn't seem to weave in and out like a Yes or a
> King Crimson piece would. Maybe that isn't the goal, though, so
> again, it's a preference. Nothing hits me in the gut, though. What
> am I not getting, because I want to understand! What aspects of their
> music do the fans here appreciate and enjoy?
>
> Jason
>
> ∗//∗




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